Tools for creating SCORM content

Articulate

Articulate Presenter '09, coupled with Articulate Quizmaker '09, is a great solution in developing SCORM content for Moodle. Both Articulate Presenter '09 and Articulate Quizmaker '09 are SCORM certified by an independent ADL certification expert (both SCORM 1.2 AND SCORM 2004). This means that Articulate Presenter '09 and Quizmaker '09 will seamlessly report results to Moodle by uploading the published project as a SCORM package. With the complete suite of products from Articulate, you'll be able to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and surveys.

To learn more about the products from Articulate, go to http://www.articulate.com and download a 30 day trial of any of the products including: Articulate Presenter '09, Articulate Quizmaker '09, Articulate Engage '09, and Articulate Video Encoder '09.

Camtasia

This is a commercial screen-recording product for producing demonstrations and tutorials. It has SCORM compliant output as an option, and permits quizzing and branching. The SCORM output option creates a single .zip file that is appropriate for uploading into a SCORM activity for Moodle. Retail price for Camtasia is US$299, but non-profit educational discounts of about 50% are offered. 30 day trials are also available.

More information can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/products.asp

Captivate

Add here: options to use, types of content to avoid, tricks to take advantage of, bugs, gotchas...

ContentGenerator.net SCORM functionality

Software was successfully used at the CambsMoodle.org conference on July 10th 2008 - every teacher at the workshop was able to get their SCORM game uploaded and working. The software doesn't create extensive courses, but instead trackable interactive Flash games such as Fling the Teacher and Teacher Invaders.

• Free software (+ some pay for) at http://www.contentgenerator.net/ - need to register on forum, but downloads free from there.
• Select SCORM option within software
• Generates single .zip file
• Select 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course
• Edit SCORM settings - copy settings from http://www.contentgenerator.net/images/scorm/16_settings_mostimportant.png
• Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.contentgenerator.net/scorm/

Courselab

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

There are some problems with Moodle configuration see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=96338#p425335

eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package

The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

http://exelearning.org/

Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office

Free Download - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5f4f9c7-1a6a-484b-99fd-c231442deaa4&displaylang=en

From the Microsoft WebSite: With Learning Essentials, educators and students can get started, stay organized, and successfully complete high-quality work. Educators can create effective instructional resources, complete administrative tasks, and implement new teaching strategies. Using the Content Development Kit, educators can create additional templates and tutorials that integrate with familiar Microsoft Office applications. And students can use templates with project assistance to coach them through a variety of assignments.

The English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish versions of Learning Essentials also support SCORM standards. SCORM Tools seamlessly convert Microsoft Office documents into standards-based e-learning content that can be managed and reused by any SCORM-conformant learning management system.

Learning Essentials is a free download for schools that license Microsoft Office.

(Note, someone with personal experience should update the overview to explain how this tool really works)

Microsoft Learning Development System

Free tool from Microsoft that allows you to create Scorm resources using drag and drop. This is an internal microsoft tool. Has a few Querks and can crash.

NOTE READ the Help info. To upload to Moodle you will need to zip up your working directory then upload using the 'Add SCORM / AICC' from add resource option in your course

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx

MyUdutu

Free software for creating elearning courses with flash interactivity. Website here: http://www.udutu.com/ and an explanatory video here: http://www.udutu.com/my_udutu_video.html It is free to sign up and make the courses - there are many customisable templates enabling users to import images/video/audio/etc and incorporate them into scored questions of varying formats. The finished course can be exported as SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compliant -again for free and then hosted on a Moodle or other site. (The courses can also be hosted on the udutu site, either for free but with a watermark or for a fee) Quite intuitive to use and offering many features, it is however dependent on good connection to the site as it is created online. Also doesn't seem to like working in Opera.

Reload

Reusable eLearning Object Authoring and Delivery - NB it is rather technical and may only be suitable for those with an understanding of HTML and the underlying SCORM specification.

http://www.reload.ac.uk/

MOS Solo

SCORM 2004 authoring tool. Entirely free.

http://www.mossolo.com/

ToolBook

[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook.

Wimba Create (formerly Course Genie)

A commercial tool allowing you to convert Word documents into CMS ready content. It's particularly suited for non-technical teachers who have large documents to display on Moodle and allows embedding of video, sound etc. When downloaded to your computer it generates a toolbar in Word giving options to enable easy conversion of the file to clean html pages which include navigation and interactive features. It claims to work on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista Word 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007 and the official site is: http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbacreate/ This link gives information about integration with Moodle: http://www.wimba.com/products/integration_moodle.php Although this is a paid-for option, you can download a free trial from the above site.

Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional

Convert PowerPoint to Flash and upload the courses to Moodle. Note that this is not a free tool, rather there is a free trial version of the full software. Output from the trial version has a watermark on it.

• Download the trial version of the software from http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html
• There is a plug-in menu in PowerPoint, click "Publish" button and select "LMS"
• Select "SCORM 1.2" or "SCORM 2004"
• Click "Convert" button
• Select "Open output folder" after conversion is completed
• Choose the output .zip file and upload to Moodle
• Done!

Some overly detailed instructions available here: http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash/howto3.html

QuizForce

QuizForce is a MS Windows program that provides a comprehensive but easy-to-use set of tools for creating highly customized Flash-based quizzes and surveys for non-programmers. SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site: http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/quizforce/quizforce.html

WordForce

WordForce is a MS Windows program. The main feature of the program is the conversion of MS Word (2007/2003) documents into web sites. SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site: http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/wordforce/wordforce.html

PowerPointForce

PowerpointForce is a MS windows program, which converts PowerPoint(2003/2007) slides into flash with different additional features and brings to you professional rapid flash-based presentations in the matter of minutes. SCORM 1.2 or 2004 compatible. Free 14 days trial, tutorials, examples are available from site: http://www.elearningforce.biz/e-learning-software/powerpointforce/powerpointforce.html

See also

• Using Moodle Are there any sugestions for scorm authoring with Microsoft (MS-M$) word / or any other easy (maybe free) scorm authoring tool? forum discussion