Lesson 5 Instructional Environments and Multimedia
5-6 Multimedia Tools
The second course in this certificate will give you many more opportunities to explore development tools, but here is a brief sampling to give you an idea of what’s out there.
Identifying the Applications Used to Develop Multimedia
The technical people in your organization will perhaps have expertise in more sophisticated development tools, but these examples illustrate tools that are easily learned and relatively universal.
Have a look at the various examples from William Horton Consulting, each of which includes identification of the development software used.
Multimedia Options/Links to Explore
- 2018 Update: 15 Free Podcast Tools
- 2017 Update: List of 72 Free Storyboard Templates for eLearning
- 2018 Update: Free Stock Photo Sites
- 21 Free Digital Storytelling Tools For Teachers and Students
- List of 13 Free Sticky Notes Tools for Teachers and Students
- 14 Best Online Bibliography and Citation Tools
- 28 Free Social Bookmarking Tools for educators
- 15 Free Web Conferencing Tools
- List of 15 Free Google Tools for eLearning Professionals
- 23 Microsoft Free Teaching Tools for Educators
- List of 18 Free Tools to Create Infographics for your Learners
- 15 Social Learning Tools Every Online Educator Should Know About
- List of 17 Free Screen Capturing Tools
- Ultimate List of Free Music for eLearning Development
- 27 Free Survey Polls Quizzes Tools for eLearning
- List of 32 Free Photo and Image Editing Tools
- 15 Free Testing and Quizzing Tools for Online Education
- 19 Free Text To Speech tools for Educators
E-learning Authoring Tools
- Capterra keeps up-to-date a list of course authoring tools.
- 2017 PC Magazine’s top authoring tools
- 2015 eLearning Industry has a list of 8 tools for course development and an overview of 2015 course authoring tools.
Other e-Learning Authoring Tools
The following vendors have examples posted via these links:
- Articulate Storyline & Rise – E-Learning Examples
- H5P – Examples and Downloads
- Techsmith Camtasia – Customer Stories
- Trivantis Lectora – Lectora University Sample e-Learning Courses
⭐Shar’s Note: Every 18 months or so new versions of software come out, other software becomes obsolete, and entire new software alternatives are available. It’s a pretty good bet to stick with some of the big names out there like Articulate and Adobe.
I’m fond of using Adobe XD to create fast prototypes to get an idea of a design that could work. The trial is only 7 days and after that $9.99 a month; at this point in the course, do not start the trial but at least poke around in the blog like this Jan 2022 article “Create digital content directly in wireframes and prototypes for more intentional, engaging experiences” by Bailey Lewis. You’ll start designing your project in a few weeks, and you’ll need an idea to get started.