Tool time

Having tried out all the eLearning authoring tools we could find, both open source and commercial, we have come to the conclusion that most of them miss the point.

Adding layers of complexity and features seems to be the end-goal. Do these guys not understand that's what went wrong with word-processing software years ago. "Feature creep" we called it. Even the so-called learning standards people have headed down the tracks of complexity - just try understanding wher Scorm is headed.

Challenge - Take a blank piece of paper and write down on it the basic functions you need in an authoring tool. I guarantee you don't need to turn it over and keep on writing. Unless you have some pretty weird requirements.

All the efforat the tool side goes into making things look engaging (so far as the tool believes !) - very little goes into forming the content. Well maybe that's not the business of authoring tool makers - but we think it should be. There's too much really poor content out there. Even such content which should be great - like some of the freely available content from MIT - can look pretty mundane when you print it out.

Here at Ossidian we think differently. We think the content should be great, not the tools we use to make it.