The Rapid Elearning Blog

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - 75 free rapid elearning resources

The other day this guy asked me how to develop color schemes for his rapid e-learning courses. Like a lot of guys, he has some issues with color perception so he wanted an easy way to match colors.

I have the same challenge.  In fact, my wife’s probably getting annoyed with me always asking which shirts and pants match when I pack for the conference trips.  It’s a good thing I can trust her.  Otherwise, I might show up at the conference looking like a doofus in a leisure suit.

I shared some of the tools that I use for color schemes in previous posts like this one on creating your own rapid e-learning PowerPoint template.  I start by picking a color from the image using Pixie.  And then I take that color information to a site like Color Schemer to create a color scheme.  That helps me have a consistent color scheme.

As I was searching previous posts to answer his question, I ran into a lot of the tools and sites that I’ve recommended in previous blog posts.  So I thought that it might be a good idea to make a single list of some of the tools and sites like Pixie and Color Schemer that I’ve referenced before.  So here’s a list of previously referenced tools and a brief explanation of what they do.

Also, here’s a link to the 200 free rapid e-learning tutorials I posted a while back.

Audio Resources

Creative Commons audio: good sites to get free audio for your courses. [original post]

Video Resources

Graphics Resources

Image editing software:

Font Resources

Stock Image Resources

The following sites were recommended by blog readers. [original post]

Writing & Reading Resources

  • Copyblogger: the site is focused on writing for blogs but the ideas work for e-learning courses, too; especially when it comes to creating learner-centric content. [original post]
  • Windows Live Writer: this is what I use to write my blog posts. It’s free and works great. [original post]
  • Making Change: Cathy Moore does a good job providing tips that will improve how you write for your courses and with your instructional design. [original post]

PowerPoint Resources

Community & Social Media Resources

Miscellaneous Resources

Hopefully you can use these applications when working on your courses.  If there are some free resources you think should be on the list, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.

Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs

Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills

Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.

Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.

Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.



45 responses to “Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources”

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ZOTERO is great for research – collating & annotating info with tags & sources etc: a bit more academic but easy to use

Here is a quick and very basic tutorial on how to record using Audacity.

http://screenr.com/TQC

November 9th, 2010

I purchased the Samson Go Mic based on Tom’s recommendation awhile ago. No regrets what-so-ever; that mic is wonderful!

Great resources! Wanted to add one to the Font sites list…. I always go to MyFonts.com to search for fonts. They have a huge selection and you can sort by category (Sans Serif, Slab, Modern, etc), by tag (cursive, handwriting, serif, free, etc), or you can use the Advanced Search tool for, well, advanced searches.

Also, I agree that OneNote is an excellent tool for note-taking and more. I used OneNote long before I found out about Evernote, which I now use when I’m on the go. I still prefer OneNote when I’m working from my laptop, but the nice thing is OneNote can be imported to Evernote, so when I’m out and something pops into my head, I can quickly go add whatever flash of brilliance I’ve just had to my Evernote/OneNote! 🙂

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Do you or any of your colleagues recommend any specific training that is available on the weekends? My company does not allow you to take time off of work for outside training. I would really like to learn more about designing training and take an articulate class, but it seems everything is offered during the week.

I am a big fan of a simple tool that makes it quick and easy to move text from tool to tool while leaving the formating behind: PureText. http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/

This is an excellent compilation and had to share it pretty much everywhere. Thank you again! The color schemes are still pretty confusing to me, but I’m slow on the take with some of the art concepts.

I’ve been finding a ton more resources in the open-source / creative commons arena with regard to content and either utilizing the creative commons search engine, or simply entering a search query that includes creative commons and the subject is yielding more and more on a daily basis.

Though I’d rather see funding for great work, some of the courses such as music and special curriculum is getting carved out of regular schools. There’s a ton of free scores and musical theory out there as well.

Again Tom… thank you.

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[…] Rapid E-Learning Blog has a list of a bunch of technical resources for learning content […]

I use to use Irfanview all the time for resizing pictures until I saw your article on Image Tuner. That program works so much better and is easier to navigate.

I also love GIMP, it’s a fantastic program. Very powerful for the right price of free!

Thank you so much for devoting your time to gathering these excellent resources.

November 10th, 2010

There is another free tool that all can use it works on similar lines as Thesarus its called WORDWEB, and the best thing is it speaks so you can put in some sentences and it really speaks like a human being :).

As Power Point Presentations are very integral to education, especially when we talk of e-learning, the distant education basis usually on PPT’s and Flash. Through such tips/tricks and technological support work becomes not just interesting but also resource able in many ways. These are gripping and graphically inspiring.

I would add a huge Font Free Site to the list:

http://www.abstractfonts.com

& vector design resources

http://www.dezignus.com (from this one you will get several links to similar sites).

Tom, i think in your list you lack of webvideo conferencing tools (eg. Skype and some of their plugin’s(eg. Yugma, Yuuguu, TalkandWrite,WhiteboardMeeting, Mikogo,InnerPass…) that allows it to became almost a tool like ‘eluminate’).

Thank you for sharing these resources.

[…] Tom Werner on November 10, 2010 Tom Kuhlmann provides a big, big list of resources for rapid e-learning development, including graphics, video, sound, fonts, and lots […]

Thanks for all of the links and recommendations.

@Jessica – would you mind posting your question in our forums (http://articulate.com/forums) and sharing a little more around the types of training you’re looking for? The community team has created quite a bit of self-paced training and I’d be more than happy to help design some suggested learning plans for you.

We also have some great consultants who offer training.

David

These are fantastic resources Tom. I’m in the middle of creating an ecourse for my blog at the moment and well, doing my research I found your post. So it’s a god-send.

Appreciate all the work you’ve put into this. 🙂

I’d add these two to the mix:

Shutterstock.com – many of the same images you’ll find on iStockphoto. But the Web resolution images are a bit cheaper than what you’ll find on iStock (shutterstock lets you buy from low or high range resolution tiers)

Narratorfiles.com – Twenty bucks a page for narration. They also sell isolated characters. Not terrible for what they cost.

November 12th, 2010

This application can be used for any reason, however, I use it when Im ready to record a simulation and I need a clean “screen” – Tom, you forgot about this one – you recommended this to me … DEXPOT.

Thank you for these resources!

November 12th, 2010

This is one of my first posts to “rapid elearning”.

There seem to be many pages concerned with rapid elearning, each with a comment section at the bottom. Is this considered “one” blog or multiple topic oriented blogs?

Thanks Tom for an excellent list! Gonna use these for developing ecourses at work and launching a side gig of my own, very inspiring. Thanks again.

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November 25th, 2010

Just wanted to say gracias from Panama for http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/over-75-free-rapid-e-learning-resources, I is a big fan

November 25th, 2010

I suggest for mind mapping this one:
Xmind, it’s free software

Thanks for the information! I will have to take a look into this a bit more!

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February 1st, 2011

I want to your tiall version.
Please send me?

June 15th, 2011

Great collection of resources. I am studying online my second career at Uned University. This will be very useful for me! many thanks!

Hello, I am the owner of narration.net. I noticed your web page is linking to some resources that are similar to my site. I currently supply narration to a number of eLearning organizations. I was wondering if you would consider adding a link to my site narration.net if you think your visitors would find it useful.

Thanks for this information! Very interesting for our voiveover busines here in germany.

[…] Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources » The Rapid eLearning Blog Hopefully you can use these applications when working on your courses. If there are some free resources you think should be on the list, feel free to share them in the comments section. Tidbits: […]

[…] Over 75 Free Rapid E-Learning Resources » The Rapid eLearning Blog […]

I’m a huge fan of GIMP, it’s like Photoshop for free!
Another great site that is not quite free, but is awfully good value, is http://www.vectorstock.com. They have a huge collection and easy to use site.

July 19th, 2012

Tom, I know your Blog is meant to architect new trainers, instructional designers, professionals, etc. Throughout the years I have learned that in life, before you need the speed of development of any Training program, you need to produce it from scratch using your own skills, or learning new skills like using Photoshop, or taking your own pictures and learning how to make them your pictures. Just yesterday I found myself needing a picture for an application. I found that taking my own picture made my application more valuable, changing it made it mine, as I am not taking the credit from someone elses work. Overall, that is going to help someone stay employeed, and will separate him from the others.

By the way the tools you recommended are great!

Nice idea.