Online Training, Learning Management System, Blog. Litmos: eLearning Content Authoring Tools: Articulate

Monday, March 22, 2010

eLearning Content Authoring Tools: Articulate

This is the first post in a series I'm doing on eLearning content authoring tools. I should clarify that I'm not affiliated with any of the products I have included in this series.

Founded in 2002 by Adam Schwartz, eLearning company Articulate has grown over the years to offer a full suite of eLearning authoring tools which can be purchased together as 'Articulate Studio' or separately as outlined below:

Articulate Presenter '09 - Presenter is a PowerPoint plug-in that allows you to instantly and easily add narration, animations, Flash movie and interactions to your PowerPoint presentation then publish it to Flash. Presenter also enables the integration of quizzes from Quizmaker (below). With SCORM and AICC output for Learning Management Systems (LMSs) this is the perfect tool to liven up your presentations and really involve your learners.
Articulate Quizmaker '09 - This is Articulate's quiz building offering with which you can create interactive, multi-lingual quizzes and surveys filled with multi-choice, fill in the gap, drag 'n drop, image hot spots and many more types of assessment scenarios. To make quizzes more exciting you can incorporate slide designs and color schemes. All of your essentials are there: question randomization, time limits, passmarks and more. When you're happy with the end result quizzes can be published to the web directly or connected to an AICC or SCORM-compliant LMS. As mentioned above, quizzes can also be integrated in to Articulate Presenter to be a part of a more comprehensive learning module.
Articulate Engage '09 - The specialty of Engage is creating interactive models to explain processes and concepts. The best part is you don't have to create them from scratch! Engage opens with 10 options for interactions ranging from a process, labeled graphic, circle diagram, time-line and more. Once again, the finished interactions can be integrated in to a PowerPoint Presentation to be published to Flash using Presenter.
Articulate Video Encoder '09 - This highly useful tool allows you to record new or convert current rich media video files to .FLV format. During the process you can add in narration, trim and crop the media, brand the content with your logo, and tweak visual and audio settings.

These guys also offer an LMS called Articulate Online which can be used to deploy and track content created using their proprietary tools only.

I have always liked the Articulate brand, but I haven't used their products until recently. What I've always liked about them is they have a thriving and friendly online community. It is definitely a huge resource to take advantage of should you decide to go with Articulate. In fact, they have just published a great list of resources called "How to Get Articulate Support, Training and Tutorials" which just demonstrates how much they want you to succeed.

Finally, with a whole page on their website dedicated to the numerous awards their products have won (see here), it's no surprise that Articulate has 'more than 15,000 organizations in 115 countries' using their products.

@Schnicker

Articulate Presenter '09 - Presenter is a PowerPoint plug-in that allows you to instantly and easily add narration, animations, Flash movie and interactions to your PowerPoint presentation then publish it to Flash. Presenter also enables the integration of quizzes from Quizmaker (below). With SCORM and AICC output for Learning Management Systems (LMSs) this is the perfect tool to liven up your presentations and really involve your learners.
Articulate Quizmaker '09 - This is Articulate's quiz building offering with which you can create interactive, multi-lingual quizzes and surveys filled with multi-choice, fill in the gap, drag 'n drop, image hot spots and many more types of assessment scenarios. To make quizzes more exciting you can incorporate slide designs and color schemes. All of your essentials are there: question randomization, time limits, passmarks and more. When you're happy with the end result quizzes can be published to the web directly or connected to an AICC or SCORM-compliant LMS. As mentioned above, quizzes can also be integrated in to Articulate Presenter to be a part of a more comprehensive learning module.
Articulate Engage '09 - The specialty of Engage is creating interactive models to explain processes and concepts. The best part is you don't have to create them from scratch! Engage opens with 10 options for interactions ranging from a process, labeled graphic, circle diagram, time-line and more. Once again, the finished interactions can be integrated in to a PowerPoint Presentation to be published to Flash using Presenter.
Articulate Video Encoder '09 - This highly useful tool allows you to record new or convert current rich media video files to .FLV format. During the process you can add in narration, trim and crop the media, brand the content with your logo, and tweak visual and audio settings.