2 key reasons your eLearning authoring tool needs to enable instant content updates featured image
It’s no secret that learning technology requires strategic investment. Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to innovate content delivery—with a particular focus on multi-device/mobile learning support. The right eLearning authoring tool will allow your business to boost engagement across all learning, even when time is in short supply.
If you’re looking for a new tool, there’s a few things to consider. With so many options out there, the process of choosing an authoring tool can seem too complex. Don’t worry! From mobile or multi-device to desktop, the right authoring tool can make content delivery fast and efficient. Here’s how.
1. Instant updates can minimize compliance risks
When you need to get your eLearning content out to thousands of people, waiting around to upload and distribute new or updated courses can be an unnecessary barrier. If you regularly update your courses, you’ll know there’s usually a degree of urgency. Whether those updates communicate key details about major new projects or make small but crucial changes to outdated content.
Looking through a compliance lens, any delay in providing your learners with the latest knowledge can cause considerable problems. You should expect high standards from your authoring tool in these situations. When time is of the essence, creating and distributing content shouldn’t be cumbersome. In fact, you should be able to update your courses in just a couple of clicks.
Think that sounds unlikely when there are massive files to upload? There's a trick for that. We call it the Gomo LMS wrapper. It’s a small file (13KB) that once uploaded, keeps an eye on any changes you make and automatically reflects them across your platforms. This often proves a pleasant surprise for organizations used to repeatedly reuploading full-sized SCORM packages every time an edit is made. We worked with one team who found the time it took them to make updates dropped from weeks to seconds when they used the wrapper.
Discover how to get more bang for your buck. Read:
‘3 ways the Gomo LMS wrapper saves you time and money’2. Instant updates make the delivery of microlearning easier
Microlearning—bite-sized chunks of targeted learning that focus on a specific topic—is one of the main ways you’ll be delivering relevant learning materials, fast. Microlearning courses can help when learner time is stretched thin. Microlearning is also linked to increased engagement and retention rates, as well as being easier to use in targeted learning on more specific topics. However, creating microlearning can be an upload and update-intensive process.
Let’s say you have a large course that learners are interested in, but they don’t have enough time in their schedule to dive in. As long as you have someone that can break each individual topic down into seperate microlearning modules, you can make that critical content accessible to a wider audience. However, every microlearning module you create will need to be newly uploaded. One course may become five or more courses, and when errors are found or details are updated, you may be re-uploading several modules where once you were re-uploading just a single course. Scale this up across your entire content library, and you’ll see the issue.
Of course, the benefits of microlearning are definitely worth this effort! And what if you could reap these rewards without having to wait to upload and check everything you add or alter? Instant content updates eliminate this downtime.
Interested in more ways microlearning can help? Check out:
‘6 ways microlearning can boost engagement’Expect more from your authoring tool
When you’re evaluating an authoring tool, always ask:
- How quickly is new or updated content seen by our learners?
- How fast and secure are the servers hosting and distributing our learning content?
- Will we have to republish an entire course every time any changes are needed, no matter how small they are?
- How much time do we currently spend on huge file transfers and SCORM uploads, and does this tool dramatically reduce those sizes and lag times?
If the answer to any of these questions creates more questions or inefficiencies for your organization, it’s a warning sign that the authoring tool you’re looking at isn’t the best solution for you!