CBT Course Development: Summary of Responses

[Valerie Hazel <vhazel -at- booksys -dot- com>]

For those of you who are interested, here is a summary of the responses I 
received via e-mail concerning the software available for CBT course 
development:

I'm using a product called Trainersoft. The website is www.trainersoft.com.
Although I'm using the Standard edition, it meets all of my needs. The
professional edition is a little expensive but is really a good product.
I have a friend that uses Authorware but it's really, really expensive. If
you are creating skills assessment tests, cbts, etc. I'd use Trainersoft.
It's a good product for the money.
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You can probably do all you need to with Acrobat including digital video, 
except test and student record keeping. Acrobat is a much easier animal to 
non-linear program than Macromedia products, although they are very strong 
if you want to become a guru.
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Some hard core technical writers may laugh, but for
CBT modules a great, cheap, easy to learn tool is
Hyperstudio. This package is often used in
educational multimedia instructional design for the
classroom and in industry.
Dreamweaver is great, but the learning curve is steep
and it costs more than the $100.00 of Hyperstudio
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I worked with Authorware for many years (from version 2.0 - 5.0)
and found it to be a wonderful product. Over the years, I evaluated other
products, but Authorware usually won out. I can't imagine finding a single
product [ever] that does everything you want. But, I was always able to
figure out a way to get the results I was looking for. If you're looking for
quick and easy, it may not be the way to go. But, if you're looking for a
strong product to grow with - it may be the one for you.
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Authorware and Director are both reasonable choices for this, but they're
overkill for many applications. You'll have to define what functionality
your training requires before you can narrow down the list of tools. If the
presentation is primarily linear, with only a few branches and no testing is
required, something as simple as PowerPoint (PP) can work just fine. (PP can
produce self-running presentations with limited interactivity.) If you want
more of a user-directed learning sequence, you'll need better hypertext
capabilities than PP provides, and basic HTML authoring tools should work
just fine. Similarly, you can do some surprisingly sophisticated things with
Acrobat. But as soon as you get into heavier needs (e.g., interactive tests
and calculation of test scores, sophisticated branching), you may well have
to investigate Authorware or its equivalents.
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Other software mentioned: Asymetrix and Macromedia's Director
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Good reading material:
** Dick and Carey's "The Systematic Design of Instruction" (for 
instructional design)
** "Authorware Functions and Variables" by Joe Ganci
** anything by Gloria Gery is great ("Making CBT Happen : Prescriptions for 
Successful Implementation of Computer-Based Training in Your Organization")
** anything by Diane Gayeski 
(http://www.omnicomassociates.com/omnpub.html#top).
** anything by Ruth Clark
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I'm really looking to develop something interactive - something that 
quizzes the user.  I guess what I had in mind is some CBT courses that I 
took through CBT systems, in case anyone is familiar with them (the name 
has now changed to SmartForce). By the way, when I queried SmartForce, they 
recommended macromedia products; however, the fact that I couldn't get the 
trial versions of any macromedia products to run on my computer (I clicked 
the icons and nothing happened) and I have been unable to get any kind of 
useful response from their tech support makes me leery of purchasing their 
product.

The combination of macromedia's poor tech support with the learning curve, 
which from all indications seems to be considerable, makes me think that it 
would be too demanding on our time, since we are a tech writing team of 
only two.

Anyone else who has a comment - I'd be glad to hear.

Thanks.

Valerie Hazel
Technical Writing Manager
Book Systems, Inc.