JISC RSC Wales has collated a list of FREE e-learning tools for all sectors. Download the list here or browse below.
| AutoMouse Clicker | When the mouse stops for a predetermined time, a click is sent. This removes the need to use the buttons on the mouse. |
| Gaze Talk | A predictive text entry system that has a restricted on-screen keyboard that enables the use of an eye tracker with a low spatial resolution (e.g., a web-camera based eye tracker). |
| Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) |
A free and open-source screen reader for the Windows Operating System, enabling blind and vision impaired people to use their computers. |
| PowerTalk | A free programme that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. |
| pVoice | Disabled people who cannot speak can use pVoice by selecting photos or symbols to generate speech output. |
| ReadPlease | Reads any text you see on your screen - all purpose text-to-speech software. |
| RoboBraille | RoboBraille automates the translation of text documents into Braille and speech. |
| SMIRK | SMIRK is a tool for capturing, producing and then sending audio-visual presentations over the internet. |
| Talkr | Talkr allows you to listen to text-only blogs on your MP3 Player. |
| Thunder | Thunder is a free screenreader talking software for blind and visually impaired people. |
| EclipseCrossword | EclipseCrossword is the fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes. |
| Game maker | Using easy to learn drag-and-drop actions, you can create professional looking games within very little time. |
| Hot Potatoes | The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. |
| Memorize In A Flash |
Online flash card programme to study and test with. This system will not just flash cards for you, but keep track of your progress and test you on the cards you need tested on the most. |
| Millionaire Game Editor |
This software allows you to create and play your own 'who wants to be a millionaire' games. |
| TOIA | An advanced online assessment management system. |
| VARK | VARK is a questionnaire that provides users with a profile of their learning preferences. These preferences are about the ways that they want to take-in and give-out information. |
| Blogger | A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more. All for FREE. |
| Edublogs | Blogging tool for education use only. |
| Google Blog Search |
Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. |
| Lifetype | LifeType is an open-source blogging platform with support for multiple blogs and users in a single installation. |
| LiveJournal | You can use LiveJournal in many different ways: as a private journal, a blog, a discussion forum, a social network, and more. |
| Moblog | You take photos, shoot video or capture audio with your camera phone and then email them to Moblog, direct from the phone, where-ever you are. |
| Fotopages | A website that allows you to create your own photolog. It's like a blog, but its designed for people who take lots of photographs. |
| Technorati | Technorati searches, surfaces, and organises blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.” |
| A micro blog. | |
| Typepad | Blogging service, hosting many of the world’s most popular blogs and small business websites. TypePad’s ease of use enables you to create a blog in minutes. |
| Wordpress | A self hosting blogging tool with numerous amounts of plugins. |
| Bubbl.us | Bubbl.us is a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm online. Create colorful mind maps online; Share and work with friends; Embed your mind map in your blog or website; Email and print your mind map; Save your mind map as an image |
| Deepamehta | DeepaMehta is a software platform for Knowledge Management. Knowledge is represented in a semantic network and is handled collaboratively. |
| Freemind | FreeMind is a free mind-mapping software written in Java. |
| Labyrinth | Labyrinth is a lightweight mind-mapping tool, written in Python using Gtk and Cairo to do
the drawing. It is intended to be as light and intuitive as possible, but still provide a wide range of powerful features. |
| Mindmeister | MindMeister supports all the standard features of a classic mind mapping tool - only online, and with as many simultaneous users as you like! |
| Mindomo | Mindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool, delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser - with no complex software to install or maintain. Create, edit mind maps, and share them with your colleagues or your friends. |
| Mindraider | MindRaider mission is to organise not only the content of your hard drive but also your cognitive base and social relationships in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing. |
| Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) |
VUE provides a flexible visual environment for
structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information. Using VUE's concept mapping
interface, faculty and students design semantic networks of digital resources drawn from digital libraries, local and remote file systems, and the Web. |
| 5min | A place to find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge. |
| Bubbleshare | Just upload your photos, and if you care to, remix them and add comments or your own voice to them. BubbleShare generates a private link for your friends and family to view and sends it with one click. You can even add your album to your blog. |
| eHow | Comment on articles and interact with other members through a robust set of social networking tools. You can even write your own How To articles with our easy-to-use publishing tools that let you express your knowledge through text, images, and video. |
| Expert Village | A repository of how-to videos and articles featuring advice from recognized experts in their fields. |
| Flickr | Flickr is an online photo management and sharing application. It helps people make their photos available to the people who matter to them, and it enables new ways of organising photos. |
| Graspr | A social media and learning company building the first interactive, online community that enables people to connect and share their life experiences and expertise with people who are seeking it. |
| Instructables | Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. |
| Picasa | Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you: Locate and organise all the photos on your computer. Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks. Share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free. |
| Sclipo | A social utility that allows you to share your skills and knowledge through video and webcam. |
| SuTree | Index & library of free video lessons, video tutorials, video lectures & video how to guides. |
| TeacherTube | Provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. Fills a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. |
| VideoJug | A library of factual content online. |
| YouTube | Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. |
| Audacity | Free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. |
| Freecorder Toolbar |
A browser-based audio recording programme. You can use Freecorder Toolbar for: Recording Songs, Extracting Audio from Videos, Recording Internet Radio, Recording from your PC's Microphone or Line-in ports. |
| Wavepad | WavePad is a sound editor for Windows that lets you make and edit voice and other audio recordings. You can cut, copy, and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects such as echo, amplification, and noise reduction. |
| iTunes | The iTunes Store offers over 100,000 podcast episodes from independent creators and big names alike, including various universities. |
| Juice | Want to listen to internet audio programs but can't when they are scheduled? This program lets you create your own custom online audio anytime, anywhere. |
| Talkr | Provides a service that allows you to listen to your favourite text-only news sources rather than read them. |
| PodsafeAudio | This site aims to provide a location where musicians can upload music under the Creative Commons license for use in Podcasts, Mashups, Shoutcasts, Webcasts and every other kind of 'casting' that exists on the internet. |
| Podsafe Music Network |
This site provides podsafe music to be used within podcasts. This site also enables you to broadcast your own podcasts. |
| Feed For All | Create RSS feeds & podcasts, edit RSS feeds & podcasts, manage and publish RSS feeds, create iTunes compatible podcasts. |
| dotFolio | dotFOLIO is an e-portfolio system with the goal of supporting lifelong personal learning and development. |
| Elgg | Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness. It can also be integrated with Moodle. |
| LUSID | LUSID enables you to: record your experiences and achievements and to reflect on them in terms of skills which might well be useful for employment; to keep a journal or log; to plan goals and activities; to perform skills audits and access skills guidance and to automatically construct your CV. |
| Mahara | Mahara is a fully featured open source electronic portfolio, weblog, CV builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online communities. |
| OneFile | OneFile ePortfolio is an easy-to-use online assessment solution that can be used for vocational qualifications. Features include action planning, assessing against criteria, providing feedback, verifying, auditing, management reporting and much more. |
| Petal | An e-portfolio to help learners reflect on their learning, help people move and progress from school to college to university and into work, help workers to learn on the job, and help increase participation in education and lifelong learning. |
| The Open Source Portfolio |
Individual learners and instructors use the electronic portfolio system as a repository to store and organize digital evidence of teaching and learning. They can be referenced to share with a particular audience or multiple audiences. |
| AroundMe | AROUNDMe is a suite of social tools; a social toolkit from which you can build your Internet identity, create networks and contribute to collaborative environments. |
| Bebo | Bebo is a social networking site where members can stay in touch with their College friends,
connect with friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out. |
| Dolphin | Dolphin Smart Community Builder is a universal, free, open source software that allows you to build any kind of online community. |
| Elgg | Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness. It can also be integrated with Moodle. |
| Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. | |
| Mahara | Mahara is a fully featured open source electronic portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online communities. |
| MugShot | Mugshot makes it easy to show off what you're doing online and keep track of what your friends are up to. Mugshot is designed and developed in the context of an open source community project. |
| MySpace | MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends, share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends! |
| Ning | Create a full social network for free that you can customize and brand as your own. |
| PeopleAggregator | Social networking and blogging are now commodity features. PeopleAggregator brings social web features to existing software or provides a stand alone social network of your own. |
| Cam Studio | CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). |
| MWSnap | A small yet powerful Windows program for capturing images from selected parts of the screen. Current version is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. It can be also used as a fast picture viewer or converter. |
| Quick Screen Capture | A powerful screen capture and image editing utility. It allows you to take screenshots from any part of your screen in more than 10 ways, and save images in BMP/JPG/GIF formats. |
| Screen Hunter 5 | A completely free screen capture software for you to easily take screenshots. |
| Snippy | Selects areas from a Web page and allows you to copy it to another application. |
| VirtualDub | VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. |
| Wink | Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. |
| Google Docs | Create, edit and upload documents, spreadsheets and presentations online, or create new ones from scratch. Invite people to your documents and make changes together, at the same time. |
| JSPWiki | A feature-rich and extensible Wiki engine built around the standard J2EE components (Java, servlets, JSP). |
| MediaWiki | A free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It is now used by several other projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and by many other wikis. |
| PBWiki | PBwiki means quickly engaging your students/staff on your project. Start collaborating in seconds. Access from anywhere. Eliminate schedule conflicts. Stop worrying about mailbox size limits. Let us manage security, backups and revisions for you. |
| TiddlyWiki | TiddlyWiki is a single-file, self-contained wiki for managing micro-content, written in JavaScript. It is easy to move your TiddlyWiki around on a USB stick or by emailing it to yourself. |
| Wetpaint | Allows anyone — especially those without technical skill — to create and contribute to websites. Wetpaint combines the best aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks so anyone can click and type on the web. |
| Wikispaces | Create simple web pages that groups, friends, & families can edit together (online). |
| Writeboard | Writeboards are sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back
to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others. |
| X-WIKI | XWiki provides web based collaborative solutions designed to effectively share and organise information among teams, throughout your organisation, and beyond. |
| Flash Earth | An experimental application that uses satellite and aerial imagery from online mapping websites. |
| Google Earth | Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. |
| Frappr | Frappr! helps turn your ordinary Web pages into
interactive, fun and engaging destinations. Create custom maps of your friends, site visitors, group members, or favorite places. |
| GIMPShop | GIMPShop is a free Open Source image editor that is similar to the popular Adobe Photoshop. Specifically GIMPShop is a version of the GIMP that has been edited to be more user-friendly for Photoshop users. |
| LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) |
New tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration. |
| Google SketchUp | A 3D modelling software tool that’s easy to learn, simple to use, and lets you place your models in Google Earth. |
| Fwink | Fwink is a free and open source webcam application for Windows. It takes still images from your camera at timed intervals and puts them on your website. You can add effects like text messages, time stamps and an overlay image. |
| Open Office | OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. |
| Skype | Talk, listen, watch, read, write to anyone, anywhere in the world without worrying about cost, distance or time. |
| Second Life | Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. It is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. |
More resources are constantly updated on the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies Directory of Learning Tools.
