Why Storyline?
Last week I wrote about fun drag and drop interactions that our team created in Articulate Storyline. I really like Storyline and have used it for years. I am a much more of an Instructional Designer than a developer, and because Storyline is so easy to use, even I can put out a course. Unfortunately, in my experience, good tools cost a lot of money. The latest version of Storyline 360 is about $1400 per license. While I favor Storyline for my limited abilities, there are more affordable alternatives to Storyline.
Alternatives to Storyline
I took a little time this week to play with a few free tools that can be used for eLearning authoring.
H5P
H5
P is a free open-source HTML5 framework tool that showcases interactive video, pre-built games, and quiz templates. You need a website or Learning Management System (LMS) to host your content, but the authoring is free.
The good folks at H5P offer dozens of templates for various interaction including drag-and-drop interactions, mad-libs like fill in the blanks, and a nifty memory game.
Camtasia Studio
At $299, I consider Camtasia Studio one of the most affordable eLearning video development tools around. I use Camtasia Studio for video and audio editing which has me comfortable in this tool, and I prefer it to Storyline’s screen capture functionality.
Beyond the video capture and edit functionality, Camtasia 9 includes built-in quizzes using the interactive tab, and videos can be exported to SCROM 1.2 or 2004. Most features in the latest version are supported with in-app performance support, and intuitive to use.
Finding alternatives to Storyline because it is so unique. That doesn’t mean that you can’t and shouldn’t find other tools to achieve your learning goals.
What tools are you using for eLearning Development? Would you recommend an alternative to Storyline? Let’s continue this conversation in the comments below.
