Hosted by: Publishers of the Authoring Tool Buyer's Guide

We held our first PowerPoint to E-Learning Shootout in February, 2003. Back by popular demand, we had several requests to reprise the shootout with the latest, greatest PowerPoint to e-Learning tools. One thing we definitely learned is that the interest in using PowerPoint to create learning content has not diminished. In fact, audience attendance during this event was the highest of all shootouts to date. This page lists the shootout results for this year's edition of the PowerPoint to e-Learning Shootout, held during the Training Fall conference in San Francisco.

October  11, 12, and 13, 2004

San Francisco, CA - Moscone Center (West) 

All 9 Participants (listed alphabetically by product name)

Highest Score ­ Overall (40 points possible)

Total Range of Scores was 23.84 to 33.84

We announced winners in four different sub-categories. 

And the winners are....  (more details about the format of the shootout can be found below)

Category #1 Results ­ Ease of Use (10 points possible)

Total Range of Scores was 6.25 to 8.88

Category #2 Results ­ Use of Rich Media (10 points possible)

Total Range of Scores was 6.20 to 8.60

Category #3 Results ­ Interactivity (10 points possible)

Total Range of Scores was 5.70 to 8.42

Category #4 Results ­ Most Innovative Approach (10 points possible)

Total Range of Scores was 5.60 to 8.65

Shootout Description

The format of the shootout is really quite simply -- take a 16-slide PowerPoint presentation (designed for classroom instruction) and convert it into an e-learning course. Did we mention that the entire task must be completed in  20 minutes....in front of a live audience? And while you're at it, add some audio and/or video...throw in some interaction - and there you have it.

O.k., so it was a challenging task for the teams!

The shootout took place over a three-day period, with three new teams competing each day.  At the beginning of the each round of the shootout, each team was handed a sealed envelope containing a CD-ROM (with a zipped copy of the 16-slide PowerPoint presentation) and a printed hard copy of the 16-slides for reference purposes. 

A month before the competition, each team was given a practice version of the content. The subject was product knowledge training on the Atomic Clock, with facts, information, and tips for how to sell the clock to customers. The slides were not laid out as an e-learning course; rather, they are quite typical of what a classroom instructor might use as visuals during instructor-led training, with bulleted lists, graphics, progressive disclosures, and a few test questions (in linear format).  The final copy of the slides were altered to make sure that no pre-work had been completed on topic, prior to the event.

Upon receipt of the new content, we started a 20 minute clock. Each team had to complete as much of the work possible within the allotted 20 minute time frame.

Learn.com team works will the clock counts down.

The audience was able to watch each of the teams during development to (1) get a general idea of the workflow used by each team to convert the PowerPoint to e-learning, and (2) to verify that all work was done onsite. 

Here is a summary of the 16-slides they received at the competition:

Title screen	Objectives in a bulleted list (not animated)	Description of the clock with hyperlink	Bulleted list (not animated)
Animated sequence (narration for each)	Pop-up labels (parts of) - animated	Pop-up labels (parts of) - animated	Bulleted list (not animated)
Title screen for self exam	Static multiple choice question	Correct answer (static in PowerPoint)	Static true/false question
Correct answer (static in PowerPoint)	Another static true/false question	Correct answer (static in PowerPoint)	End title

If you would like to download a copy of the master PowerPoint file and convert it as a benchmark, please click here.

Upon completion of the 20-minute production time, each team provided a seven-minute debrief of what they were able to produce. During the debrief, each team was asked to use the following checklist to report on their activities.

Debrief Checklist:

q     Were you able to finish the entire conversion during the 20 minutes? If not, what percentage was completed?

q     What is the overall size of your completed work (file size)?

q     Tell us if you used audio and/or video in your output.

q     Describe the output created and output options. Is the converted material one large file? A series of separate files?  Flash-based?  HTML?  Etc.

q     How do you price your system and/or conversion services? Desktop application?  Enterprise system?  What is the general price zone?

q     Show the course you created live and discuss how you handled each of the following:

q      What did you do with the narrative text located in the notes field of the PowerPoint?

q      Is the hyperlink on slide 3 still active?

q     How did you handle the transition effects and progressive disclosure (opening items one at a time) on slide #5?

q      What did you do with the embedded questions?  Linear, interactive, feedback?

q      Any unique interaction that was added

q      Pick a few slides from the presentation and show us (real time) how they were converted.

Each product was rated on a 10-point scale in each category by the audience. Members of the participating companies were not allowed to rate their own products or others in the competition. The scores were averaged to derive the final score with winners announced in each category (see the results above). Audience members enjoyed seeing the process of converting PowerPoint to e-learning first-hand. The competition was designed as a method for learning about what is possible. We saw a wide variety of approaches with different types of output. 

PowerPoint Challenge....    

For vendors who create PowerPoint to e-learning products  or other groups that specialize in converting PowerPoint content, we'd like to challenge you to take the source slides and make your own version of the content. You can download a copy of the source slides by clicking here. Convert the content, post it to your own Web server, then send the link to bryan@brandon-hall.com. NOTE: The PowerPoint file includes narrative text in the "notes" field that you can use for audio narration and/or on-screen text as desired. If the page is free of advertisements and does not require a log-in to run, we will post the link for others to see. We hope to make this a page that will serve as a test bed for what's possible when converting PowerPoint source material.

Here is a list of the companies that have taken us up on the challenge so far (since the previous PowerPoint to E-Learning Shootout). Please click on the links to see how they converted the PowerPoint used in the Shootout competition...

Shootout Hosts

Brandon-hall.com and Training Magazine jointly hosted this shootout event.

Publishers of the Authoring Tool Buyer's Guide  

More Pictures of the Shootout

Team from Impatica during the production process. Notice the 16 slides on their screen behind them. 

All development occurred live, in front of an audience made up primarily of classroom instructors and training managers. Each audience member had a ballot to rate each product in the four categories listed above.

The rules allowed teams of any size, as long as all development was done on a single computer. Here is the one-man team from Articulate.

Bryan Chapman and Richard Nantel, from brandon-hall.com served as referees for the event (for some reason we didn't get a picture of Richard in action).

The Tegrity team takes a brief break from production to mug the camera. Notice the video camera and headphone microphone. Tegrity placed in the Top 3 in the Use of Rich Media category.