It is important for the learning and development team in an enterprise to have suitable eLearning creation tools that can fulfill their business requirements. Luckily, a huge variety of eLearning authoring tools are available in the market today, which not only help with digital content creation but also enable you to convert the content into a specified format and then distribute the learning or training material among potential learners. Each of the tools comes with different features – some of them offer you unlimited flexibility and options to create your content, while others help with PowerPoint-based presentations, web-style content creation, and so on.
Table of Contents:
Importance of selecting the right tool
Features to consider
1. Learners’ Needs
2. Development Time
3. Online Asset Library
4. Multiple Language Support
5. Budget and Maintenance Cost
6. Instructional Strategies
7. Delivery Method
8. Scalability
9. Customer Support
So, it is essential to understand your actual business needs before you choose the right tools to come up with appropriate eLearning solutions for your organization.
Importance of selecting the right eLearning creation tool for your business:
As mentioned before, multiple eLearning course development tools are available in the market these days. They can be categorized as:
- Standalone designing tools
- PowerPoint-based tools
- Cloud-based tools
- Highly-specialized tools
All these tools come with different types of features and functionalities. With the right kind of eLearning content creation tool, enterprises can easily transform ordinary content into professional eLearning content. Previously eLearning content creation was a time-consuming and complicated task, but with the help of the right kind of tool, eLearning course creation has become easier and faster.
Also Read: 7 Tips to Create Custom E-Learning Content on a Budget
Features to consider when selecting an eLearning creation tool:
Some of the top considerations that you need to review before choosing the right eLearning creation tool for your organization:
1. Learners’ Needs
To choose a suitable tool, you need to consider the requirements of your target learners first. Different tools are available to choose from, depending on the type of content you might need to create, the skills and technology you require for that, and the learning needs of your learners. Whether you need to create an interactive simulation or a simple PowerPoint presentation to satisfy your learners’ needs, you can get a suitable tool for each type of content development.
For instance, Adobe Captivate, Articulate 360, and Lectora Inspire are some of the eLearning content development tools that can be helpful in developing different types of courses and need to create original, customized pieces for their learners.
2. Development Time
Time is a crucial factor when it comes to eLearning course development. If you need a quick turnaround time for your courses, rapid eLearning creation tools are the most suitable option for you. Compared to a traditional authoring tool, rapid tools can reduce the development time by up to 40%. Tools with readymade templates and pre-built functionalities can help in the quick integration of existing data for repurposing or the easy development of fresh content.
3. Online Asset Library
Most eLearning creation tools come with an in-built online asset library, that contains different types of images, characters, videos, and even chart formats. To subscribe to the right tool for your organization, you need to do some homework. Opt for a free trial or explore online reviews to know about the quality and availability of an asset library in the tool.
A good understanding of the in-built multimedia assets will help you choose the right tool, so that you can create engaging training content for a variety of learning and development purposes.
Also Read: How to Select the Right eLearning Authoring Tools and Services
4. Multiple Language Support
These days, with several organizations preparing eLearning courses for global audiences, supporting multiple languages has become a desired feature for eLearning tools. Such tools come with multiple language support or optional language add-on features that are required to create multilingual eLearning courses.
5. Budget and Maintenance Cost
Pricing or subscription charges can determine, to a large extent, whether you will opt for that eLearning creation tool or not. You may love the features of a tool, but the cost can act as a barrier. Some tools come with a one-time purchasing facility, while others come with subscription-based pricing plans. Depending on project-specific requirements, or the number of users, or the number of complex features, the subscription charge may vary.
Also Read: 5 Best Content Authoring Tools for Your E-learning Needs
6. Instructional Strategies
When choosing an eLearning course development tool, you need to make sure that it supports your project-specific instructional strategy. Different tools support different types of interactivities such as quizzes, animations, puzzles, games, and so on. If your eLearning courses require interactive simulations or other engaging items, you should go for tools that can support your needs.
Some of the interactive features that you might need for eLearning content are:
- Quizzes and surveys
- Video lectures and screencasts
- Interactive elements
- Branching scenarios
- Dialogue simulations
7. Delivery Method
A good eLearning course needs to be accessible from all kinds of devices. For that, your eLearning course creation tool should support a responsive design. A lot of these tools come with a preview option that lets you check the content layout on different platforms.
Therefore, you should go for tools that allow you to create responsive resources that can automatically resize the content to fit different screen sizes.
8. Scalability
A good eLearning tool must be equipped to scale up the quality of resources by adding new features when you wish to upgrade a course or want to add advanced features. An eLearning tool with advanced features will allow you to create resources with complex interactive sessions or simulations.
9. Customer Support
Customer support is also a crucial factor to consider before you opt for a tool. You need to find out how much vendor support you can expect or if there is any round-the-clock client support system available. A quick chat support from trained professionals or 24*7 call services can be beneficial for the learning and development teams.
Conclusion:
Though multiple eLearning creation tools are available in the market today, it is necessary to choose one with care. All of these come with a variety of features to support instructional and designing strategies. So, keep in mind the features we discussed above while choosing a tool for eLearning course creation. Also, before choosing the right tool for your organization, you need to consider your actual requirements for eLearning courses, timeframe, budget, and if there is any future development plan in place. Depending on your requirement and budget, you can conduct thorough research and zero in on the right tool.
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