The Most Popular e-Learning Tools [GRAPH]
It seems like every day there is another e-Learning tool claiming to be the be-all, end-all for e-learning development. Â This is pretty nice since it means that the industry is really starting to take off, although I can’t help but wonder if there are some companies out there who are trying to make a quick buck rather than really create something useful for instructional designers.
That said, this got me thinking: which e-learning tools out there are the most popular? Â After searching Google, e-learning sites, forums and the like, I found an interesting chart created by Kapp Notes from a survey administered asking the very question I was looking for an answer to.
Ignoring the first two (MS Word and MS PowerPoint), it was interesting to see that Adobe Captivate has a pretty strong hold for e-Learning centered tools. Â In all honestly, I would have assumed Articulate would have been more widely used.
As for the MS Word/PowerPoint dominance, I’m not entirely sure how to explain it, other than perhaps these were used for storyboarding? Â I mean, who uses MS Word for e-Learning?
When I think about what I use during instructional design, I would say it’s a healthy combination but the one that is always present is Adobe Captivate.  I used Articulate/Captivate together, Oracle UPK/Captivate together, PowerPoint/Captivate together, and so on… When it comes to how I have used Captivate, it has mostly been for software simulations, but occasionally for uploading PowerPoint.
I suspect that my story isn’t all that different than other e-Learning developers out there. Â One thing to remember is to not to get too comfortable with just one technology – stay versatile and on top of industry trends.
Justin Ferriman
@LearnDashLMS