This blog makes e-learning developers aware of the rapid authoring tools they can use to develop effective animations in e-learning courses.
Have you ever wondered why you are unable to remember much from a lecture on compliance training that you attended recently, but remember an animation movie that you watched long ago as a kid?
It is because visuals help you comprehend, recollect, and retain information.
At a research intensive university in Hong Kong, teachers were provided animations on university assessment policies, such as rubrics and grade descriptors. Instead of attending lengthy workshops, animations were used as a teaching tool. After watching the animations, a whopping 95% of teachers reported better understanding of the assessment policies.
Traditional animations required special techniques that were time consuming and expensive. But, the introduction of rapid e-learning tools has brought good news to e-learning developers working under tight project completion deadlines. Those of you, who love to sprinkle effective animations in your e-learning courses, check out the following rapid e-learning tools.
1. iSpring Suite 8.7
For the quick conversion of an existing PowerPoint presentation to an online course, iSpring Suite is the rapid authoring tool to use. This authoring tool has ready to use templates, graphics, characters, and icons.
PowerPoint offers a variety of animation effects for text as well as graphics. If you would like to retain the animation effects in the PowerPoint presentation, try iSpring Suite, as it supports 189 transitions, out of the 199 offered by PowerPoint.
There are times when you would need custom animations included in the course. iSpring Suite makes it possible through animation combos and custom motion paths. An animation combo is when multiple animations are applied to one object. The animation can be timed to repeat as long as you want it to. Make objects move on a specific path with the custom motion path option.
iSpring was the first e-learning authoring tool to feature the morph transition effect. This cool effect lets you change the color, position, size, and shape of objects to create eye-catching animations.
2. Articulate Storyline 2.0
Storyline 2.0 offers some wonderful animation features to add movement and interactivity in your course. Apply transition effects to slides and slide layers, use motion paths to make an object move along a path that you decide, or use triggers to decide when the object should move. For example, if you want an object to move when the learner hovers the mouse over it, you can set a trigger for the same.
Storyline’s Animation Painter lets you quickly copy animation effects from one object to another.
Effects such as Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Zoom region can be used to draw a learner’s attention to text or images. You can also add continuous spin animation to objects. And if you are looking for a cinematic effect of a camera zooming across the slide, check out the Pan and Zoom option that can emphasize multiple objects.
3. Lectora Inspire
If you are looking for simple ways to add fly animations (transition effects), Lectora is the rapid authoring tool to pick. The fade and float effects can give a smoother look and feel to your animation.
Add text, images, audio, and then add custom interactions with the Interaction Builder. Specify shadow and reflection settings for shapes, images, buttons, and text blocks.
You can show a process flow, by moving images, or synchronize bullet points to appear with a page narration by using the Synchronize Events option.
Lectora integrates with Camtasia to allow content capturing and screen recording. You can easily add synchronized audio, zoom, pan, and transition effects to produce a professional video tutorial.
Flypaper is a tool used to create quick Flash animations and its integration with Lectora makes it possible to import Flash animations, in an e-learning course designed using Lectora.
4. Claro
Creating e-learning animations is made easy by dominKnow’s Claro, a cloud-based authoring tool.
The Resources library provides you with clipart, symbols, and other shapes. You also have templates with interactive elements that can be edited.
Play media, show, or hide elements depending on the learner’s actions such as mouse click or a key press.
Effects such as bounce, pulsate, shake, rotate, move to, and transparency can be used to animate objects on the screen. You can also preview an animation effect before you apply it.
5. Adobe Captivate 9.0
Adobe Captivate 9.0 lets you apply motion effects instantly. Moving objects along linear, curved, or custom paths is a breeze. Animations can be played continuously or set to play for a specified time.
Experiment with animated text that flies-in or fades-in to provide an eye-catching effect.
Compared to the other tools listed above, Adobe Captivate is slightly steeper on the learning curve, but you will not regret the extra time spent on learning the tool, as its responsive motion effects help you achieve realistic animations.
E-learning developers are spoilt for choices when it comes to rapid authoring tools to create learning animations. You just have to pick one that suits your e-learning project and budget.
If you have tried the animation effects offered by these rapid learning authoring tools, do share your comments.
