BP4_2009112_MyUdutu

Today I explored a web-based rapid authoring tool called MyUdutu. I choose an authoring tool because our current LMS has a very complex and low-powered tool. The assessment options are very limited in our current LMS, and converting slides is difficult. There is one person who controls the LMS and she is really the only one who can post any educational activity. As you can imagine, this means she is VERY busy, and not always available when we need something created and posted right away.

I read some reviews about myUdutu before I tried it out. The one that was most impressive was the one by the Brandon Hall Research Labs. Janet Clarey blogged about the product just last month. She has used many other authoring tools, including Dreamweaver, Captivate, and others, so I think her opinion holds weight. She called MyUdutu one of the best kept secrets in authoring tools. What really convinced me to try it was that the company describes its users this way, “

(MyUdutu is) a tool used by rogue designers (many clients are people circumventing their current solution (LMS, LCMS, etc. Seriously.)” (Clarey, 2009). That could not describe me more perfectly!

So, from the viewpoint of this rogue designer, here is my experience in using MyUdutu. The first thing I noticed is that it is free. That is a very important attribute, since I am basically designing without a budget. I am doing this to make my presentations at work asynchronous and blended learning experiences. I love my job, but I am not going to pay for my company to move into the current century. Another thing that was very important to me is that I could learn quickly how to use it. The tool is fairly easy to learn, but there is definitely a learning curve. I could quickly import my PowerPoint presentation into MyUdutu, which was a big plus. I didn’t want to throw out everything I had done. I pulled in a presentation I have been wanting to update for Internet use, and I was able to figure out how to do that with just a few mis-steps. TIP: The one thing the user guide does not tell you is that when you are uploading files, pictures, etc. there is no indicator that it is actually importing. It looks like your screen just froze. I ended up with multiple copies of the same images/presentations because I kept doing it over.

The program has some great assessment screens that you can add into your presentation, which is exactly what I wanted. These can include drag-and-drop, multiple choice, and many other options. You can add pictures, video, or audio to the slides and/or to the assessment slides. Assessments allow you to provide immediate feedback through audio or text. You can even include branching logic. In addition to adding interactivity with self-assessments within the presentation, MyUdutu also allows you to add assessments that are graded. You can allow or disallow the learner to keep going back through the assessment until they have mastered the answers.

Unfortunately I did not have time to get very far into the workings of this tool, but I did import a presentation and add an assessment slide. I barely scratched the surface in learning how to use this tool, but my preview of its functionality definitely leads me to believe I have found something that will let me move forward with my plan for blended and asynchronous learning without having to wait for technical assistance.