BellaOnline Forums Education Distance Learning Instructional Design for eLearning

Do you work as an Instructional Designer for eLearning? If so, what software do you use?

I do Instructional Design for both ILT (Instructor Led Training) and eLearning in the corporate sector (as a contractor) and I also am a course author and professor for undergraduate online courses. In both worlds (Higher Ed & corporate) I am generally asked to use Adobe Captivate. I think this is due to two factors: (1) it is one of the cheaper options out there and (2) Adobe is a well-known, trusted company. The problem is that it really isn't the best product out there. Articulate is a comparable price and has better functionality. Lectora (which is quite expensive) used to be at the top of the list in terms of quality but other programs have surpassed it. The nice thing about programs like Captivate and Articulate is you do not need to know how to code. This enables great content developers transition their expertise from Instructor Led to eLearning with minimal pain. Personally, regardless of which software a school or company chooses, I just think it's great when organizations are willing to look for more and better ways to make education accessible. That's my two cents.

I do have some experience with Adobe Captivate, and it's definately a user-friendly software. My only issue with it is adding a voice to accompany the module. If the creator is not comfortable using their voice to narrate the module, they could utilize a computer generated voice....but they sound so robotic. Has there been any improvement to this in the past couple of years?

Thanks for your feedback Nicole.