Tools of the Trade

Tools of the Trade

Screencasting Tools

These tools will record anything you can see on your screen and will let you add narration. Some have extensive editing capabilities, some have none. They all output video files in various formats.

Camtasia Studio*
May be the best, easiest tool for straight screen recording with narration, annotation, callouts, etc. Powerful video editing and many output options. PowerPoint-to flash option.

Adobe Captivate*
Uses a 'slide' concept for screen recording, easy to get started, editing is powerful but different. Excels at creating interactive software simulations, and has branching capability for more involved tutorials. Also has PowerPoint-to flash.

ActivePresenter
Free and paid versions. Free is the most powerful free version we've seen. Includes editing, SCORM output, etc. But Free does not output FLV. Paid versions also offer advanced branching and interactive features

Screencast-O-Matic
Another excellent free tool. Can run straight from browser or install locally. Offers multiple video formats, publish to YouTube or download to your computer. Free version has 15 minute limit. For $15 per year, paid version is unlimited and offers editing and annotating tools.

CamStudio
Free - older application, basic features only. But does output swf format, which offers high quality small file size in low-motion situations.

*Outputs SCORM or AICC compliant tutorials that can be run and tracked through an LMS

Screencasting Tips

Self-Paced Course Authoring Tools

These tools offer robust capabilities for creating self-paced courses, including working with varieties of media (like video) and allowing publishing options that enable incorporation into a learning management system (LMS) and tracking learner enrollments and completions. All of these tools output to Flash, SCORM/AICC.

  • Articulate Presenter 360
    Relatively easy to build on PowerPoint presentation slides, adding multi-level navigation, sound, editing, quizzes, and branching.
  • Articulate Storyline 360
    This is the next generation of Presenter, with significantly enhanced features to create interactivities and more sophisticated quizzes; the increased complexity comes with a steeper learning curve.
  • Lectora
    This tool is widely used by instructional design professionals. The program requires some significant training in order to be able to make effective use of the advanced features and functions.

Web Conferencing Tools

Considerations when choosing a webconferencing provider: practical considerations of platform functionality in terms of audiences, usability, interactive features, technology, and the whole package.

Free

  • BigBlueButton
    This is an open source web conferencing system that enables you to share documents, webcams, chat, audio and your desktop. It can also record sessions for later playback.
  • 15 Free Web Conferencing Tools
    If you try any tools from this list of free Webconferencing tools, let us all know how it works.Relatively easy to build on PowerPoint presentation slides, adding multi-level  

For Fee

Online Training Resources

Image Resources
Instructional Design
Learner Engagement
Mobile Learning

Tools of the Trade

  • Screencasting Tools
  • Self-Paced Course Authoring Tools
  • Web Conferencing Tools
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