Getting on course with ScribeStudio

Creating digital training material is always difficult because the richer the content the harder it is to ensure platform compatibility, and along with richness comes size making it difficult to distribute.

Today’s question: What is the most efficient medium for distributing rich digital training material? A) CD; B) Not possible; C) As a Web application.

If you answered C, you were of course (pun intended), correct.

While you could roll your own using perhaps Flash and Active Server Pages embedded in Web pages the scale of such an undertaking might make you think twice. In that case, you need to look for a Web application service provider like, oh, say, ScribeStudio from Distance Learning, Inc. (DLI).

You could think of ScribeStudio as a vertical content management system (in the same way that you might think of a bartender as a pharmacist with a limited inventory – but I digress).

ScribeStudio is completely Web-based providing secure tools for authoring a wide variety of interactive materials that doesn’t require any HTML or programming knowledge. Content can be divided into five levels of organization along with 16 question types using three page templates.

You can upload up to 150M byte of content of any type for your presentations which, given the size of video files, seem a little on the small side.

When you’re ready, you click the Publish button and your course is immediately published to the secure, optionally password protected ScribeStudio Learning Management System.

To provide the course to users you provide the content URL where they can register. Free content can be immediately accessed while for private or paid-for courses users will receive a welcome message and get access when you activate their account.

Starter Subscription pricing is $99 per month for up to 25 users (or “Learners” as DLI calls them) and comes with 50M byte of storage and up to 1.25G byte of throughput.

This is a great service to jumpstart a corporate education program when you have remote workers and offices. And check out the samples – I enjoyed the “Three Reggae Greats” course – do you know how Bob Marley and the Wailers got started? Take the course.