A WYSIWYG for educators

As an instructional designer and faculty trainer I am always trying out new technology to help faculty create online courses more effectively. The latest one that I have come across is Softchalk. Softchalk is a wysiwyg editor of sorts that lets faculty create lessons plans in html pages without having to know html.

This product also assists faculty in created 508 compliant material for the courses and integrates very will with most learning management systems, such as blackboard.  What I like most about Softchalk is that it is very easy to use and train faculty to use. It has all the basic text editing capabilities and even adds in some of the most common multimedia tools, such as video and audio. 

One of the things I think that sets it apart from other editors though is its built in activity tools to create flash based activities that are 508 compliant. There are activities such as a slideshow, drag and drop, matching and timelines. Another powerful feature is the styles that it comes with. These styles allow faculty to turn there Softchalk document into a full featured learning objects to deliver to students.

My department just had their first softchalk training session with 11 faculty, and the response was very positive. It seems like this is a tool that will be put to some good use.