SONET - Educational Technology Group 
SONET - Educational Technology Group This page contains links to, and information about, off-the-shelf software of use to e-learning practitioners.
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
A very useful piece of software for Windows, which allows authors to create a range of interactive browser-based self-assessment exercises using Javascript without the need for any prior HTML or Javascript knowledge. Hot Potatoes generates web pages, either singly or as a series of exercises, encapsulating the scripts and styles which the exercises require, using an intuitive and user-friendly interface. The exercises will run on any modern browser regardless of platform, although the software itself is only available for Windows PC. Although primarily designed as a tool to generate self-assessment exercises for language learning, the matching, multiple-choice, and crossword exercises are generic enough to be used for teaching any topic. Hot Potatoes is also compliant with international standards, in particular XML and IMS, reducing the danger of 'proprietary lock-in' whereby content is locked into a particular software format.
Hot Potatoes is "free
of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational
institutions, who make their pages available
on the web
". It's difficult to recommend it highly enough.
http://www.questionmark.com/uk/perception/
QMP is the University's officially-adopted assessment software. It's a sophisticated commercial product allowing authors to create a wide variety of question types, and to store these in personal or shared question banks. For more information about QMP, how to use it, and what training sessions are available, contact the campus IS Learning Team.
eXe (eLearning XHTML Editor) is a user-friendly development tool aimed squarely at educators and e-learning practitioners with little or no technical knowledge. eXe is a "freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.". The tool has a surprising variety of interactive activity types which can be added to pages, including cloze, MCQ, true-false, and other quiz types. It's also easy to add rich media (images, video, Flash movies).
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/
Xerte is a rapid development tool for the production of e-learning materials. Primarily intended for experienced developers with some knowledge of Flash, it also comes with templates and wizards enabling non-technical authors to produce useful material. Xerte applications are highly accessible to users with disabilities, and the tool has been promoted by the UKHE disability organisation Techdis. Xerte is produced by the University of Nottingham's IS Learning Team, and is free to download and use.
Page last updated 1 December, 2011 . Site maintained by Fred Riley.
