Case Study

Since we could not test the different authoring tools by ourselves, let have a look to a test made for the acount of the online magazine InfoWorld and published in the article  "The virtual Classroom" of the November 1998's issue.

The authors after selecting different solutions (with solutions is intended the group of authoring tools offered by a distinct provider), followed their own strategy of testing and gave separate and comparitive conclusions.

The most important parts of the article are linked below.

You can learn interesting things from this test.
 

Contributors:

        Written by Julie Uiterwijk - Senior Editor
        Uiterwijk has been involved in high-tech publishing for five years and has covered the Web and
        workgroup productivity topics since she joined InfoWorld in 1995.

        Test plan by Dan Seoane - Technology Analyst
        Seoane's 17 years of IT experience include time in the insurance and aerospace fields as well
        as leading his own consulting company. He specializes in networking and telephony.

        Reviewed by Lori Mitchell - Senior Analyst
        Mitchell's eight years of IT experience include desktop maintenance and networking. She
        currently follows workgroup and productivity tools as well as Internet commerce.

        Jill Welch - Technical Manager
        With more than 11 years of IT experience behind her, Welch has been a member of InfoWorld's
        Reviews & Testing staff since 1990, gathering experience with groupware, Web publishing, and
        I-commerce.

        Edited by Julie Uiterwijk

        Questions or comments about this comparison? Please send E-mail to Julie Uiterwijk at
        julie_uiterwijk@infoworld.com. Letters may be excerpted in the To the Editor section.

 

The solutions compared
 

Note: Since this article was published on November 1998, many of the companies listed have come out with new releases of their products.

        Allen Communication solution
        Designer's Edge 2.0 Pro
        Manager's Edge 2.0
        Net Synergy 1.0
        www.allencomm.com

        Asymetrix solution
        Asymetrix ToolBook II Assistant 6.1a
        Asymetrix Librarian 6.01
        www.asymetrix.com

        Docent solution
        Docent 2.0
        Microsoft FrontPage 98
        www.docent.com

        Macromedia solution
        Authorware 5 Attain
        Dreamweaver Attain
        Pathware 3 Attain
        www.macromedia.com/learning

        MicroMedium solution
        Digital Trainer Professional 4.11
        www.micromedium.com

        WBT Systems solution
        TopClass 2.03
        www.wbtsystems.com

 

Web-based training solution
 

This case studie is part of the article "The virtual Classroom" published on the November 1998's issue of the online magazine InfoWorld.

Web-based training -- instruction delivered via a Web browser through the Internet or an intranet -- is cheaper, more efficient, and sometimes more effective than classroom training. In this Test Center Comparison, we looked at six solutions that let us effectively build, deploy, and manage an online course.

CHOOSE WISELY. The Web-based training market is swarming with products, which makes it difficult to make an intelligent choice. We narrowed down the field by choosing solutions that solve the following     business problem: A manufacturer of building supplies employs 500 salespeople in five locations across the United States. All salespeople need to be trained on the products they sell on a regular basis. Our goal was to find a way to effectively cut training costs and keep the staff's product knowledge sharp.

All of the solutions in this Comparison have strengths and weaknesses in different areas. At the end of our testing we found ourselves wishing we could take:

  • the course-creation and deployment capabilities of Asymetrix,
  • merge them with the course-management features of WBT Systems,
  • and top it off with the reporting capabilities of Macromedia

to create one powerhouse solution.

To make your choice, you will need to determine the features you really need to deliver an effective online training and live with the rest. For example, despite its strong showing, we do not recommend the Asymetrix solution for those who have content, but need a way to manage and communicate with students via the Web. In that case, you would be better off with the WBT Systems solution.