2010 Rapid Content Authoring Tools Winners

In 2010, the RCAT market continued its upswing and nothing indicates to me it will be changing anytime soon.  Some acquisitions, some goodbyes, but overall very strong.  Innovation abounded and the push to focus on the “PPT to Flash” angle continued to shine. Yet, there were some products that stood out, if nothing else – for taking the lead and doing something that says “yes  it is possible, and oh, it works”.

The Big Dogs – which in this case, deals more with market share, for the most part continued to push forward, yet from an innovation standpoint, uh, solid, but not outstanding.

2010 E-Learning 24/7 Awards (No official icon logo handed out to winners, rather just a “WHOO-HOO” – uh, you can make that sound to yourself..thank you)

RCAT Product of the Year

SCORM Cloud - What’s not to love? You can use either your own 3rd party content authoring tool and upload it into the “Cloud” and then wherever you are, output either to your LMS, or onto Moodle or even WordPress (they have a plug in for that) OR place the course in Facebook or nearly any solution that accepts APIs.  OR you can create courses SCORM 2004 courses within their tool which is in the “cloud” and do the same thing. I said it when it game out and I will repeat it again. Game Changer!

Product Review of SCORM Cloud

Open Source Product of the Year (i.e. its FREE)

Course Lab -  It offers WYSIWYG, built-in assessment tool, Course & Module structure pane, simple frame & action-based object’s animation, rich media support, RLO (Reusable Learning Object) capability, scenario building feature for complex multi-interactions, lots of interactivity capabilities and features, offers cascading rules, publish to various delivery channels incl. LMS, web, CD, etc., ADL SCORM 2004 CERTIFIED.  Also SCORM 1.2 & AICC.   Offers optional screen recording program ($99).  Yeah and did I mention it was free and you can get the code, ideal if you are building courses for someone other than your own company?

Innovators of the Year

- These winners incorporated features or capabilities that make them stand out in the RCAT market.  Innovation is listed next to the product. The product is not necessarily the ultimate in RCAT, but they are solid at the minimum and should be at least looked at, before making any decision.

Rapid Intake: Unison (now called elearning studio online)

• SAAS based
• Unlimited storage and projects
• Collaborative feature, multiple people besides the author can view the course and provide feedback/comments regarding the course, rather than the author or authors having to send the course to respective stakeholders and await a response
• Equally impressive about the above, is if you have a client or your employer is located in another region, country, etc. and time is limited
• Collaborative Review – which is integrated provides another level of Q/A
• You get the Flash code – YES – you get the code, which you can do whatever you want with it. While you can continue with their product, you are not tied to them, and thus you can use the Flash code for whatever or whomever, best of all, for those who create courses for clients – and clients who want the code (for whatever purpose) – you can give it to them.  Sure, other vendors will say you can do that too, but you have to open each object file to get it. Who has time?  I just want the code in one quick scoop

Scate Technologies: Scate Ignite 4 Professional Edition

A product that has multiple uses, which can be either a standalone into your LMS as a course, or used as a Podcast Or

• PSP  – one of the fastest portable markets in general
• iPod, mobile phones, YouTube, message boards, e-mail
• iTunes, iTunes University, Facebook, MySpace, CD, web server & more
• Create SD and HD movies
• Import and convert PPT to the web, add rich media
• Comes with a screen capture tool, spell checker (many RCATs do not), Slide audio recording & editing
• Supports HD h.264 codec, which the iPad supports, and a few browsers for HTML5
• SCORM 2004/1.2, can capture video from web cam

You could even create content and use it in your 3rd party authoring tool, as an option, but really why would you want to?  Lots of innovative features here, that in some cases, you are not seeing yet. Clever and logical features, especially when it comes to emerging technology with e-learning.  Courses that can be seen on your HDTV via a connection from your computer, which is capable via Blu-Ray, some game players, internet TV, TV tuners (and considered by many as truly the next evolution of television, uh not the course part that is) – YES.   However, you can not create HTML5 courses, the codec is a video codec.

Inquisiq: Inquisiq Studio

• SAAS or hosted on your own servers
• Assessment tool built in, Powerpoint Integration
• WYSIWYG, plus advanced features like master & dynamic layers
• RLO, Themes, Widgets
• Collaborative Learning Environment – Share building of courses in real time, albeit, not two at the same time, so no desktop sharing in that regard
• Built in task system and task reporting
• SCORM compliant

I Didn’t Know it was Possible Award

Composica: Composica 4

• Social Learning Content Authoring Tool
• Project blog, comments, & RSS feeds keeping authors connected
• RLOs
• Game based learning
• Dynamic
• Task lists, task reports and audit trails
• Assessment tool built in
• SCORM 2004/1.2 compliant
• Blogs can be embedded into courses/content
• Ratings
• Mashups, Google charts
• Bookmarking, state restoration