Stop us if this sounds familiar. You get into your eLearning tool and poke around. The features are interesting. The options are many. And yet, at the end of looking around, you still don't know how to use it. Many tools are not intuitive enough and require extensive training for creating eLearning courses.
Been there? If you're stuck with these hassles and can't act upon, it might be because your eLearning platform doesn't fit well with your internal skills and/or your business needs. To figure out what eLearning tool you should use, it's best to go back to the start and think about what makes your company unique, then find a tool that matches those needs.
We've listed out a few aspects below to get you started, as well as some questions you may want to ask any eLearning provider (including SHIFT!) before making a purchase.
Ease of use:
Ease of use should be a top priority when choosing elearning software. Usually complex, sophisticated, interactive, multimedia eLearning platforms cost a lot of money, take up long development times, and face the risk of becoming outdated by the time they reach the learners. In some opportunities, a simpler solution is more useful since it allows you to respond more quickly to a specific learning need.
However, there are development tools like SHIFT which allows you to have the best of both worlds: create highly interactive content with no technical knowledge at all and in no time. For example, a SHIFT user is able to create, a great looking scenario, perhaps re-creating a sales-client interaction, consisting of several scenes, several dialogues and several characters, easily and with zero technical, flash or programming skills. Creativity is the only required ingredient. (Want to see if for yourself? Go here!)
Before investing in an eLearning development tool, assess your internal skills and resources. If you have a staff member with an elevated programming background, you might do well with a robust tool. If not, it’s best to prioritize something that is easy to use.
The perfect tool should be easy enough for SME’s to develop content, be relatively easy to learn (short learning curve), hopefully no programming skills required, localization should also be easy and straightforward, among others. Also think about your learners. You want to choose a tool that creates courses with flexible and easy-to-use navigation.
Some questions you should ask:
- Is it easy enough for any business or team members to use?
- What’s a higher priority -- a solution that’s robust, or easy to use?
Features set:
The authoring tool you choose has to be more than PPT to Flash or add an audio clip and video clip to the course. Just a clipping once in a while doesn’t make it interactive. It’s clear that usually every feature added to your eLearning program increases the sophistication of your training strategy and adds an additional layer of complexity. But, with SHIFT this changes: you get a robust set of in-tool authoring features that allows you to customize almost any design or learning activity you can imagine in an easy way.
First decide what you want to build and what are your needs. If what you need is a full-featured authoring tool, look for the perfect bundle of features with powerful functionality to create courses in the fewest number of steps. Built-in features is something you should look for because it eliminates the need to use additional programs, for example Camtasia and alike.
SHIFT has several powerful built-in features that makes work so much easier:
- Built--in audio recording and editing studio: The recording studio will crop, optimize and upload the audio files into the course.
- Built-in templates: Comes integrated with over 250 pre-built smart interface interactions to get you started quickly, meaning these layouts automatically configure themselves based on content. Users only have to choose the best interaction for their content, and then add or copy and paste the information in the required fields
- Avatars/Learning Agents: They Learning agents help deliver content in a way that is meaningful to the learner. SHIFT offers a grand variety of avatars to choose from, all automatically lip-synched to the text added in the different screens.
- Scenario Builders: Soft skills make up a great part of a person’s knowledge and sometimes placing them throughout eLearning can be tricky. SHIFT’s Scenario Engine allows users to create their own setting, place characters and develop a real life like dialogue in minutes.
- Security: users, based on profile, are allowed different things, including creating, editing, deleting or just reviewing courses.
- Built in Learning Games and Evaluations: Learning games can be a useful tool when it comes to developing interactive eLearning. SHIFT offers more than 20 different game to choose from as well as a game engine which lets the developer create a game by simply copying and pasting the questions and possible answers into the different fields, all the programming and graphic design is done by SHIFT automatically.
Some questions you should ask:
- Does the feature set bring any extra value to my company?
- What do I need to build and what tools do I need to build it?
Flexibility:
While many different industries are embracing eLearning, they are finding that the platforms need to be flexible enough to deliver the right type of training. Technical companies may need a platform where custom animations can be created for teaching an assembly process, while others may need the ability to bring in videos displaying different human interactions for an HR course.
A truly flexible platform should allow your company to create different types of modules without the need for a dedicated programmer or designer. Up until now, a single lesson may have required the talents of a dozen different people, all with specialized skills (such as Flash animation, programming, etc).
Reusable learning objects and repository is a valuable feature associated with flexibily. Sharing and reutilizing content is very important for companies today. For example with SHIFT each module and screen can be tagged and can then be imported into other courses. Since content is independent from interface, when a module is imported into a new course, all interfaces will be updated to the look and feel of the new course. No rework is necessary, therefore saving tons of money and time.
Some questions you should ask:
- Does it allow you to create customized interactions?
Sure, you have available an extensive list of tools on the market, but you need to choose depending on the instructional design you need to implement, the venues to which you need to deliver, your budget, among other factors. We hope this post helps you to reach a smart decision when picking your next authoring tool.
