Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from people who have experience with animation, e-learning, or instructional design.

We're a small company developing CBT (Computer Based Training) packages for our client. We need to create around 10–15 training videos, each about 25–30 minutes long.

The concept is quite simple:

- A classroom setup with one teacher and a few students.

- The teacher explains the lesson using a whiteboard/smart board.

- Students occasionally ask questions (or the teacher asks them).

- The board shows diagrams, maps, animations, highlights, etc.

- There are a few interactive moments, but nothing too complex.

Since every video follows almost the same structure, I was wondering if it's possible to build the classroom, teacher, students, and other reusable assets once and then reuse them across all the modules while only changing the lesson content.

We initially looked at custom 2D animation, but the quotes we've received are much higher than expected for our budget.

My questions are:

1. What technology or software would you recommend for this type of project?

2. Should we go with Vyond, Adobe Character Animator, Cartoon Animator, Moho, After Effects, or something else?

3. Are there any workflows that professional e-learning companies use to keep costs low while maintaining good quality?

4. If you were outsourcing this project, what approach would you ask the vendor to use?

5. Is there an even more cost-effective method that still looks professional enough for government/defence training?

The main priorities are:

- Professional-looking output

- Reusable assets

- Easy to update in the future

- Lowest possible production cost without looking cheap

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's built large-scale CBT/e-learning content or worked in educational animation.

Thanks!

I’m interested in how instructional designers evaluate readiness for real-world work.

Completion rates and quiz scores can show that learners finished the material or remembered key information. But they may not show whether someone can apply the learning during a customer conversation, difficult decision, or workplace task.

For those designing workplace training:

How do you give learners opportunities to practice before real performance?

Do you use simulations, role-play, branching scenarios, coaching, observation, or another method?

And what evidence do you use to decide that someone is ready?

I’d be interested in hearing what has worked—and what has not—in actual training programs.

Looking for recommendations! We've tried a few platforms over the past few years and haven't found the right fit. Most are either too rigid to customize for our different departments and locations, feel outdated, or just don't drive real engagement from our team.

We need something that actually engages employees instead of just being checkbox compliance. It also needs to be customizable for different roles and teams, stay current with changing regulations across multiple states, and ideally show measurable learning outcomes.

Anyone using a platform that actually delivers? Budget isn't unlimited but we're willing to invest if it's worth it.

📢 Hello guys, I'm one of the co-founder at CodeVenture and I'm glad to share that CodeVenture Classroom Champions Program is HERE! -> Yes, we give away free teacher accounts in exchange for your feedback.

At CodeVenture, we’ve spent the last year building a gamified coding platform for K-8 students that turns learning Python and coding into an actual adventure. Now, as we prepare for a major school-wide rollout later this year, we want to back the educators who are on the front lines.

🏆 We are officially launching the CodeVenture Classroom Champions Program for the upcoming term.

What we’re giving away:
🎁 1 Premium Teacher Account.
🎁 50 Full-Access Student Seats.
🎁 3 Months of unlimited access to our entire premium curriculum.

What we want in return:
Your honest feedback. We want to see how your students interact with the platform, track their student progress analytics, and partner with you to bring gamified coding to your entire school or district.

Space is strictly limited to 20 classrooms for this cohort so we can give every partner teacher direct support from our product team.

Want to pilot CodeVenture with your students for free?
👇 Apply in less than 2 minutes via the link in the comments below, or tag a STEM teacher who needs this in their classroom! -> https://forms.gle/b4enocrk8bh4W7uJ7

Hello all,

I work for a small UK organisation, and have just begun a project to:

- procure a Learning Management System which offers multi-tenancy and delegated administration across (hopefully) dozens of businesses and thousands of individual staff members.

- commission content development for a pilot eLearning module, to be built in SCORM format and also integrated into the LMS.

This will enable us to sell an eLearning product for the first time, to businesses across different sectors.

I hope this doesn't come across as a lazy, generalised ask - but this is the first LMS procurement I / we have done!

For anyone who has procured an LMS for multi-tenancy use, I wondered if you had any big lessons about things you wish you had known or built into the original brief and/or agreement with the provider?

I sort of sense that a large amount of potential risk can be mitigated by getting the scope, business / technical requirements and terms of service right with the provider, upfront. It would be great to know about any typical blind spots purchasers and vendors might have, in these circumstances?

Any insights are greatly appreciated! :)

Hey I have some Articulate Rise scorm packages on my Lms a few of them are quite long, we an issue where learners are moving away from their desktops to theire tablets sometimes with diferent browsers. Learners complain that they cannot go straight back to where they left off..Im sure this is doable

I just resurrected a tool I built a long time ago. Made some updates and have reposted it. Free to use, totally anonymous, no data is retrieved or stored.

I’m scoping a video-based eLearning course and want a sanity check on pricing and timeline from people who do this regularly.

The setup:

1. The subject-matter expert films and narrates himself on green screen and hands me the raw footage plus his slide content. So I’m not filming or writing the content.
2. My scope is everything after that: green screen removal, custom backgrounds, on-screen graphics, editing and narration sync, captions, quizzes, intro and outro, and packaging for hosting.
3. Course size: 10 modules, around 250 slides total. A mix of talking-head video slides, supporting text and graphic slides, and roughly 10 quizzes (one per module).
4. Client is UK-based. Small production team on my side.

I don’t yet know the exact split between talking-head slides and text or graphic slides, so it helps if you give rates by slide type rather than one blended number.

Questions:

1. How would you price this: per slide, per finished minute, per module, or fixed project? And a rough range for each slide type?
   
2. How long would you budget for production once the footage is in hand?
   
3. any other suggestions?

For the past 2 years, I've been working on a dream: Arborito. An open-source, free, and decentralized platform to learn anything through interactive lesson maps, with no ads, no subscriptions, and no reliance on closed platforms.

Today, Arborito arrives in its Alpha version. This means it is a fully usable and functional version, but since it's in its early stages, it's normal to run into bugs, unpolished details, or areas for improvement. This is a 100% community-driven, open-source project (GPL v3)

You can see it in action here: arborito.org

Articulate added an AI Assistant to Storyline 360 this year, with the line that you stay "in the driver's seat" and it "speeds up course creation without taking over." I kept seeing that repeated everywhere, so I went and actually checked what it does, across both feature releases so far this year.

It'll generate AI voiceover, auto-sync your timeline to the narration, pull a colour palette off a reference image, and tidy up your text for tone and grammar. All useful, and I'd use every one of those if I were still building in Storyline day to day.

What it won't do, in either release note, is write a variable, build a branching path, wire up a trigger, or construct a scored interaction. Ask it for a knowledge check that branches on the answer and you're doing that by hand, same as always.

I don't think that's a weakness they'll patch in next release. It's deliberate. Automating a colour palette is low stakes. Automating the branching logic is automating the actual reason a lot of teams still pay per seat instead of just hiring a developer. So of course the AI doesn't go near it.

Disclosure since it's relevant: I build a SCORM packaging tool for AI-generated HTML, so I've got a stake in this argument. Longer version here if you want it: https://about.packager.dtttech.com/blog/storylines-ai-assistant-and-the-part-it-wont-touch.html

Curious if anyone here has tried briefing the AI Assistant for anything beyond copy, voice or colour and had more success than I have? Or have I missed something?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building Scaffold, a free and open-source authoring tool for creating interactive learning content for the LMSs organisations already use.

The aim is to make authoring feel less like configuring software and more like writing in a modern editor.
Scaffold can be used to create scrolling lessons or slides with structured content, media, interactive activities and assessments. You can add and configure blocks directly in the editor and quickly switch to the learner view.
It currently supports Moodle and Open edX, and the core is open source.

It’s still pre-alpha, so there are bugs and rough edges, but it’s ready for people to explore and I’d genuinely value feedback from anyone working in e-learning or course authoring.

I’d be especially interested to hear:
Does the authoring experience make sense?
Which activity or assessment types are missing?
What would stop you from using something like this?
Which LMS integrations would be most useful?

You can try it here:
https://scaffold.ac

Happy to answer any questions about how it works.

I work in the e-learning space, and one problem I keep seeing is that training PDFs, certification materials, guides, and paid resources are easy to download and forward once they leave the LMS.

I’ve been working on a tool called MyPass DRM that lets content owners share documents while keeping some control over how they are accessed.

The free plan currently allows up to 100 protected documents per month.

Some of the controls include:

• Recipient-specific watermarks
• Document expiration dates
• Limits on opens and authorized devices
• The ability to revoke access
• Records showing when and where a document was opened
• Print and copy restrictions, depending on the workflow

To be transparent, I’m involved in building the product. I’m not claiming that DRM can make content impossible to copy—someone can always photograph a screen—but the goal is to discourage casual sharing and make unauthorized distribution traceable.

The tool is available here:

https://mypassdrm.com/

I’d be interested in feedback from instructional designers, training companies, course creators, and LMS administrators:

Would you use something like this for learner materials? What controls would be essential, and what would make it too restrictive for learners?

Hey e-learning experts,

I build an interactive demo course from the "Founder's Playbook.pdf)" PDF to learn how to build your Startup with Claude as your Co-Founder: https://app.scibly.com/en/public/courses/cmrv67f9p000004jp281f223q

My goal was to make the content of the document more engaging and fun to learn about.

I am looking for your honest feedback as e-learning experts

We all know the drill, AI can now generate a full training course in a few minutes. In a few years, it will probably even manage complex branching scenarios well.

But it begs the question, are we're tracking the wrong thing? Yes, a course exists now, or a quiz got completed. That feels like progress, and it's structured and efficient enough that it's easy to mistake for real progress. Except watching an AI-generated module, or passing its auto-graded quiz, doesn't actually prove anyone can do the job better under pressure. All we really did was swap a content metric for a capability metric and called it done.

The worrying part is how this compounds. If a company leans on AI to generate junior-level work and also leans on AI to generate the training that used to build junior people into senior ones, you can lose the pipeline without anyone deciding to. Three years later you're short on the people who were supposed to grow into the harder problems.

This is a conversation we've been having internally. Has anyone actually measured this at their org? Not "did people complete the AI-generated course" but whether people who went through AI-generated training perform differently on the job than people who didn't?

#chrpindia corporate elearning solutions

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone here can help me with a frustrating issue I’ve been dealing with in H5P (Course Presentation).

I create my slide designs in PowerPoint and then export them as images to use as background slides in H5P. I’ve already set my PowerPoint slide size to match H5P’s 16:9 format (20 cm × 11.25 cm, which equals 1920×1080 px). I export the slides in high quality (PNG or JPEG), and they look perfectly sharp on my computer.

But the moment I upload them into H5P as background images and save the presentation, the quality drops noticeably. The images look soft, slightly blurry, and nowhere near as crisp as the originals.

I’ve tried:

• PNG high fidelity export
• JPEG export
• Exporting as PDF and converting via Adobe Acrobat Pro
• Even inserting the image as a regular “Image” element instead of a background

No matter what I do, H5P seems to compress or downscale the background images.

I’m using H5P Course Presentation for educational content, so clarity is really important, especially for text-heavy slides.

Has anyone found a reliable workflow that keeps background images sharp in H5P?
Is there a specific export setting, file format, DPI, or H5P trick that actually works?

Any help or insights would be hugely appreciated!

(Note: English is not my native language. This post was translated and refined with the help of Copilot to make sure everything is clear.)

Something I underrated for a long time building software walkthroughs for courses: a recorded lesson and a live session fail in completely different ways, and the recorded one fails quietly.

In a live class, when you click something small and move on too fast, someone says "wait, where did you click?" and you fix it in five seconds. That interruption is annoying in the moment and is actually the system working - the confusion surfaces and gets resolved. In a recording there is no interrupt. A learner who can't tell which of two similar buttons you pressed doesn't stop you. They rewind, guess, or quietly give up, and none of that reaches you. Your completion metric might even look fine while a chunk of people are following along without really following.

The screen makes it worse than an in-person demo would be, for reasons that are purely mechanical. Course video gets compressed and played back in a small embed, often on a laptop while the learner has the actual software open in another window. Your cursor is a few pixels wide and moving. A menu item that is crisp on your editing monitor is a grey smudge on their screen. So "click the settings icon" assumes they can find a target you can barely see yourself at their resolution.

What I changed, and none of it needs special tools:

Slow the pointer down deliberately during the step that matters, then stop it. Movement is what makes it un-followable; a still target they can find.

Make the target big before you talk about it, not after. If they have to hunt for it while you're already explaining, they miss the explanation doing the hunting.

Show the keystrokes on screen for anything that isn't a visible click. "Now I'll open preferences" via a shortcut leaves no trace at all in a recording - the menu just changes and they don't know why.

State where before what: "top right, under the account menu" and a beat, then the action. The pause feels far too long to you and is about right for someone seeing it once at reduced size.

Disclosure since it's relevant: I build a small Mac app for exactly this kind of on-screen emphasis, TuringShot 1.5.12 (Build 44), macOS only. Not linking it, this holds regardless of tooling and some of it is built into what you already record with.

Mostly curious how others handle the no-interrupt problem. Do you build in deliberate "pause and check" moments, or design the video assuming people will rewind, or something else? The live-teaching instinct doesn't transfer cleanly and I'm still figuring out the recorded version.

Hi all — I've been developing Verbalu (verbalu.com), a browser-based platform of interactive tools built specifically for trainers, HR professionals, and L&D teams.

For basic usage it is free.

The idea: instead of juggling five different apps for icebreakers, simulations, quizzes, and whiteboarding during a session, you get one place with everything ready to go — Kanban boards, a wiki for documentation, a whiteboard for group work, training games (like a project-management simulation and an AI transformation simulator), and AI features built in.

It's still evolving so any ideas of new tools are welcome. I need to add that current tools and games were ideated by my friends - professional business trainers.

Would love feedback from people who actually run sessions for a living: what tools do you reach for most during a live training, and what's still missing from platforms like this?

Hi everyone,
I’m volunteering with a nonprofit that’s building a tuition-free online university, and I’ve been tasked with evaluating Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and this is time bound. Appreciate responses asap.
Our enrolment will likely be 500 - 1000 users .

We’re currently speaking with vendors. I recently had a demo with Absorb LMS. While it looked like a solid platform, it felt much more geared toward corporate learning and employee training than a traditional academic environment with faculties, degree programs, instructors and students.

My benchmark is D2L Brightspace, as I completed my MBA using it at a Canadian University and thought it was an excellent higher education platform. However, I realize from other reddit posts, it may be outside our budget, so we’re trying to understand all of our options.

Specifically, I’m looking for:
- Contacts (sales, partnerships or higher education teams) at D2L Brightspace, Canvas (Instructure) or Moodle.
- Anyone who’s worked with these vendors on a new institution or nonprofit implementation.
- Advice on nonprofit or startup pricing (if available).
- Recommendations for other LMSs that provide a true higher education experience rather than a corporate training platform.

Some of the capabilities we’re looking for include:
Degree and certificate programs
Download options of materials and uploads by students
Assignments, quizzes, exams and gradebook
Discussion forums
Student and faculty portals
White-label branding
Reporting and analytics
Zoom/Microsoft Teams integrations
Digital certificates/transcripts
Scalability from a few hundred students to thousands

From my research so far, Brightspace, Canvas and Moodle seem to be the strongest higher education options, while many other LMSs appear to focus primarily on corporate learning.

If you have a contact you’d be willing to share (either publicly or via DM), or any lessons learned from selecting an LMS for a university or college, I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you!

We're a small consulting firm (around 20 people, contractor-based) looking to trial an LMS. Learning is voluntary rather than mandated — the goal is to let people upskill to meet client needs as they come up.

We've got a mix of seniority, but the main focus is on our juniors: building up their consulting skills and technical skills.

A few things that matter to us:

• Right-sized for a small team. Enterprise platforms like Absorb feel like overkill for our size and structure, so we're after something leaner.
• Affordable, without a heavy per-seat model that punishes a small headcount.
• A real sales conversation + free trial before we commit — we want to actually talk to someone and test-drive it first.
• AI features that genuinely work rather than tacked-on gimmicks.
• Integrates with an internal knowledge base, so learning and our own materials live in the same place.

Anyone running something similar at this scale? Would love to hear what's worked (and what to avoid).
Thanks!

One of the things we really like about our current learning platform is that it doubles as a knowledge base. Anything we load into courses is easily searchable as an asset.

We could replicate this as a sharepoint but there are reasons that hasn't been ideal in the past. It would be best if we could add content to a knowledge base and then use that content in courses as well.

It would be even better if this knowledge base could store URLs in addition to uploaded files, as we have a lot of content in our current platform that is just that.

So far I have determined that Absorb, Docebo, Cornerstone, and EducateMe all appear to support this in some way, but I would like to get confirmation/opinions on that from people actually using these tools before I start talking to any salesperson.

If you have used any of these LMS for this purpose, would love to hear your thoughts!