After figuring out that OutStart Trainner wasn't going to cover our needs, we started looking into Saba Publisher for our CBTs. We had an online demo today and it looks pretty nice, but we'll need to play with it so see if it'll work for us. A co-worker said Saba acquired Lectora and Publisher is basically the same program. Is that true? Is anyone here using a recent version of Saba Publisher or Lectora? What's the skinny on this product? How is there support? Are there any user groups for Saba Publisher?

Thanks in advance?

Eric:
Our company has had the unfortunate responsibility of being forced to use Saba Publisher over the past couple of years because it was the only tool we could get to properly communicate with our Saba LMS. Saba Publisher is indeed the same as Lectora Publisher, Saba just licenses the software from Lectora and resells it as their own brand, for $3500 instead of $3100. We don’t use Saba Publisher to make any courseware (We use Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.), but we do have to make every test (either standalone or attached to the end of a course) in it so it can mark courses complete, etc.

What LMS does your company use? Are you looking for a WYSIWIG development tool that SMEs can use to make eLearning? I’m not a very big fan of Saba (Lectora) Publsher because quite frankly I’ve never seen a world-class eLearning (Brandon Hall Award winning, etc.) that was built with the tool. And it actuality every course I’ve seen that was made it in was basically a page-turner that resulted in a negative ROI because it didn’t change behavior at all.

In regards to Saba’s support; I would say it is non-existent for the product. Saba’s main product is their LMS and will always continue to be their LMS. Having said that, basically their iCases (help desk tickets) are prioritized based upon impact, etc. Saba Publisher issues always fall into the bottom of the list. Just to give an example, we opened up an iCase with them about a Saba Publisher issue 9 months ago and they just now offered to send someone out to talk about it. The main problem is that Saba doesn’t have the ability to fix anything nor even discuss the issue with Lectora from what I’ve seen. So basically you’ll have to hope your issue is resolved in the next release of Publisher.

I would recommend that you buy Publisher from Lectora if that is the tool you ultimately go with; you'll save money, have better support, etc.

Eric,

I've been using Lectora since 2003 and have always had a good experience with their support team. As Element recommended, unless you are tied to the Saba LMS, I would purchase the software direct from Trivantis.

To answer some of your other questions, there are Lectora user groups scattered around the country. Some of them meet virtually, so you could really join groups that aren't even in your region. Lectora also has a vibrant user forum community. Users are extremely helpful to each other. Some of the main contributors to the boards have become like mini celebrities at the annual user conferences.

To Element's point, Lectora is not as slick as all Flash courses. However, some Flash courses are an overblown waste (not all, but some). As you look for a tool, think about what your typical objectives are. Lectora does allow you to embed Flash, video, audio, sims, etc. into your courses. You should be able to make it plenty engaging and effective. As with any training program, it comes down to the instructional design. Lectora is simply the development tool.

As a training vendor, we build quite a few courses in Lectora for clients. We also build some in Flash. It really depends on the client's needs. I favor Lectora because the development time can be very short.

Hope this helps and good luck. Feel free to post any follow-up questions you may have.

Jay

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jay-ILS,

To answer some questions...

We currently do not use an LMS (in the way your all are thinking). Because of bandwidth issues / network concerns the Court has been publishing CBTs on CD. At some point in the future we may move in the direction of an LMS, but for now we use something called Training Server to track staff learning, and it is tied into our own webapp called ACORN. Sadly, none of this is directly tied into any of the CBT trainings.

As for the tool, we are looking for a simple publishing tool that handles a few specific LMS type duties. The majority of content will be built in Flash and imported so we don't need a lot of bells and whistles there. We would like to the tool to allow us to write test questions, implement exams, track users and scoring, print certificates, emails test scores, handles bookmarking and compile into an .exe for burning / distibution. It sounds simple to me!

Up until now, the Court has been building our CBTs using Authorware, but Adobe has been very unresponsive as to Authorware's future. It hasn't been *really* updated in years, and it is currently not Vista compatable. Depending on who you ask, it works or doesn't work with Vista. It looks like it is being phased out, but no one knows for sure. It seems to me that if we can get out, now may be the time. (If anyone knows anthoer tool that can handle what we are looking to accomplish, please let me know!)

Buying directly from Trivantis may well be the way to go for us. I know that we'll have to do some coding to get Lectora to do all we need, so I'll start trolling some of the user groups to see if we can't get some help!

Thanks everyone, and keep the info coming!

Eric,

Here is a link to the Trivantis online forum. I have found the group to be very helpful in all things Lectora.

John

http://community.trivantis.com/