Downloads
This is the place to sample training software, calculators, cool web services, and other helpful workplace tools. All demos, trials, and tools are FREE!, but some of the tools require registration. Each month we will take a look at a new suite of tools. Send submissions to rellis@astd.org.
December 2010: Course Library Demos
SkillSoft Demo Center
SkillSoft offers the largest library of online courses and complementary resources in the industry, in a wide variety of subject areas:business skills, IT skills, Environmental safety and health compliance, desktop skills, and legal compliance. The business skills courseware demo center gives you the opportunity to take seven free e-learning courses and simulations.
Learn.com Free Demo
Learn.com offers a comprehensive, professional content library with more than 5,000 titles covering a wide variety of topics, including compliance, safety and OSHA, HIPAA, web design, IT certifications, desktop applications, business and professional development such as leadership, customer service, and so forth.
Element K Free Demo Center
Element K's learning catalog offers a range of multi-modal training options. Its courses provide instruction in networks and operating systems, programming, and web design and development. Its business professional collection is organized to develop core competencies and essential skills, focusing on human resources, customer service, leadership, personal effectiveness, operations and quality, finance and accounting, project management, and sales and marketing.
OpenSesame
OpenSesame is an open, web-based marketplace connecting purchasers of e-learning content, such as corporate learning officers, with an extensive library of courses provided by a wide range of content creators.
October 2010: Presentation Sharing
Slide Share
SlideShare is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. SlideShare features a vibrant professional community that regularly comments, favorites and downloads content. Content also spreads virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter. Individuals & organizations upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone can view presentations & documents on topics that interest them. The site is growing rapidly with over 25 million monthly visitors.
Voice Thread
With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways: using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.
September 2010: Blogs to Learn About Social Media
SmartBlog on Social Media
SmartBlog picks the most relevant social media news on the Web, summarizes it and links to the original source if you want to read the article in full. Check in here for poll analysis, news, tips and case studies. Sample posts include “Health Care Leaders See Social Media as Gateway to Improving Employee Wellness” and “How Cisco Defines Business-to-Business Social-Media Success … and Achieves It.”
Carol Rozwell—Gartner Blog Network
Carol Rozwell, Gartner VP and a member of Gartner's Social Software and Collaboration team, writes on the dynamics of collaborating in social networks and communities, and innovation. Expect advice and practical use-cases. Sample posts include “Employees, Social Media, and Chocolate Mousse” and “Storytelling, Hybrid Thinking, VEs, and Context.”
Socialnomics — Social Media Blog
Socialnomics covers the latest trends in social media, including general news and what it means for users and businesses. While the focus is how to use social media for marketing and brand development, there is interesting information about how the media is evolving. Sample posts include “3 Reasons to Dis the Facebook Dislike Button” and ‘New Twitter All About the Money.”
August 2010: Free Rapid Course Authoring Tools
WBT Express Free Moodle Edition
The freeware authoring tool for creating e-learning courses is compatible with the Moodle platform. WBT Express Free Moodle Edition features more than 50 different components so developers can create dynamic and engaging e-learning lessons using interactive exercises and multimedia. WBT Express is SCORM-compatible, with a built-in module for exporting to the Moodle platform.
CourseLab 2.4
CourseLab is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content that can be published on the Internet, learning management systems, CD-ROMS, or and other devices. CourseLab is ADL SCORM-certified.
Xerte
Xerte is aimed at developers of interactive content who create sophisticated content with some scripting. In essence, it is a respository for sharing and reusing learning materials. Xerte Online Toolkits integrates with Xpert to make it simple to publish open content and have it surface in the Xpert repository for learners to use and other content developers to reuse, adapt, and repurpose. Other content authors can easily contribute resources via RSS.
June 2010: Wiki Engines
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is the most popular wiki software on the net. It is used to run Wikipedia (the World's largest online encyclopedia) and other projects of the non-profit WikiMedia Foundation, as well as many other wikis. MediaWiki supports many languages, website user styles, multimedia and extension features, index of content items, edit tracking, talk pages and a lot more. MediaWiki is suitable for personal and education use. MediaWiki is a free software package licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
TikiWiki
TikiWiki is a powerful open source groupware and content management system, written in PHP. TikiWiki can be used to create web sites and intranets. TikiWiki offers great resources if you use it for a collaboration tool. You can use TikiWiki for forums, chat rooms, poll taking, blog, file and image gallery, FAQ, calendar, and so forth.
DokuWiki
DokuWiki is an easy to use and standards-compliant wiki system. DokuWiki is the best choice if you need to write a documentation for a small or medium company. It eases the creation of structured content, it has a powerful syntax, and data files can be read outside the Wiki. DokuWiki helps teams and workgroups interact much easier while working on a project. All data is stored in plain text files and no database is required.
May 2010: Free Stock Photo Sites
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content. Media is free as long as the source and authors are credited and as long as users release their copies/improvements under the same rules. See the license conditions for each media file.
US Government Photos and Images
This page gives you links to the public domain image libraries of different government agencies and departments. Images are free, but the site strongly recommends users thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use.
Flickr Commons
Started by Flickr and the U.S. Library of Congress, the site was created to increase access to publicly held photography collections. Images are free for users . Institutions who participate agree to a "no known copyright restrictions" on the content they share.
Openphoto
Digital photography and an open network of photographers consisting of pictures of animals, nature, landscape, architecture, still life, and technology. Images are free, with attribution requirements for some (giving credit to the photographer).
April 2010: Web Conference Free Trials
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro 30-Day Trial
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro software allows educators to deliver narrated presentations, engaging video, audio and interactive multimedia course material that students can view in real time or on demand - with no additional downloads. It can be combined with Adobe Captivate, based on industry-leading Adobe Flash® technology. New and enhanced features in Acrobat Connect Pro 7.5 help educators upload and share media-rich PDF files directly from the meeting room; use your own phone network to communicate during meetings; create and deliver interactive online courses and training; and efficiently manage and track learner progress.
Cisco WebEx 14-Day Trial
Cisco WebEx Training Center Online Classroom enables organizations to provide both live and on-demand sessions in their training mix. Facilitators can share presentations, stream multimedia and live video; Connect online learners with remote computers, applications, and simulations before, during, or after live training sessions; and pass control to attendees to demo applications.
GoToTraining 30-Day Trial
GoToTraining online training software lets you hold interactive training sessions with up to 200 people. Managers enter a title, description, date, and times and GoToTraining will create a hosted registration page and invitation email for you to send. Facilitators can share either whole screen or a specific application. The pen, highlighter, arrow and spotlight tools help learners interact on screen. And organizations can record training sessions, including all phone and computer audio, for future review and reuse.
March 2010: Virtual Worlds
OpenSimulator
OpenSimulator is a 3-D application server. It can be used to create a virtual environment (or world) which can be accessed through a variety of clients, on multiple protocols. OpenSimulator allows you to develop your environment using the technologies you feel work best. OpenSimulator is released under a BSD License, making it both open source, and commercially friendly to embed in products. Out of the box, OpenSimulator can be used to simulate a virtual environment similar to Second Life™ (including client compatibility). Other environments, protocols and features are supported via add on modules.
ProtonMedia Protosphere
ProtoSphere is business collaboration software that allows your organization to quickly create a 3D immersive environment optimized for business applications such as e-learning, virtual meetings and virtual conference events, scientific research/development, sales and manufacturing collaborations involving rich data visualization. You get everything you need to create your own 3D virtual immersive environment for your business including server and client software, management/administration tools and end-user tools for putting content and application data feeds into the environment. ProtoSphere is based on the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows server and desktop client operating system platforms. ProtoSphere offers a trial download.
Teleplace 3.0
Teleplace creates an application collaboration platform that leverages unique vPresence™ technology, integrating VoIP, chat, webcam video, presence, and multi-application sharing, to create an environment where employees can get real work done together. Teleplace is designed for users with little or no 3-D skills. Teleplace comes with pre-built templates for different types of spaces such as a personal office, a project room, a gallery and an outside campus (Teleplace Virtual Campus™). Using menu commands, you can create these types of spaces and then link them together with simple drag-and-drop commands. Teleplace makes use of your existing 2-D content by sharing existing applications and documents. Teleplace offers a 30-day free trial.
February 2010: Authoring Tools
ToolBook 10 Free Trial
Looking for a comprehensive content authoring solution? ToolBook provides everything you need to quickly create engaging interactive content, quizzes, assessments, and simulations. Now you can deliver appealing and effective learning experiences across major operating systems, Web browsers, smartphones, and other mobile devices. As part of the industry-leading, unified SumTotal Talent Development Suite, ToolBook fuels your learning management strategy by simplifying the creation of high-quality content. Start developing content like never before. Get your free 21-day trial now.
CourseLab—Free, Free, Free!
CourseLab is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content that can be published on the Internet, learning management system (LMS), CD-ROMs, and other devices. And it is FREE!
Lectora 14-Day Trial
The Lectora Publisher authoring tool provides you with the ability to create and publish content quickly, easily, and independently. Key features include drag-and-drop capability, extended file support, advanced testing elements and wizards, customized templates, and metadata support. It is ideal for those who desire quick, easy content creation as well as complex content creation for adaptive e-learning. New features in the latest version include a Flash and games library, chart creator, and note reports, as well as the ability to publish to the iPhone.
January 2010: Open Source Project Management Tools
Open Workbench
Open Workbench is an open source desktop application that provides robust project scheduling and management functionality. Already the scheduling standard for more than 100,000 project managers worldwide, Open Workbench is a free and powerful alternative to Microsoft Project.
Project.net
Project.net is a complete, web-based enterprise project management application that helps companies plan, execute and deliver on their entire portfolio of projects. Project.net is Commercial Open Source. Project.net is currently used by more than 50,000 people worldwide to help manage their projects.
OpenProj
OpenProj is a free, open source desktop alternative to Microsoft Project. OpenProj has been downloaded more than 1,250,000 times in over 142 countries, and has quickly become one of the most popular open source applications. It's available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows, and it's free.
Check out 2009 Downloads here.
Send submissions to rellis@astd.org.