Recently, Heather (Director of Project Success) and Tim (COO) talked about the tools they use to meet our customers’ needs. As a Learning and Development Manager at Endurance Learning, there are a wide range of digital tools I utilize in my day-to-day tasks and collaboration to complete eLearning projects.
Lindsay‘s Top 10 Tools for Online Learning
Here’s my top 10 tools for the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) list of the top 200 technology-based tools in Learning & Development.
1. Slack (https://slack.com/)
Right now, this is the first tool I open when I start my day and the last one I close (I really don’t, as the app is conveniently active on my iPhone) at the end of the day. Slack allows effortless access to collaboration with my team on a variety of projects and topics through chat, video, and screen sharing, is incredibly easy to navigate and share content, and integrates with many of the programs I use to seamlessly exchange information, such as Gmail.
2. Articulate 360 (https://articulate.com/360)
I am a huge fan of Storyline 360 with all its functions and elements that allow the user to create engaging, interactive eLearning. A recent project has given me the chance to work closely with Rise and, while it’s not as customizable as Storyline, it provides easy, seamless authoring of eLearning courses for developers of all skill levels.
3. Canva (https://www.canva.com/)
A huge part of my role is creating new, engaging visual design for a wide range of clients. I. Love. Canva. For someone who’s not yet skilled in graphic development tools like Adobe Illustrator, Canva is a one-stop-shop to various media and templates to help create eLearning courses and presentations. I mainly access Canva for stock photos, visual elements I can add to my designs, and their nifty color palette generator.
4. Snagit (https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html)
Ever need to snip a screen or short video to share with a team member real quick? Yup, all the time. This is where Snagit became my best friend. It is so simple to capture an image or video, then add notes and call outs to share with my team or clients. This program also makes it easy to capture actions in a process (such as navigating an LMS) to create training materials in a snap.
5. Adobe Creative Cloud (https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html)
I utilize this collection of software daily. Whether I am editing images in Photoshop, creating designs in Illustrator, or obtaining assets such as fonts, stock images or color themes, I’m accessing Adobe Creative Cloud. I also incorporate this tool in my own personal learning and development as it has a range of How-to’s, live classes, and Masterclasses for each program in the collection.
6. Camtasia (https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html)
Camtasia is such a versatile and fun program to use in the world of L&D. I’ve incorporated Camtasia in my role by creating and editing training videos (for example, navigating a phone app), as well as combining images into video that are then used as elements within a Storyline course. The ability to add various elements such as annotations, text, and animations are endless. This program provides tools to create engaging and unique videos and elements to support learning.
7. Breeze (https://www.breeze.pm/)
Breeze is an online project management tool that our company utilizes to track projects currently in development. As a developer, some project management tools out there can be overwhelming and confusing. When I joined Endurance Learning, I immediately took a liking to Breeze. The layout for each project is user-friendly and the concept of assigning task cards to team members for edits, questions, etc. makes it easy to jump in and get the job done. Images and videos can be added to task cards and team members can simply tag one another and communicate within a task to keep all information in one place.
8. BrowserStack (https://www.browserstack.com/)
Newly introduced to me by a member of our team, BrowserStack is a great tool to have when creating eLearning for mobile. This is a mobile testing platform that allows developers to view and test their courses on a range of browsers and operating systems using real mobile devices. It has enabled our company to quickly test, review, and gauge discrepancies users may encounter when viewing eLearning on a mobile device.
9. Google Docs/Drive (https://www.google.com/drive/)
This is another tool I was introduced to once I became a part of the Endurance Learning team. Apart from Slack, this is our other form of communication. We use Google Drive to store and access project documents and assets making it easily accessible to everyone on the team. Many documents, such as scripts, need to be accessed and edited by multiple people. Google Docs allows us to do that seamlessly, as well as collaborate and work on a specific document altogether in real-time. Another great function of Google Docs is the ability to comment and tag another team member on a document when I have questions or suggestions.
10. ZapWorks (https://zap.works/)
While this program is not one that I use on a daily, or even weekly, basis, it needs to be mentioned. I’ve created many augmented reality (AR) projects using ZapWorks Studio and Design and through the process I’ve gained more perspective on the amazing opportunities AR provides the field of L&D. ZapWorks enables users to create augmented reality experiences that incorporate media, presentations, widgets, and much more. Our company is currently creating AR experiences using this program for marketing and I am hoping someday soon, we begin incorporating it into eLearning for our clients.
Voting for Your Top 10 List
Not only are professionals using Soapbox every day to create better presentations, but we use it internally to help better think through how activities can align with outcomes. Whether Soapbox is on your list or not (we hope it is!), I encourage you to visit https://www.toptools4learning.com/voting/ and enter your top 10 tools.
You can also check out Soapbox by scheduling a 15-minute demo.
