Learning objects authoring tools

For my Georgia Teacher Open Online class, I had to explore different authoring tools for creating learning objects.  These tools allow teachers to make tools ranging from annotated video to interactive games.  Below are 5 tools that I learned about: 3 that are free to the public and 3 that subscription based.

3 paid services

Is a paid service that is supposedly very intuitive.  There is a 30 day free trial, but I have not yet tried the software.  The site has several links to activities created using "articulate", but I don't have a membership, so I can't really view them.  Here is a link to a quiz designed to look like Family Feud.

Course lab describes itself as a Learning Management System.  It is supposed to be easy to create e-learning activities without needing to know Java or Flash.

This is a site that allows users to make a number of interactive educational games.  It is a paid service, costing $40 per year for a teacher account.  Below is a link to a sample game from the what to learn site.

Classifying Organisms Game

3 free services

This is one of my standby Web 2.0 tools.  Most often for online teaching, I have my students use it to make presentations.  However, it is also a great way to make presentations (a type of learning object) for my student.  It easily integrates text, images, and video.  And, it's free.

Snagit is a great free tool for making screencasts.  Snagit can be used to add commentary over existing video.  It can be used to record anything on a computer screen, and with just a microphone, users can add video.  This has a free version, so I've listed it here.  There is also a pay version with extra features.

Hot Potatoes allows users to create multiple-choice, short answer, jumbled sentence, crossword, matching, and fill in the blank exercises.
Here is an example quiz.



Learning objects can make learning more entertaining and more engaging for students.  I do feel it important to note here that I agree strongly with this quote from the "Articulate" blog.  -

"While relevance doesn’t equate to interactivity, it does equate to an engaged learner. And an engaged learner is more apt to learn and not be dependent on interactive gimmicks (which is what we usually start with when we try to make the course interactive). "