New Seminar lowers barriers to e-learning

4 July 2007

The latest version of Seminar Author, released July 4, aims to lower the hurdles that sometimes get in the way of e-learning course creation.

One of the main new features takes on the design hurdle. A new theme-driven module creator gives authors the ability to select from pre-designed and packaged themes with co-ordinated backgrounds, buttons, fonts and layouts.

“Seminar users can produce great looking courses that reflect well on their department or organisation without the need for external designers,” said Rick Handy of Seminar.

Another hurdle to e-learning production can be programming skills. One of Seminar’s key attributes has always been its ease of use, and that hasn’t changed.

“We’ve focused on keeping Seminar Author the easiest to use, while giving our customers the ability to create professional-looking, instructionally-sound e-learning. No programming skills required,” Rick said.

Seminar stands out from the rapid e-learning crowd because throughout its long history, it has always stayed focused on sound instruction principles.

“We put the ‘learning’ in ‘rapid e-learning’,” Rick said. “Fast development is important, but fast development that doesn’t deliver the training and business value is a waste.”

Other new features back up this claim. The tool will have integration with Powerpoint and Flash content, including content published using Adobe Captivate 2 and the new Engage tool by Articulate.

“We’ve expanded the range of content that authors can add to their Seminar modules,” Rick said. “Authors are able to import PowerPoint slides, Engage and Captivate content, audio podcasts and compressed video files. Seminar allows you to pull all of this content together and mix in questions and other interactions to improve the quality of the learning.”

The upgrade to Seminar 7 is free for all Seminar Author licensees with current Partner Support Plans.

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