The Most Popular e-Learning Tools [GRAPH]

By: Justin Ferriman • April 13, 2012
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Source: http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/

It seems like every day there is another e-Learning tool claiming to be the be-all, end-all for e-learning development.  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?  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.  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?  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.  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

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter