Using e-Learning Software for Rapid e-Learning Development

Organizations often get bogged down trying to keep up with the increasing demands of the training and learning vertical. Continuous e-learning development is a process that takes considerable effort and time. To reduce costs as well as time, developers are now using rapid authoring tools to develop custom e-learning solutions. This has been the trend for many years. Most developers depend on popular authoring tools like Articulate Storyline and Lectora. These tools have evolved over the past few years to suit different types of e-learning platforms – including the mobile platform as well.

There are many benefits of using rapid authoring tools – for developers as well as users.

• The biggest advantage of these authoring tools is that you save on time and effort and reduce your training budget. e-Learning solutions can be developed for multiple platforms, and these cross-platform functionalities work for all popular delivery devices – desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. These functionalities provide users the opportunity to access learning as per their convenience, anytime, anywhere. For developers, they save a lot of time, effort and money. So, it’s a win-win for everyone!
• The e-learning courses created with rapid authoring tools are ready for Web delivery. They can also be accessed on popular mobile browsers for learners who prefer to access learning on the go. Rapid authoring tools now also support HTML5 – which provides more interactivity and therefore has greater appeal for the learners.
• With rapid authoring tools, custom e-learning courses automatically fit as per the screen size and resolution of the user device. Navigation buttons, Seekbar, Menu, Volume On/Off and other Shell features are supported with no additional changes or coding required.
• Many inter activities can be easily built in the courses, without any extra effort. Existing material – like content, images and graphics – can be used as-is. The positions can be assigned and the courses rendered accordingly – per the specifications of the user device. The inter activities include simple ones like transitions, illustrations, scrolling panels, and so on. Higher level inter activities like Drag and Drop, Surveys and Text/Data entry fields can also be created per the needs of the client and users.
• e-Courses developed with rapid authoring tools are also very lightweight. They take up very little space and bandwidth on the learner’s device.
• The courses can also be made downloadable so that the learners can take up the courses even without internet connectivity. They can even take printouts to carry when needed.
• The courses created with rapid authoring tools comply with industry standards – SCORM and AICC. This allows user progress to be easily tracked on the LMS where the e-courses reside.
• Even if the user accesses the e-courses through multiple devices, the progress is tracked synchronously. Thus the learner can access the courses through multiple channels of delivery – online, offline or mobile. This does not affect the final progress report that is generated for each user.

There are many other benefits of utilizing rapid authoring tools for e-learning development. With the entry of more tools with a wider array of features, this is fast becoming the chosen method for most developers to create impactful custom content for technology-aided delivery.