Exelearning is an easy to use, free software suite for designing online learning courses. The program was developed by CORE education, a New Zealand based nonprofit organization. CORE education does research and development in e-learning and distance education applications.

The eXe program is available for free download from www.exelearning.org. The software is available for download with MS Windows or Apple operating systems. A stand alone application is also available to download onto a memory stick for use on almost any computer. The system works best with Mozilla Foxfire applications. Firefox is also a free download, available at www.mozilla.com/firefox/ .

The photo below is a screen shot of the exelearning main set-up page. The system is organized using different modules known as iDevices. These iDevices are much like hubpages capsules. Each iDevice has a different function. There are 18 iDevices available - activity, case study, cloze activity, external web site, free text, image gallery, image magnifier, java applet, multi-choice quiz, multi-select quiz, objectives, preknowledge, RSS, reading activity, reflection, SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) quiz, true-false questions and wiki article.

The system organizes an outline, seen in the upper left corner of the screen. To add an iDevice, the user just clicks on the device on the left menu. Each device is placed on the screen with a menu bar for editing. The menu bar is similar to the hubpages capsules with more functions.

The picture below shows a screen shot of a "Case Study" iDevice added to a page. Each iDevice is similar in that it has a menu of available editing features across the top of the module. The iDevice has functions unique to the type of learning activity that is desired by the course designer.

The iDevices can make use of images from the users computer, as shown below or online resources such as YouTube Videos or links to other sites can easily be added to the course. The picture below shows a SCORM quiz question related to an embedded image.

Once the online course is designed, individual modules can be embedded in a Blackboard system (a system used widely in post-secondary education), saved as a zip file, or all the iDevices with associated images can be saved as individual files that can be uploaded to a web site set up specifically for delivery of the distance education course.

The ease of use of this system, the professional appearance of the modules and the flexibility of the different applications make exelearning a very useful tool for anyone designing distance learning course delivery.