Let’s face it! Today, everybody is in a hurry and needs everything delivered quickly. It might be a Smartphone you buy online, the food you order through an app, or the e-learning you want developed for your employees.
To address your urgency, e-learning professionals have been taking the help of rapid authoring tools to develop online learning material in a span of weeks rather than months. Among these, the three widely preferred e-learning rapid authoring tools are Articulate Storyline 2, Adobe Captivate 9, and Lectora Inspire 16. Wondering why these are so popular? Here is a comparison table to help you understand each tool’s advanced features and choose the one that fulfills your requirements.
| Articulate Storyline 2 | Adobe Captivate 9 | Lectora Inspire 16 |
| Ease of Use | - PowerPoint-like interface
- Simple slide layers
- Easiest tool of the three
| - Tricky interface and slide layers
- Tougher than Storyline
| - User-friendly interface
- No slide layers
|
| Animations | - Basic entry and exit effects
- Slider
- Motion path
| - Basic entry/exit effects
- Motion path
- Pre-defined effects
| - Pre-defined effects
- No motion path feature
|
| Simulations | - Record screens to use either as a:
- Standalone video
- Step-by-step simulation
- Perfect tool to develop software systems training
| - Specialized simulations creation capability
- Limited editing capabilities
- Decent choice to develop ERP end-user training
| - No built-in feature to create simulations
- Need to record, edit, include actions, & feedback manually
- Last option to create ERP end-user training
|
| Interactivities | - Great interactivities with ease of customization
- Can develop custom games and game-based assessments
| - Good built-in interactivities
- Customization not as easy as Storyline
| - No templates
- Can create any interactivity imaginable
|
| Characters | - Cool library of characters with the freedom to change poses, expressions, and perspectives
- Perfect tool to create scenario-based e-learning
| - Good library, but characters need to be re-imported to change poses/expressions
- Decent option to create scenario-based e-learning
| - Characters for different contexts, but can’t assign an expression to a pose (both come as one)
- Decent option to create scenario-based
e-learning
|
| Multimedia | Import/record:- Videos
- Audio files
| - Audio recording and editing
- Video recording only for simulations
| - Audio and video recording and editing
|
| Quizzes | Templates can be tailored according to needs and include:- 11 for grading
- 9 for survey
- 5 to convert to Freeform
| - 9 quiz templates
- Responsive drag-and-drop questions
| - Assessment scenarios
- LMS-compliant options
- Flash-based mini games
|
| Publishing | - Publish to mobile devices (HTML5)
| - Responsive design output
| - Only HTML5 output
|
These are some of the advanced features and options available in the three most preferred rapid authoring tools in the e-learning market.You can choose the one that best fits your training & technical requirements. Tell us whose side you will be on in this Civil War of the e-learning rapid authoring tools.
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