Authoring tools

We use

• Articulate 360
• Camtasia
• Photoshop
• Adobe Audition
• occasionally we use PowerPoint

We are mostly developing software simulation-based training on my team.

I’m curious to see what tools other folks are using!

Because it’s so easy to use and works so well in both mobile and desktop experiences, I depend on Articulate Rise for course content, and ClipChamp and QuickTime for our video needs. All the images you see are from Pexels. And of course now, I’m using Shape, too! 

We had a couple related discussions that might interest you: one on content development method, and another on Shape. Looking to add more content on authoring, since it seems to be such a hot topic! 

We use Articulate Storyline for our more formal learning and Articulate Rise for our microlearning. Our Rise courses are usually less than 10 minutes in length and are super informal. We help teachers teach Social Emotional Skills to kids but the trick is we also sometimes have to help adults learn the skills too! So our courses are super casual and chatty. Rise has helped us create that vibe I think more effectively than the more formal course development route. I use Storyline also to create more interactive content like scenarios and then embed those in the Rise courses. That works really well. Here’s a link to a couple of our Rise courses if you’re interested: 
https://rise.articulate.com/share/_lRMBcwRUzpdbNQ8uVx73oNB-nPSsoUv. 

https://rise.articulate.com/share/trZ0H0fJbUW899mgT-T1Jz5lyJNPFwma

Our images come from our own library or ELearning Brothers. I use Powerpoint and Visme for other design elements. We are a one-person development shop (me) so we don’t have a lot of tools. Most of our videos are professionally produced so I haven’t done anything yet with more informal video. But I would like to one of these days so it’s helpful to see what others are using.

I also highly recommend Training Magazine Network. They have a ton of content on all things training/learning and they have lots and lots of webinars on all kinds of topics related to the learning industry -- many of them related to tools of the trade-- most of it accessible with a free account. 

We are currently using Articulate Rise as many has mentioned! It’s fantastic for those of us without mass amounts of course design training! Additionally, for easy videos and tutorials we use Screencast-o-matic (very easy to use and inexpensive). To add color or images to our training content or platform we typically use Unsplash.com or Canva but our Marketing Department also has access to Adobe Stock Photos if I can’t find what I need on other free sites. 

I also second Training Magazine Network as @Cindy McElhinney mentioned above and  Association for Training Development (td.org) for amazing trainings, certifications and conferences! 

We use Articulate 360 and Camtasia. For the majority of our product-related content we use Rise because it is faster and easier to update than Storyline or videos. We also have to have multiple versions of the content--branded differently and in different languages--so Rise gets the win. For foundational content that doesn’t change often, we use Storyline if we need the flexibility and more custom interactions it offers. We do a lot of short how-to/reference videos with Camtasia. Some are stand-alone and some we embed in Rise or Storyline.

We use PowerPoint in some regions for faster translations. We know PPT isn’t always as effective but it cuts the number of steps and time spent in translation down. Instead of additional work with the partner (they do the translations) directing us where to add the localized product screenshots, they can dump them into the PPT along with the translated text. 

Depends on the solution required but we tend to use products like:

• Articulate - Storyline 360
• Articulate - Rise 360
• Articulate - Review 360
• Adobe Premier Pro
• Adobe Captivate
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Acrobat
• Docebo Learn - built-in tools
• Microsoft Powerpoint

My team are currently using -

• Rise 360
• Storyline 360
• Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver, XD & InDesign
• Keynote

We create a range of courses across compliance, soft skills, management development etc. and choose the tool dependant on topic.

Interesting to see so many of you using Camtasia, we have never tried it - I may check it out.

Thanks

Our main content authoring tool for e-learning is Elucidat and we use the Docebo-Elucidat API to pull courses through to our courses. It works very well. 

We chose Elucidat as it makes collaboration much easier for our team - it is cloud based so we can all work on the same things together.

We also use a lot of the Adobe CC stack as required.

Does anyone use prezi for creating training material?

I have in the past, in fact I used it in a job interview years ago and got me the job :-D

Adobe Captivate because I build a lot of software simulations and I’ve been using it foreeeeevvver. And Camtasia for videos. 

Watch out with prezi!  Last I looked into it, they had some pretty serious accessibility issues and were unwilling to address them.  

@mwd I absolutely love Elucidat. We used it at my previous organization and it is so powerful! A few of the major benefits it provided us were:

• Excellent folder/project/course organization capabilities
• Robust permissions for different types of users (authors, reviewers, designers, SMEs, etc.)
• Advanced controls for course navigation like page branching logic, scoring on separate pages, conditional navigation, etc.
• Central repository for all images/assets used in courses (think the CLOR but for media in your courses – SUPER POWERFUL!)
• Translation/localization tools that make it easy to author/manage multilingual content
• As you mentioned, the seamless integration between Docebo & Elucidat, which allowed us to instantly push any course updates directly from Elucidat to Docebo. (for any of you that are used to the SCORM export/import process you know how much time that could save)

We also used Articulate Rise for many of the reasons that @ryan.woods and others outlined.

Does anyone here have experience using Assima to build simulations?

​@mwd  Even we use Elucidat, but I just wanted to check on analytics for answer breakdown. Are you able to see the answer breakdown for a quiz designed in Elucidat, extracted as a SCORM package, and uploaded in Docebo? Can you extract the answer report in Docebo itself?

I was an Adobe Captivate user for like 20 years up until the recent overhaul of the product which, in my opinion, has broken it.

I made the switch to ActivePresenter and i am very satisfied - not only with the product - but with the fantastic support they offer. Hard to believe that they don’t have more visibility.

I am really shocked to see no one mentioned utilizing Vyond to support courses. Our interactive content is developed in Articulate 360 with storyboard and rise but I like having an introduction video to the course. ClipChamp is great but we love having some fun with animation on Vyond. 😁