I work for a company that provides soft skills training to companies. One of our goals for 2008 is to create some eLearning modules that we could use in a blended approach to training. I'm looking attend training to create these modules but it seems that I need to get the training through the vendor of the software we choose to use to create the eLearning. I know there is instructional design training, but I think we're looking for something more specific to the software. During my research I learned about open source web applications like Moogle. Has anyone used an open source web application? Have you been able to get quality training to use the software? Are there any downfalls? If we don't use an open source software, which of the others should we consider (Captivate, Articulate, Lectora, etc?).

Are you all looking for a Learning Management System (LMS)? Moodle is an open source LMS and is recommended by many industry experts.

As for eLearning development tools (the tools used to actually develop the interactive content), look into the Adobe products - Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. There is a steep learning curve, but these are widely recognized throughout the industry and are considered the "standard" for eLearning development.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi, Moodle is a great open source option for an LMS. See our overview at http://www.kineo.com/open-source-tools/moodle---your-free-lms.html

In terms fo authroing tools you can try exe, we built a short piece of content in this tool so you can see what it can do in our Moodle demo site at http://www.kineolearning.com/demo.

Good luck.

Used Moodle and also worked with multi-million dollar top tier LMS implementations. Bottom line- either could fit a business's needs. If you don't mind reaching out to me for a chat, I might be able to get more specific.

I can share that a top-shelf LMS might be too much for some of my clients, and some of my clients with a top shelf LMS could've easily done the same with open-source (legal business issues wouldn't allow open-source to be utilized).

I think you may also be looking at two types of product lines:

An LMS to deploy/track training.

Additonal tools to build training (some LMS systems have this built in).

Feel free to reach out for a chat.