Lectora Publisher

Lectora Publisher is a full-featured authoring tool by a company named Trivantis. The tool has a comparatively small short learning curve. Within 30 minutes you will be able to create your learning content, during the development you will learn more and you will bump into some more questions. No programming skills are needed. Even creation of tests is possible with this tool. Output is SCORM and AICC compliant and it can be delivered in many ways like on CD or web..

Some of the many features:

• Drag and Drop Capability.
• Extended File Support.
• Actions Palette.
• Single-Click Publishing.
• Advanced Testing Features.
• Icon Driven Interface.
• Content Organization.
• Author Control.
• Advanced Wizards.
• Customized Templates.
• Metadata Support.

It is a tool for a single developer (no collaborative content development is facilitated).

According to Patti Shank: Lectora’s development metaphor is a book, with the top level course or module under development called the “title” and divisions of the course or module called “chapters,” “sections,” and “pages.” It’s an easy metaphor to understand, and, while it might seem to lend itself to linear design, branching is easily accomplished through use of actions and variables. Using actions and variables is more of an advanced skill so the ability to design more complex instruction may take some time for new developers.

eXe

This is the application we (the Fe-ConE development team) are using to create the WBTs. It is an application especially for creating web based training modules. eXe stands for e-Learning XHTML editor.

The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. eXe can export content as self-contained web pages or as SCORM 1.2 or IMS Content Packages. eXe is led by the Auckland University of Technology and Tairawhiti Polytechnic.

It's available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and it ships with some solid documentation. The downloading and installation of the tool is just a matter of some clicks. No technical expertise is needed. This is also the case for the authoring process.

It is available in several languages (over 20!). It combines a simple and clear user interface with the basic needed functionalities to create a web based training. As an author you can use 20 different templates for your pages. Navigation buttons are created automatically and you can select the skin you want.

Examples of templates with technical/didactical interactions are:

• case study;
• objectives;
• multiple-choice question;
• RSS;
• reflection;
• Wikipedia article;
• activity;
• image with text.

Compared with e.g. Lectora it is limited in his functionalities and the way you can influence e.g. the lay-out of the pages. It is a great tool if you start to develop e-Learning. It is not such an old project so it is still improving a lot.