Many people have been asking about what Articulate Storyline can do for you and how it compares to Articulate Studio, Captivate, and Lectora. In this podcast, Diane Elkins and Desirée Pinder share their perspective on Storyline. They introduce you to the tool, discuss some of the features, and explain the differences between Storyline and some [...]
The Thinking Behind a Branching Scenario
A common question we get about authoring tools is whether or not a given tool can do branching scenarios. The fact is, branching scenarios can be extremely easy to assemble. The functional requirements can be very simple—you just need to go to one page with the click of one button and another page with the [...]
Straight PowerPoint Conversion?
The promise of PowerPoint conversion tools is that you can take existing content and turn it into e-learning in just a few clicks. This can make it faster than ever to create good e-learning…or it can make it faster than ever to create BAD e-learning. Here are three reasons why a straight conversion of existing PowerPoint slides might [...]
What is the Value of Games in E-Learning?
I was raised in a household where video games were not allowed. My mother believed they were a waste of time, had no value, and – worse – could have negative effects. While she was right about the idea that video games CAN have negative effects (as researchers have shown that violent videogames can alter [...]
My New Best Friend: The Genovation MacroMaster 683
Last week, I talked about my addiction to keyboard shortcuts to help me reduce my development time. Well, it gets worse! I’d like to introduce to you my new best friend, the Genovation MacroMaster 683. What is it? I’m so glad you asked. It is a 24-key, programmable keypad that lets me set up keystroke combinations that [...]
Saving Development Time With Keyboard Shortcuts
I admit it—I’m a keyboard shortcut fanatic! Not that I have anything against the mouse, but I know that keyboard shortcuts save me time, and that helps me get more done at a reasonable cost for my clients. Most people never move beyond the basics: save, cut, copy, paste, and undo. But there are so [...]
Is Your E-Learning Résumé Sabotaging Your Success?
A couple of months ago I blogged about and gave some tips on how to move from classroom to e-learning. This is Part II of the series. I see a lot of requests from people who are interested in working with us. Some people sabotage their chances of joining the team before I ever talk [...]
Accessibility Features of Popular Authoring Tools
Last month at ASTD’s TechKnowledge conference, I held a session where I compared the accessibility features of popular authoring tools: primarily Captivate, Lectora, and Storyline. I’ve created a two-page table summarizing the major accessibility features of each. All in all, the three software packages are extremely similar. You can use any of these three to [...]
Reflections on #ASTDTK12
What a great time I had at TK12! As one of the conference planners, I had duties that prevented me from attending very many of the sessions, but I can honestly say that the whole event was a learning experience. We kicked things off on Wednesday with an opening keynote by Jane McGonigal, serious game [...]
See You at TechKnowledge 2012
Next week, Diane and I (and over a thousand other learning and development professionals) converge in Las Vegas for one of ASTD’s largest annual conferences: TechKnowledge. As part of this year’s conference planning team, I’m moderating a couple of TK Chats. TK Chats debuted at TechKnowledge last year and were a great success; they are [...]
