"I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry that we’re losing that." - E Schmidt

June 22, 2009 7:06 AM

What are the most commonly used eLearning and/or CBT/WBT authoring systems out there in Corporate America?

I need to update my skills as I return to corporate T&D after a six year break. When I left the industry, CBT/WBT was just getting a foothold. I have a strong background in usability and instructional design; what tools should I become more familiar with?

posted by anastasiav to Work & Money (3 answers total)

This is what I've seen mostly used:

- For turning PowerPoint files into Flash files ("Rapid eLearning"): Articulate Presenter, SkillSoft Dialogue, Adobe Presenter
- For software demos: Adobe Captivate
- For creating voice-overs: Adobe Soundbooth, another freeware one that I can't remember
- For editing video: Adobe Premiere (powerful), Microsoft Windows Movie Maker (not powerful)
- Virtual classrooms: This is a bit wide open, as most companies I know are still evaluating/using different packages
- Web development: Adobe Dreamweaver
- Photo enhancement and illustration: Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator
- Workbook creation: The ever-popular Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign

Also, know about learning management systems (LMS) and SCORM.
posted by Houstonian at 8:03 AM on June 22, 2009

To add to the above regarding Virtual Classrooms: from a Higher Ed perspective, WebCT 6 and Moodle are now standard, at least for us. Other universities favor Blackboard as well.
posted by kensch at 9:03 AM on June 22, 2009

To Articulate Presenter et al for the Rapid eLearning category I would add Rapid Intake's ProForm which allows for editing the source .fla and XML files which some of the others don't.

Also I subscribe to eLearning groups on LinkedIn and also the Rapid eLearning Blog, both great sources of information.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 12:15 PM on June 22, 2009