Updated E-Learning Authoring Tools Comparison
What’s the right e-learning authoring tool for you? It depends! All of the major tools have strengths and weaknesses in different areas, so picking the right tool is about knowing what’s important for you. Here’s my take on how four of the major authoring tools compare in 10 major categories.
On this chart (based solely on my experience and opinion), 1 is the highest score. And if you see a 4, it doesn’t mean the tool is bad in that area, it just means that the others do it a little bit better. For a full explanation of this comparison, watch this recorded webinar.
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Diane, do you have tips to prevent the audio from auto-playing using Storyline 2?
Hey Drucilla, you can add a trigger to each page (on the slide master if you like) that either pauses the audio (in which case the timeline will still play) or pauses the timeline (nothing on the slide plays) when the slide first loads. And you can add a condition. So if you want to provide an accessibility preference, you can have the audio/timeline pause only if they have activated the accessibility preference.
Just to ascertain I am following correctly, I add a trigger, for example below:
Action: Pause Media
Media: audiofile.mp3
When: Timeline starts
Object: slide1
Then, if the learner clicks the audio icon, it will begin playing. The only question left, is there a way to change the audio icon to a bar to allow the learner to pause rewind just a portion versus starting over each time?
Hey Drucilla, if you don’t have page elements fading in and out along the timeline, then it is probably better to manage the timeline (pause timeline/resume timeline) than it is to manage the audio. That way, you can use the player controls for play/pause, seek, and rewind. If this is the case, you would use the Pause Timeline action, rather than pause media.
But if you need to control the audio separately from the timeline (pausing only the audio but keeping the timeline going), then you’ll need to do something like what you have. You’ll need to make your own play button. If the media is paused, the play button causes the media to pick up where you left off. If you had used the Stop Media action, then the Play button would cause the audio to start back from the beginning. If you want a replay audio button, then you need to have a button that has a stop media and a play media action. I don’t know of a way to rewind just a portion.
Hope this helps
I think you should try to have a look at Adapt. http://www.adaptlearning.com, it is a responsive creation tool, which creates nice modules with minimal effort and deep knowledge of HTML5.
Thanks, John! We’ll take a look at it!
Many thanks, Dianne!
These 90 minutes were an investment with great ROIs for me. I don’t quite agree that Captivate and Storyline run neck and neck in terms of simulations. Captivate does deliver much more on the simulation side, yet it just feels like it’s easier to do stuff in Storyline. Might be a judgment call, though. I made a roundup of authoring tools a while ago that included Lectora, Storyline and Captivate, among others – https://myelearningworld.com/clash-of-the-titans-articulate-storyline-2-vs-adobe-captivate-9-vs-trivantis-lectora-16/.
I’d be happy to have your feedback on this!
Scott