Open Broadcaster Software®️ | OBS
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.
Rewordify.com | Understand what you read
Paste difficult to understand text into the yellow text box, and this website will give you a simplified version. While this is intended for people learning English vocabulary (or teachers helping students), it might be helpful as an instructional designer. It doesn't do anything for absurdly long sentences (in fact, sometimes the simplified version is longer), but you could use this to take a first pass edit on complex SME language.
Avatar Maker - Create Your Own Avatar Online
Free tool for creating avatars. I don't see licensing info, so it appears to be free to use. This only creates head shots, and the choices are limited. The SVG version of the download has editable layers, so you potentially could edit it for other expressions.
AnswerThePublic
Answer the Public describes itself as a "Search listening tool for market, customer & content research." It's a way to see what search terms people enter about a particular topic or brand. If you're wondering what questions people have about a subject, this would give you data about what they search for online. You can only do one search per day for free; otherwise it's $99/month for unlimited searches (which only makes sense if you're doing a LOT of market research).
GitHub - bfritscher/carnac: A utility to give some insight into how you use your keyboard
Mark Weingarten used this utility in his advanced Storyline session at LSCon. It shows your keyboard shortcuts on screen so others can better understand what you're doing. Super useful for anyone doing software training or screencasts.
VEED Online Video Editor
I haven't tried this tool, but it looks like a decent tool for creating or subtitling a quick video with a free tool. The free version has limits in video length and only exports to 780p, but that might be enough for a quick portfolio sample. As a paid tool, I think most elearning folks would probably be better off paying a little more to get Camtasia instead.
Knight Lab
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.
Using Twine for Classroom Engagement - ACTion
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.
Lesson plans – Teaching with Twine
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.
Adobe eLearning World 2021 — Watch Session Recordings - eLearning
Recorded presentations from Adobe's 2021 conference. In addition to Captivate-specific presentations, there's a solid list of speakers under the heading "eLearning Basics Masterclasses": Connie Malamed, Jane Bozarth, Ray Jimenez, Lou Russel, Sarah Mercier, and more.
xAPI Tutorial: Get started in under 1 hour - eLearningArt
Start learning how to use xAPI quickly, with a basic html page and a simple "send statements" button. This uses resources from Anthony Altieri and Mel Milloway. Everything is free, and this has step-by-step directions for non-programmers (but you do have to edit some html).