Steps to Install/ Setup Adapt Framework – eLearning Authoring Tool

The Adapt authoring tool is an application that allows you to quickly build eLearning content. You can create courses, add assets, components, extensions, and you can preview and publish your responsive e-learning content.

Let’s look at the step-by-step tutorial to setup Adapt Framework.

Step 1: Open the link
https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt_authoring/wiki/Installing-the-Authoring-Tool.
Select GIT.

Click “Official install guide”.

Navigate to the “Installing on Windows” and click https://git-scm.com/download/win

Now, follow these steps.

Click Next.

Click Next.

Click Next.

Click Next.

Step 2: From the URL, click Node.js.

Click “Official install guide”.

Based on the operating system, you need to select the option. I am using Windows (64 bit).

Click Next.

Select the checkmark and click Next.

Click Next.

Click Next.

Select the checkmark and click Next.

Click Install.

Click Finish.

Automatically a command window will open.

Press any key in the command line to start the installation.

Step 3: From the URL, click on Grunt tab.

Click “Official install guide”.

Open command from window and run the code (npm install -g grunt-cli).

Step 4: Click on MongoDB from the URL.

Click “Official install guide”.

Scroll down to “MongoDB Installation Tutorials” and select Windows version.

Click “MongoDB Download Center” and click Download.

Step 5: Create one folder in the “C” drive.

Copy the folder location and run in command

Run the code “git clone https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt_authoring.git” it will create a folder automatically. Folder named “Adapt_Authoring”

Step 6: Check whether the mongoDB which we installed is running or not. To run the MongoDB, use the below given command.

“Npm install –production”

Step 7: Then run the below command.

“Node install”

Step 8: Follow the commands – ‘y’ for yes and ‘n’ for no. You can create your account in command window and set the password. You will get link like this “http://localhost:5000”. Open it in your browser window to launch Adapt tool.

Step 9: After installing the Adapt software, follow the below procedure to run the Adapt tool.

1. Go to CMD and enter “cd” and your C drive location in which Adapt folder is located.
2. Enter command “node server”
3. Go to Chrome browser and enter http://localhost:5000.

Username: Enter your username

Password: Enter your password

Key features of Adapt authoring tool

We work on various eLearning Authoring tools like Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Elucidat, etc. Adapt is one of our favorite when it comes to developing HTML5 compatible, web responsive eLearning courses.

Let’s look at some of its key features.

• Adapt doesn’t require any subscription. It’s completely FREE.
• Adapt consists of two products – the Framework and the Authoring Tool.
• Adapt gives the developer complete control over branding and theme customization. But you need to have basic knowledge of CSS and HTML.
• You have control over version updates so that you can always have the latest version built into core Adapt.
• You can import and export from one environment to another. You can create an eLearning course in the Framework, import into your authoring tool and then export into another authoring tool.
• Whilst a lot of work has been made over the past few years to make the Authoring Tool more accessible to non-technical people, a stand out feature is introduced which is Theme Editor. It’s still not the most polished experience due to the complex procedure of installation and plugins configuration.

Adapt learning tool can be used to create responsive courses which can be viewed in multiple devices. It’s is an open source tool and give the flexibility to the developers to customize the code. The courses developed in Adapt can be integrated with an LMS.

• Adapt learning tool has plugins which plays a major role in development and extensions.
• Adapt has containers called pages, articles, blocks and components which will help in building course and fit together to create your course structure.
• Adapt has an option where we can give a class name to a particular article block or components or images and we can just write our custom CSS in project settings.
• We can add images beside text or text beside images, audio and, videos. It will work very smoothly in responsive devices.
• Adapt has a very good structured articles and blocks which makes the course look very engaging and interactive.
• Adapt has collaboration feature which helps group of people work on same course at a time.
• Adapt has a feature to import multiple versions of same image for different devices. We can insert three images – large resolution image for Desktop, medium resolution for Tablets and iPad devices and small resolution for phone devices.
• The Theme Picker feature give plenty of options for developers to choose the desired colors for the theme. Apart from this, if you want any other customizations then classes feature can be used.
• Additional interactions can be downloaded from respective plugins and used in the course. We cannot develop complex interactions in Adapt tool as we can develop in tools like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate.
• Adapt learning tool allows you to create the courses in multiple languages as it supports text from left to right (LTR) and right to left (RTL).
• When it comes to animations, Adapt has a limitations in earlier versions. But in 2021 Adapt, offers additional plugins which helps in adding animations to the components and HTML content.
• Adapt learning tool cannot be access in offline mode as it requires an internet connection. Similarly, to view the course source and make edits, it requires internet connection.
• The default feature of Adapt tool supports the block background images and article background images with three sizes – large, medium, and small for Desktop, Tablet and Mobile devices respectively. It also gives the setting to adjust the background image like positions – left, bottom, right, top, center, and other positions along with adjusting X and Y axis for the images.
• Components are the individual course interactions. Each presentation, question and navigation component sits in a block in an article. Components can be adjust to full, left, and right side components can be placed side by side within a block (these will automatically resize and stack vertically when viewed on a mobile).
• There are many plugins and extensions which helps you in developing effective eLearning courses. One of the extension which plays a major role is “Spoor”. This extension allows you to upload your course to LMS and track SCORM variables. Without this extension we can only view our course in Adapt learning tool in preview mode.
• We can create account for course creators or authenticated users. The user management option in the left side menu shows a user management button in which we can add a user by entering First name, Last name, Email address, Password and by selecting which person will be using this account. You can track their activities in user management tab.

Adapt can be used for the courses which have linear navigation structure. The courses will be web responsive supporting multiple devices. The screens will be mostly text and images with minimum animations and interactions.

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