Sunday, December 6, 2009

ESSENTIAL TOOLS for 2010
Articulate
Engage

Engage is the package I've been waiting for. It will speed up production of snippets using the Media Tour interaction. I caution ISDs from using Interaction for Interaction's sake. Suggest that you use interaction ONLY when needed, not to act as a break in an otherwise boring show and tell. As you can see in the figure below, Engage offers quite a number of useful interactions.


Articulate Engage



Articulate Quizmaster

If your company or client already has an LMS, we don't see much use for this tool. It's more likely that you will be writing assessment questions on Excel templates which will be easily uploaded to an LMS like Sum Total or Lectora. While Quizmaker has LMS output options (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC), your LMS team would still have to validate the Schema. Most of my clients with an LMS want me to use Excel templates.

Always ask your client first. If using Quizmaker can save your client time and money, do it.


Articulate Engage


Articulate Presenter

Turn PowerPoint into a Flash authoring tool with Articulate Presenter. One of the benefits we see is that now PowerPoint can be a usable storyboarding tool. Remember, just because you CAN add all this functionality doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Always assess the learning you develop based on the needed outcome and your client's budget for money and time.


Articulate Presenter Ribbon in PowerPoint