Xerte - time to give this open-source e-learning authoring tool another try?

I've looked at several tools over the last few years for creating content for online learning: Hot Potatoes, Articulate Quizmaker, eXe Learning, Toolbook, MOS Solo, WBTExpress Moodle Edition etc.

Another one I looked at a while ago was Xerte - open-source authoring software (using Flash and XML) produced at the University of Nottingham. At the time it seemed rather unfinished and to have a strange (for me) workflow.

However today I received a newsletter from Kineo (an e-learning services company) that linked to a review of a more recent version of Xerte, as well as a new product called Xerte Online Toolkits.

The review mentions a few drawbacks but on the whole is positive, and I was impressed by some of the possibilities offered by Xerte Online Toolkits in this demo.

Features like synched audio & text, synched video & text and audio slideshows seem like they could be especially useful for language e-learning.

So I'm going to give Xerte another try, and also have a go with the Xerte Online Toolkits and see how it goes.

After all, free is a price that can't be beat, and freedom (as in open source/free-libre software) is just as precious.

Flash video in Moodle; Flash video with subtitles

Here's a tutorial on how to embed a Flash video (like the kind on YouTube) in a page in Moodle, using the small free JW FLV Media Player.

• Embedding Flash into Moodle (or whatever)

And here's another on using JWPlayer with subtitles that you can turn on & off, and are high quality.

• High quality video with clear subtitles: JW Mediaplayer

Moodle seems to have JWPlayer already built in; when I linked to a Flash video ( ending in ".flv") in a Moodle web page, it was automatically embedded and played when I viewed the page. But it appears to use an older version of JW player (called "JeroenWijeringPlayer").

I haven't yet tried these techniques on Moodle but hopefully will soon. Please post any experiences/ideas you've had in the comments.