Imagine walking into an Apple store. There’s no mistaking where you are.
That’s the feeling you want to give your employees when they take your e-learning courses, designed specifically for your company.
Having a specific voice and feel can be invaluable to your team and your business.
And having the right content creation solution can be vital in ensuring your e-learning courses all have that “it-factor” that makes your company stand out from the competition.
But how do you know what e-learning authoring tool to choose?
Well, we've created a guide to walk you through how to choose an e-learning authoring tool that matches your requirements to help make the process easy.
Map out your requirements
Not all e-learning authoring tools are built the same. Actually, each content authoring tool has different features and functionality.
That’s why when choosing an e-learning authoring tool it’s best to ask what you need from it.
After all, every business has unique instructional design needs. The goal is to find a course authoring tool that matches your requirements as closely as possible.
There are many important requirements for e-learning authoring tools, but here are some worth considering:
Technical specs
The technical specifications you'll want for your e-learning authoring tool will depend on the team you already have in place or the people you plan to hire to do the actual e-learning development work.
If you already have an established team of IT pros and subject matter experts (SMEs) to create your training content, then their skill set will affect your options.
For example, does your IT team work with Microsoft Windows, Mac, or another operating system? You'll need the software to be compatible.
Is the authoring tool code-heavy or drag-and-drop? Does it use the same programming language as they do?
If you don't have anyone familiar with e-learning software, you'll want something with more beginner-friendly, easy-to-use features like templates to make it easy for team members who aren't tech-savvy.
User needs
You can have the best e-learning authoring tool out there, but if there’s no ease of use, or features to make training easy for your employees, then what’s the point?
The last thing you want is for the authoring software itself to create barriers for the end user that would negatively impact the learning experience.
Learning should be inclusive and accessible. So your authoring software should include accessibility features like closed captioning, text-to-speech, and variable fonts and letter sizes during course creation to make it easy for all employees to learn.
Some authoring software includes tools to administer online courses via mobile learning apps or desktop programs. Make sure they are user-friendly enough for your employees.
The user interface (UI) should be intuitive even if the learners have the skills or familiarity to use more complex options.
A user-friendly interface is key to good outcomes because when all employees feel equipped to learn, everyone wins.
Formats and media types
These terms cover multiple requirement types. Formats can refer to many things in this context.
Firstly, there's the format of the authoring tool itself. There are cloud-based authoring tools that you can access from anywhere.
Some tools require going to a specific site to use. Others are apps that you download to your users' computers or mobile devices. Find the format that works best for you.
Next, you have the formats they support. You may want a text-based training program, and that's all you need.
However, having visual and interactive elements in your modules can improve the learning experience. You may want the ability to add multimedia elements to illustrate your points.
Many e-learning authoring tools use HTML5 to make it easy to add multimedia without the need to use plug-ins like Adobe Flash.
Many online training courses use a variety of media types like infographics, explanatory animations, PowerPoint slides, and videos like screen recordings to make clear step-by-step tutorials.
Make sure your choice supports all the types of content you need.
Learning requirements
Here is where you consider what you want the final learning experience to be like.
The software you end up using to create your courses has to support the learning types that match your training needs.
Current best practices include using social learning elements like collaborative learning and gamification features.
This can include user profiles, awards, and achievements to unlock, as well as competitive elements like points and leaderboards.
Many businesses choose to do 100% online learning. However, others prefer blended learning.
You'll also want to consider the content you'll need outside of the courses themselves. This can include things like assessments and quizzes.
Whatever you choose, your authoring tool needs to make it easy to create the content you need.
Support options
When deciding how to choose an e-learning authoring tool that works for you, you can't forget about the customer support that each choice offers.
To find out what support they offer and how helpful it is, look into user reviews.
The tool's website usually lists its support options. However, to get the truth about how their support teams treat customers, user reviews are the most reliable.
There are also dedicated sites like Capterra and G2 that assess and compare software options to help you learn how to choose an e-learning authoring tool.
These sites are reputable and well-known for being thorough and helpful. They often have sections dedicated to displaying user reviews or ratings and assessing customer support specifically.
Some e-learning authoring software options have different tiers of customer support.
This may be linked to the number of users you have or the authoring plan you choose. It isn't uncommon for higher support service levels to cost more.
Consider how well-versed your team is with this kind of business software and how much help they will likely need. The less experience they have, the more help they might require.
Compatibility with other tools
Interoperability is key.
Your e-learning authoring tool has to work with the software you already use and/or plan to use. Ideally, the software will fit seamlessly into your workflow without any trouble.
Many software options now use SCORM technical standards rather than the more outdated AICC framework to ensure that tools like e-learning authoring software and learning management systems (LMS) can work together easily.
xAPI is an even newer alternative to SCORM. Tools that use xAPI—frequently referred to as Tin Can API—make it easy to collect and share data between tools.
This can be crucial to understanding your learners' experience with your training and seeing what the learning curve is like.
Whatever framework your tool uses, make sure it integrates with all the tools you currently use.
Also, consider what tools you might need and how many users and learners you'll have as your business grows. Scalability is important for all business software.
It's vital to think ahead so you don't have to switch later.
Determine your budget
Once you have all the requirements you'll need, you'll have to think about how much you want to spend.
You may have a hard limit on your e-learning authoring software budget if funds are in short supply.
But if you have a larger business with more leeway, you may have a range or ballpark figure for what you're willing to spend.
However you decide your budget, have the specifics ready to compare to the pricing of different options.
Navigate the give-and-take
You may find that you can't get everything you want for the price you can afford.
This might require some sacrifices or flexibility in either your requirements or your budget. There may also be features you didn't consider when making your requirement list but that you really want now that you've heard them.
As they say, no plan survives the battlefield.
To solve this issue of price versus features, start by weighing your requirements by priority.
Put the most important on top and the least important at the bottom. If you want to get really specific, you can even rate each one on a priority scale of one to five.
Then, look through your software options. See if there's anything that has all your top requirements. Figure out which option provides the most functionality you require.
When you use the rating scale, you can add up the points on all the features of each tool to see which one has the highest score.
This is great for tools that provide a mix of your high- and low-priority requirements.
You may need to consider hard choices like asking if getting your number one requirement is worth sacrificing your bottom three.
Now over to you: Choose an e-learning authoring tool that best fits your needs
In all likelihood, no option will be perfect.
Every business is so different, and every tool has a mix of feature options. However, there's no reason that you can't find something that meets the vast majority of your needs within your budget.
Integrations are a great way to adapt your authoring tool to your needs. This can get you much closer to your ideal.
Using these steps for how to choose an e-learning authoring tool should make the search for the right e-learning authoring tool much easier and more streamlined.
Did you know that some LMS options have built-in e-learning authoring tools?
Docebo is a learning platform with AI e-learning authoring tools to help you create training content in minutes not hours. Plus Docebo also offers an eCommerce integration that can allow you to unlock the earning potential of your e-learning content!
Online Courses Australia (OCA) leveraged Docebo’s platform to streamline course management, support white-label B2B solutions, and boost engagement.
Switching from Moodle to Docebo, OCA was able to quickly white-label courses for clients, leading to a 5x increase in B2B licensing revenue.
With Docebo’s eCommerce and subscription features, OCA upsold courses seamlessly, driving higher engagement rates (up to 60% from 40%) and boosting course completions from 20% to 33%.
Additionally, Docebo’s user-friendly interface saved OCA 30-40% in L&D maintenance costs and significantly reduced support tickets.
Want to learn more about AI authoring and eCommerce integrations? Contact us with any questions about how we can help your business, or book a demo today!