If you work for an enterprise organization, you will understand the pressures that come with this territory. You have a rapidly evolving business to keep up with, thousands of employees to train, and globally dispersed teams to involve. It’s no wonder many enterprise organizations are looking to streamline their L&D approach, often turning to elearning as the obvious solution. But what exactly is enterprise elearning? Why is it so suitable for these work environments? And how do you choose the right tools to make your elearning strategy successful? Read on to find out. 

What is enterprise elearning?

Enterprise elearning is a broad term that might mean different things to different organizations. As a loose definition, it refers to using digital content, software, and cloud-based platforms to facilitate learning within a large corporation. This learning could be delivered to employees, third parties, customers, or any other type of stakeholder.

An enterprise elearning strategy typically involves creating online courses through an authoring tool and then organizing and delivering them through a Learning Management System (LMS). 

Examples of enterprise elearning 

You can create and host any kind of learning experience for your organization with elearning. But the types of elearning courses you might expect to see within enterprise organizations include things like:

• Compliance training: Elearning authoring tools can quickly create informative compliance courses, allowing you to keep up with the regulatory and legal landscape. These courses can be rolled out company-wide, providing employee certification in key areas such as health and safety, financial crime, and data protection. Check out this example of compliance training.
  
• Product knowledge training: Using enterprise learning tools, you can create engaging courses about your organization’s products and services to help your sales and marketing team understand their key features, thus enhancing the impact of your enterprise learning academy. An example of product knowledge training can be seen here.
  
• Sales training: In addition to product knowledge, sales employees and third-party distributors need the appropriate soft skills to promote these offerings and close deals. Elearning courses can help with this, using techniques like interactive scenarios so learners can practice navigating real customer conversations. You can see an example of sales training here.
  
• Process training: Enterprise organizations will likely be hot on SOPs and policies. Whether that’s how to manage a project, implement change, or conduct a risk assessment, these things are important to get right. Elearning can help break down these tasks into smaller parts and provide fun and engaging ways to reinforce key information. Plus, courses can be created and rolled out quickly, aligning with your evolving business needs. You can see an example of process training here. 

Find more great examples of enterprise elearning courses here. 

Why is enterprise elearning important?

For 96% of learning leaders, digital learning is rated as important or very important to their overall L&D strategy. But why is elearning so essential for enterprise organizations? 

Firstly, think about the number of learners. You may have tens of thousands of employees spread across the globe who need to receive training in an accessible way. Your target learners might include customers and third parties (such as suppliers or distributors), increasing this number even more in the enterprise learning industry. You need cost-efficient and accessible methods of reaching these audiences. 

Then, consider the diversity of training needs; Your organization will be split into many business areas requiring specialist knowledge and skillsets. With so many competencies to deliver against, you may need to develop and deliver many courses quickly. 

Then think about how dispersed your experts are; You may have SMEs across different locations, business areas, and time zones, whose knowledge needs to come together to produce the most informative and relevant content. You need a central location – a single point of truth – through which SMEs and L&D experts can develop content together.

Then look at things from a learner’s point of view; Within a large organization like yours, employees are likely to feel overwhelmed with training for things like onboarding, processes, systems and software, and compliance. They may have monthly training assignments to tackle – and firm deadlines in which to do it. They need courses that will inspire rather than drain them whilst giving them the information they need. 

You can learn more about corporations’ training needs in this article. 

6 benefits of enterprise elearning

You’ve explored enterprise companies’ L&D needs. Now, let’s focus on how enterprise elearning can meet these needs. Here are just some of the benefits of implementing an elearning strategy.

1. Improve business performance 

Enterprise elearning makes it quick and easy to develop and roll out training. Most authoring tools have a user-friendly interface and offer pre-configured templates to help speed up your course production. This means you can respond to your organization’s ever-changing needs and close skills gaps promptly, allowing you to stay ahead in a competitive market. 

Furthermore, learning online makes it easy to deliver and track online assessments, so you can be sure your learners have acquired the skills they need to tackle your latest business challenges. 

2. Engage employees 

Enterprise elearning solutions put the power in your learners’ hands. They provide them with relevant training content that can be accessed from any device and location at their own pace. This helps ensure all your employees are fulfilling their roles to the best of their potential and have the opportunity to further their careers. Which in turn will boost engagement across your organization.

And of course, with the right tools, your content creators can develop learning experiences that aren’t just informative but motivating, using things like personalized learning and gamification. So, instead of feeling entrapped by long-winded classroom training or archaic ‘click-next-to-continue’ courses, your learners will have an interactive approach to learning and development.    

3. Reduce turn over

82% of employees who have access to relevant training at the point of need and who feel engaged and inspired by these materials are more likely to stay in your organization. 

Closing skills gaps and ensuring employee competency will also make life easier for managers, who will feel a greater sense of job satisfaction and loyalty to your brand.

Happy employees and happy managers mean reduced staff turnover.

4. Reach global audiences 

Elearning platforms enable you to host content in one location and reach employees worldwide. All your learners need is an internet connection. 

Moreover, most platforms can be accessed in different languages, making them a great choice for global enterprises. Many will also provide features to support elearning translations so you can tailor your courses to learners worldwide.

5. Meet compliance requirements

Elearning transforms compliance training, making it both accessible and engaging. However, creating courses is only one aspect. Hosting and tracking these courses on an enterprise elearning platform ensures all employees complete this essential training. 

This approach helps you tick all the boxes to meet regulatory requirements.

6. Pool resources and expertise 

Elearning within enterprise settings offers substantial benefits by pooling resources and expertise across the organization. Using software, like elearning authoring tools and LMSs allows for the collaborative creation and sharing of knowledge, leveraging employees’ collective skills and experiences. 

By harnessing the diversity of expertise available within the organisation, elearning facilitates the development of comprehensive training materials that cover a wide range of topics and perspectives. This enhances the learning experience and promotes a culture of continuous learning and development.

How to implement enterprise elearning

So, you’ve decided you want to implement enterprise elearning. What are the key considerations and decisions that need to be made?

Decide on your needs

Before you pick your tools, you should consider your business needs.

Firstly, think about your users (that’s your learners, your content creators, and your content administrators):

• What languages do you need to support?
• Are your target learners all employees, or will they include suppliers, distributors, and/or customers as well? Do you need to target these groups separately? 
• How many learners, content creators, and administrators do you need to support?
• What are your content creators’ and administrators’ capabilities? Will they need tools that are easy to set up and configure? Will they need advanced technical support?

Think about what content you have or need to create: 

• Will you be creating bespoke training or using out-of-the-box courses? 
• Does your content lend itself to particular formats (systems training, videos, or microlearning)?
• Do you have virtual classroom sessions or other types of training content, such as PDF guides, videos, PowerPoint decks, etc., that you’d like to host alongside your elearning courses? 
• How much content do you need to create and/or host?
• What data and insights will you want to obtain regarding these learning experiences?

Then consider technological factors:

• Does your organization use other software and tools that must be integrated with your online learning platform/s?
• Will your content creators have a decent internet connection and bandwidth to access the elearning provider’s resources without interruptions? 
• How do your learners usually access content? Will they just be using PCs, or might they want to use mobile devices?

Pick an LMS

Then, you need to choose an LMS. Administrators use these platforms to house and manage their content, deliver it to learners, and obtain data about course completions and reach.  

In looking for an enterprise LMS, keep an eye out for these capabilities:

• Enabling fast and easy content updates to reflect the changing nature of your business and training needs. 
• Delivering a solid mobile learning experience so learners can access content on the go and at the point of need (some may provide a separate mobile app).
• Integrating seamlessly with other applications enables you to house and track content from other platforms and use applications to schedule events, access databases, join video conferences, and more. 
• Enables you to pull this content and experience into learning pathways that can be assigned to learners. 
• Tracking content completion and providing detailed reports about who is accessing and completing what, as well as learner certification. 
• Making content delivery fun. (Many LMSs now use gamification elements, such as leaderboards, points, and badges, to drive learner engagement.)
• Using cloud services with unlimited storage space to host your content.
• Being highly customizable, so you can accurately reflect your organization’s brand. 
• Being available in different languages to support globally dispersed learners and administrators. 
• Offering advanced features to support social learning and user-generated content. 

In deciding whether an LMS is right for your organization, consider requesting a product demo, exploring case studies on the company’s website, and reading third-party reviews. 

This article about alternative to LMS can help you understand more about elearning plaforms.

Pick an authoring tool

As an enterprise organization, you might have existing content (PDFs, videos, PowerPoint decks, and virtual training sessions) that you want to host via your LMS. However, your learning strategy will mostly consist of online courses, which means you’ll need an authoring tool to create them.

In picking an authoring tool for an enterprise organization, look out for a product with the following capabilities: 

• Providing a vast scope for customization, so you can design your layouts, colours, fonts, etc, to match your brand. 
• Offering a rich authoring toolkit and the ability to create elearning experiences, such as games and personalized learning.
• Providing options to simplify the authoring experience for your novice content creators.
• Offering features dedicated to speeding up content development.

• Facilitating a streamlined approach to content reviews and collaboration, preferably using cloud storage. 
• Allowing authors to share templates and assets easily.
• Offering payment plans that reflect economies of scale.

To decide whether an authoring tool is right for you, inquire about a free trial, see a product demo, and look for case studies of success stories. 

Top three enterprise elearning authoring tools

We have given you a head start in picking your authoring tool by reviewing the three top products below.

Elucidat

Elucidat is designed with enterprise organizations in mind. Here’s why…

For a start, Elucidat makes content creation a breeze so you can match the pace of your evolving business needs. It offers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface, automatic mobile optimization, and ready-made templates so your authors can create courses as quickly and easily as necessary. 

Unlike many other authoring tools, with Elucidat, speed and usability are not at the expense of content quality. It supports a wide range of learning experiences, such as personalized learning, gamification, and social learning, so your authors can create highly engaging, people-centred content to retain your learners’ interest.

What’s more, Elucidat makes collaboration between team members seamless; cloud-based authoring means authors, graphic artists, and SMEs can work on the same course simultaneously, and all their contributions can be published instantly to a live version. You can even use Advanced User Management to control what each type of user does, ensuring everyone works to their strengths. 

It’s easy to ensure consistency when your teams are working at scale; your authors can set up your Brand Style and make it available for reuse across projects. What’s more, with Guided Authoring, your design experts can share pre-approved company templates packed with inline guidance with your authors, helping you open up production across your organization.

Finally, Elucidat is great for global businesses. The interface is available in multiple languages, and the Auto-Translate feature instantly translates course content into one of 75 different languages, making it one of the most competitive authoring tools for course translations. 

Try Elucidat today

Articulate 360 (Storyline 360 and Rise 360)

Storyline 360 is a desktop tool with a PowerPoint-style slide-based approach to learning development. Pretty much any type of interaction can be created in Storyline 360, meaning content can be as bespoke and people-centred as required—it’s just about taking the time to learn the ropes. However, because Storyline is a desktop tool, collaboration can be very difficult. Authors will have to work locally and upload their courses for review, and there’s no easy way of sharing assets or branding between teams.

If you want to work faster and more collaboratively, Rise 360 is a better option. It provides a more simplistic, cloud-based approach to authoring. Plus, courses are saved centrally to be shared and edited amongst team members easily. However, there’s not much you can do with Rise 360 beyond the set interactions, which means the main drawback of using Rise 360 to create courses at scale is that the learning experiences may start to feel quite repetitive to your audiences. The interface is also only available in English, making it unsuitable for global teams.

Overall, the Articulate 360 package may be good for enterprises who want to switch between Storyline 360 and Rise 360, but if you need one tool to cover all bases, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

For a full review, you can check out our Elucidat vs Articulate review.

iSpring

iSpring Suite is a desktop authoring tool built into PowerPoint. It serves the general needs of enterprises well, mostly because it’s designed to simplify course creation. It offers straightforward video and audio creation functions, a PowerPoint converter, and an AI assistant, all of which help speed up authoring. 

However, creating people-centred learning experiences with iSpring can be more challenging, as there aren’t many interactions available, and the customization options are limited. Moreover, being a desktop tool means you can’t instantly publish courses or share templates or content between authors, so it may not be the best choice for working at scale. 

We have reviewed Elucidat vs iSpring Suite in this article.

For a wider snapshot of the best authoring tools on the market, have a look at our latest review.  

Why choose Elucidat for your enterprise elearning needs?

Elucidat is designed specifically for enterprise organizations. It is easy to use, so you can onboard new authors quickly, meet your ever-changing business needs, and create high-quality, people-centred courses.

Even better, Elucidat makes it easy for teams to collaborate and work at scale. Your authors can share elearning templates, instantly publish courses for review, and roll out global content updates while your administrators have the controls to keep everything in check. 

So, when it comes to enterprise elearning, while other authoring tools may just tick a few boxes, Elucidat fully passes the test. 

Find out more about Elucidat for enterprises by booking a demo or starting a free trial today.

Choosing the right elearning authoring tool for your business can feel overwhelming. With a vast range of platforms, software, and systems on offer, you’ll need to really think about what your organizational goals are and exactly what features each platform offers – and at what price. This handy guide will help you compare the 12 most popular corporate elearning platforms on the market, so you can find your perfect match!

We have reviewed 12 of the best elearning authoring tools against the following criteria: quality of output, speed and efficiency of authoring, and scaling up of elearning production.

Read on to discover: 

• What are elearning authoring tools? 
• Is elearning software different to an authoring tool?
• Why do you need an authoring tool?
• Features of authoring tools
• Types of authoring tools
• Criteria for evaluating the best authoring tools
• 12 elearning authoring tools & software to consider
• Best elearning authoring tools – detailed review & comparison
• Business use cases for elearning software
• Conclusion
• Further Information

What are elearning authoring tools?

Elearning authoring tools are pieces of training and development software that enable the creation of digital learning content. This could be as simple as creating a Microsoft Word document, or as complex as a graphic design tool.

Instructional designers in L&D teams use elearning authoring tools to create training materials for their employees, which might cover compliance, onboarding, hard and soft skills, etc. These will typically be in the form of elearning courses, including features like click-to-reveal interactions, quizzes, and personalized and gamified content in more recent years.

Is elearning software different from an authoring tool?

Elearning software is a broad term that could be used to refer to many elements within a learning technology stack. Within the elearning software category, you’ll find software that focuses on different aspects of digital learning. For example:

• Elearning authoring tools, that are used to create effective, engaging corporate elearning courses.
• Learning Management Systems (LMSs), that automate the administration, testing, tracking, and reporting of these courses.
• Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs), that are a one-stop-shop for creating, hosting, managing, and delivering content. These days, LCMSs can have all the benefits of an authoring tool, which is why some LCMSs, can be referred to as both an LCMS and an authoring tool.

Read more about the key differences in our guide to choosing the best LMS platform.

Why do you need an elearning authoring tool?

Unsure whether you need elearning authoring software to meet your workplace objectives? Here are the top five benefits you can expect to see from an authoring tool:

1. Allows you to personalize your content and adopt a people-centered approach to learning;
2. Enables you to collaborate with your team effectively, allowing authors, SMEs and stakeholders to work together seamlessly;
3. Makes it easy to roll out corporate elearning courses in different locations and update content to comply with new regulations quickly and with ease;
4. Allows you to continually improve your elearning courses by analyzing data and collating feedback on how your content performs;
5. Enables you to adapt to new demands and produce supporting digital learning content quickly.

Authoring tools features

Once you’ve decided elearning authoring software is the answer, you need to find the right tool. There are a number of features you need to consider:

• User-friendly interface: An intuitive interface means you can start building content straight away. Some products offer a free trial, so you can assess how easy it will be to build, share, duplicate, and update content.
• Collaboration capability: Effective collaboration produces better learning courses. Find out whether the authoring tool supports multiple users building, reviewing, and amending courses at the same time. Also, how easy it is to share your bespoke templates and company assets for re-use across your content and authoring teams. 
• Translation and localization features: If you’re reaching international learners, you’ll want to create courses in the right languages. Check to see whether the tool has a translations workflow – and even better, an auto-translate feature. Some tools also offer course variation functionality to help you manage localized or translated versions of a course.
• Authoring toolkit: If you’re looking for people-centered learning experiences, you might want to explore what options the tool provides for things like gamification and personalized learning. Check out some of the example courses created by the tool to get a good idea of the content output. 
• Ready-made templates: Expert-designed templates can help you choose the best interactions for your learning and save you time in development. Explore the templates the tool offers and how it recommends these to you. 
• Scope for customization: Some tools are designed to offer granular control over course layouts (the course interface, colors, fonts, positioning of assets etc.) – but at the expense of being complicated to use. Some offer more of a compromise. Take a look at user reviews of each tool to see what scope for customization there is, and how complex it’s likely to get. 
• Multi-device: Nowadays learners want to complete content on any device. Find out whether the tool produces content that works across desktop, tablet, and mobile and what additional effort authors need to invest to optimize the learning experience for these devices.

Types of authoring tools

There are many different elearning authoring tools to choose from. Understanding which type of tool is best suited to your organization could be a good starting point. Take a look at the different solutions available and find the best fit for you:

• Cloud-based tools: Flexible online or web-based authoring tools that allow authors to collaborate and work on the same digital learning content simultaneously. No installation is required, and all edits are saved to the cloud.
• Desktop-based tools: Powerful authoring tools that are run locally on desktops and require a download. These elearning platforms are typically run offline, meaning all edits are saved locally.
• Open-source tools: Web authoring tools where the original source code is made freely available. This gives flexibility to experienced developers who want to dig into complex code.
• Authoring tools built into Learning Management Systems (LMS): Simple elearning authoring tools that are included as part of an LMS package. They are often simple to use but limited in output.
• Free tools: Authoring tools with no cost required to start creating elearning – this often results in decreased quality and lack of scalability.

Criteria for evaluating the best elearning authoring tools

What makes a great elearning authoring tool? In this guide, the key criteria we have used to assess the best authoring tools are:

Quality of elearning output:

• The level of customization available
• The variety of formats to choose from
• Whether in-built design guidance is offered
• Options for gamification, personalization, and social polling 
• The level of data and reporting offered 

Speed and efficiency:

• How quickly you can produce high-quality elearning that’s optimized for all devices
• Collaboration options for streamlining the feedback process 
• Whether multiple authors can work on a project simultaneously
• The level of authoring experience required 
• How quickly you can publish and update courses 
• Whether there’s a translation workflow and/or auto-translate feature

Scalability:

• How easy it is to reuse, copy, and scale your corporate elearning content
• The level of control you have over your authors 
• Cost-efficiency for producing elearning content at scale
• Options to update assets and branding centrally

12 elearning authoring tools to consider

In this review, we’ll be taking a deeper dive into 12 online learning software examples you might want to consider. Specifically, we’ll be looking at: 

1. Elucidat – Helps teams to create an impactful elearning quickly and easily by unlocking expertise from any employee
2. Adobe Captivate – Gives experienced authors the power to create high-quality content
3. Articulate Storyline 360 – Ideal for individual users who prefer PowerPoint, with an added layer of customization
4. Articulate Rise 360 – Users with access to Articulate 360 can produce simple elearning courses fairly quickly
5. Gomo – Best for experienced learning designers that are not looking for advanced customization
6. Lectora – Gives traditional, capable authors an effective tool for producing HTML5 content
7. Adapt – Designed for technical authors who are looking to design bespoke HTML5 authoring through back-end design
8. DominKnow – Perfect for teams whose focus is on responsive screen capture and software simulation
9. Easygenerator – Authoring software designed for learning teams who need to create elearning content, easily
10. iSpring Suite – Desktop PowerPoint-based tool that’s a great option for novice learning designers who don’t have to worry about updating content regularly
11. Evolve – Built for teams who need to collaborate together and don’t mind putting in the time to learn how to use it
12. Camtasia – Video editing suite most commonly used for screen recordings, tutorials or product demos.

Save time comparing elearning software companies by downloading our authoring tool comparison template. We’ve completed the Elucidat column for you!

And here’s a handy comparison table to help you along.

Elearning software	Type of solution	Quality of output	Speed	Scalability
1. Elucidat	Elearning authoring platform	High	Fast	High
2. Adobe Captivate	Standalone authoring tool	High	Slow	Low
3. Articulate Storyline	Authoring suite	Medium	Slow	Low
4. Articulate Rise	Online authoring tool	Low	Fast	Medium
5. Gomo	Online authoring tool	Medium	Fast	High
6. Lectora	Standalone authoring tool	Medium	Slow	Medium
7. Adapt	Online authoring tool	Low	Fast	Medium
8. DominKnow	Online authoring tool	High	Average	Medium
9. Easygenerator	Online authoring tool	Medium	Fast	Medium
10. iSpring Suite	Authoring suite	Medium	Average	Medium
11. Evolve	Online authoring tool	Medium	Fast	Medium
12. Camtasia	Video authoring software	Medium	Medium	Low

Best elearning authoring tools – detailed review & comparison

1. Elucidat

Elucidat makes it easier for ambitious teams to produce quality workplace learning at scale. Being a fully cloud-based elearning authoring platform, organizations can open up and streamline their elearning production– without sacrificing quality.

With Elucidat you can empower anyone of any skill level to create digital learning ready for any device. From product training to compliance – Elucidat helps reduce costs and increase business performance. Read our guidelines to elearning best practices here.

Get to know Elucidat in this short video:

2. Adobe Captivate

Captivate is a desktop application known for its advanced authoring capabilities, particularly in creating simulations and systems training. However, it comes with a steep learning curve and isn’t set up well for collaborative working.

3. Articulate Storyline 360

Storyline 360 is a desktop tool that’s purchased as part of the Articulate 360 suite and uses a PowerPoint-style slide-based approach to elearning development. It’s very flexible in terms of what you can create, though comes with a steep learning curve and limitations when working collaboratively.

4. Articulate Rise 360

Rise 360 is a web-based authoring tool included as part of an Articulate 360 suite. It’s designed to be really easy to use and great for creating mobile-friendly learning experiences, but offers a limited authoring toolkit.

5. Gomo

Gomo is a cloud-based authoring tool that allows you to create web-style content that’s automatically optimized for mobile users. It’s a great tool for collaboration but there are a few small hurdles and restrictions in regards to authoring. 

6. Lectora Online

Lectora Online is an authoring tool by ELB Learning, that sits alongside it’s desktop equivalent. It can be powerful when you know how to use it, but comes with a steeper learning curve than many of the other tools.

7. Adapt Learning

Adapt is a free elearning authoring tool that creates responsive HTML5 content.

There are two component parts to the Adapt offering: The Adapt Framework is an open-source, front-end framework designed for use by developers. The Adapt Authoring Tool is the web-based application aimed at your average instructional designer with no coding experience. Neither can be used to host content – you’ll need an LMS for this.

8. DominKnow ONE

DominKnow ONE brings together its traditional authoring tool, Claro, with its responsive authoring tool and simulation creator, DominKnow Flow. This elearning software offers a vast authoring toolkit as well as some handy features for working at scale, though it may not be the easiest tool to pick up.

9. Easygenerator

Easygenerator is an elearning platform focused on creating straightforward digital learning content quickly. It doesn’t host content for you, making it more difficult to make content updates, though does benefit from some cloud-based collaboration features.

10. iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite is a desktop-based authoring tool that integrates with PowerPoint. While it’s easy for seasoned PowerPoint users to start using, it’s worth bearing in mind some technical hurdles, including that the tool is optimized for use on PC rather than Mac.

11. Evolve

Evolve is an online digital learning authoring tool designed for novice authors. It makes it quick and easy to create simple courses, though isn’t so efficient when creating very bespoke, large-scale content.

12. Camtasia

Camtasia is an all-in-one software suite for screen recording and video editing. Although foremost a video capture tool, content can also be exported as SCORM packages.

Due to its primary focus on video, Camtasia does not perform all the usual functions of an authoring tool, and so is often integrated, or used alongside other elearning authoring software.

Business use cases for elearning software

Elearning software can be utilized in a number of ways, across multiple business verticals to provide impact. We’ve highlighted some areas below: 

Compliance training

For finance companies, providing engaging, digestible compliance training is critical. Elearning software enables organizations to produce powerful elearning material at scale, and quickly, to keep pace with the ever-changing regulatory landscape. 

Retail training

Keeping pace in a rapidly shifting industry such as retail can be impossible without the right elearning software. With the right tool, retail companies can produce exceptional learning that addresses the big challenges and ever-changing needs of retail customers. 

Sales training 

Educating employees on effective sales methods and tactics is important for organizations looking to boost sales and attract the right type of customer. Authoring tools can help company managers to produce and manage highly customizable, branded digital learning at scale.

Employee upskilling 

Organizations looking to provide employees with goal-oriented online training designed around specific skills should take advantage of authoring tools in order to track employee engagement, success rates, and the impact of their elearning.

In conclusion

There’s a lot of overlap in the functionality of the best elearning authoring tools shown here, but your requirements – such as the quality and scale at which you want to produce digital learning – will narrow down your shortlist. Ultimately, finding the best corporate elearning authoring software for you and your team will depend on your needs.

If you need to produce high-quality content at scale, then an authoring tool like Elucidat would be a great fit for you.

Let us know your specific authoring needs, book a demo to learn more, and get set up with a free trial account.

Further information

To help you make the right choice and also to get you thinking about your wider elearning tech stack and strategy, check out some of our other top content:

Overview of tools that includes LMS’s:

• Choosing the best SCORM compliant LMS 
• How to implement an effective employee training program
• The free elearning templates that will save you hours
• A guide to HTML5 elearning authoring tools
• The 8 best SCORM authoring tools

Following years of transformation in response to COVID-19, more challenges and changes are on the way. Faced with increased economic pressure, businesses are rethinking their strategies. While organizations’ learning needs are growing, budgets are limited. So, how can Learning & Development (L&D) do more with less, and even thrive during a recession? Read on to find out.

How the recession will impact L&D

Over the past couple of years, businesses have had to deal with many challenges. A global pandemic, political chaos, unpredictable markets, the Great Resignation… the list could go on. The economic pressure this has created means big changes for organizations. Budgets will be cut. Headcount will decrease. 

It’s no secret that L&D is often one of the first departments to come under pressure in a recession, and L&D teams are already struggling. According to research by the Brandon Hall Group, over half of L&D teams don’t have enough budget, time and people. If cuts are made in haste, they could seriously impair productivity at a time when companies need it most. 

The response to the pandemic has shown how L&D is fundamental to navigating periods of change. So, it’s not surprising that the Brandon Hall Group found that 66% of organizations place competencies and skill development as their number one focus in 2022. With limited budgets, that means L&D will be asked to do more with less.

Navigating the impending downturn

If your organization wants to survive the downturn and even come out stronger, they need to start preparing and driving efficiency now. 

For L&D teams, that means exploring new processes and technologies that can enable: 

• Working at scale: If you need to increase output or respond quickly to change, you need technology that supports you. Otherwise, you may have to outsource production to meet your business needs. This increased cost isn’t desirable during an economic downturn and may not even be possible. 
• Capturing expertise: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and stakeholders are essential to the success of all your organization’s learning. Before any redundancies are made or roles shifted, you need to capture their expertise and make it easily shareable. If this doesn’t happen, you risk new skill gaps emerging. Getting SMEs directly involved in producing learning is a quicker, more cost effective way to future-proof your organization. Find out more about how you can do this with Collaborative Content Creation. 
• Maintaining quality: Under pressure with a growing backlog of training requests, L&D teams can cut corners to meet demand. Stakeholders may even take things into their own hands. This decreases the effectiveness of the learning. It doesn’t solve the skills shortage issue any quicker and may even make the problem worse.
• Creating impact: Whether you’re struggling to respond at speed and scale or maintain quality, ultimately, it means employees aren’t getting the learning they need to succeed in their roles. This widens the existing skill gap and can have an even bigger business impact when workforce reductions are occurring.

4 ways L&D can thrive during a recession (and cut costs)

To respond to changing needs at speed and scale and, of course, with impact, L&D teams need to be flexible and ready to adapt their approach. 

Here are 4 key things you can do now to make sure you’re ready.

1. Reduce dependency on external suppliers

Bringing more learning production inhouse can considerably reduce your budget. It means less money is spent with expensive external agencies, freelancers and contractors. 

While agency-created content can be high quality, it’s often a long and expensive process to create and maintain. Off-the-shelf content can be quick to deploy, but usually lacks relevance and can offer very little return on investment. With the right processes and technology in place, inhouse elearning production puts you in control and enables you to work at speed and scale to produce impactful learning experiences.

2. Maximize the power of your people

Empowering every employee to produce effective learning content increases your output without increasing your costs. Capturing internal expertise and experience also has longer term benefits by ensuring critical business knowledge and experience is retained even when people leave. 

Of course, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are content experts not learning designers. They’re also used to sharing their expertise face-to-face, rather than digitally. So, you need tools and techniques to support them to turn their expertise into effective learning. 

Find out how you can do this with our blogs on how to involve SMEs and transform the way you work together.

3. Minimize inefficiencies

Working at an enterprise-level of scale requires effective collaborative workflows. Whether you’re gathering content or reviewing a course, collaboration will enable you to speed up and reduce inefficiencies at each stage of the process.

Before you open up elearning production to people across your organization, you need to establish efficient processes and effective technologies. Doing this from the start will make things run more smoothly. It allows your new elearning creators to focus on the knowledge they want to share and avoid technical errors and visual inconsistencies. 

As the L&D experts, you and your team can have oversight, maintain control and reduce risk. Want to explore more ways to efficiently meet demand. Read our blog on how to scale up production. 

4. Locate and fill skill gaps

Following a year when people quit their jobs at historic rates, we’re entering another period of workforce reductions.  Critical business knowledge could be lost overnight. The skill gaps that already exist could get a lot worse, and new ones will appear.  

This means your organization’s backlog of learning is about to increase. If you’re not ready to adapt, these learning needs will not be met and serious business and compliance risk is introduced.

You need to take control of the backlog of learning content. By empowering any employee to create learning, you and your team are freed up to take on the role of strategic oversight. That means building up a roadmap of future learning and performance needs and ensuring the content that’s produced is impactful, relevant, and timely. This will mitigate the risk of knowledge loss and skills gaps appearing during periods of change.

In summary

Faced with an impending economic downturn, businesses are rethinking their strategies, cutting budgets and decreasing headcount. Demand for impactful digital learning to support these changes is at an all-time high. So, L&D teams are being asked to do more with less.

If you’re going to ensure that your organization has what it needs to succeed under these new economic pressures, you need to get prepared. Make sure you’re ready with processes and technologies that enable you to:

• Scale learning production
• Harness the expertise of internal experts
• Maintain the quality of learning
• Increase learning impact

Hear what the experts think

Interested to hear from top learning experts, analysts and organizations on what they think you need to focus on during the recession?

Join our upcoming live panel discussion to discover how you and your team can thrive by implementing a collaborative L&D model to future-proofing your digital learning production.

Employee training and development programs provide the perfect opportunity to expand the knowledge base within your organization. And most importantly, great learning experiences make for a happier, more productive workforce. Employee training is vitally important to the success of a competitive workforce. No matter the industry, filling the gaps in your employees’ professional knowledge is essential to keeping them productive and fulfilled. Training staff via a high-quality training program can do exactly that.

Implementing an effective employee development program will increase the competency of your staff and boost their job satisfaction, contributing to improved staff retention.

Regular employee training can also improve the overall efficiency of your organization and even the workload between employees with a common knowledge base and skillset. Not only will your employees benefit, but your clients too, increasing the likelihood of repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals. Creating a training program for employees is truly win-win.

Unfortunately, some organizations fail to realize the value of employee training programs, which can have a detrimental effect on the business itself. In this article, we take a dive into what employee training is, why it’s important, and how you can provide knowledge and skills in a cost-effective way.

What is employee training?

Employee training is about helping your employees learn and develop their skills so that they can become more effective at what they do. Many businesses invest in employee training because it can increase staff motivation, improve productivity and the quality of work. Employees who are trained are more likely to have a long-term commitment to their employer, as well as perform better at work. 

Employee training can be delivered through many mediums such as corporate elearning, in-person classroom sessions, face-to-face coaching, group workshops or even a blended learning approach of all of these.

Whether you’re starting a new business or working for an established company, providing your employees with an effective, impactful employee training course is an investment you can’t afford to neglect.

5 reasons why employee training is important

Most employers wouldn’t take on an under-skilled worker, yet many are reluctant to invest in ongoing job training for the skilled workers that they do have. As workplace technologies and processes continue to evolve, this lack of effective training programs leaves once skilled workers lagging behind.

How can an organization compete with a workforce weaker than its competitors? The short answer is that it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible! Find out all you need to know to develop bulletproof employee training in this Ultimate Guide to Employee Training.

Let’s move on to the five benefits of employee training and why you should invest in it.

1. It’s expensive to lose employees

Hiring new employees is never cheap. A recent survey cited by the go2HR Society indicates that 40 percent of employees leave their positions within the first year due to poor training opportunities. Furthermore, the Centre for American Progress reports that replacing an employee can cost 20% of the annual salary for employees who make between $30,000 and $50,000 (and up to 213 percent of the annual salary for highly trained executives). Training for employees can be a financial investment you won’t want to miss out on.

With that in mind, companies that provide industry standard training will have more engaged employees, and therefore, are more likely to retain employees. It costs money to replace staff, so it simply makes sense to train and develop current staff and improve employee retention at the same time.

2. Trained employees are more efficient

Training for employees can be used to drastically improve productivity and boost employee performance. When your employees are able to complete tasks more efficiently, using the most effective methods, there are two immediate benefits to your business:

• They complete more tasks in a given period of time, maximizing your return on investment (i.e., the hourly wage you pay employees).
• Customer satisfaction is likely to be higher when your services are delivered in a timely manner.

3. Trained employees have higher production standards

Of course, getting work done quickly loses its impact if it isn’t done properly.

Employees who are well trained are more likely to produce higher-quality output the first time around, thereby minimizing mistakes. This creates less wasted time in rework and customers who are delighted with the quality, reliable goods and services.

Offering new employee training also gets your new starters onboarded and working at a high standard from the get-go. By creating a training program for employees, you manifest a learning culture which breathes through your organization, leading to high quality output from your employees in the long run.

4. Trained employees will retain and grow your customer base

Some of the points we’ve already seen describe how training can directly impact your customers’ satisfaction.

And this is very important because customers leaving you is bad. It’s generally accepted that it’s less expensive to maintain existing customers than it is to win new ones.

Losing a customer is a double loss; you’ll lose ongoing revenue from that customer, and it’s unlikely that they’ll be directing potential, new customers to you.

The opposite is also true. A delighted customer can give you a double win! Not only are they liable to become a return customer, but they are also more likely to refer new customers to you.

So, having well-trained staff that results in satisfied customers can save you money, generate revenue, and grow your customer base.

5. Training doesn’t have to be expensive

Employee online training software makes training staff accessible and flexible around their needs. The State of Digital Learning Report shared that 85% of training is during work hours, and 61% of that is on-site vs 32% at home. This means learner expectations are growing. This may sound like an expensive option, but with the right tools you won’t have to max out your budget.

Modern elearning authoring tools, like Elucidat, enable organizations to create quality corporate elearning and online support aids using in-house subject matter experts without the need for expensive tech support.

Leveraging your in-house expertise to create online training elements, face-to-face up-skilling sessions, or even informal Lunch ‘n Learn sessions (i.e., employees bring and eat their lunch while an in-house expert shares some wisdom) are great ways to introduce learning into your organization at minimal cost.

In conclusion

It’s clear that an investment in employee training is vital for any organization looking to succeed.

According to a Deloitte report on accelerating workplace change, training budgets are increasing year on year. It’s not unreasonable to expect this general trend to continue as the pace of technological change increases and the battle to win the customer dollar becomes more competitive.

If you accept that a better-trained workforce is likely to be more profitable than a less well-trained one, then doesn’t it make sense to be a business that invests in training rather than one that doesn’t?

As the saying goes, “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance.” Get in touch for a sample employee training plan and a no-strings demo.

Good training and elearning does more than simply upskill employees. When done right, it can help you meet and exceed business goals. It stands to reason that, if you’re looking to grow, development is a necessity. Elearning provides the opportunity for such development, giving all the tools needed to meet objectives. In fact, training and KPIs go hand in hand. Read on to discover the key ways elearning can influence your KPIs.

Business goals and training should be viewed in tandem. At all stages of the plan, you should be looking ahead at which specific goals the training will help you meet. This could mean addressing particular issues or satisfying the ambitions of your workforce.

Whether your KPIs relate to revenue, growth, or sustainability, corporate elearning initiatives can align directly with your targets. Training and development doesn’t have to be rigid – it can be flexible to the specific KPIs of your business.

Elearning remains one of the most effective training tools due to its unlimited reach. It’s a ‘low-cost, high-return’ solution that addresses skills and knowledge gaps across your organization. But how does elearning influence business KPIs? Let’s run through 5 of the ways it can help you hit your targets.

5 Ways e-Learning Can Influence Your Business KPIs

1. Increased Productivity And Proficiency

Any effective learning and development program should result in greater knowledge and proficiency across the board. Where elearning differs from traditional learning methods is its ability to scale. As everyone learns in different ways and at their own speed, elearning offers the platform for everyone across your organization to learn essential skills sustainably.

An example of applying effective L&D is Kingfisher Group, a leading home improvement retailer who are producing upward of 5 million hours of learning materials. This work has already resulted in an improved learner experience and heightened engagement. Moving away from dense, text-heavy content, toward engaging learning has aligned the workforce towards their KPIs, increasing productivity levels across the board.

The amount of materials that can be produced and accessed at any time helps to increase engagement, with the knock-on effect of improved proficiency and productivity. With less time spent in unengaging training, employees are able to be more productive and work towards KPIs more effectively.

2. Collaboration Opportunities

One of the main benefits of learning and development in organizations is its flexibility of deployment. Many companies are moving towards remote or hybrid working, employing workers from all four corners of the globe.

Online training allows consistency and collaboration – it’s more adaptable and conducive to the needs of remote workers. Elearning platforms allow organizations with remote workforces to collaborate on wider discussion and learning.

The scale of elearning content makes it particularly enticing for global workforces. It can create a personalized experience that gets in front of millions of learners in a way that face-to-face learning simply cannot.

3. Return On Investment

Elearning is an investment, not only for your learners, but for the future of your business. As with any investment, maximizing the return is essential.

Effective training leads to both short and long-term returns. In the short term, an uptick in knowledge and skills can see a sharp business-wide improvement. The long-term returns are perhaps even more enticing, with an overhaul of employee commitment and alignment with company values.

This investment can influence KPIs by strengthening your workforce. It can help to alter future projections by solidifying resources, and future-proofing the company with a far improved and aligned workforce. Likewise, the comparatively low cost of elearning makes the return even greater. Its remote nature also eliminates costs associated with physical training costs and materials, allowing your budget to go further.

It pays to shop around for your elearning programs too, as the global beauty brand Benefit found. Through devising shareable learning content which got in front of their global workforce, they received an estimated saving of 69% on the costs of an LMS. In their case, the investment paid dividends, returning a 145% increase in monthly visits. Getting effective training in place that works for your business is half of the battle.

If you are looking for a LMS, we have created a guide to the best LMS training platforms to help you decide.

4. Measurable Reports And Results

Knowing how to measure training success is key to drawing correlations between elearning and your KPIs. Essentially, if your investment in training isn’t positively impacting business goals, it may need to be reassessed.

Ineffective training can cause KPIs to fall by the wayside. When taken online, its effectiveness can be quantified through data. A much more time-consuming process when assessing physical learning, elearning platforms allow for reports to be pulled instantly. Data such as assessment grades, completion rates, and engagement can paint a clear picture of the impact elearning has had on business KPIs.

Similarly, this feature can save time when it comes to record-keeping and administration. A time-consuming tracking process can put some management off investing in training. With elearning, this is made incredibly easy. No more folders bursting at the seams with paper to contend with. Elearning streamlines the training process and allows greater focus on what matters – hitting those KPIs.

Explore the top 10 elearning analytics to track.

5. Encourages Innovation

Sometimes, all your business needs are fresh ideas. Training encourages critical thinking and empowers learners to raise their voices with confidence. This impacts KPIs by creating a culture of learning and open discussion.

If the flow of thoughts becomes stagnant, your KPIs can suffer. Expanding the pool of knowledge inspires innovative thought, giving employees the power to suggest new ways of driving toward KPIs.

Refresh your own inspiration with these elearning examples (created in Elucidat!).

Elearning From Elucidat

Wherever they may sit in the traditional company hierarchy, training provides the tools to unlock creativity, innovation, and confidence in their convictions. A workforce bursting with suggestions and creative thought can only be developed. Elearning offers the most efficient and effective way of harnessing this power for the overall benefit of business goals.

From onboarding support to interactive learning materials, our comprehensive and bespoke elearning platform is designed around the specific needs of your business. To find out how we can help you deliver high-quality elearning, book a personalized demo today.

Learning portals are becoming an increasingly popular choice for organizations that want to get corporate elearning content to their learners, effectively and fast. The flexibility of employee training portals offers a more simple, scalable solution for learning distribution compared to that of the learning management system (LMS). So, let’s take a look at some great examples of elearning portals to give you a clearer idea of what could best suit your learners.

• What is a learning portal?
• Characteristics of learning portals
• Why should Learning and Development Teams use Learning Portals for Corporate Training?
• How can you use learning portals to assist training delivery?
• 5 excellent elearning portal examples

What is a learning portal?

A learning portal is a hub or access point where your digital learning content and resources are stored centrally. Put simply, it’s where your employees go to access corporate elearning material such as videos, presentations and word documents.

Learning portals can vary in sophistication, with more complex versions offering additional extras such as discussion boards, calendar features as well as email and messaging capabilities. Depending on the digital learning portal you choose, it can be as simple as somewhere for you to manage and assign corporate elearning materials, or act as a comprehensive virtual learning environment.

Read on to learn more about other characteristics of learning portals to look out for.

Characteristics of learning portals

• User centric – Learning portals should provide the best user experience possible and make it easy for learners to access digital learning materials as and when they want to, instead of it being pushed to their inbox.
• Personalized – Some learning portals offer the option of employee pre-assessments that allow you to understand their proficiency and learning style, and serve relevant content accordingly.
• Multi-format – Learning portals usually allow for multiple different learning formats e.g. written content, videos, quizzes and interactive PDFs so learners can choose based on their preferred learning styles
• Multi-device – Learning portals should be compatible with multiple devices, e.g. desktop, tablet and mobile (Android and iOS) enabling learners to choose how they consume the content.
• Interactive elements – Some learning portals provide ‘gamification’ options which allow employees to compete with their colleagues and receive recognition or awards for good performance. We have put together the best elearning gamification examples if you are looking for inspiration.

Why should Learning and Development Teams use learning portals for corporate training?

So, are learning portals really worth it? Here we’ll discuss the benefits of learning portals, for both companies and learners.

One of the primary benefits of using training portals for businesses is that it can help to reap better results than other more traditional training delivery methods. Adopting a learning portal to create user-centric corporate learning can boost employee engagement rates, yield higher completion rates, and boost information retention through consistent reinforcement.

What’s more, remote learning portals encourage better engagement between L&D teams and learners in comparison to formal corporate training in which learners can often be passive participants.

As mentioned above, the benefits of elearning portals for learners are plentiful, particularly the ability to have more control over their learning and access it whenever suits them, on any device they choose.

How can you use learning portals to assist training delivery? 

Learning portals can provide value at every stage of training delivery:

• Onboarding – With Elucidat’s Learning Launchpad, learners can access training easily via a link, meaning they can get up and running quickly without hassle.
• Ongoing – Elucidat’s Learning Launchpad gives learners the freedom to access training content at any time, on any device, so they can learn at a time that suits them.
• At the finish line – Elucidat’s Learning Launchpad allows L&D Teams to track and analyse engagement rates and learner performance. This can help to identify areas where the training can be improved and highlight where further learning is required to inform the content and delivery model of the next project.

4 excellent elearning portal examples

Are you developing a digital learning portal for your organization? Check out these five examples from Elucidat, Sky, Jury’s Inn and Vaillant to inspire you, and learn how they can give you a wider reach and quicker business impact.

1. Sky’s Global Totara LMS

This learning portal from Sky assists over 36,000 employees with their training. Developed by Mind Click, this is a great example of a Totara LMS solution for customer service staff.

Features we like:

• Integrates with internal systems, including HR and induction systems with single sign-on.
• Contains search engine functionality, face to face session workflows and reporting.
• Looks great on a range of devices.

Visit elearning: Sky’s Global Totara LMS

2. Sky Employee Induction Portal

Sky and Brightwave joined forces to create Sky’s induction training portal.

Features we like:

• Portal-driven solution with good content.
• Multi-channel backed up by an LMS. There is a variety of content to suit a large and diverse audience.
• Leaderboard style scoring system keeps learners enthused and engaged.

Visit elearning: Sky employee induction portal

3. Jury’s Inn: Learning Portal

Learning Pool developed this award-winning learning portal for Jury’s Inn.

We like the integrated approach that draws on different technologies and services:

• Totara LMS, Classroom Connect and Knowledge Bank
• Administration, user setup and management,
• Reporting and management information
• Content development

Visit elearning: Jury’s Inn: Learning Portal

4. Vaillant Learning Portal

Vaillant, a one hundred and forty year old family business, revolutionizes its approach to training with this successful blended learning solution. It combines corporate elearning, workshops, hands-on skills and online performance support into a single sign-on Totara LMS.

This learning portal was developed by Mind Click.

Visit elearning: Vaillant Learning Portal

Ready to start creating your own learning portals?

Discover how Learning Launchpad, part of Elucidat’s powerful authoring platform, makes it easier for large teams to produce and deliver digital learning at scale, helping their business to respond to change faster –  Book a demo to learn more.

We’re very excited to announce we have received an investment of $4.5 million from YFM Equity Partners to pursue our vision for people-centered elearning.

This investment marks a huge vote of confidence in the future of Elucidat. It will help us accelerate toward achieving our vision: to give everyone the power to produce digital learning that delivers a transformational impact on personal development and business performance.

What this investment means for Elucidat customers

For you, our customers, it means you’ll be seeing more regular and significant improvements to the platform this year and beyond.

We’ll be investing heavily in:

• Smarter, faster ways to produce elearning in Elucidat
• Helping you create elearning that’s truly transformative
• Providing the insights and data you need to measure impact
• Ensuring our infrastructure is stable and scaling with growth

Amazing people are the beating heart of Elucidat, and we’ll be growing each team as well as maintaining the integrity of our learn, care, share values, to ensure we provide even better support and guidance to customers.

About YFM, a like-minded investment partner

We selected YFM as our investment partner given their proven track record of working with businesses to accelerate global growth while ensuring their portfolio companies consider their impact on society and the environment. We’re excited to be working together with YFM on the next phase of our growth.

Nigel Owens, Investment Director at YFM, explained why they chose to back Elucidat:

“The Elucidat team has already gained well known global brands as customers and the business is growing strongly. We’re absolutely delighted to be working with the team at Elucidat to support the development of future products and further expansion into global markets.”

YFM Partner Paul Cannings added:

“Elucidat is a great example of an organization which not only has strong growth potential, but also seeks to do business in a responsible way. We are delighted to be able to support them in the acceleration of their growth plans.”

An enormous thank you to the Elucidat community

So far in our journey we’ve had the pleasure of working with amazing individuals and organizations – too many to name here, but you know who you are! You’ve helped shape our business, product and vision to where we are today.

This investment is a testament to what we’ve achieved so far and is the rocket fuel for us achieving our mission. So, thank you for being part of it. We’re excited about what the future holds!

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