The Rent is Too Damn High! The cost of building e-learning material

I recently purchased a copy of Articulate Storyline 2 using the FSU academic discount which dropped the price to about $300 (this is down from over $1000). I then discovered Storyline 2 does not provide responsive layouts (the ability to be reformatted for phones/tablets/pc's) and I would need to upgrade to Storyline 3 for an additional $700 or pay $500 per year for Articulate 360.

The other powerhouse in the elearning world is Adobe's Captivate. The academic price for Adobe's Captivate is $350 (or $30 per month to keep your program up-to-date). The full price being again over $1000.

Now I completely understand that companies need to make money and the basic concept of supply and demand. My question is, do we need to pay? Do the elements included in these programs warrant the price tag? Well...yes and no.

I can find and implement different design concepts incorporated in either of these two industry standard elearning tools by piecemealing them together using free (or much cheaper) tools. For example, I can design elements using a free design tools like Gimp or Figma, and host them myself using rented server space for $5 per month with Wordpress installed and installing a series of free plugins to achieve the same effects (buttons, quizzes, slide-based learning, etc.). So why pay?

Let me back up. I've worked in the film and video industry for a while now. And there are many different tools that help a videographer get the perfect shot. Camera stabilizers are almost a required accessory. Now there are hundreds of thousands of DIY tutorials online to build your own camera stabilizer. Would you ever bring your DIY stabilizer to a production? Ummm...no. Working professionals use professional equipment. In the world of stabilizers Glidecam and Steadicam are King. And in the world of elearning it's Captivate and Storyline.

Does this mean we as IDer's must use these applications in every scenario? No. But it does mean we better know how to use these programs in order to work in the industry. And in order to know how to use these programs we either know somebody/someplace where we can tinker for free, or we bite the bullet.

What do you think? What alternative solutions to elearning development have you discovered? Do you think we need to know how to use these two programs? What are you experiences? Leave your comments below :)