From time to time we get asked to recommend a tool for our customers to develop their elearning content so that they can deliver their training  with the Joomlearn LMS.

Here you will find a host of free and commercial tools, some  that we have personally used and also have had the pleasure of seeing our customers use as well. Here you will find a brief description of the tools and the links to their respective websites for download. We cannot guarantee that these tools will work for you specific needs but at least you will have some tools that you can investigate that you may not have known about before.

FREE TOOLS

• Coursebuilder
  Free plugin extension for Adobe Dreamweaver
  
  
• LCDS (Learning Content Development System)
  The Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables you to create high quality, interactive, online courses. Virtually anyone can publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactivities, quizzes, games, and assessments—as well as Silverlight-based animations, demos, and other multimedia.

• Multimedia Learning Object Authoring Tool
  This tool enables content experts to easily combine video, audio, images and texts into one synchronized learning object. All assets are configured to be played back in a pre-configured order. Users do not need to perform any programming tasks, but rather going through a graphical user interface to generate the learning object.

• Simple Learning Creator
  This is a very nice little tool. Read the guide to learn how to make it work properly. Great little tool.

• Wink
  Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.

• CamStudio
  CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

• JODConverter
  JODConverter automates conversions between office document formats using OpenOffice.org. Supported formats include OpenDocument, PDF, RTF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Flash. It can be used as a Java library, a command line tool, or a Web application. This tool will convert your PowerPoint presentations into an SWF file.

COMMERCIAL TOOLS
*** We are only recommending these 3 tools as we have used all 3 of them and can personally recommend them.

• Captivate 3  - A Joomla Showroom Personal Favorite
  Adobe Captivate 3 enables anyone to rapidly create powerful and engaging simulations, assessments and scenario-based tutorials without programming or multimedia skills. Based on the industry-leading Adobe Flash® platform, Adobe Captivate 3 automatically generates interactive content for easy online distribution and access. Using the simple point-and-click user interface and automated features of Adobe Captivate 3, learning professionals, educators, and business users can easily record onscreen actions, add eLearning interactions and include rich media.

• Camtasia Studio
  Camtasia Studio gives you the power to easily record your screen, PowerPoint presentations, voice, and Web camera video to create compelling video tutorials, training presentations, and rich sales demonstrations for Web and CD-ROM delivery.
  

• PowerCONVERTER
  

• PowerCONVERTER accurately converts your PowerPoint presentation to Flash and retains all of your special effects.

 

 

 

There are many other commercially available tools out there. We recommend that you do your research and try out the demo versions of these software products. Make sure that your needs will be met before you buy. Be aware that some of the less costly items may be a red flag. Joomla Showroom strongly believes that you get what you pay for in the software world. The benefit of the commercial items are the quality standards and support are held to much higher standards. So if that is a benefit for you then we recommend that route.


 

 

 

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