We decided to find out more about your needs on tools this month. First, we ran a survey to find out how you ‘re using authoring tools – and thanks to the many of you who responded. So many of the responses provoked the question ‘So, which free tools out there can help with these challenges’?

Be a shame to let that question go unanswered, so we decided to ask the Queen of free e-learning tools, Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies, to be our guest commentator on the tool findings.

Here’s what you, Jane, and we had to say about authoring tools…

1. Captivate and Articulate = Dominate

Survey said: far and away the most popular tools in use for authoring e-learning are Captivate, with 45% of respondents using it, and Articulate (30.3% of respondents). Both are reasonably priced and highly versatile desktop tools, so it’s not too surprising they’re out in front. On the list, but further back were Lectora, and server-based tools including Mohive, Atlantic Link and Composica. One person is still using Authorware, which must be the e-learning equivalent of those guys running around in the jungle who think WW II is still raging.

Jane said: “Firstly, I would say that this aligns with our findings. Captivate and Articulate ranked quite highly on our Top 100 Tools for Learning. However, a couple of free tools to create formal courses that also made it onto the Top 100 Tools list are eXe (open source) and CourseLab - both available to download. But don’t overlook free hosted services, like Udutu for online course authoring.”

2.  Media matters most

Survey said: Of the list of features that you consider most important in authoring tools, top of the list was ‘the ability to manage and manipulate graphics and other media’. Over 68% of you rated this the most important feature in a tool, ahead of price and vendor reputation. 45% of you rated the ability to have some flexibility in instructional design as a very important consideration. Also near the top were ‘ease of use’ (always good…) and ‘ability to publish SCORM/AICC compliant courses’ (shame on the tool that won’t, we say..).

Jane said: “Some image and photo editing tools that made the Top 100 list include the free tools Paint.NET and GIMP as well as the commercial tools Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, and for recording and editing sound, the free, open source tool, Audacity. For formal course design then tools like eXe and Articulate’s Rapid E-Learning Studio (mentioned above) as well as Lectora support the formal course design process.”

One person had the good idea that tools should include ‘Free library of useful graphics and animations Integrated 'soft' and 'systems simulation' tools.” May we respectfully suggest the ID templates and Flatpacks that can support the instructional design process by providing guidelines and models for your e-learning – and include ready-made content and graphics. Check out the Rapid E-learning store for more.

3. IT training is still the it thing

Survey said: It’s still top of the list after all these years - IT training is the most common topic you’re using authoring tools for, out in front with 79% of respondents listing it as their top need – What would we do if they started making software intuitive? Not far behind were the usual suspects of compliance and product training. All lend themselves well to authoring tools.

Jane said: Systems training lends itself to the use of both annotated screen captures as well as software demonstration videos (or screencasts as they are often referred to). Whereas the commercial tools like SnagIt (for screen captures) and Camtasia Studio and Captivate (for screencasting) dominate the market because of their sophisticated functionality, Jing is a free tool (from the same stable as Camtasia) that provides a useful entry-level product for understanding the power and potential of screen captures and screencasts, as does another free tool, Wink.

4. It's nice to be flashed

Survey said: Several respondents cried out for some help within the authoring tool to create simple animations. Clearly many of you are mature users of these tools and want to take them to the next level now, bringing in more media and animations to enhance the learning.

Jane said: "Well, of course Flash is the standard tool for creating animations, but it is not that easy to use. However, there are some great little tools for creating different types of animations, like Dipity or xTimeline for timelines. And of course there are the commercial products like Articulate Engage and Raptivity, which help developers create different kinds of interactive elements. And I recently came across Activity Spice, which offers 40 free interactivities."

While we had Jane’s attention, we had to sneak in two more questions:

Kineo: What are the web 2.0 tools for user generated content that people are using, that we should be thinking of as authoring tools too?

Jane: “Well, as mentioned above the Top 100 Tools list demonstrates the wide range of tools that people are using to create all kinds of learning solutions. Certainly big players and movers in the list this year are: Wordpress (for blogging), Slideshare (for hosting and sharing of presentations), Google Docs (for the collaborative creation of content, including the hosting and sharing of online presentations), VoiceThread (for creating collaborative presentations – but not yet exploited in workplace learning), Wikispaces and PB Wiki (for wikis) All these tools are online services but they can be used to create private content – in other words your work isn’t open to the world, unless you want it to be!”

Kineo: What’s the one cool tool that everyone should download right now?

Jane: “Well if I can only choose one, then it’ll have to be Ning – a social networking tool. If you want to start a community for a learning situation and add that important social aspect of learning that is missing from most online courses, then you can do this very quickly and easily with Ning. Ning is a hosted service, so you don’t actually download it. The basic version of Ning is free but if you want to customise it (particularly to get rid of the ads), then the premium version costs a little bit. But, importantly in either case you can also set up your social networks so they are private, closed and secure for your own people. If you want to get a flavour of some of the tools mentioned above in order to explore the widening e-learning space, you might find my 25 Tools Programme useful – it contains mini-tutorials of 25 key free tools to help you find out how to use them and consider how they could be used for learning or performance support.”

There you are: more free tools than is really right for any one person. Do share with a friend and bookmark Jane’s great site.