24 Mar 2021

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Where to deploy the elearning authoring tool?

eLearning tools are used to create good quality content so that you can train people properly. These tools are very helpful in creating an online course. You can edit current materials, and also employ templates of these authoring tools.
Apart from templates, these tools have images also. But where to deploy these tools?

Choosing the deployment of the eLearning tool is important because it affects how you can access the tool, and how long before you start working with it.

There are various ways in which an elearning tool can be hosted:

Cloud-based hosting

These elearning authoring tools are hosted on the cloud. The developers can access these tools from any system in the office or from anywhere else. These cloud-based elearning tools are taken care of by their vendors. They charge a monthly subscription fee in return for the maintenance of the tool. The vendors help you with all the IT upgrades for the tool. They also help you in case you have any difficulty working with the tool.

Hosting on local PC’s of the company

You can also host an elearning tool on your system. This implies that the software needs to be downloaded on the local computer. But there are more hassles involved in using such a system. It’s because the maintenance of the authoring tool depends on your IT staff.

Apart from that, since you have downloaded the software on your company’s PCs and don’t require anyone to host it, there are no fees required except the licensing fee. You can share the data among the different PCs through email or shared network drives.

Hosting on local servers of the company

It’s better to have a server for hosting the authoring tool. This way, everyone can’t access it except those who have the server credentials. Also, the entire data is stored on the server. The best part is that everyone can access it from the server despite the geographical location. The data is also safe since your security procedures have been implemented.

Fees are charged varying with vendors. Some vendors charge a subscription fee on monthly basis and others charge a single time fee.

Hosted on the mobile app

There can be apps given by the elearning tool vendor which can be installed on any mobile device. These apps make sure that the developers can use them to send content. With a native app, users can work in an elearning authoring tool on an Ipad. These apps can also be easily used when the elearning tool has a drag and drop functionality for templates and images. But you have to ensure that the app can be used on all kinds of mobile devices.

The course created can then be uploaded to any LMS or included in any website.

Hosted on desktop PCs

The users of the elearning authoring tool can also include the desktop app of such tools on their PCs. This is an easy way to use the tool because no internet connection is needed to work with it. The desktop app automatically stores all the progress like the slides created in the software. Adobe Captivate is one such software that does not require any internet connection to work with it.

This is how you can host an elearning authoring tool on the device of your choice.

24 Feb 2021

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How to get an elearning tool for your company?

Training has become an important part of any company’s strategy these days. There can be problems in the implementation of technology as well as human elements in training. How can you get rid of obstacles in training? In online learning, employees are trained through an LMS but using elearning software to prepare such a course can have its problems.

Elearning platform and skills of developers:

Once you are trying to use a new elearning tool to generate a course, it’s better to check that it matches your skills.

The tool should be as per the skills of developers so that they can prepare an interactive and understandable module through it.

Once the developers find the user interface of the elearning tool quite tough to use, the end product or the elearning module might not be up to anyone’s satisfaction. It’s easy to use a new elearning tool when it’s user-intuitive i.e. your developers can figure out how it is to be used.

Make sure that the course is responsive to all devices:

For those employees who are traveling because of the nature of their jobs and don’t have time to access their desktop PCs, having a course accessible on mobile phones is a comfort. This is to say that the elearning course should be device friendly. So, make sure that the elearning tool allows you to be able to produce responsive courses.

Employees might also like browsing the content more on phones rather than PCs. So, they are not convinced with a course that has poor screen resolution when watched on a cell phone. There can also be a problem when the course is not accessible on a cellphone i.e. it does not work on such a device. They might not be able to understand that the course isn’t compatible with the browser used on the cell phone. So, it’s better that the course is compatible with all devices and browsers.

Automation in the elearning tool:

In the case of elearning, a very important concern is that an employee’s performance is updated. You must ask your elearning vendor how the software will automatically capture and update the progress of employees. An LMS can be used to track the progress of employees. It’s because the elearning course is updated on an LMS.

So, an elearning system must be able to update the records of employees even if they are studying offline. This way, when their progress is recorded, it can be updated in the LMS or the elearning tool, to make sure that their classes are arranged as per their learning.

Ease of editing the course:

Although your course developers might have skills, they might not able to work with them. It’s because the elearning tool lacks certain kinds of functionalities like sound editing. This is why a course might not be as accessible as it should be. So, an elearning tool must have capacities for sound, video, and text editing.

So, these are some of the issues when choosing an elearning tool

23 Feb 2021

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When is it time to upgrade to a new elearning tool for elearning companies?

An elearning course can’t be all about turning pages by clicking on the “Next” button.

There should be an involvement built in the course. This implies that the participants never sleep while watching the course. But if your course does not provide any such possibility of recall and involvement, it’s better to change the elearning tool.

Elearning companies need to know whether their elearning tool is sufficient or not.

It’s because it must not have the following deficiencies which hamper elearning companies from creating an engaging course for the target audience:

Not able to provide content for mobile phones:

When there is no ability in the elearning tool to provide mobile-based content to employees it can reduce the reach of elearning solutions. These days, employees are quite busy, they can’t start their laptop or desktop PC to view the elearning content. They must be able to access the content on mobile phones.

So, the elearning tool must be able to produce content for mobile phones. You must have HTML5 enabled in such a tool that the content can be developed for mobile phones at the same time as for a desktop LMS.

Unable to take care of branding:

Branding is important for a company. Therefore, an online course must be able to take care of it. The elearning tool should take care of the use of proper colors in slides. This use of colors could be in the characters and background of the slide. So, you can’t neglect to brand while designing your course.

Including a corporate logo on the slides is just not enough. The use of colors is also important. If your elearning tool is not able to do that, it’s time for a change.

Lack of a good digital library:

Elearning companies must use rapid authoring tools which give access to a repository of digital characters, their expressions, and backgrounds. This makes sure that you don’t have to look on the web outside the authoring tool for such assets.

The time to replace an authoring tool comes when it does not have such a good collection of assets. Apart from character background images, the tool must have sound effects like background music. You can’t be uploading assets such as these to the authoring tool all the time for making the best slides.

So, to save time and effort, it’s better to have an authoring that has a good digital library of assets.

No import of assets possible

One of the best ways to create interactive slides is to be able to import content. This could be in the form of old training material like videos and assets like images you have created before.

This could also be in the form of slides, created by you before with all the characters and background effects. They could also be uploaded from the web.

But if your elearning tool does not allow such a facility, it’s useless. This implies that you have to copy and paste assets into the various folders of the elearning tool. This is not an easy task provided you have to upload a lot of assets all the time.

So, it’s time to replace the outdated authoring tool which does not have the feature of “one-click” uploads.

These are all the features of an elearning authoring tool that must be present otherwise elearning companies must think of replacing it.

23 Feb 2021

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How to evaluate the image gallery of an elearning tool?

Elearning companies may find a lot of challenges when it comes to creating content for their clients.

You need to have proper resources in place apart from the proper elearning tool. The right kind of authoring tool must have all the proper resources in place so that perfect elearning modules are created. How do you know which elearning platform provides the best images for use in elearning before actually using it?

When you decide to buy an elearning tool, it’s important to check its available resources so that you get the best return on investment on its purchase.

Make use of free trials:

Most of the elearning tools provide you with a free trial period. You can use this trial period to check whether the image gallery is per your requirements. The image gallery must have icons and images in vector format so that you can resize them without sacrificing the quality. So the elearning tool must have images available in its media library in such format.

You can also check for other resources besides images in the media library of the tool. These resources include the background templates etc.

You can also take inputs from the elearning or the L&D team to know whether the available assets in the media library are enough or not. Your team can offer you some opinions based on the available assets based on its own experience in designing elearning projects.

Alignment of the images with your usage:

When you have a look at the image gallery of the elearning tool, you must have a use case in mind. The meaning of this use case is that you must have an elearning project in mind. For example, whether the images will be able to support the learning objectives of the client?

Apart from that, whether the characters used in such images represent their workforce. This applies both to the images available in the raster and the vector formats. You also need to check whether the images available have new faces too or if the same faces with different expressions are used in every image.

Different sizes of images must be available:

Also, make sure that the images are available in all sizes. When the images are not available in the correct size, they have to be resized. This leads to blurry images which are not liked at all by learners. If there are no images available in different sizes, they should be of a high resolution so that they can be converted to different sizes easily.

There should be images available for all kinds of courses. For example, when you have to prepare a compliance course, images should be available for the same. Images should be there of offices also, to explain all the compliance rules to employees by including such images in compliance elearning.

Updates in the asset library:

Make sure that vendors add new resources from time to time. If you have to pay an extra price for more images, then you should know about such costs. Is there a limitation associated with the number of images you can use per month? If yes, then the elearning companies must discuss this in a meeting scheduled before the purchase of the elearning software.

This is how elearning companies must check out the image gallery of an elearning software before buying it