Image library that you can easily customize. These characters might work in some scenarios, but they don't have facial expressions. Available in SVG and PNG.
This post includes lesson plans for teaching students how to use Twine, either in a single 50-minute session or in two days with extra time for practicing in the tool. These plans are a few years old, so a few details have changed, but the overall structure makes sense.
This is a summary of a project at the University of Toronto using Twine to create an educational game, plus an overview of Twine.
Although Twine is a tool for creating “games”, this project goes beyond games and gamification to think creatively about how the functions of Twine can be used to create activities that allow students to more directly engage with learning content in a hands-on experiential format that may not be possible in a traditional classroom learning space.
Free tools for creating VR stories, timelines, annotated maps and charts, image comparisons, and more. These are open source tools and may be a little clunky, but potentially worth exploring for short experiences. They're design more for journalists and media companies than training, but there's overlap in explainer journalism and elearning.
Open source tool for live mixing video streaming. You can put a text overlay on top of a video, for example. You can also set up different scenes in advance so you can transition between different combos. This also has an audio mixer so you can adjust the volume between a shared video and your own microphone (or other inputs). It's compatible with other platforms, so you can use it with Zoom or whatever you're currently using for video conferencing or streaming.
This is actually 18+ free and/or open source LMSs. Some are truly open source, some are freemium or other business models. If you want a list that goes well beyond Moodle and Canvas, this is a good place to start.
Free Open Source LMSs are like Puzzles « E-Learning 24/7 Blog
Nice metaphor for working with free LMSs. Moodle can work "out of the box" for some small instances with limited needs but this description is a fairly typical experience of customization.
Why do schools refuse to use free and open source software options, even when those options would improve accessibility for students? Ignorance? Fear? Politics? Probably some combination of all three.
If an electrician was too afraid of electricity to touch a wire, he'd be an electrician no more. So if an educator is afraid of the information and communication technologies of his/her age, then he/she can no longer be an "educator" in any meaningful way.