Are You New to eLearning? Thoughts on Which eLearning Authoring Tool to Use

Many corporations, government organizations and institutions who provide predominantly classroom training to employees have now been forced to create eLearning and online training modules unexpectedly, in the last month given COVID-19.

To help any organization who is new to eLearning, here are a few tips on what software to use to develop your eLearning, based on our 14 years of experience in this industry. There are many great authoring tools that can be used to create eLearning modules. Some of the top ones include, Articulate Storyline, Captivate and Lectora. Here at Pathways, we use all 3 of these tools to create our eLearning courses and we will determine which tool to use, based on our client’s needs. Often, if our clients have an existing software license to one of these eLearning authoring tools, we will use the same software, to minimize their costs. This allows our clients to open the source code to the eLearning module Pathways created, if they want to make any changes to the course, in the future.

If the client has no preferences for an authoring tool, we love using Articulate Storyline, it is an intuitive and easy to use software for programming eLearning courses. Articulate Storyline is also the simplest to use, to make sure an eLearning module is AODA compliant, and aligns with all accessibility requirements. Furthermore, the thing we love most about Storyline is how easy it can be used, for client eLearning review cycles.

The review feature in Storyline allows a client/reviewer to view an eLearning module and to post comments on each screen. It is a great feature for both internal and external client reviews, as it allows reviewers to post real-time comments on a screen, so everyone knows what others have suggested.

While Lectora and Captivate are also good eLearning authoring tools, we think Articulate Storyline is the best, and easiest for people who are new to developing training in an online environment. If you are interested in more details about how to create interactive activities and animated features in eLearning modules using Storyline, check out many of the blogs by Pathways programming team for detailed processes and notes on how to use this great eLearning authoring tool! #NewToElearning #TorontoElearning #PathwaysTrainingandElearning #onlinelearning