eLearning 101: Lesson 3 – how to choose the best app to create your course

Lesson 3 looked at the different types of elearning authoring software. Three different types are listed:

• Web Applications – these are tools hosted on a server and made accessible via the web
• Desktop Applications – these are installed on a PC; are typically more robust and are often feature-rich
• Powerpoint Plugins – additional plugins to MS PowerPoint to enhance the functionality

The types of functionality required include the following:

Text	Audio
Shapes	Interactivity
Photos	Screen-recording
Animations	Quiz / Assessment feature
Video

Functionality should also include the ability to create linear courses (where the navigation is fixed in one direction) and non-linear courses (where navigation is branched and users can make choices).

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When we were looking at updating our etutorial package (from mediator), in 2015, I completed an exercise to evaluate which tools we should use. This involved:

• Creating a list of functions that we needed to include to deliver the same functionality that we already delivered
• Creating a list of functions that we believed we could use to enhance our package
• Talking to experienced staff within the University to identify various suitable apps
• Matching the applications against our list of needs
• Identifying the most likely applications that would work for us
• Trialling the most likely candidates
• Identifying the one application that we would use

And in the end we chose Articulate Storyline – which is why we are here.