9 Free Tools That Help Mac Users Build Better E-Learning

Over on the Rapid E-Learning Blog, Tom Kuhlman has come up with a list of his 9 Free Tools That Help Me Build Better E-Learning. Bearing in mind that Articulate is a Windows based tool, it’s not surprising that the tool listed are for that platform. So here is my list of 9 equivalent tools for Mac users.

1. DigitalColor Meter

This hand little app is installed on all Macs, and can be found in the Utilities folder.

2. ColourLovers

As this is web based, it’s not strictly Mac only, but then Tom’s choices were web based too. I really like ColourLovers for its community contributed colour schemes. There’s a nice post here about using DigitalColor Meter together with ColourLovers.

3. Paintbrush

If you want a simple bitmap editor for the Mac, you need look no further than the open source Paintbrush.

4. Preview

One of the little known tricks in OSX is that you can use the built in Preview app for resizing individual images or batch resizing multiple images. Just head for the Tools/Adjust Size option.

5. Garageband

All new macs come with iLife installed, which include GarageBand, an incredibly easy to use audio editing app. Of course, you could go with Tom’s choice of Audacity, as that also runs on Macs.

6. iMovie

Another great tool in the iLife suite is iMovie, which gives you simple drag and drop movie making.

7. Prism

Prism is a commercial tool that offers a free version, which will convert between the most common file formats.

8 and 9. SWF and FLV Player

Another great free tool, as its name suggests you can use it with both SWF and FLV. Alternatively, for FLV support you can do a lot worse that VLC, which is a good general purpose replacement for QuickTime player and supports many video formats.

9 thoughts on “9 Free Tools That Help Mac Users Build Better E-Learning”

  1. @ Tom Kuhlmann Happy to be following your lead 🙂

    If anyone has any more ideas for useful free Mac apps, hopefully they’ll add then to the comments.

  2. If you’re looking for somewhere to test eLearning (standards based stuff), TestTrack [http://testtrack.scorm.com] is free and people seem to like it a lot for its compatibility.

  3. Hi Barry, Have you considered updating this list? I’d love to see your current pics for macs.

    1. Hi Susan. Having looked back through the list I’m not sure there’s anything I would change. The intention was to suggest free equivalents to the Windows apps on the list presented by Tom, and based on that criteria I think the list would remain the same. If I was to add in paid apps, the list would be quite different – perhaps I should do that?

  4. Hi Barry, Have you considered updating this list? I’d love to see your current pics for macs.

    1. Hi Susan. Having looked back through the list I’m not sure there’s anything I would change. The intention was to suggest free equivalents to the Windows apps on the list presented by Tom, and based on that criteria I think the list would remain the same. If I was to add in paid apps, the list would be quite different – perhaps I should do that?

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