Evaluating – eXe
eXe – the eLearning XHTML editor - is an open source authoring tool being developed by an academic consortium in New Zealand and their collaborators. It can be downloaded from the home page where an introductory video and tutorial screencasts are also available. Versions for PC, Mac and Linux are available.
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eXe is very easy to use. In less than 2 hours I managed to recreate a sample learning project of 6 pages. eXe runs through a browser and has a simple, intuitive user interface which allows the author to format text, include links, images and other media objects. About 20 standard question types (or iDevices as eXe calls them) are included in the standard build. |
They include a range of multi-choice and open question types that one would expect as well as an image gallery and magnifier, RSS feeds and Wiki articles. A disadvantage is that it does not include any drag and drop type questions.
| Authors can easily build custom question types from standard components using the iDevice editor. There is a Java Applet iDevice which can presumably be used to add more complex functions. Adobe Flash movies can be embedded in most iDevices and can all be used to add extra functionality. They need to be imported (and exported) with a skin as eXe does not include SWF controls. |  |
Finished materials can be exported in a range of formats including IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or simply as web pages. I tested the web pages and found one minor, irritant – an updated project needs to be exported to a new folder, it will not overwrite the previous version. I am following up on this in the support forums. I’m curious to find out why and if there is a way round it.
eXe allows authors to customise its stylesheets. After about another two hours tweaking, I had developed a satisfactory version of our house style. I lost some time before I realised that a banner image only appears at run time.
Overall, I had a brief, positive experience of eXe.
1 comment March 13th, 2009
