Wow. It has been a hot minute since I’ve blogged. Things have been B-U-S-Y! In any event, I thought it might be appropriate to ease back into blogging with an updated list of the tools I’ve been using for e-learning development. Let’s get to it!
Articulate 360
If you haven’t checked out Articulate 360, you must check it out. The subscription-based model received a bit of flack at launch, but for what they’re providing you, it’s really a good bang for your buck. Especially if you make your living from Articulate products.
A360 gives you access to all of the authoring tools you might possibly need for your development: Storyline 360, Studio 360, and Replay 360 – updated versions of fan favourites as well as: Articulate Live, Content Library, Peek, Preso, Rise, and Articulate Review. Here’s the quick and dirty:
- Articulate Live provides you with webinars and live training opportunities from the folks at Articulate.
- Content Library provides you with SO MANY assets (including fully functional templates) – seriously, if you’re on the fence about A360, the Content Library could sell it for you!
- Peek is a powerful tool for easily recording screencasts on your Mac or PC.
- Preso allows you to easily capture and annotate recordings from your iPad.
- Rise (is amazing) gives you the ability to author courses quickly and effectively with a modern look and feel.
- Articulate Review makes course reviews fun and efficient – I bet those are two words you don’t use often when referring to course reviews.
Basically, A360 is a one-stop-e-learning-development shop. GET ON IT.
Articulate Storyline 2
While I love A360, most of my clients are still working from Storyline 2, which is a tool that is near and dear to my heart. I’m resentful of my current workload that I haven’t been able to play around as much in A360 as I would like to, but with a workload heavy in Storyline 2 development, I still get to have fun!
Storyline 2 allows me to take my imagination to the limits by designing high-quality e-learning for my clients. It’s a no-brainer. And with clients a bit hesitant to re-invest in new technology (aka A360), it seems like I’ll be using it for the next little while – I have no complaints!
Tempshare
Articulate Review is amazing, but because most of my clients are still using Storyline 2, I use Articulate Tempshare as my primary means of hosting Storyline output for client reviews. Tempshare hosts your output for 10 days, which is usually enough time for my client reviews, and all you have to do is drop a .zip folder of your output. Once uploaded and published, Tempshare spits out a URL, and you’re good to go!
Camtasia
I’ve been using Camtasia for Mac a lot over the past few months. With Sprout underway, there are a lot of videos that need recording, and Camtasia lets me do that very easily, producing professional outputs with minimal effort. At the university, we also use Camtasia Studio to record faculty videos (lectures, demos, etc.).
Blue Yeti
Blue microphones have great quality; I’ve been using the Blue Yeti for my Camtasia recordings, and I also have and love the Blue Snowflake (super great quality with portability!). If you’re looking into an affordable audio setup, check out the Blue Yeti – for the price, the quality is bar none. As a side note, I will say that I’ve invested in a pop filter (which is basically an embroidery ring with a pantyhose material) to remove any of the noise created by those bilabial fricative sounds (I’m talking about your P sounds and your B sounds).
Vimeo
Finally – on the topic of videos, I host all of my videos with a Vimeo Plus account; this membership has enough capacity per week for my needs, and allows me to customize video settings appropriately.
Parallels
My computer setups include a Macbook Pro and an iMac, so to run my windows-based programs (e.g. Articulate), I prefer to use Parallels. My first kick at the dual-boot can was with Boot Camp, and it really didn’t address my needs. I found that I had to segment my workflow into Mac-based operations and Windows-based operations, and it just wasn’t an efficient workflow for me. Parallels allows me to run both operating systems in coherence, meaning it looks as though I’m working in one OS, and runs seamlessly. I recommend this to any Mac user over Boot Camp.
I will say, however, that it runs better on my Macbook Pro, which is setup with Windows 7, than it does with my iMac, which is setup with Windows 10. I don’t blame Parallels for this. I blame this one Windows 10…an evil, evil, operating system that insists on performing system updates at any inopportune time. If you sense resentment in my voice…it’s true. I hate Windows 10.
Dropbox
Dropbox is where I upload all of my files to share with clients, and to backup files. I have a pretty Type A backup protocol, and Dropbox is one of my backup locations. I have a Dropbox Pro account, and it has all of the space that I currently need.
Todoist
A few weeks back, I reached out to Twitter to find out what my fellow e-learning developers were using for project management. I explored all of the options suggested, but settled in on Todoist Premium, an application I’ve been using for years.
The reason I was looking for something better than my trusty notepad was because I’m still experiencing post-concussion syndrome from taking a softball to the face a year and a half ago…my memory (particularly short-term) is not quite what it used to be, and I find myself needing a bit more help to remember tasks and keep on schedule. What I like about todoist is that the interface aligns with my preferences, and it has multiple options for reminder-setting, which is something I really need now. In the past, I would have found these reminders annoying, but now I find them an integral part of my life.
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