Required Desktop Functionality
The purpose of this information is to inform the development of vocational education and training (VET) Standard Operating Environments (SOEs) that can support the e-learning functionality required by teachers and trainers.
Where possible, software tools selected for use by teachers and trainers should be compliant with the VET sector's e-standards.
A review and update was undertaken in late 2010.
Required desktop functionality
There are three licence types referred to in the tables:
- C = Commercial
- CNC = Commercial No Cost
- F = Freeware, Open-source, Free for use in Education
| Ability to author and view documents |
| Practitioners require the ability to create and view PDF, DOC, TXT and RTF files |
| Example tools |
Licence |
Notes |
| Acrobat Reader (Opens in new window)
|
CNC |
View PDF documents |
| Microsoft Word Viewer (Opens in new window) |
CNC |
View DOC, RTF and TXT documents |
| CutePDF Writer (Opens in new window)
|
CNC |
Create PDF documents |
| Acrobat Writer (Opens in new window) |
C |
| Microsoft Office (Opens in new window)
|
C |
Create text-based documents |
| Open Office (Opens in new window)
|
F |
| Ability to play audio and video content |
| Minimum requirement for practitioners is the ability to play all media created in content formats recommended to VET by New Generation Technologies for Learning. |
| Example tools |
Licence |
Notes |
| Flash Player 10 (Opens in new window) |
CNC |
View FLV and SWF content. Also plays other standard formats. Refer to website for info. |
| QuickTime 7 (Opens in new window) |
CNC |
Play MOV, MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC content. Also plays other standard formats. Refer to website for info. |
| Windows Media Player (Opens in new window)
|
CNC |
Play WMA and WMV content. Microsoft website provides information on which version is recommended for which operating system platform. |
| Ability to create and customise multimedia content |
| Minimum requirement is for practitioners to be able to create and customise multimedia content. |
| Functionality |
Example tools |
Licence |
Notes |
| Record and edit audio |
Audacity (Opens in new window) |
F |
Commonly used for creation of audio content for podcasting. |
| Take screen-captures |
Jing (Opens in new window) |
CNC/C |
|
| Snagit (Opens in new window) |
C |
| Create demonstration or interactive tutorials and assessments |
Captivate (Opens in new window) |
C |
|
| Camtasia (Opens in new window) |
C |
| Adobe Flash Creative Suite (Opens in new window) |
C |
| Ability to access and subscribe to information feeds |
| Minimum requirement is for practitioners to be able to access, subscribe to, and download news feeds and podcasts. |
| Example tools |
Licence |
Notes |
| Google Reader (Opens in new window) |
CNC |
Recent web browsers include news and RSS aggregators. |
| Ability to develop web-based learning content |
| Minimum requirement is for practitioners to be able to create and update web-based learning content. |
| Example tools |
Licence |
Notes |
| Adobe Dreamweaver (Opens in new window) |
C |
Dreamweaver can also be used as a collaborative development tool. |
| eXe (Opens in new window) |
F |
Tools that develop web-based learning content without the need for specialised coding experience. |
| Wimba Create (Opens in new window) |
C |
