Lectora Reviews & Product Details - Page 3

First let me explain my situation. My company helps other companies create e-learning projects. We are a small firm, but we probably have 50 courses under development right now. For most of these courses, the customer has a special request (actually many special requests), like restrictions ... for example not having access to the test until all pages are viewed, or points or badges awarded for performing page activities, or a Table of Contents, accessed by clicking a custom button. The list goes on and on. With Lectora, we can do any of these things. When the customer asks if something can be done, we always say yes. So Lectora gives us the best flexibility. So I advise people who are making a software decision, if they want templates and low learning curve, choose Articulate. If they want to explore, create, learn, and go outside the box, use Lectora. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With Lectora's constant push to get better and add more functionality (which I love ... and this year, the way buttons and graphics are handled is a tremendous improvement) comes versions that are not quite ready for prime time - but released anyway - with Trivantis ready to add patches as bugs are identified. We seem to always jump in first with the upgrades, and then suffer the bugs. For some reason we always think the problems are our fault, or our computer's ... but then eventually learn about the bug. I wish Trivantis (and all software developers) would be more open and proactive about communicating known bugs and fix schedules. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With Lectora, if I can dream it, I can most likely develop it. Lectora Inspire is great for creating engaging, interactive e-learning that learners will really enjoy using. It's ability to allow you to create custom variable and actions (and, even external javascript and other types of codes) means that your mind is the limit! You can do "programming" without having to do actual "coding," by creating custom actions and variables.

The Lectora Inspire suite is like the Swiss Army knife of authoring tools -- besides the "core" Lectora Publisher e-learning authoring tool, which is great for creating "conceptual" e-learning, you can use the embedded Camstasia tool to record screen captures and create/add software simulations. You can also use Lectora to create/add graphics, video, audio, "characters," "social" content from Facebook, Twitter, etc., and more. Lectora Inspire also comes with a subscription to E-Learning Brothers, which adds even more templates and interactive elements to the ones that Lectora already comes with. And, finally, it includes SnagIt, a screen-capture tool on steroids. (Although, honestly, you should already have SnagIt -- if you don't and decide not to get Lectora Inspire, by all means go get SnagIt....it's really inexpensive and *incredibly* useful!)

Lectora publishes to AICC, SCORM, and xAPI (as well as allowing you to publish to a format that can allow someone to run the e-course without an LMS), and is mobile-friendly (Lectora has always been html-based, with no Flash, unless you choose to add some).

Another nice feature that Lectora Inspire comes with is ReviewLink. ReviewLink allows you to publish your course to the ReviewLink server and then send a link to whatever SMEs, etc., you want to have review your e-course. It then allows the reviewers to make feedback on each page and allows you to manage and report on that feedback.

Finally, I really like the company that makes Lectora (Trivantis). When I first started using Lectora many, many years ago, I actually didn't particularly like it - it seemed quite weak in comparison to the tool I had been using. But Trivantis has done a great job of listening to their customers and improving their product tremendously over the years. A technical support contract is quite inexpensive (especially compared to, say, Adobe, which has wildly expensive and poor technical support service) and they have a pretty robust forum area for help from fellow Lectora users (as well as some user groups and a relatively inexpensive annual user conference).

Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish that it had some better basic text functionality -- bulleted lists are still a bit clunky, for example, and that I had the ability to edit vector images within Lectora, without having to use PowerPoint to do that. I also wish it had even more sophisticated Boolean logic. Also, the entry cost to Lectora is a bit high, although the annual renewal/maintenance cost isn't too bad. (But, if you decide to skip a year of maintenance and then want to upgrade later, you have to pay the full cost again, as if you were buying it from scratch. This isn't a big deal if you have a company paying for your license and just budget in the annual cost of renewal, but, for independent contractors, I could see how this could be somewhat burdensome.) Finally, although the technical support people are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, you can't often reach them on the phone immediately -- you usually end up having to leave a message for them to call back. (You also do have the option of emailing them.) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora makes it easy to work with variables and conditional actions which really helps the interactivity of your course. I like the ability to save templates so that I can quicky brand my course through the design wizard. I also like the access to the ReviewLink website which allows me to bypass IT in having business leads review for content. This allows them to get the look and feel of the course before dealing with the process to have it uploaded to the testing region. Finally, I like the title wizard which allows me to select objects regardless of which page I'm viewing. This makes it easy to update the course with revisions and corrections. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora is limited in terms of options for software simulations. The amount of time and effort it takes to create a realistic software simulation makes it a poor choice in authoring tools if you are responsible for technical training, simulations and tutorials. Although Lectora gives you access to Camtasia, Snag It and Fly Paper, I personally find Adobe's elearning suite to be much more robust and more appropriate for software training. Another thing I do not like is the limited audio capacity. It is very difficult to get multilayerd sounds such as background music and an audio voiceover. I find that syncing events to the voiceover is more difficult than in Captivate and much more time consuming. The fact that you have to mark events first and then go back and set up what happens during that time creates room for errors and takes longer than it would if it had a similar design to Captivate's timeline. Also, the ability to edit audio is too basic. I would have preferred something closer to Adobe's Soundbooth or Audition software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora's HTML5 output makes extending with custom code easier than any other rapid development tool I've used. With a little bit of JavaScript, CSS or HTML knowledge, a designer rarely needs to compromise the design for want of the tool's abilities. The UI is ribbon-based, so users comfortable with Microsoft products should readily onboard to Lectora's interface. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora's extend-ability comes at a price, and that's in native options. While I've yet to encounter something I CAN'T do, some designs are more laborious to execute in Lectora than in competitor's rapid development tools. There are other rapid development tools on the market whose custom graphics creation is better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Software is VERY easy to use. Very intuitive to all levels of software users. No need for coding knowledge prior to using this software. Can pick it up off of the shelf, take a quick tutorial/training class, and get started. The sky is the limit with this software - can create anything that your mind can imagine. If you already have coding skills, you can add additional functionality to your courses with javascript, etc... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing really - only problem I have ever had was the removal of functionality that I used (but I guess wasn't widely used by the rest of Lectora users) with the upgrade to the newest version/patch. However, it was quickly resolved/a work-around was created when the issue was brought to the attention of the Trivantis team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are so many features that make creating a course so easy and with a professional appearance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some of the features can be hard to understand how to go about changing the properties. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have been using Lectora since 2007 and each evolution is just better and better. This has every bell and whistle possible and has twice been associated with awards for innovation in training. In Truth nothing compares to it. I was able to make the testing adaptive to the learner very much in the same spirit of the GRE. The questions would get harder based on response of the student. That took some cleaver patchwork but to the user it worked as needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cost. Lectora is the best and it costs the most hands down. I wish I could have a private license but I like my limbs still attached. There is a bit of a learning curve with each evolution but that is to be expected with software, I like that even when I took two years away from the platform I was able to get back into it without much of a struggle or downed productive time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I find the interface for lectora very easy to use. The tree view is easy to move stuff aorund in, multi-select slides and sections etc...

I like that you can do more with it than tools like kenexa (outstart) in terms of playing with variables to control different things. While easy to use, you do need the background knowledge though.

You can build your own GUI in lectora by inheriting items onto each page. It's sort of an all-in-one tool in that regard.

Lectora supports xAPI (as much as any tool currently can - which is a little bit more than not supporting it). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora seems like it should be able to do more than it does as in terms of interactivity/flexibility it doesn't quite give you the same freedom as tools like Captivate. It's relatively bug free but there are some bigger problems (i.e. your files can just stop working - uh oh). There are also a lot of folders and files for storing your published lessons, and you need to carefully maintain the package so as not to mess anything up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Anything seems possible with Lectora Inspire. If you can dream it up, there is a way to produce it. Figuring out how to get from A to Z can be tricky. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora's tech support is lacking and slow to respond. Many times I find myself wading through a problem on my own. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lectora is extremely flexible and powerful that allows you to build anything. It's new interface is easy to use and added much need image editing tools. In combination with Camtasia and SnagIT Lectora truly is a very powerful authorware tool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike the image editing functionality which basically requires you to use an external editing software for images. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.