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Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources
November 9th, 2010
The other day this guy asked me how to develop color schemes for his rapid e-learning courses. Like a lot of guys, he has some issues with color perception so he wanted an easy way to match colors.
I have the same challenge. In fact, my wife’s probably getting annoyed with me always asking which shirts and pants match when I pack for the conference trips. It’s a good thing I can trust her. Otherwise, I might show up at the conference looking like a doofus in a leisure suit.
I shared some of the tools that I use for color schemes in previous posts like this one on creating your own rapid e-learning PowerPoint template. I start by picking a color from the image using Pixie. And then I take that color information to a site like Color Schemer to create a color scheme. That helps me have a consistent color scheme.
As I was searching previous posts to answer his question, I ran into a lot of the tools and sites that I’ve recommended in previous blog posts. So I thought that it might be a good idea to make a single list of some of the tools and sites like Pixie and Color Schemer that I’ve referenced before. So here’s a list of previously referenced tools and a brief explanation of what they do.
Also, here’s a link to the 200 free rapid e-learning tutorials I posted a while back.
Audio Resources
- Samson Go Mic: I get lots of questions asking about a good mic for about $50. This is the one I use. [original post]
- Levelator: automatically adjust the audio levels in your narration. [original post]
- Audacity: free open source audio recording and editing software. [original post]
- Myna: easy-to-use online audio editor that includes a library of assets. [original post]
- Voice123 and Voices.com: find narrators for your e-learning courses. [original post]
Creative Commons audio: good sites to get free audio for your courses. [original post]
- CCMixter, The Freesound Project, OpSound, Free Music Archive, and Jamendo
- Musicshake and TuneAround are free tools that let you easily create your own music and soundtracks.
Video Resources
Screenr:free screencasting tool; great for tutorials and simple software demos. [original post]- Preview Flash content on your computer: SWF Player and FLV Player [original post]
- LectureScribe: a free tool that lets you create whiteboard style lectures and save as Flash. Here’s a demo. [original post]
- Windows Live Movie Maker: free and simple-to-use video editor. [original post]
- Format Factory: convert media from one format to another. [original post]
- Videomaker Magazine: a great resource to learn video production tips. [original post]
Graphics Resources
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- Kuler: site to create custom color schemes. [original post]
- Color Schemer: site to create color schemes. [original post]
- Photo Resizer: use this application to quickly resize images to a specific resolution. [original post]
- Image Tuner: resize, rename, and convert image formats with this free tool. [original post]
- Poladroid: quickly create images that look like they were taken with a Polaroid camera. [original post]
- Cartoonster: free tutorials that teach the basics of animation. [original post]
Image editing software:
- Paint.net: free image and photo editing software that probably does most of what you need for e-learning. [original post]
- GIMP: free image editing and authoring software that gives you more Photoshop-like power without the price. [original post]
- Picnik: web-based image editor. [original post]
- Aviary: web-based image editor. [original post]
- Artweaver: good for basic graphics editing. [original post]
Font Resources
- dafont.com: free and inexpensive fonts. Check the usage agreement. [original post]
- Fontcapture: free to create the fonts. [original post]
- YourFonts: $9.95 for custom fonts. [original post]
Stock Image Resources
- iStockphoto. You can find photos, illustrations, video clips, and some Flash files. [original post]
- Fotolio. Large selection and offers some free images if you complete a free registration. [original post]
- eLearning Art: free sample character pack of stock images. [original post]
- Fotosearch. Searches multiple sites. Also includes video, illustration, and audio clips. [original post]
- Stock.xchng: lots of free stock images. [original post]
- Flickr: creative commons images that you may be able to use in your courses. [original post]
The following sites were recommended by blog readers. [original post]
Writing & Reading Resources
- Copyblogger: the site is focused on writing for blogs but the ideas work for e-learning courses, too; especially when it comes to creating learner-centric content. [original post]
- Windows Live Writer: this is what I use to write my blog posts. It’s free and works great. [original post]
- Making Change: Cathy Moore does a good job providing tips that will improve how you write for your courses and with your instructional design. [original post]
PowerPoint Resources
- Free Training Templates: Microsoft offers a number of free training templates that could serve as a starting point for beginning rapid e-learning designers. [original post]
- Motion Path Tool: add-in to better manage animations in PowerPoint. [original post]
- PowerPoint Color Swatch: quickly create custom color themes in PowerPoint 2007 and 2010. [original post]
Community & Social Media Resources
- TED: there are a lot of very good videos; some relevant to learning and some just inspiring. [original post]
- Common Craft: a great way to get an overview on many of the social media basics. They also do a great job presenting information; a good model for some courses. [original post]
- Vuvox: create interactive collages that you can insert into your e-learning course, such as in this example. [original post]
- Feedly: a simple and fast way to browse your favorite sources. [original post]
- Netvibes: a great way to create a custom home page and load it with the information you want quick access to like blogs that you follow. [original post]
- Dipity: create interactive timelines. Insert into your course using the web objects feature. [original post]
- ClusterURL: make free web pages using your browser’s tabs. Here’s a tutorial. [original post]
- Google Reader: use Google’s web-based feed reader to keep up with blogs and news. [original post]
Miscellaneous Resources
- Dropbox: this is my favorite application. It makes it easy for me to sync across multiple computers and collaborate with others. [original post]
- Airdropper: easy way to have someone send files to you using your Dropbox account. [original post]
- Fences: keep your desktop clean by quickly hiding or displaying your icons and shortcuts. Great for screencasts and presentations. [original post]
- OneNote: by far one of my favorite applications to take notes. It integrates with Outlook and I have it synced across all of my computers using Dropbox. [original post]
- Evernote: great way to capture and document almost anything. Check out the Articulate Guru entry. [original post]
- Zoomerang: create free surveys [original post]
- Web2PDF: convert a website or blog to PDF. [original post]
- AlacrityPC: shut down unnecessary services and programs before you run a resource intensive application like multimedia authoring applications. [original post]
- ZoomIt: screen zoom and annotation tool for presentations that include application demonstrations. [original post]
- Survey Monkey: create free surveys and collect feedback. [original post]
- MindManager: this isn’t free, but a tool I use to create mind maps of my scenarios which I can export to PowerPoint. [original post]
- 7-Zip: free application to zip and unzip files. I use it to unzip .pptx files. [original post]
- Karen’s Directory Printer: easy way to create a list of files and folders on your computer. [original post]
Hopefully you can use these applications when working on your courses. If there are some free resources you think should be on the list, feel free to share them in the comments section.
Events
- Everyday. Check out the weekly training webinars to learn more about Rise, Storyline, and instructional design.
Free E-Learning Resources
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Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community. |
Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs |
Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills |
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Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images. |
Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration. |
Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help. |
45 responses to “Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources”
ZOTERO is great for research – collating & annotating info with tags & sources etc: a bit more academic but easy to use
Here is a quick and very basic tutorial on how to record using Audacity.
I purchased the Samson Go Mic based on Tom’s recommendation awhile ago. No regrets what-so-ever; that mic is wonderful!
Great resources! Wanted to add one to the Font sites list…. I always go to MyFonts.com to search for fonts. They have a huge selection and you can sort by category (Sans Serif, Slab, Modern, etc), by tag (cursive, handwriting, serif, free, etc), or you can use the Advanced Search tool for, well, advanced searches.
Also, I agree that OneNote is an excellent tool for note-taking and more. I used OneNote long before I found out about Evernote, which I now use when I’m on the go. I still prefer OneNote when I’m working from my laptop, but the nice thing is OneNote can be imported to Evernote, so when I’m out and something pops into my head, I can quickly go add whatever flash of brilliance I’ve just had to my Evernote/OneNote! 🙂
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Do you or any of your colleagues recommend any specific training that is available on the weekends? My company does not allow you to take time off of work for outside training. I would really like to learn more about designing training and take an articulate class, but it seems everything is offered during the week.
I am a big fan of a simple tool that makes it quick and easy to move text from tool to tool while leaving the formating behind: PureText. http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/
This is an excellent compilation and had to share it pretty much everywhere. Thank you again! The color schemes are still pretty confusing to me, but I’m slow on the take with some of the art concepts.
I’ve been finding a ton more resources in the open-source / creative commons arena with regard to content and either utilizing the creative commons search engine, or simply entering a search query that includes creative commons and the subject is yielding more and more on a daily basis.
Though I’d rather see funding for great work, some of the courses such as music and special curriculum is getting carved out of regular schools. There’s a ton of free scores and musical theory out there as well.
Again Tom… thank you.
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I use to use Irfanview all the time for resizing pictures until I saw your article on Image Tuner. That program works so much better and is easier to navigate.
I also love GIMP, it’s a fantastic program. Very powerful for the right price of free!
Thank you so much for devoting your time to gathering these excellent resources.
There is another free tool that all can use it works on similar lines as Thesarus its called WORDWEB, and the best thing is it speaks so you can put in some sentences and it really speaks like a human being :).
As Power Point Presentations are very integral to education, especially when we talk of e-learning, the distant education basis usually on PPT’s and Flash. Through such tips/tricks and technological support work becomes not just interesting but also resource able in many ways. These are gripping and graphically inspiring.
I would add a huge Font Free Site to the list:
& vector design resources
http://www.dezignus.com (from this one you will get several links to similar sites).
Tom, i think in your list you lack of webvideo conferencing tools (eg. Skype and some of their plugin’s(eg. Yugma, Yuuguu, TalkandWrite,WhiteboardMeeting, Mikogo,InnerPass…) that allows it to became almost a tool like ‘eluminate’).
Thank you for sharing these resources.
[…] Tom Werner on November 10, 2010 Tom Kuhlmann provides a big, big list of resources for rapid e-learning development, including graphics, video, sound, fonts, and lots […]
@Jessica – would you mind posting your question in our forums (http://articulate.com/forums) and sharing a little more around the types of training you’re looking for? The community team has created quite a bit of self-paced training and I’d be more than happy to help design some suggested learning plans for you.
We also have some great consultants who offer training.
David
These are fantastic resources Tom. I’m in the middle of creating an ecourse for my blog at the moment and well, doing my research I found your post. So it’s a god-send.
Appreciate all the work you’ve put into this. 🙂
I’d add these two to the mix:
Shutterstock.com – many of the same images you’ll find on iStockphoto. But the Web resolution images are a bit cheaper than what you’ll find on iStock (shutterstock lets you buy from low or high range resolution tiers)
Narratorfiles.com – Twenty bucks a page for narration. They also sell isolated characters. Not terrible for what they cost.
This application can be used for any reason, however, I use it when Im ready to record a simulation and I need a clean “screen” – Tom, you forgot about this one – you recommended this to me … DEXPOT.
Thank you for these resources!
This is one of my first posts to “rapid elearning”.
There seem to be many pages concerned with rapid elearning, each with a comment section at the bottom. Is this considered “one” blog or multiple topic oriented blogs?
[…] Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources […]
Thanks Tom for an excellent list! Gonna use these for developing ecourses at work and launching a side gig of my own, very inspiring. Thanks again.
[…] what is possible in terms of rapid development of learning materials. The first post is called Over 75 Free Rapid eLearning Resources, and contains useful information on a wide variety of tools for authoring content. The second post […]
Just wanted to say gracias from Panama for http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/over-75-free-rapid-e-learning-resources, I is a big fan
I suggest for mind mapping this one:
Xmind, it’s free software
Thanks for the information! I will have to take a look into this a bit more!
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I want to your tiall version.
Please send me?
Great collection of resources. I am studying online my second career at Uned University. This will be very useful for me! many thanks!
Hello, I am the owner of narration.net. I noticed your web page is linking to some resources that are similar to my site. I currently supply narration to a number of eLearning organizations. I was wondering if you would consider adding a link to my site narration.net if you think your visitors would find it useful.
[…] […]
Thanks for this information! Very interesting for our voiveover busines here in germany.
[…] Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources » The Rapid eLearning Blog Hopefully you can use these applications when working on your courses. If there are some free resources you think should be on the list, feel free to share them in the comments section. Tidbits: […]
[…] Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources » The Rapid eLearning Blog […]
I’m a huge fan of GIMP, it’s like Photoshop for free!
Another great site that is not quite free, but is awfully good value, is http://www.vectorstock.com. They have a huge collection and easy to use site.
Tom, I know your Blog is meant to architect new trainers, instructional designers, professionals, etc. Throughout the years I have learned that in life, before you need the speed of development of any Training program, you need to produce it from scratch using your own skills, or learning new skills like using Photoshop, or taking your own pictures and learning how to make them your pictures. Just yesterday I found myself needing a picture for an application. I found that taking my own picture made my application more valuable, changing it made it mine, as I am not taking the credit from someone elses work. Overall, that is going to help someone stay employeed, and will separate him from the others.
By the way the tools you recommended are great!
Nice idea.
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