Screen Casting Tools

These will all record anything you can see on your screen and will let you add narration. Some have extensive editing capabilities, some have none. They all output flash files and have options for other video formats.

• Camtasia Studio*
  May be the best, easiest tool for straight screen recording. Editing is similar to video editing. PowerPoint-to flash option.
• Adobe Captivate*
  Uses a 'slide' concept for screen recording, easy to get started, editing is powerful but a little different. Excellent for creating software simulations, and has branching capability for more involved tutorials. PowerPoint-to flash option. Academic/non-profit discounts are especially good (and normal retail price is especially high)
• Viewlet Builder*
  Includes simulation ability, similar to Camtasia and Captivate
• Wink
  Free - the most widely used of the free tools.  Includes editing, with callouts etc, not slick, large user community with active forum to get help.
• uTIPu TipCam
  Free, very easy to use, no editing. Unlike may other newer free tools, you can store on your computer as well as on their site.
• CamStudio
  Free - open source, similar to Wink, and may be marginally better, but many fewer users, less help available
• FreeScreencast
  Free, in Beta, very easy, no editing or audio, must upload to their site, so you are counting on them staying around.

* Outputs SCORM or AICC compliant tutorials that can be run and tracked through a Learning (or Course) Management System
 

PowerPoint to Flash

Convert existing PPT slides to Flash format presentations. This allows you to use a familiar and pretty powerful design tool (PPT - it does more than just bullets) for authoring. Some of these offer the ability to add narration and insert other media objects.

• Articulate Presenter*
  Top rated tool of this type. Offers multi-level navigation, sound, editing, quizzes, branching. Can insert flash or other media files into slides and attach documents. Create branded themes. 
• Adobe Presenter*
  Formerly Macromedia Breeze, very similar to Articulate, but only available packaged with Adobe Connect.
• iLecture
  Free in beta. University of Iowa project. Create simple presentations with narration, but no animations or other media. Output is in QuickTime format.
• OpenOffice - Impress
  Free office suite, Impress is the PPT type application. Can open MS PPT files or create in Impress. Option to save to flash. No option to add sound, no animations, no auto-play (must click through slides).

* Outputs SCORM or AICC compliant tutorials that can be run and tracked through a Learning (or Course) Management System

 

Semi-Rapid Direct Authoring Tools

• Lectora*
  More advanced course authoring system, the least 'rapid' but most powerful fo these tools. A user friendly, but not simple interface. This is a tool to get if you want to get serious about self-paced courses. Costs close to $2k.
• Unison*
  Web-based, LCMS style authoring system. A pay subscription service for organizations, they offer free individual accounts. Templated approach makes getting started easy. Output is Flash.
• CourseLab*
  Free. Good for exploring this kind of development. Limited set of templates.  Has not free add-ons for PPT import, screen capture and extra templates.
• eXe - the eLearning XHTML editor*
  Free and open source. Similar level as CourseLab, but different approach. Multiple content formats, less focus on interface style.
• Dreamweaver with Coursebuilder extension*
  Free if you already have Dreamweaver. This extension adds templates and tools to create learning interactivities. A good place to start if you have and know Dreamweaver.
• Microsoft Learning Content Development System*
  Free. New free version of a course development tool. Very templated and fairly limited, it is easy to get started with. No option to change overall theme or design.
   

Interactive Content

Tools to help you create engaging and interactive content to insert into a tutorial. These are especially useful to supplement what you create in one of the PPT-to-Flash or Direct Authoring tools.

• Articulate Engage*
  Tool for creating Flash interactivities. Makes Flash authoring accessible to non-coding types. Like other Articulate products, high quality and a bit expensive.
• Articulate Quizmaker*
  Powerful quiz and exam creator, to insert in any course, flash output. Many of the creation tools have some quizzes and assessment creation, but if you need more options, question types, etc. look at this.
• ViewletQuiz*
  Another tool for adding more powerful flash quizzes and surveys for your courses
• PowerBullet Presenter
  Free, create flash presentations, with animations, imbedded sound. Similar to engage in concept, but quite different to use.
• Qia
  Create and share online learning activities and quizzes. Low cost, aimed ad educators.
• Jumpcut
  Free online video editing, sharing, social network, videos are stored on their site. Like YouTube, but with editing tools.