I am familiar with ISD and have created classroom and self-study training materials, and have worked with vendors to create e-Learning, but now due to budget cuts I need to begin developing courses in-house. I am looking for rapid development solutions that will allow me to start quickly from a vendor that offers training on how to use their products, either in class or online.

We want to deliver technical and soft-skill training. We would like to include videos (compressed into Flash or something similar to reduce bandwidth requirements), audio voiceover, simulations (perhpas with avatars), check-your-knowledge assessments, and learning games.

I've had several people mention Adobe's products to me, which I am investigating, but I would like to hear your recommendations for e-Learning development solutions along with their pros and cons to assist me in making a buying decision. I have not use any kind of authoring tool before (beyond PowerPoint), but I do pick up new software applications pretty quickly and have some basic HTML skills. Any suggestions for tools that will meet my needs that won't take forever to learn to use?

I haven't used it but I've heard of a program called "Articulate" that converts powerpoints into CBTs. You might want to google it. Good luck.

I've used Articulate. I love it. It's very easy to use. I'm sure there are numerous ways to get from point A to point B, but here's an abbreviated version of my workflow just to give you an idea.

I start my course in PowerPoint. Build all the slides and add in any animations (set them to "on click.") Then I record the audio tracks for each slide.

Then, when I publish my course to Articulate (In PPT, you'll see an extra menu option at the top for Articulate), I import all the audio.

Here's my favorite part and why I like Articulate better than Captivate: To sync your audio to your animations, you just pull up the slide, and click "Start Sync." The audio plays and you just click your mouse when you want your next animation to execute.

Make sense? I hope that helps. If you want to know more about what I use to record and normalize the audio or just want more detail, let me know.

Aidan

Oh, and Articulate recently came out with an '09 version that has some new features, including branching capabilities.

Yes, second that. Articulate is becoming the rapid e-learning standard. If your company is a big Adobe shop, you can check out Adobe Presenter -part of Adobe Connect Pro.

Good luck,
-Jack