Published Date: 01/11/2008
 AUTHORING & DEVELOPMENT TOOLSBy Betsy Bruce, Paul Clothier, Dawn Adams Miller, Frank Nguyen, Brent Schlenker, and Steve Wexler
Given that so many members of the Guild use e-Learning tools – or manage people who use e-Learning tools – the Guild feels obligated to take on the task of making sense of the hundreds of products and tools that are currently available, and create a report that will help you select, combine, and deploy tools as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. In September 2007 we started collecting data through the use of five “mini surveys” and each focused on a different aspect of tool use. By the time the report was published, more than 1,400 of the Guild’s 28,000-plus members had submitted responses to one or more of the mini surveys.
Thus, this 291 page Guild Research 360° Report includes over 100 pages of survey results that represent the single most comprehensive analysis of how e-Learning professionals use authoring and development tools ever undertaken.
This report should be read by anyone who is involved in the selection, acquisition, and use of Authoring and Development Tools. It will be particularly useful for you are...In an organization that has not yet determined which tools to use, or if you are new to e-Learning in general
In an organization that has standardized on tools, but still wants to know how to combine them effectively
In an organization that has too many tools, and you need insights on how to reduce the number of tools you support
A content developer and want to know which tools and skills are in demand, and how much effort it will take to learn different tools
A tool vendor who wants to see how your product is rated, what features members want, and insights on what you can do to create highly-desirable products and services
In this section we review and analyze the over 1,400 responses we received from the Guild’s Authoring & Development Tools surveys. Key findings in this report include:- Guild members use a lot of tools, and not just combinations of tools from different categories. 76% of Guild members use more than one Rapid e-Learning Development tool, and 38.9% use four or more.
- Adobe Captivate enjoys a dominant market share position with over 62% of respondents that use Rapid e-Learning, Courseware Authoring, or Simulations tools indicating that they use Captivate.
When evaluating an authoring tool, the three most important features are that the tool allows content to be easily updated (72%), the learning curve is low relative to other tools (45.6%), and the tool outputs to Flash SWF files (43.6%).
When evaluating an authoring tool, the three most important industry support factors are that the tool is in widespread use (67.4%), there are free online forums for support (52.4%), and the tool has free technical support (48.4%).
When evaluating an authoring tool, the three most important integration and collaboration factors are that the tool is SCORM conformant, the tool integrates with leading learning management systems, and the tool allows easy sharing of content.
66.6% of Guild members who use Courseware Authoring tools target Flash players for deployment, and 55.1% target Web browsers without plug-ins.
Paul Clothier, LearnHost.com
Betsy Bruce, CEO, Performance Factor
Frank Nguyen, Ph.D.
- , Executive Vice President, Trivantis
- Director of Worldwide e-Learning, Adobe Systems
- , Rapid Intake
- , CEO, Articulate
- , Director of Business Development, Harbinger Knowledge Products
- , Vice President & General Manager of ToolBook, SumTotal Systems
This report includes a comprehensive resource directory developed by Dawn Adams Miller that includes Web sites, organizations, books, and examples you can use to continue your exploration of Authoring & Development Tools. In addition, this report includes a detailed Glossary of Terms related to Authoring & Development Tools. Finally, this report is completely indexed so you can actually use it as a reference resource.
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