Everyone loves a good game, especially when it makes learning more fun. Want to use the power of games to – quite literally – level up learner engagement?  It’s easier than you think. This guide explains how to incorporate gamification into your corporate training, whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a total noob. 

What is gamification and how does it help learning?

Gamification is when you add gameplay elements into a non-game activity. In this case, learning. 

You might reward learners with virtual badges, add a countdown timer to create urgency while they complete an activity, or get them competing against colleagues for a spot on a leaderboard. 

The benefit? Think of how engaged people are when they’re playing a game. 

The most gripping games have people playing late into the night as they push to level up or complete a quest. While you don’t want to deprive your learners of sleep, gamification done right can significantly boost intrinsic motivation to engage with your content.

The stats say it all. 83% of people who receive gamified workplace training feel motivated, compared to just 28% who receive non-gamified training.

Gamification vs traditional learning: what’s the difference?

Gamification exists on a spectrum. On one end, there are fully immersive games designed for learning. On the other, there’s learning with a single gamified element, like rewards for completing modules. 

Whether people are learning online, in-person, or through a blend of both, the line between gamification and traditional methods is fluid. How far you take it is entirely up to you.

Types of gamification elements for elearning

What options are available for gamifying your elearning? Read on to discover the top ways to add gamification to digital learning. 

Storytelling

Not all elearning games include immersive storying, but it’s a powerful way to give context to other elements of gamification. 

Try positioning the learner as the hero. Start with a high-stakes mission, where their success depends on completing a series of tasks. The narrative unfolds as the learner progresses, with each activity bringing them closer to their goal. 

You could even incorporate video-based branching paths, where learner choices shape the storyline and final outcome:

Short, effective, and engaging, it’s no surprise microlearning has become the darling of corporate training. But to create it, you need the right authoring platform. Don’t get overwhelmed by the options. Instead, read our expert round-up of what to look for and the best microlearning platforms available.

What is microlearning and why use it?

Microlearning is simply learning that’s shorter than usual – a micro version, if you will. A good rule of thumb is that it takes no longer than 10 minutes. 

Microlearning is popular for employee training, and for good reason:

• Fits around busy schedules: Bite-sized learning slots into even the smallest gaps for on-the-job performance support.
• Increased engagement: Attention fades fast when learning drags on. Microlearning maximizes focus and boosts knowledge retention with its ‘little and often’ approach.
• Quick to create: Less content means faster development, saving time, resources, and money.

What is a microlearning platform?

Ready to create microlearning content? You’ll need an authoring platform. 

This is a tool that lets you build learning using customizable components, editing the look and feel to match your brand. For the best results, you’ll need to choose a platform that’s optimized for microlearning. 

There are two types of authoring tool:

• Integrated platforms are built into a learning management system (LMS), letting you develop simple learning within the LMS itself. 
• Standalone platforms are dedicated tools designed specifically to create digital learning content that can be hosted anywhere.

Integrated or standalone platform: Which is best?

While an integrated authoring platform within your LMS might seem convenient, these tools often fall short for creating effective microlearning. 

Why? Integrated platforms are typically basic and limited, resulting in dull, repetitive, and often clunky learner experiences.

For high-quality microlearning, standalone platforms are your best bet. Unlike LMS add-ons, they’re purpose-built for creating digital learning. That means they offer richer features, greater scalability for larger teams, and a vastly improved learning experience. Plus, leading providers continuously improve their software.

That’s why, in this article, we’re focusing exclusively on standalone authoring platforms optimized for microlearning – giving you the insights you need to choose the best one.

How to choose the best microlearning platform

How do you choose the right authoring platform to create microlearning? Ask these five questions before you commit. 

1. How easy is it to use? 

Microlearning platforms vary hugely in how user-friendly they are. Some are suitable for the complete newbie, while others require technical expertise. Consider your team’s skills and how quickly you need to produce microlearning.

2. How customizable is the look and feel?

Some tools offer only basic branding options, like fonts and logos. Others give you ultimate design flexibility for serious visual flair. If you’re craving extra pizzazz, just make sure you won’t need a graphic design degree to pull it off.

3. What components does it offer? 

Most authoring platforms include standard components like text, images, and multiple-choice questions. Some go way further with advanced interactive features that let you truly customize how you present your microlearning.

4. Does it facilitate collaboration and feedback? 

Got multiple team members working on the same microlearning? How about stakeholders who need to review before launch? If so, collaboration features are crucial. Look for software with central asset sharing, version management, and review tools.

5. Does it support mobile learning, accessibility, and translation?

For do-anywhere microlearning, seamless performance on mobile devices is a must, and most top platforms offer this by default. Accessibility and translation features can vary greatly though, so be sure to pick a platform that meets your learners’ needs.

The 5 best microlearning platforms

Lots to think about, right? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. Read on to discover the top five microlearning platforms and find your perfect match.

1. Elucidat

Summary: Elucidat strikes the perfect balance between ease of use and customization, making it an excellent all-rounder for creating slick microlearning.

Notable features: PowerPoint import, ready-to-use templates, free stock images, and an Auto-Translate feature make for a rapid authoring experience.

Pros:  It’s quick and easy for anyone to create quality microlearning with Elucidat – even complete beginners. The plethora of component options prevents microlearning experiences from feeling repetitive, and visuals are highly customizable, with no graphic design expertise required. Built-in features make collaboration, reviews, accessibility, and translation a dream.

Cons:  Elucidat is less cost-effective for small projects, making it better for producing content at scale. Some of Elucidat’s cooler features, like social learning, take time to master. 

2. Articulate Rise

Summary: While Articulate Storyline gives advanced authors ultimate flexibility, its little sister tool Rise offers a beginner-friendly way to create basic microlearning. 

Notable features: Pre-built course templates and an image library help streamline development.

Pros:  If you already have an Articulate 360 license, Rise is included at no extra cost, making it a great go-to for simple, clean-looking microlearning. Its review and collaboration features keep development hassle-free.

Cons: Very limited visual design and component options can leave microlearning feeling repetitive. Rise also lacks strong translation and accessibility features.

3. EasyGenerator

Summary: The clue’s in the name. EasyGenerator makes developing microlearning straightforward while foregoing the frills offered by some other tools.

Notable features: Along with an image library and pre-built templates, there are built-in options to record video and an auto-translate feature.

Pros:  For creators looking to build a small amount of simple microlearning, Easygenerator makes development, well, easy. Video and screen capture features are a bonus for creating multimedia microlearning.

Cons: Customization is limited, leaving content looking pretty similar, with more exciting interactions simply unavailable. An extra preview step slows down development. EasyGenerator isn’t optimized for managing large-scale content, so it’s not ideal for big teams.

4. Adapt Learning

Summary: Open-source platform Adapt offers the Adapt Learning tool. There’s one big advantage: it’s free! But to unlock the full potential of Adapt, you’ll need a developer’s help. 

Notable features: An online community offers support instead of professional assistance.

Pros: Did we mention it’s free? Plus, Adapt Learning makes it reasonably easy for beginners to create microlearning. With access to a developer, you can dial into the full power of the Adapt framework, hugely increasing your options.

Cons: The authoring experience is somewhat clunky, with an extra preview step slowing things down. Without developer input, microlearning feels basic and repetitive. Adapt lacks any review or translation features, and there’s no support team if you get stuck.

5. Evolve

Summary: Evolve avoids the middle ground, instead catering to two groups: beginners creating basic microlearning and skilled creators seeking advanced features.

Notable features: Pre-built templates help novice authors, while advanced options include novel interactions not found in other tools.

Pros: It’s quick to create basic courses using Evolve’s templates, but customization is where the platform truly shines. Authors with enough time and the right skills can create tailored, highly interactive learning experiences that make microlearning feel different.

Cons: The features that set Evolve apart can be time-consuming and challenging for less experienced authors. Without the right skills, you’re restricted to very basic content creation. Evolve also lacks an image library, and its weak collaboration and translation features make it suited only to smaller teams.

Conclusion

Who says you can’t have it all? With the right authoring platform, anyone can create engaging, effective microlearning – minus the hassle. 

Every microlearning platform has its pros and cons, so the best choice depends on your organization’s unique needs. Consider ease of use, customization, and scalability when deciding. 

To get started, check out a versatile authoring software like Elucidat. Book a demo and get a free trial to see microlearning creation for yourself.

Keen to see some microlearning examples that have been created in Elucidat? Check out these inspiring microlearning examples.

Did you know that 62% of organizations are now embracing blended learning? As more teams balance synchronous vs asynchronous learning, understanding the strengths of each is crucial. In this article, we break down both formats and show you how they fuel engagement, social connection, and flexibility – so you can choose the best approach to supercharge your learning strategy.

What is synchronous learning?

Imagine learners gathered in a physical classroom or engaging live in a virtual training session. These are both examples of synchronous learning, where everyone learns at the same time. 

The biggest advantage? Real-time interaction. Think of learners messaging during a live webinar, acting out scenarios in a team workshop, or asking questions in a coaching session. 

No surprise, then, that synchronous learning paves the way for active participation, social learning, and immediate feedback to clarify anything that is misunderstood. This makes it great for team-based training, live discussions, and hands-on learning experiences. 

What is asynchronous learning?

Picture learners fitting elearning around their schedule, watching videos in a spare moment, or consulting digital documents on the fly. These are all examples of asynchronous learning, where learners access learning material at their own convenience.

While social interaction is possible with asynchronous learning, it’s not live. Learners might connect through comments, discussion boards, or shared tools. 

The main advantage of asynchronous learning? Flexibility. Content is accessible anytime, anywhere, and learners can progress at the speed that works for them.  

This makes asynchronous learning perfect for on-demand training, microlearning that fits into busy days, and spaced learning for better retention. 

Comparing synchronous vs asynchronous learning: Key advantages and disadvantages

Which approach is best? Let’s compare synchronous vs asynchronous learning and see how they stack up.

Engagement and social connection

Synchronous learning is social, lending itself to engaging conversations, team activities, and a sense of community. Often, instructors can identify disengagement and address it on the spot.

Social connection in asynchronous learning requires more creativity. Elearning features like gamification and social polls can bridge the gaps between learners. But the true key to engagement lies in carefully crafted, interactive content.

Flexibility and accessibility

Synchronous learning poses scheduling challenges, especially for remote or global teams. Time zones, work schedules, and logistical issues can create barriers. If a learner can’t attend, they miss out. 

Asynchronous learning removes these obstacles, letting learners engage at their convenience. It’s especially valuable for accommodating accessibility needs. Content can be tailored to diverse needs without relying on live participation.

Scalability and implementation costs

For small groups, synchronous learning can be quick and cost-effective. But as the audience grows, so do the challenges. Scaling to larger groups brings higher costs, more complex coordination, and a greater risk of technical hiccups. 

Asynchronous learning can be costly to create upfront. But when it comes to scalability, that’s where this format truly shines. Once created, content can reach thousands of learners with minimal extra expense.

Blended learning: Combining synchronous and asynchronous learning

Choosing between synchronous vs asynchronous learning isn’t always necessary. What if you could use the best of both?  Blended learning does just that, combining multiple approaches into a single learning experience. 

Imagine you’re delivering product knowledge training. Here’s a potential blend: 

1. Start with an asynchronous digital activity to assess existing knowledge.
2. Follow up with a synchronous discussion of the answers in small groups.
3. Conclude with an asynchronous elearning module to provide detailed product information.

You get the flexibility and scalability benefits of asynchronous learning. Meanwhile, synchronous interactions boost engagement, encourage social learning, and offer opportunities for feedback and clarification. 

Find out how to build successful blended learning. 

Choosing between synchronous vs asynchronous learning for your training strategy

Deciding between synchronous vs asynchronous learning, or a blend of both? Make the right choice for your training strategy by asking yourself three simple questions.

1. What’s the purpose of your learning?

Work out what you’re trying to achieve and why.

• For hands-on skills that benefit from live demonstration and practice, synchronous learning that gets people together is ideal.
• Asynchronous learning works well for detailed information, spaced learning, personalised learning, on-demand training, or content learners may need to revisit.

Don’t forget to consider goals beyond learning. Aiming to boost motivation or foster team connection? That might also influence your approach.

2. Who is the audience?

Understand who your training is for by asking:

• Who are your learners, and what challenges do they face?
• Where are they located, and what are their schedules?
• Do they all need the same content, or are there variations?

When weighing up synchronous vs asynchronous learning, consider both practicality – scheduling, accessibility, scalability – and learner needs.

3. What other factors shape your choice?

When choosing between synchronous vs asynchronous learning, organizational considerations matter too. Ask yourself:

• What’s your timeline? Synchronous learning is quicker to implement. Asynchronous takes longer but is reusable long-term.
• What’s your budget? Synchronous costs less upfront, but needs ongoing instructor time. Asynchronous costs more initially but less over time.
• What’s your technical infrastructure like? Stable internet is crucial for virtual synchronous learning. Asynchronous usually requires a reliable content-hosting platform.

By addressing these three questions – purpose, audience, and practical constraints – you can confidently choose between synchronous, asynchronous, or blended learning to meet your goals.

Conclusion

When it comes to synchronous vs asynchronous learning, each approach offers distinct benefits. 

Synchronous learning drives active participation, real-time engagement, and social interaction. Meanwhile, asynchronous learning excels in providing flexibility, supporting self-directed learning, and reaching large audiences. 

Why not take advantage of both? A learning blend combines the strengths of the two types of learning to optimize engagement, flexibility, and scalability. 

With Elucidat, creating personalized, blended learning experiences has never been easier. Ready to explore the possibilities? Book a demo with Elucidat today.

The transformation of the modern workplace continues at pace. Whether you’re a large business or a smaller enterprise, your employees are unlikely to be based in one office, city, or country. Getting everyone together in a classroom isn’t feasible. Unless it’s a virtual classroom, of course. This is where corporate elearning solution comes in. But how do you pick the right platform for your organization? Read on to explore the best online training platforms for employees.

What is an online training platform?

There’s no shortage of great tools and technology to help you deliver digital learning. But finding the perfect platform or a bespoke elearning solution for your people isn’t easy. If you dive straight in, you could quickly get lost amongst the wide range of options (not to mention all the acronyms). So, before you explore the available online training tools, you need to get clear on what an employee learning platform means. 

An online employee learning platform is software that helps companies digitally deliver employee training programs. From onboarding new hires to compliance training, these tools are designed to create, host, and/or deliver digital learning courses and other training materials. This enables your employees to access learning and professional development whenever, wherever, and at their own pace.

Types of online training software for employees

There are lots of different software available for training employees, but we’re going to focus on the three main types of elearning platforms:

• Learning Management System (LMS): Learning Management Systems are platforms that allow you to host and deliver learning, track your learners’ progress, and analyze basic data about your training (such as its completion). With an LMS, you can manage various online and traditional face-to-face learning experiences. However, if you want to create an elearning course to sit on your LMS, you will also need an authoring tool.
• Learning Content Management System (LCMS): An LCMS combines some of the functionality of an LMS with authoring tool capabilities. It enables you to create, as well as host, manage, and deliver learning content (often via an elearning portal). As LCMSs tend to focus on digital content, it means they can track these online learning experiences in much more detail than an LMS. Detailed analytics can include time spent in a module, the device used, and much more.
• Learning Experience Platform (LXP): Like an LMS or LCMS, an LXP hosts learning content for employees. However, rather than the content being assigned by a Learning and Development (L&D) team, the learner discovers the content for themselves. It offers adaptable learning paths through your online courses and curated and user-generated content. Some LXPs also use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn about the employee’s needs and preferences.

Benefits of online training platforms for employees

Whichever type of platform you decide on, you’ll find there are plenty of benefits to using online training software for employees’ development.

• Reduced training costs: Moving to an online elearning platform pays off. Increasing your capacity for online learning reduces your need for more expensive face-to-face courses. Add elearning authoring into the mix, and you can also avoid using more costly agencies to produce your learning content.
• Easy to access: Employees can log on to your platform wherever and whenever. That means they can complete digital learning at their own pace. If a skill gap appears, they can even do some training on the job. Easy to fit into and around work, digital learning can also reduce the time they need to spend away from their everyday duties for training.
• Increased impact: When we surveyed learners, 62% said relevant content was the most important factor when it came to the effectiveness of elearning. Employee learning software with content creation capabilities allows you to start developing elearning solutions in-house. Say goodbye to generic off-the-shelf content, and start meeting changing employee development needs with relevant digital learning.
• Standardized: When you can’t get people together in a room to train, it’s difficult to ensure they’re on the same page. An online learning software allows you to roll out employee elearning courses across locations. So, you can create consistent skills and knowledge across your business and globally.
• Empowered employees: With access to an online platform full of great training modules, it’s easier for employees to take responsibility for their own development. They can select from a range of online training and personalize their learning experience. Powered by AI, some LXPs can even learn about and predict their learning needs. Serving up relevant content before your learners even know they need it.
• Tracked: An online training software enables you to easily manage and monitor the rollout of digital learning to large numbers of employees across locations, sectors, and departments. This doesn’t just allow you to monitor the progress of employees. It also provides an audit trail that can prove compliance with regulations.
• Continually improving: Feedback, data, and analytics from your employee learning software allow you to understand whether your training is meeting your business needs. By interrogating this information, you can find out what is and isn’t working so you can adapt and improve your approach. 

What to look for when choosing an online employee training platform

Online employee training tools can offer plenty of benefits, especially those integrated into a business training platform. But if you’re going to maximize the impact, you need to make sure you choose a platform that’s right for your business. 

Step 1: Get clear on your requirements

Before you get too deep into your research, take some time to get clear on your key requirements. For example:

• What type of training will you need to deliver on this platform?
• What quantity of digital learning content are you aiming to deliver in a given time frame?
• What is the level of skill, experience, and availability of your team for managing this platform? Will they need training and support?
• What other training systems will this platform need to integrate with?
• Do you have a set budget for implementing the platform? And what would a good return on investment (ROI) look like?

Step 2: Focus on key features

With a clearer understanding of what you’re trying to achieve, you can start to consider how an employee learning platform can best meet your needs.

Here are some things to look for in the online learning platforms that you’re considering.

Ease of use: Evaluate how easy it is to use the platform – both from the end user’s and administrator’s point of view. What support is available to help you and your team get up and running? Consider all the ways you will use the platform. For example, creating content, assigning training, and checking completion, to name just a few.

Key considerations:

• Ease of accessing and using the platform for the end user
• Level of skill and experience required of administrators 

Scalability: Explore how the platform can help you efficiently deliver the quantity of digital learning you need. Find out if there are any limitations to the number/size of online employee training courses or their storage. Consider the number of employees and administrators you’ll need using the platform.

Key considerations:

• How easily can you create and/or deliver digital learning at scale
• Cost-efficiency that can be achieved by simplifying or automating any processes

Technical capabilities: It’s unlikely that this will be the only tech you use. Find out how easily and effectively the platform can integrate with your other systems. Explore how responsive the platform is (e.g. whether it has a mobile app). Find out how it uses, gathers, and presents data so you can measure your success.

Key considerations:

• Integration with your existing tools and any related requirements (SCORM compliant? xAPI enabled?)
• What kinds of data can be collected and how this will be presented

Quality: Ask the provider for a demo to understand whether this platform will deliver quality learning experiences. Understand the look, feel, and usability that can be achieved. Gauge the types of learning experiences that can be created and/or delivered.

Key considerations:

• Whether look and feel can be adapted to your brand(s)
• Variety of effective learning experiences that can be created and/or delivered

Maintenance: Find out how easily and quickly you can update digital training. Explore what impact any changes or new versions can have, such as loss of completion status and data. 

Key considerations:

• How easy and quick it is to update your elearning content
• Any knock-on effects of adding new versions of content to the platform

People behind the tool: When investing a lot of money into a platform, you want to be sure support will be on hand when needed. Will the provider support you through implementation? Does this support continue when you’re up and running and it’s business as usual?

Key considerations:

• Will you have a customer success or support contact
• Are there any other services on offer (such as consultation on your digital learning strategy)

Step 3: Create a list of key features

It’s unlikely that you’ll find one business training platform that ticks every box. So, you need to decide on your priority features. For example, is it more important that the platform is easy to use or has more advanced technical capabilities such as training needs analysis tools? Do you need a mobile app, or will most employees access learning on their desktop or laptop? Put together a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves.

Step 4: Evaluate each platform

Armed with a list of priorities, you can do some research to identify tools that appear to meet these key needs. Once you have a short list of the platforms that you think could work for your organization, you should:

• Check out reviews (on trusted sites like elearning Industry) and comparison articles
• Explore any customer testimonials to understand people’s real-world experiences of the platform and partnering with the vendor
• Ask for a demo and sign up for free trials so you can try the things out for yourself
• Weigh up the value for money and ROI each platform could offer

Save time comparing tools with this handy authoring tool comparison template.

Step 5: Make the business case

When you’ve identified the platform that comes out on top, it’s time to share your decision. Discuss it with your team and any key stakeholders to get their thoughts and feedback. 

Once everyone is happy with the decision, you may need to make a formal business case. This provides the rationale for investing in your chosen online learning program. It serves to convince budget holders and stakeholders of the business benefits of this purchase. If you’re going to make a compelling case, you need to do it in their language and show it aligns with the wider business priorities.

Find out more about how to implement an elearning authoring tool successfully.

10 best employee training platforms

Ready to start your research? The employee elearning platform market can feel like a complex place. Before making a decision, it’s important to fully understand all your options and thoroughly review any possible candidates. 

To get you off to a good start, we’ve compiled an overview of some of the best employee training software platforms and why you might choose them.

LMS

1. LearnUpon – A customer-centric learning management tool with an easy-to-use interface

LearnUpon is a cloud-based LMS with a focus on the end user – both the learners and the L&D teams. A user-friendly interface makes it easy for both admins and learners to get the most out of LearnUpon. Customer feedback influences the product roadmap and shapes the platform’s development.

2. Docebo – An LMS platform combining innovative tech and methods to support different learning styles

Docebo Learn is an easy-to-use and configurable cloud-based LMS. By using different learning approaches and the latest technologies, such as social learning and AI, Docebo supports the different ways that people learn. Its pricing model is based on monthly active users, which can mean Docebo is an affordable option.

3. Cornerstone – A holistic solution to learning management that offers world-class support

With Cornerstone’s corporate LMS, everything related to employee training and development is found in one place. This holistic solution enables you to manage different formats, including face-to-face workshops and informal development, as well as multimedia video, audio, and VR learning content. Cornerstone’s world-class customer service means the platform implementation is fully supported.

4. Litmos – Globally popular employee training software that easily integrates your content

Litmos is a digital training software used by many major corporations worldwide. It offers tools to easily integrate a training library with your systems and measure progress among learners through assessments. 

LCMS

5. Elucidat – Empowers big employers to deliver impactful and scalable elearning experiences.

Elucidat started life as an authoring tool, but over time has developed a much broader set of key features to enable collaboration, hosting and delivery. Elucidat is designed for scalability. With Elucidat, you can build, review, and deliver all in one place. Cloning your course makes reuse, rebranding, and translation simple. And keeping a parent course avoids version control issues. While not technically a full LCMS, Elucidat is still a great option. 

6. EdApp – An all-in-one training solution and LCMS that focuses on microlearning

EdApp is a LCMS workplace training solution. The package includes an admin portal, learning portal, and analytics suite for smooth and effective learning delivery. Its creator tool includes an editable course library and features – like microlearning, gamification, and spaced repetition, as well as AI course creation and translation.

7. Xyleme – An elearning platform that brings the entire elearning together in one place

Xyleme is a comprehensive elearning platform and LCMS that brings the entire learning content management lifecycle together in one process. Xyleme provides a single source of truth by streamlining content authoring, publishing, updates, delivery, tracking, and analysis into a collaborative platform.

8. iSpring Learn – An intuitive learning platform interface with basic authoring capability

iSpring Learn is an LMS with simple content creation capability. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to find training content on any device (and even offline) using a mobile app. Its authoring tool is PowerPoint-based. It’s a great option for novice learning designers who don’t have to worry about updating content regularly.

LXP

9. Valamis – An elearning platform and LXP providing end-to-end capabilities 

From learning creation to management and delivery, Valamis is an elearning platform and full learning ecosystem. It’s an LXP first and foremost, but as a package, it also comes with an LMS and basic authoring capabilities, which give it an edge over other LXPs.

10. Degreed – An LXP connecting learners to resources they need

Degreed integrates new skills insights and different types of people development to connect learners to the resources they need. It also provides learner insights with analytics so organizations can collect, understand, and build skills for greater impact.

Want to find out more about these platforms and explore other tools? Download our authoring tool comparison template or read our full online training tool review.

Summary

The modern workplace has changed the way we deliver training. An online employee learning platform is now a must-have tool. It gives your employees easy access to relevant and effective learning materials wherever they are. But if you’re going to maximize your impact, you need to make sure you choose the right platform.

Training employees online with Elucidat

LMS, LCMS, or LXP? Each type of platform offers different benefits. But you’ll need an LCMS if you want to combine content creation and delivery. With Elucidat you can do just this and a lot more. New authors and experienced designers can create impactful, responsive elearning programs that meet your standards. 

Efficient workflows mean multiple authors and reviewers can work on a project simultaneously. Publishing and releasing online courses is easy. And once your course is being used, you can track employee engagement at page level. So, you can gain insight and iterate your online learning content on an ongoing basis. After you update your course, you can re-release without worrying about version control issues and any data loss.

And just as you’re empowered to iterate your elearning, Elucidat is constantly improving. Whether it’s streamlining your feedback collection process or auto-translating, you can maximize the impact of implementing staff training software with Elucidat.

Want to see for yourself? Book a demo of Elucidat to get started with a free trial.

Does your organization overlook soft skills, such as communication, in favor of hard skills like qualifications and industry-specific expertise? This can be an easy trap to fall into. Fortunately, many companies are now recognizing the importance of soft skills in the workplace and having the right blend of hard and soft skills for building effective, collaborative and dynamic teams. After all, an employee’s soft skills can determine how they apply their hard skills and work with others… So how can you as an employer provide your employees with the opportunity for soft skill development? Read on for our guide to soft skills training, including:

• What is soft skills training?
• Benefits of soft skills training
• Best soft skills for improving employee performance
• How to conduct soft skills training
• Using elearning for soft skills training
• Planning your soft skills elearning 
• Cost of soft skills training
• Elucidat & soft skills training

What is soft skills training?

Soft skills training is training that focuses on the development of abilities such as communication, teamwork and problem solving as opposed to hard skills which focus on an employee’s technical ability. Other soft skills include emotional intelligence, a positive attitude and taking the initiative. Developing soft skills in the workplace is often underappreciated. However, it’s just as important as hard skills.

Unlike hard skills, soft skills are not industry or role-specific, rather skills that relate to personality and behavior. While hard skills such as data analysis, reporting or mathematical ability, can be taught with relative ease, soft skills training can be more challenging as it involves teaching new behaviors and ways of thinking. 

The effectiveness of  soft skills training in the workplace can also be more difficult to measure as it is generally less quantitative. Creating an effective soft skills training development plan and choosing the best online training platform can be the difference between success and failure.

Benefits of soft skills training

Soft skills can be highly desirable for businesses and are important components of a resilient, empathetic and motivated workforce. The key benefits of soft skills courses and training include:

1. Improved teamwork and rapport

Developing important skills such as communication and teamwork can help to build stronger and more effective workplace relationships and boost collaboration, resulting in higher levels of team productivity.

2. Empathetic leadership

Professional soft skills are critical at every level, and that includes leadership. Leaders with emotional intelligence and great interpersonal skills are more likely to get the best out of their employees by understanding their needs and building valuable relationships.

3. Happier employees and better staff retention

Investing in employee soft skills training demonstrates that you care about their development and provides them with useful skills that can make them better at their job and more fulfilled. Developing important soft skills can also help to create a more pleasant working environment, further bolstering the opportunities for staff retention.

4. Better customer service and client satisfaction

Soft skills training teaches employees how to communicate effectively and tackle problems more confidently. Soft skills training in the workplace can also help to develop their listening and empathy skills which are key when dealing with customers or clients, especially if faced with a potentially complex problem.

5. Enhanced problem solving

Employees can benefit from enhanced problem-solving skills from soft skills training. It can help them to approach problems in new ways, communicate challenges more effectively and implement alternative solutions.

Best soft skills for developing employee performance

Not only does soft skills training make for happier and more fulfilled employees but it can also have a positive impact when it comes to employee performance. These are just some of the most desirable soft skills for improving employee performance:

Communication

Great communication is among the most important soft skills for professionals. Whether it’s day-to-day team communication, or interacting with clients or customers, having great communication skills are essential for working efficiently and effectively – and building rapport with those around you.

Teamwork

Teamwork is a critical skill for all members of teams, especially in a business environment. Soft skills training can help employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses within a team and learn how to best communicate with others for the best outcome. 

Time management

For efficient operations and cost savings, good time management is important. Spending too much time on one task or neglecting another can lead to inefficiencies and disgruntled clients. Deploying soft skills course to teach employees how best to manage their time and juggle different tasks is a very useful skill for employees to master.

How to conduct soft skills training

Like with any learning and development program, auditing your current skills gap is a good place to start. To pinpoint opportunities for soft skill development, speak with employees at all levels of the organization to identify whether there are obvious areas of improvement and consult with managers to determine whether there are any common soft skills that come up in appraisals often, e.g. communication or organization. 

The next step is to decide the format and delivery method of your soft skills training. Do you want to conduct face-to-face training, offer interactive online courses via an LMS, or offer a blended learning approach? The team at Elucidat have extensive experience with delivering impactful training at scale, using a wide range of formats, so if you’re not sure of the best approach for your employee soft skills training, speak to one of our learning experts. 

If you decide on digital learning, the next step is to choose an authoring tool that offers everything you need to develop soft skills for professionals effectively. Depending on your experience with elearning authoring tools, budget, and complexity of your project, some types of soft skills courses may be a better fit than others, so be sure to take a demo of a few to find the best solution. You can see a full review of the best elearning authoring tools here. 

Once you have selected your authoring tool, you can then go on to build out your content, using pre-built templates or building from scratch. Be sure to engage Subject Matter Experts from across your L&D and HR teams to ensure your content hits the mark. And, for the best results, choose interactive formats such as quizzes, branched scenarios and video to keep employees engaged. 

Alongside digital soft skills courses, you could also consider one-on-one coaching sessions, workshops and peer mentoring. You can explore different types of blended learning here.

Using elearning for soft skills training

Corporate elearning can be a highly effective method for soft skills development. Not only does it allow employees to do the training little and often, but it also allows them to test their soft skills as they go with scenario-based training. Here are some of the key benefits of soft skills elearning:

1. Manageable and digestible learning

Soft skills aren’t something anyone can learn overnight, it is learned behavior developed over time through repetition and ongoing training. Creating a dedicated soft skills course allows employees to access it regularly, in bitesize chunks, from their laptop or smartphone. That way, it doesn’t interfere with their day-to-day work and is more likely to become a habit that sticks.

2. Innovative and engaging formats

Unlike an in-person talk or reading materials, elearning allows employees to engage in simulated scenarios, answer questions in real-time and put their soft skills to the test. It also enables them to receive instant feedback and analyze their performance to understand which skills they can improve further.

3. Learning by observation

Video is a useful format for teaching soft skills as it allows the learner to observe soft skills in real-life scenarios and translate them into everyday life. It encourages employees to immerse themselves into a situation and reflect upon how they would react.

If you’re looking for new ways to level-up your elearning soft-skills courses then try this certified course in engaging elearning design.

Planning your soft skills training

We’ve touched on some of the ways you can approach your soft skills training, and how this can benefit your organization. Now let’s break down how these methods might look.

1. Soft skills training modules

Elearning modules for soft skills training might include one or more of the following:

• Scenarios or case studies, that demonstrate the soft skills in practice and how these skills impact on people. 
• Video drama that captures best (and worst!) practice, so learners can master the skills through observation.
• Interactive videos that set up a scenario with characters and ask learners to make a decision that taps into the soft skills. The learner can then see how this decision plays out for the characters.   
• Social polls which ask your learners to answer a question and then compare their response to their peers. These questions can be used to explore the gray areas associated with soft skills when there’s not always a “right” or “wrong” way of applying them.
• Assessments placed at the end of a module to help consolidate learning and ensure learners are ready to apply their skills to real life. 
• Microlearning, built as single elearning pages, to be accessed by learners on mobile devices as just-in-time performance support. 

2. Soft skills training examples

Here are some examples of the above, so you can see these approaches in action:

• Bullying prevention training, with interactive scenarios
• People and performance management training, with social polls
• Sales skills microlearning, to be used as performance support
• Emotional support training, with interactive video  

3. Soft skills training material

In addition to elearning modules, you can create a range of other training materials to support your learners, including:

• Fact sheets for learners to download and refer back to on-the-job, summarizing the component parts of the soft skills
• Workbooks, including exercises for learners to complete that will get them to apply their newly acquired skills
• Observation records for coaches and managers to complete, providing feedback on the learner’s performance and progress

4. Soft skills training programs

As we’ve mentioned, your soft skills training program could take a blended learning approach, pulling together a combination of the items above. How might this work? 

Let’s use an example – you are training your salespeople to be able to demonstrate active listening in their customer conversations:

• You might use an elearning module to deliver the bulk of the information. It could explain what active listening is, list out the verbal and non-verbal skills involved, and show a video drama of these skills in practice. (You could also re-deliver this as refresher training later on.)
• You could then use classroom workshops to get learners to practice their active listening skills in a series of role plays. For example, the learners could get into pairs, be given a conversation topic and be assigned the roles of salesperson and customer. The “salesperson” will need to convey their active listening skills to the “customer”,  they could do this by holding eye contact, and being able to recall the main points that the customer shared at the end. The pairs can then feed back to each other, with the support of a facilitator. 
• You could deliver a digital checklist to learners, listing the verbal and non-verbal cues they should express in active listening. They can refer back to this before they enter their next real customer conversation.  
• You could issue learners’ workbooks, providing space for them to reflect on how they performed in their customer conversations. These could include pages for coaches or managers to record their observations about that learner’s performance.  
• You could send quarterly emails to your learners, reminding them of the key headlines. For instance, a simple message like, “Have you been truly listening to your customers? Remember, active listening is about being patient – about truly understanding, rather than just responding. Don’t interrupt your customer or change the trajectory of the conversation before they’re ready.” This will help refresh their memory and drive long-term behavioral change. 

Cost of soft skills training

The cost of soft skills training will depend on the size and complexity of your project, as well as the delivery method you choose. If you need to create elearning content that’s scalable or if you need to adapt your training for global audiences, ensure your chosen authoring tool has built-in localization capabilities to save time and keep costs down. 

Eluciat provides different pricing options for organizations of all sizes. Check out the different pricing plans here.

Elucidat and soft skills training

Elucidat is a great option for creating engaging and responsive soft skills training. With Elucidat, you can choose from a range of attractive pre-built templates, build customized branching scenarios and incorporate a variety of interaction types such as polls and gamification. It’s suitable for authors of all levels, and allows you to produce high-quality elearning, fast. We also have an outstanding support team who are on-hand to offer support and expert elearning advice. 

Book a demo to get started with Elucidat today!

Whether you’re new to online learning courses or simply looking to boost the impact of your current workplace training, it’s useful to understand how to create elearning training modules that deliver maximum impact.

It can be difficult to strike the right balance between being informative and educational within your training modules, while also remaining engaging for your users to deliver your course in a way that’s easily digestible. Here, we’ll explore what it takes to build effective and impactful training modules for workplace elearning. Read on to discover more about creating corporate elearning modules.

1. What is a training module
2. The steps to take when building a training module 
3. How to leverage Elucidat when creating training modules

What is a training module?

A training module is a segment of an overall digital corporate elearning course that focuses on a specific topic or objective. Think of training modules like a chapter of a book. Each module (or chapter) acts as a step in a learner’s journey, each time edging closer to completing the overall course. 

Training modules can vary in format, from interactive videos and quizzes to text rich modules or demonstrations. Ideally, it’s best to incorporate a blend of different training module types to ensure you’re catering for different learning styles and promoting employee engagement throughout. Let’s take a look at the best practices for building training modules as part of your corporate elearning course.

How to create an engaging online training module

Wondering how to create online training modules? Here are our recommended steps to follow when building the most effective online workplace training modules:

Step 1: Establish your training objectives

The most important step comes right at the beginning and that’s understanding the challenge! Set objectives on what you need your training to achieve. 

To do this, it’s important that you understand the problems that your teams are coming up against, the priority areas that need addressing and what an ideal outcome looks like. That way, you can begin to work backward and get to the crux of what you need your users to learn as a result of your training course. 

Once you’ve established this, you can start to break this down into topics and map out the different modules you need to create. For each training module, be sure to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) so you can measure how they perform and make iterations at a later stage, if necessary.

Step 2: Define your audience

It’s vital that you understand who exactly the training is for so that you can pitch it at the right level: training that’s too difficult or simplistic will cause a drop-off in engagement and participation. 

Take some time to get to grips with your audience so you can establish an appropriate tone of voice and difficulty level. Depending on your audience, you may need to break certain topics into multiple corporate elearning modules, while for others, one module may be sufficient, so be mindful of this in the planning stage. 

When creating elearning courses, consider whether there are any specific learning styles that may yield better participation or engagement rates from your audience. For example, if your audience is particularly time-poor, it may be worth creating microlearning modules – and if your audience has previously demonstrated a lack of engagement with elearning modules, consider integrating gamified elements to boost employee participation.

Step 3: Decide on the right content format

There’s no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to building online training modules; some formats may work well for some topics but not for others. Engage Subject Matter Experts at this stage to determine the best content format for each module.

We’ve also compiled a breakdown of different formats from our showcase page to help you decide:

Scenario-based learning

This type of online training module is great for complex projects that are made up of lots of different aspects. Scenario-based learning allows the learner to explore different situations and reflect on the actions they would take and the impact this would have.

Best for:

• Allowing employees to test real-life scenarios in a simulated environment
• Creating an immersive learning environment
• Challenging your learners to think independently and react to different scenarios

Check out this example of scenario based learning here.

Video

Video is one of the most engaging training module types and is great for how-to type content. Video is also an effective medium for conveying stories and evoking emotion, which can make it a good option for HR-related training. 

Best for:

• Presenting information in an immersive, emotive, and engaging way
• Quick employee onboarding
• Product demos

Check out this example of video training modules here. 

Microlearning

Microlearning is where topics are broken down into short, bitesize online training modules, allowing for greater flexibility and higher learner engagement. It can be a useful format for making large complex topics into easier-to-consume chunks of information.

Best for:

• Time poor employees
• Conducting training little and often
• Focusing on core messages and takeaways 

Check out an example microlearning training module in action, 

Quizzes

Utilizing quiz modules within your corporate elearning course can inject an element of fun and transform potentially boring content into an engaging gaming experience. Quizzes allow learners to put their knowledge to the test and build on their performance throughout the training, creating a sense of achievement as they progress through the elearning modules.

Best for:

• Challenging your learners
• Rewarding and incentivizing users with leaderboards and badges
• Tracking how well your employees have understood a particular topic

Check out an example quiz training module, created using an Elucidat template.

Personalized training modules

Personalized training modules use branching scenarios to personalize the content, based on the responses of the user. It’s an effective way to ensure that when you create elearning content, it is tailored to different individuals and is relevant and useful to them. 

Best for:

• Assessing skips gaps
• Delivering the most relevant content
• Self-reflective learning

Check out this example personalized training module here. 

Step 4: Create your online training module template

Once you’ve decided which workplace training module is the best fit, it’s time to build your online training module template using your chosen authoring tool. Either build from scratch or from pre-existing elearning design templates. Editing an existing template can save you time and help to ensure consistent branding throughout. 

Elucidat’s ready-made Templates feature automatically recommends the best elearning module templates for your project based on your learning objectives to help you get the best results Choose from 25+ expertly designed templates with best-practice advice baked in and create your content with confidence.  

Book a demo to take it for a spin!

Step 5: Test and test again 

Before launching your online training module, it’s critical that you test it on a sample audience and generate feedback from other stakeholders. Testing will help to identify any potential snags or gaps in the training that may need addressing before it’s pushed out to your intended audience. Consult your Subject Matter Experts again at this point who can advise on any additional content to include or where existing content can be improved.

Collect feedback from your test audience on their general experience, the usability of it, and what they liked the most and the least. Was it easy to follow? Did they find it engaging? This can inform any improvements that can enhance the user experience or make the content easier to digest. 

Step 6: Upload and launch your online training module

Once you’ve implemented any changes from the testing stage, it’s ready to go! Now you can upload your module to your LMS and officially set it live for your learners to access. 

It’s important that you review how your training module performs against your SMART goals on a regular basis to understand whether further improvements can be made, or if it’s worth creating supporting modules that can help employees top up their knowledge. 

Ready to start creating high-quality online training modules? Then try this certified course in engaging elearning design – you’ll learn the six steps to creating interactive online training your learners will love.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to implement the right process for creating engaging elearning check out this training design process guide.

Creating training modules with Elucidat

Produce high-quality training modules aligned with your goals and needs up to 4x faster with Elucidat. Leverage our Learning Accelerator feature to access our extensive template library and get inspiration for your next project.

Ready to create engaging training modules? Let’s get started! Request a free demo today.

Flexible and cost-effective, employee elearning is a great way to develop the skills your business needs to succeed. But if you want to maximize your impact, it isn’t just a case of moving training online. You need a digital learning strategy designed to meet your organization’s needs. Our guide to effective employee elearning is here to help you get started.

Why is employee training important?

Employee training is all about helping staff learn and develop in order to improve their performance. But its impact can be more far-reaching than individuals acquiring new skills and knowledge.  

Improved retention: Employee training leads to greater job satisfaction and a stronger commitment to your organization. 68% of employees have changed jobs because of a lack of learning and professional development opportunities. Although there’s a financial investment in training existing employees, it’s far less than finding new hires and onboarding new employees. 

Enhanced standards: 80% of employees say that training has boosted their confidence. When employees feel more confident in their abilities, they produce higher-quality output and make fewer mistakes. In turn, this increases your customer satisfaction.  

Increased efficiency: When your employees are trained in using the most effective methods, they’re able to complete tasks more efficiently. This maximizes your Return On Investment (ROI) and creates a better customer experience.

The role of elearning in employee training

Employee training can come in different formats and take all kinds of approaches. Traditionally, corporate training took the form of large workplace learning programs. These tended to use face-to-face techniques such as instructor-led training, mentoring, and on-the-job coaching. And although elearning and other training materials or resources were used, they played a supportive role. 

However, when organizations had to pivot their approach to keep working during the pandemic, digital learning was rapidly adopted as an essential Learning & Development (L&D) tool.

Benefits of elearning for employees

So, why has elearning become a go-to for many busy L&D teams? Here are 8 key benefits of elearning for your employees and businesses:

1. Responsive: You can respond to emerging skill gaps and new employee development needs at pace by developing elearning programs in-house with an authoring tool.
2. Cost-effective: Online courses reduce your need for more expensive in-person training sessions and face-to-face mentoring, so these can be used where they have the most impact.
3. Convenient: Employees can complete digital learning at their own pace – wherever, whenever and on any device. 
4. Efficient: Easy to fit around other work, digital learning reduces the time employees spend away from their everyday duties for training.
5. Relevant: You can create a more personalized learning experience by providing a range of online training to meet your employees’ needs. 
6. Consistent: Roll out employee elearning courses across locations, sectors and departments and you can create consistent skills and knowledge on a global scale.
7. Tracked: With access via a Learning Management System (LMS), elearning provides an audit trail that can prove compliance with regulations.
8. Continuous improvement: Feedback, data and analytics from your online training platforms allow you to continually improve your approach.

Challenges of elearning for employees

Although using elearning content for staff development offers plenty of benefits, it also has its challenges.

Isolation: Digital learning may be convenient, but it can also feel isolating. One of the key benefits of face-to-face training is the sharing of knowledge and experience with colleagues. Add elements of social learning to your digital courses by including social polls or create a blend with elearning and face-to-face touchpoints.

Time management: Employees have around 20 minutes a week dedicated for learning at work. That’s a mere 1% of their working week. When time is limited, learning must be easy to find and complete. Searching through large catalogs of long elearning modules will not work. Taking a microlearning approach provides maximum flexibility and holds your learners’ attention.

Motivation: Who hasn’t excitedly signed up for an online course only to find their enthusiasm fade as the course progresses? Without teachers, classmates and dedicated lesson times, it can be easy for elearning to slip down to-do lists. Maintain employee engagement by making sure your elearning is relevant and impactful.

Practical experience: Employees want training that they can easily relate to and apply in their work. By its nature, elearning is less hands-on than face-to-face practical training. So, make sure your elearning isn’t all theory. Add context, scenarios, questions and opportunities for your learners to try things out.

Read our corporate elearning blog to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of online employee training.

Key elements of an employee elearning strategy

An employee elearning strategy is a great way to maximize the benefits and overcome the challenges of online learning. It’s a plan that shapes how your business will use digital learning in all its forms – from blogs and social media videos to webinars and online courses. It also outlines how you’re going to measure and deliver business impact and see a clear ROI.

A successful strategy for developing elearning content for employees contains four key elements:

1. Goals

Start by establishing clear objectives. Talk to senior stakeholders, but also consult your colleagues and end users. A clear set of goals to work toward will enable you to prioritize your digital learning projects and measure their success.

2. Software

As with any new tech, you want to be sure you’re making the right choice and investing wisely. Your choice needs to meet the needs of a wide range of stakeholders: your team, any contractors, business leaders and, most importantly, your end users. You need to define two main elements: a content authoring tool to create elearning, and a deployment method such as an LMS or learning portal. 

3. Measurement and improvement

The success of any learning experience is based on how relevant and engaging it is. Define the data you will gather to gain insight into how well your training content is performing. Remember, learning needs will change over time. The easier it is to curate and improve content, the greater the impact it will deliver over time.

4. Timings

Understanding when and where your employees will engage with elearning is essential for effective training. For instance, providing training on a new product only after its launch may reduce its impact.

To boost elearning engagement, determine the most convenient and accessible training methods for your workforce. Identify when you’ll “pull” or direct employees to training and when training is “pushed” to them as part of a schedule.

What to look for in an elearning platform

When it comes to online training software, there’s certainly no shortage of great platforms, tools and technology for you to choose from. But with so many options, where do you start? To make the right choices, you need to know what these tools can deliver.

1. Ease of use

Consider how easy it is to use the tool straight out of the box and what support is available to get you to the next level. Explore all the ways you will use the tool: creating content, carrying out reviews, making edits, publishing and uploading.

Key considerations:

• Level of experience required for an author to use the platform effectively 
• Ease of having multiple authors working on a project simultaneously

2. Efficiency and scalability

Evaluate how the tool can help you efficiently achieve the quantity of projects you need to complete. Find out if there are any limitations to the number/size of projects or their storage. Consider the number of authors you’ll need working in the tool.

If you need to collaborate on projects and streamline your processes, look for a cloud-based tool, rather than one that’s desktop-based.

Key considerations:

• How quickly you can produce high-quality elearning
• Collaboration options for streamlining the production and feedback process
• Cost-efficiency for producing elearning content at scale

3. Technical capabilities

Assess how well the tool integrates with your other systems to create a seamless experience. Find out how it uses, gathers and presents data so you can measure your success. 

Key considerations:

• Integration with your existing platforms or LMS and any related requirements (SCORM compliant? xAPI enabled?)
• The kinds of data it collects and how this is gathered, stored and presented back

4. Quality

Ask the provider to demo lots of output examples. Try to gauge not just the look, feel, and usability offered but also the types of learning experiences that can be created.

Key considerations:

• In-built design guidance 
• Variety of formats and interactions to choose from and level of customization available

5. Maintenance and future-proofing

Evaluate how easily and quickly you can make changes to work-in-progress projects or published courses. Find out what steps are involved to update and translate projects and what knock-on effects any changes or new versions can have.

Key considerations:

• How easy/quick it is to reuse, edit, update and scale your elearning content
• Import and export features
• Translation options

6. People behind the tool

The people and services behind the authoring software make all the difference. If you’re investing a lot of money into a tool, you want to ensure the people behind it will support you every step of the way.

Key considerations:

• Whether there is a customer success or support contact
• Any services beyond just the software they offer (such as consultation on your elearning strategy or coaching on learning design)
• Templates and ready-made projects

Top elearning platforms for employee training

The employee elearning platform market can feel like a complex place. Before making a decision, it’s important to fully understand all your options and thoroughly review any possible candidates. So, here’s an overview of some of the best elearning authoring tools and why you might choose them.

Elucidat helps big employers drive down the cost of business-critical training

Elucidat is a cloud-based authoring tool packed with features and tailor-made for collaboration. With a selection of ready-made learning templates, it’s quick and easy to use. You can create mobile-friendly employee elearning – whatever your level of expertise.

Designed for scalability, with Elucidat, you build and review all in one place theatre you do it on a smaller scale or enterprise organisation level. This means people can work on the same project at the same time while you stay in control. Cloning your course makes reuse, rebranding and translation simple. And keeping a master course avoids version control issues.

Get started today

Articulate Storyline 360 is ideal for users who prefer PowerPoint, with an added layer of customization.

A collection of cloud-based apps, Articulate 360, uses PowerPoint as its base. If you know your way around PowerPoint, you won’t have much of a learning curve with this tool. 

There are two key apps in the suite. If you’re new to employee elearning and want to keep it simple, Rise is the Articulate app for you. If you’re experienced in instructional design, Articulate’s Storyline app provides more flexibility. You can create customized interactions and have more branding and visual options. There’s an export feature which helps you translate. But don’t forget, you’ll need to adjust new languages to make sure they fit.

Lectora gives traditional, capable authors an effective tool for producing HTML5 content.

Lectora Online is cloud-based elearning software that outputs in responsive HTML5 elearning content. It comes with a graphics library and has a ton of templates that you can use as they come or tweak. This can be a straightforward change or more complicated customization, which requires other software.

Although Lectora can work across devices, this isn’t automatic. Creating new views for each device is very time-consuming. If you know what you’re doing, you can create great-looking elearning. But, if you don’t, there’s a steeper learning curve with Lectora than some other tools. 

As it’s cloud-based, the review process is quick and easy. Keeping all comments in one place. The translation feature helps you turn one course into many languages. But, as each language course is separate, this can cause version control issues.

Top LMSs for your employee training 

LearnUpon: customer-centric learning management tool with an easy-to-use interface

A favorite of training and development teams and users alike, LearnUpon is a cloud-based LMS with a real focus on the customer. An intuitive interface makes it easy for both admins and learners to use LearnUpon. Continuous feedback and roadmap input means customers can help shape the platform.

Docebo: LMS platform combining innovative tech and methods to support different learning styles

Docebo Learn is a cloud-based LMS that’s easy to use and configurable. Docebo applies new approaches and technologies, like social learning and Artificial Intelligence, to support the different ways people learn. A monthly active user price model makes it an affordable option.

Cornerstone: a holistic solution to learning management with world-class support

From HR to course content, you can find everything employee training related in one place in Cornerstone’s corporate LMS. It provides a holistic solution that enables you to manage different formats, including informal learning, video, audio and virtual reality – to name a few. With world-class support, Cornerstone is also easy to roll out.

Taking employee elearning further with Elucidat

New technologies have changed the way we deliver corporate employee training. Responsive and relevant, convenient and cost-effective. With so many benefits, it’s no surprise employee elearning is now a must-have. But if you’re going to maximize its impact, you need the right digital learning strategy.

One key element of this strategy is a content authoring tool that empowers you and your team to expand content production, capture expertise, and increase learning quality. With Elucidat, you can do that and much more. Experienced authors can leverage the full power of Elucidat to create tailored elearning experiences. New authors can use Elucidat’s guided workflow to create impactful elearning that meets your standards.

And at Elucidat, we’re constantly improving our platform to ensure you can create impactful elearning at scale and with ease. Whether it’s streamlining your feedback collection process or auto-translating, you can take your employee elearning further with Elucidat.

When you get involved in creating online learning, you may hear people talk about ‘SCORM versions’ or making sure a course is ‘SCORM compliant’. But what does SCORM actually mean? What is this “Sharable Content Object Reference Model” or SCORM and what are SCORM files? There’s plenty to unpack when it comes to the different SCORM formats. Let’s go back to basics. Read on to find out more…

1. What is SCORM?
2. What is a SCORM file?
3. What are the different SCORM versions?
4. What are the alternatives to SCORM?
5. What can be tracked by SCORM?
6. What are the benefits and challenges of SCORM?
7. SCORM compliant software
8. Example SCORM courses
9. SCORM compliant LMS
10. Summary

What is SCORM?

SCORM is a way of setting up an elearning course so that it can run from any LMS (as long as the LMS is SCORM-compliant, of course). It is an acronym of Shareable Content Object Reference Model. In the same way that DVDs are created in a standardized way so they can be read by any DVD player, SCORM sets out the standardized set-up that means corporate elearning materials can be read by any LMS.

SCORM governs two things: packaging content and run-time.

• Packaging content determines how a piece of content should be physically delivered. SCORM specifies exactly how the learning content should be structured within its file so it can be properly launched, interpreted, and tracked.
• The run-time communication or data exchange specifies how the learning object “talks” to the LMS. This is how instructions like “request the learner’s name” and “tell the LMS that the learner scored 85% on this test” are passed between the learning content and the module.

To find out more about SCORM standards, SCORM packaging and SCORM compliance, check out the official SCORM website or the SCORM Wikipedia page.

What is a SCORM file?

SCOs – or Shareable Content Objects – are individual trackable pieces of digital learning, so these might be whole courses or one page. It just means something that can be individually uploaded and tracked by an LMS.

SCORM defines how online learning content should be packaged into a transferable ZIP file called a “Package Interchange File.” This is known as a SCORM file. It’s this file that needs to be set up according to the structure that SCORM standards require and including the core files that allow it to properly communicate with the LMS.

What are the different SCORM versions?

There have been a number of different versions and releases of the SCORM standards since 1999.

SCORM 1.1

This was the first version of SCORM. Before this, work had been done to draft the standards and give a preview of work to come, but this version was when SCORM became implementable. This version showed that SCORM was workable as an idea, but it highlighted several issues to be resolved in the next version.

SCORM 1.2

This version ironed out many of the problems with the first and it quickly grew in popularity. Almost all LMSs support this version and most content developers still create online learning that meets its standards. It’s likely to be around for a long time.

SCORM 2004 (sometimes known as SCORM 1.3)

This is the current release, giving content developers more control over how their corporate elearning behaves. For example, it includes a sequencing and navigation specification that lets content vendors specify how the learner can progress between SCOs.

There have actually been several iterations of SCORM 2004, each one building on and ironing out the issues of the one before, but SCORM 2004 version 3 is the most widely used.

What are the alternatives to SCORM?

The most recent version of SCORM was created in 2004, so although the standard is still widely used, its functionality is limited in terms of modern capabilities. Newer standards like xAPI offer more features to elearning authors and let them gather more types of data on how their digital learning is being used.

As Learning Expert Amy Rouse eloquently puts it in her LinkedIn post The Decline and Fall of SCORM and Why You Should Care: “SCORM is not dead, but it’s past its prime.”.

There are two main alternatives to SCORM:

AICC or Aviation Industry CBT (Computer-Based Training) Committee. These standards were set up in 1993 for CD-ROM training and further developed in 1998 to include web-based learning. The main difference between SCORM and AICC is time. It takes longer to upload content to an LMS using AICC than SCORM. Support and tracking capabilities are poorer too. However, one advantage that AICC does have over SCORM is security. These standards are more secure.

xAPI or Experience API or Tin Can API. xAPI is a protocol for tracking learning-related activity that was developed in 2013. The main difference between Tin Can API and SCORM is its ability to track learning. While SCORM learning can only be tracked within a compliant LMS, xAPI enables the recording, tracking, personalizing and improving of learning in almost any context. The only drawback is the support. This standard is gaining more traction in recent times, but it is still not as widely used as SCORM.

What can be tracked by SCORM?

As you can see, one of the key differentiators between standards is what they can track. That means what they can monitor and report back to the elearning manager. SCORM 1.2 keeps track of the following data:

• lesson_location. This is where the learner is up to in the course. It means they can be taken back to that point if they want to leave and come back later.
• suspend_data. This is a general “bucket” where any specific data you want to capture can be stored. For example, if you want to know how a learner answered a specific question, you can set up the suspend data to monitor this.
• lesson_status. This means whether the learner has passed, failed or completed the course.
• session_time and total_time. The time the learner has spent looking at the course, both in this session and overall.
• score_raw. This is the score the learner achieved for the whole module.
• mastery_score. This is the score the learner must achieve for the module to set as “passed.”
• interactions. This includes how individuals engage with the questions and the time they spend on each section, for example:

	AICC	SCORM 1.2	SCORM 2004	xAPI	cmi5
Does it offer course sequencing?	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Does it monitor: Completion Spent time Pass/fail?	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Does it offer advanced tracking (e.g., games, simulations)?	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Can it track single scores?	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can it track multiple scores?	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Can it work without a web browser?	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Is it mobile-friendly?	No	No	No	Yes	Yes

Your complete guide to SCORM

Getting started with SCORM can be daunting, but with the right tools and processes, it can be a breeze. Here’s what you need to know.

Picking the right tools for SCORM

When it comes to using SCORM, having the right tools in your toolkit is essential. Here are two key tools that will enable you to create, publish, and deliver your SCORM-compliant elearning content.

Authoring tools:

A robust authoring tool is essential for creating SCORM-compliant elearning content. Look for a tool that offers intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, multimedia capabilities, and a wide range of interactive features. Make sure it is compatible with the SCORM version you plan to use, whether it’s SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 2nd edition or SCORM 2004 4th edition.

 See how Elucidat compares to other SCORM-compliant authoring tools. 

Learning Management System (LMS):

Your LMS plays a vital role in delivering and tracking your SCORM content. Look for an LMS that is compatible with the SCORM version you plan to use and offers features like assessment tracking, completion tracking, and interaction tracking. If you have content in an older version of SCORM, it’s equally important to ensure the LMS is backwards compatible. Make sure it provides robust reporting capabilities so you can monitor learner progress and assess the effectiveness of your elearning content.

Check out the top SCORM-compliant LMSs here. 

How to create, deliver and track SCORM content

Now you’ve got your tools ready to go, here’s how to get started with SCORM like a pro

• Create engaging content:

Once you’ve chosen your SCORM authoring tool, it’s time to unleash your creativity and create some engaging elearning content. Keep in mind that SCORM supports a variety of multimedia formats, such as videos, audio, images, and interactive elements. Make your content visually appealing, interactive, and aligned with your learning objectives. 

If you’re currently relying on PowerPoint-based training, don’t worry, you can easily convert your existing slides into SCORM-compliant content with our PowerPoint to SCORM guide. This will get your content into the right format in no time.

Remember, the more engaging your content, the more memorable the learning experience!

• Organize your content into modules:

Break down your elearning content into bite-sized modules that learners can easily navigate. Each module should focus on a specific topic or learning objective, ensuring a seamless and structured learning journey. Don’t forget to add assessments or quizzes to reinforce knowledge retention and track learner progress.

• Publish as SCORM package:

Once your elearning content is ready, it’s time to publish it as a SCORM package. Choose the SCORM version that best fits your needs, whether it’s SCORM 1.2 or the more advanced SCORM 2004. With a few clicks, an authoring tool like Elucidat will package your content into a SCORM-compliant format, ready to be uploaded to your Learning Management System (LMS).

• Upload to your LMS:

Now it’s time to upload your SCORM package to your LMS. Ensure that your LMS supports SCORM standards, as this will enable seamless integration and accurate tracking of learner progress. Elucidat’s authoring tool provides easy LMS integration, allowing you to effortlessly upload your SCORM package, as well as re-release functionality making it quick and effortless to update live courses. 

• Track learner progress:

One of the greatest benefits of SCORM is its ability to track learner progress and gather valuable data. Leverage the power of SCORM to monitor completion rates, assessment scores, and learner interactions. This data will help you identify knowledge gaps, improve your elearning content, and tailor learning experiences to individual learners.

• Continuous improvement:

Don’t stop at creating and uploading your SCORM content. Regularly assess its effectiveness, gather learner feedback, and analyze the data provided by your SCORM-compliant LMS. Use these insights to refine your elearning content, make it even more impactful, and deliver outstanding learning experiences. Elucidat’s authoring tool will allow you to make updates to your courses with a single click!

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can create SCORM-compliant elearning content that is compatible with most LMSs, while also adhering to industry best practices.

What are the benefits and challenges of SCORM?

SCORM was originally developed in 1999 when there was a need to standardize the way corporate elearning was built so it could be hosted across LMSs. Before SCORM, there was AICC, but its functionality was very limited and it’s virtually obsolete now.

Benefits

There are a number of key benefits of SCORM, which include:

• SCORM is now the most widely used protocol and if your corporate elearning is SCORM compliant, you’ll find it can be read by almost any LMS. You don’t need to spend time tailoring your learning; as long as you work to SCORM standards, you can guarantee compatibility.
• SCORM means that content can be created once and then deployed on many different systems exactly as it is. This is hugely powerful in terms of efficiency, scalability and cost-savings.
• Many online learning tools are set up to let you create SCORM-compliant packages with little technical knowledge, so creating and sharing your SCORM course is relatively easy.
• SCORM offers a solid set of tracking capabilities (as mentioned above) which gives content authors invaluable data about people who are actually using their training. It also lets you control the learner’s pace. This means you can manage your learner journey by specifying how long people should spend on an interactive element.

Challenges

One of the main challenges with SCORM is that it is getting dated. The most recent version was created in 2004 and although it’s widely used, its functionality is limited.

To counteract these limitations, a newer standard, xAPI (sometimes called Tin Can) has been developed. It uses newer technologies and, crucially, allows for the tracking of learning outside of an LMS. It allows you to gather much more data on users’ learning, including exactly how they interacted with the learning, how they scored in separate activities and how this tied to their real-world performance, too.

For more information on how the two compare, see this detailed analysis of SCORM and xAPI.

SCORM compliant software

Now that we have covered the basics, let’s talk about how you choose SCORM-compliant software?

To make SCORM, you will need to use a SCORM-compliant authoring tool and a SCORM-compliant LMS. The authoring tool creates the SCORM-compliant online learning and the LMS publishes the course content. You need to consider both elements of the corporate elearning experience.

SCORM-compliant authoring tools

A SCORM-compliant authoring tool helps you create online learning materials that, when it’s published, automatically packages itself up in a way that meets SCORM standards. This is an essential feature if you want your digital learning to run from an LMS and you want to keep track of learners’ progress.

There are plenty of authoring tools to choose from (you can see a detailed comparison of SCORM compliant authoring tools here), but here are a few examples:

• Elucidat is a fully cloud-based authoring tool, aiming to help managers easily create new courses and deploy them at scale.
• Evolve is an online authoring tool that builds HTML5-based elearning content. Courses built in this tool will work on any platform, device or system. The software is designed for novice authors, meaning it’s quick and easy to create simple content.
• Adapt is an open-source authoring tool that creates responsive HTML5 content that can be published as a SCORM download.

SCORM courses examples

Take a look at these three courses for some examples of online learning content that can easily be delivered in a SCORM-compliant format:

• Quick onboarding

This is an example of a simple one-page learning resource to get people up to speed with a new role.

• Performance improvement

This learning is structured in a way to help learners improve a particular skill, letting them use the module to create an action plan to take away. 

• In-depth process training

This example shows how a complex process can be broken down into manageable chunks.

SCORM-compliant LMS

A SCORM-compliant LMS means the LMS is set up in a way to “listen” to the information the corporate elearning modules send to it. Both the LMS and the online learning course need to be SCORM-compliant so that the data can be sent between them, and the reports can be run to see who has looked at the training and how they’ve done.

Here are some examples of SCORM-compliant Learning Management Systems:

• Docebo is a reputable LMS with a user-friendly interface to make managing learning easier.
• LearnUpon is an LMS that’s been built to be powerful, scalable, and simple to use. You can easily manage and track your SCORM compliant courses.
• Totara is an open-source LMS that lets learning managers create learning plans for their users based on tailored competencies and objectives.

You can view a detailed guide to choosing a SCORM-compliant LMS here.

Summary

SCORM 2004 is still the gold standard of online learning compatibility. If you create your elearning package following SCORM 2004 protocols, you can be assured it will be read and understood by almost any LMS. However, its features are limited. With learning becoming more varied and innovative and with an interest in more granular data reporting on learners’ behaviors, xAPI is becoming more and more popular.

We can help you do it!

Start producing SCORM-compliant and xAPI enabled digital training with Elucidat. Book your personalized demo today, and we’ll get your free trial off to a flying start!

Learning and development (L&D) is critical to the success of any organization. If you’re going to stay competitive and grow your business, your employees need the right knowledge and skills. But finding an effective way to achieve this at speed and scale isn’t easy, hence, there is an increasing need for bespoke elearning providers. Read on to find out how corporate elearning solutions can help.

What are corporate elearning solutions?

Before diving into why corporate elearning solutions should be part of your L&D strategy, let’s get clear on what we mean. Corporate elearning solutions are digital training programs that provide employees with online learning and development opportunities. These programs aim to equip employees with the knowledge and skills to excel at work and contribute to the success of the business.

A corporate elearning solution can include a wide variety of digital assets – from simple pdf checklists and selfie videos to more complex interactive webinars and online courses. These digital formats can be mixed and matched to meet the learning objectives of the program. They can also integrate with face-to-face learning formats, such as instructor-led training, mentoring, and on-the-job coaching.

Why you should opt for corporate elearning solutions

Corporate training can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. So, why would you opt for an elearning solution rather than more traditional face-to-face corporate learning formats?

Reasons for business giants

Larger businesses have more complex processes, a wider range of skills requirements and a bigger workforce. Their employees are often located across regions and countries. Working at this large, global scale means keeping up with changing markets, employee needs, and a variety of laws and regulations. And all while providing the consistently great products and services that customers expect.

In this context, training needs to work at speed and scale. Although L&D resources may be less limited than in smaller organizations, they need to achieve a lot. Corporate elearning programs provide a cost-effective, flexible approach to delivering consistent and relevant learning experiences.

Reasons for small businesses

Smaller organizations have less employees and often take on multiple roles and a wide variety of tasks. This means limited L&D budgets need to go even further towards effectively training their employees.

Mentoring from more experienced employees is a great way to upskill staff. But what happens when those experienced colleagues move on? By developing online learning in-house, smaller enterprises can ensure their business’ expertise is captured and critical skill gaps are avoided.

Benefits of corporate elearning solutions

Whether you’re a larger organization or a smaller enterprise, embracing digital learning can help your business succeed.

Here are our top 5 benefits of developing corporate elearning solutions:

1. Responsive: 87% of businesses expect to face skill gaps within a few years. By developing elearning solutions inhouse with an authoring tool, you can respond as and when new employee development needs appear.
2. Convenient: Employees can log on and complete digital learning at their own pace – wherever and whenever, including on their mobile devices. Easy to fit around other work, digital learning reduces the time employees spend away from their everyday duties for training.
3. Cost-effective: Developing elearning solutions will pay off. It reduces your need for more expensive face-to-face courses, so you can use them where they have most impact. And, when elearning is effective (more on this later), every minute an employee spends training is time well-spent.
4. Empowering: Online training makes it easier for employees to take responsibility for their own development. Providing a range of online training means they can personalize their learning experience. If an employee feels that they have a skill gap, they can identify, access, and complete elearning as and when they feel they need it.
5. Managed and monitored: With a Learning Management Systems (LMS), you can easily manage and monitor the roll out of elearning to large numbers of employees. This can be achieved across locations, sectors and departments, all in real time. This means you can continually improve your performance.

How to deliver effective corporate training

It’s clear that digital learning can deliver plenty of benefits. However, with 43% of L&D professionals struggling to respond at speed, while maintaining quality, this isn’t always happening.

So, how do you deliver effective elearning that meets your end users’ needs and business goals?

Here are 4 key principles for impactful digital learning solutions.

1. Make it relevant

The purpose of training is to help people do their jobs better. So, it’s not surprising that 62% of learners say relevant content is most important when it comes to effective elearning.

If something is useful, people will want to use it. That’s why it’s crucial to move away from generic learning materials and shift to content that meets your employee’s development needs.

2. Get truly interactive

From targets to deadlines, lots of things are vying for your workforce’s attention. If learning is going to be effective, you need to grab their interest and keep it.

With 20% of learners switching off when elearning lacks interactivity, people clearly want more than just an online manual to read. When you take a closer look at what they mean by interactivity, it isn’t about clicking on the screen. It’s about engaging learners by creating connections and active participation. Using blended learning is also a great way to keep your employees engaged.

3. Keep it concise

As well as being easier for busy employees to fit around their schedules, bite-sized digital learning content has more impact. 17% of learners said they were more engaged when elearning was concise, easy to understand, and well-organized. Whether that’s in 2 or 10 minutes, solutions that deliver real impact are a good use of learners’ time.

4. Ensure it’s easy to access

The vast majority of people prefer learning on the job where they can immediately apply it. 22% of learners said their engagement increased when elearning was easy to access at work. Learning needs to be easy to complete and apply in those moments of need. That means making it practical – learning through observing, reflecting and trying.

You can find out more about how you can deliver effective digital learning, in our ultimate guide to designing quality elearning.

Choosing the best corporate elearning solution for you

Although there are some key principles for creating effective elearning solutions, there isn’t just one way to approach it. And there’s certainly no shortage of great tools and technology that can help you deliver it.

With such a wide range of options to choose from, where should you start?

Here are five steps to help you identify the best elearning solutions for your business.

Step 1: Understand your business’ requirements

The current learning trend or latest tech might sound exciting, but is it really right for your business? Before you get carried away with a potential solution, it’s always worth taking the time to get clear on your key requirements.

Here are some things to consider:

• Audience: Think about your learners and the type of training you need to deliver. For example, what are your key learning objectives? Do you need onboarding, compliance or soft skills training?
• Scale: Consider the quantity of the digital learning content you’re aiming to produce in a given time-frame. Will you need to re-brand, re-version, translate and/or regularly update content?
• Team: Reflect on the skill, experience and availability of your team. How ready and able are they to deliver the learning approaches you’re considering? Will you need to upskill your team? Or do you need to bring in new skills and resources from outside your organization (e.g. contractors and agencies)?
• Budget: You’re likely to have a set budget, but what does it look like to use that budget well? There isn’t just one way to think about providing value for money or return on investment (ROI). Identify the data you hold and how you can use it to show the impact of a new corporate elearning solution.

Step 2: Focus on important features

Based on your understanding of your organization’s training needs, you can define your preferred learning methodologies. We have got your covered if you need ideas for your business compliance training.

Next, identify the priority features you would need to deliver these approaches using an elearning platform or authoring tool. For example, is your focus going to be ease of use or custom functionality? Will you make use of templates and ready-made projects or start from scratch? Are you looking to create great mobile learning or is the desktop learning experience more important for your employees?

Step 3: Evaluate each tool

Do some high-level research to identify tools that appear to meet your specific needs. Evaluate each of these. Create a short list of the learning platforms that you think could work for your organization and your chosen learning approaches.

Next, dig a little deeper and see what people are saying about these tools:

• Reviews: Trusted sites, like eLearning Industry, provide unbiased reviews of tools on the market.
• Comparisons: Standalone reviews are helpful, but what if you’ve narrowed things down to a few tools. Comparison articles are a great way to directly compare platforms.
• Testimonials: Most authoring tool websites will include customer testimonials. These will cover their experience of the tool and partnering with the vendor.

Go deeper still and explore the people and services behind the tools. Ask for a demo so you can see authoring tools in action. Ask lots of questions of the customer success or support contact who is demoing the tool. Sign up for free trials so you can try the tools for yourself.

Step 4: Choosing your tool(s)

Finally, it’s time to do a comparison. If you’ve got two or three platforms that meet the same needs, take another look at those reviews. Weigh up the value for money and ROI they could offer.

Share your decision with colleagues and stakeholders for feedback on your decision.

The best corporate elearning solutions providers to choose from

Before making a decision, it’s important to understand all your options and review any possible candidates. So, here’s an overview of some of the best platforms designed to create, host, and/or deliver digital training courses and other learning materials.

Tools for creating elearning content

Elearning authoring tools are pieces of training and development software that enable the creation of digital learning content. Here are 12 top corporate elearning tools you could consider:

1. Elucidat – Helps you create engaging and personalized learning content 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 instructional designers that aren’t 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.

Want to take a deeper dive into these tools? Read our full elearning authoring tool reviews.

Platforms for delivering corporate elearning solutions

Once you’ve created your elearning content, you need to deliver it to your employees. There are three types of elearning platforms that can help you do this:

• Learning Management Systems (LMSs)
• Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs)
• Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs)

Learning Management System (LMS)

A corporate LMS allows you to host, deliver and track digital learning, alongside other learning experiences.

Top examples:

• LearnUpon – A customer-centric learning management tool with an easy-to-use interface.
• Docebo – An LMS platform combining innovative tech and methods to support different learning styles.

Learning Content Management System (LCMS)

An LCMS is a one-stop-shop for creating, hosting, managing, and delivering content. It combines the functions of an LMS with those of a content management system (CMS).

Top examples:

• EdApp – An all-in-one corporate training solution and LCMS that includes a creator tool, admin and learning portal, analytics suite, and editable course library.
• Xyleme – A comprehensive elearning platform and LCMS bringing the elearning content development and management lifecycle together in a streamlined process.

Learning Experience Platform (LXP)

An LXP hosts training content for learners but, instead of L&D teams assigning content, the learner selects and accesses content by discovering it for themselves.

Top example:

• Valamis – An elearning platform and LXP that provides end-to-end elearning capabilities for learning creation, management and delivery.

Want to find out more about these elearning platforms? Read our full online elearning SCORM-compliant platform review.

Summary

Your employees are your biggest and most valuable business expense. Leaving their skills development to chance makes your organization vulnerable. An effective L&D strategy, which includes corporate learning solutions, is critical. From empowering your people to increasing your speed to train, the benefits of these digital solutions are many. But if you’re going to maximize your impact, you need the right learning approaches and tools for your organization.

Using Elucidat for your employee training

Elucidat’s powerful authoring platform empowers new and experienced authors to create impactful elearning. As a multi-award winning authoring tool, Elucidat makes it easier for you to deliver digital learning at scale, helping your business to respond to change faster.

If you’re interested in how Elucidat can help you produce and deliver high impact learning experiences affordably and at scale, book a personalized online demo to get started with a free trial.

Once upon a time, massive open online courses (MOOCs) were the hottest ticket in the elearning sphere. Then came the rise of cohorts. The biggest flaws of the MOOC model was disjointed and disconnected learnings. The human touch wasn’t there, and collaboration was few and far between. Cohorts took all the benefits of MOOCs and added structure and teamwork. Research actually shows that cohort-based courses can yield better results in the modern workforce, suggesting the days of the MOOC may well be numbered. Here, we take a closer look at this method of learning, including its plus points, shortcomings, and how to adapt a cohort-based program to remote teams.

What is cohort-based learning?

Cohort-based learning is an approach that harnesses the power of collaboration and community to improve learning quality. With cohort-based elearning, a group of learners embark on a course together, sharing their experiences, perspective, and ideas to create a more dynamic learning environment. 

Typically, learners are encouraged to work together toward a common goal. Every step of the way, from commencement to the finishing line, the group will be working together. This is a great way to create a sense of camaraderie and support that can have potent benefits as a motivator for learners. 

Pros and cons of cohort-based learning

Cohort-based learning advantages

One of the key benefits of cohort learning is that it creates a structured and supportive environment which is conducive to learning. Rather than leaving learners to navigate material on their own, they’re given a ready-made community that can help them stay on track, ask questions, and provide feedback. 

Another big advantage of cohort-based learning is the way it promotes continuous learning. It facilitates participation in collaborative activities such as group discussions or peer review sessions, as well as more informal chats. This type of engagement boosts focus and the ability to keep hold of information. 

As well as being highly adaptable to different learning styles and preferences, cohort-based courses are equally flexible when it comes to time and location. Tailor-made for remote workforces, cohort-based elearning can connect colleagues from all over the globe, allowing them to share a learning experience without even needing to be on the same continent.

Cohort-based learning disadvantages

While cohort-based learning has many benefits, there’re also some potential disadvantages for L&D teams to be aware of. 

It’s not a one-size-fits-all method and won’t be suited to all learners’ needs and schedules. As such, selecting groups carefully is important to ensure all learners have the same benefits from their experience. Getting this wrong can make a cohort-based program fall at the first hurdle. 

Similarly, it can be difficult to ensure that all learners are progressing at the same pace. This can be particularly challenging if some learners are struggling with the material or have other commitments and conflicts that make it difficult to keep up with the rest of the group. Not only is this detrimental to the personal development of the learner in question, it can also create frustration for the rest of the cohort. 

Another disadvantage of cohort-based learning is that it makes it near impossible to provide personalized learning. While it offers a supportive and collaborative environment, it may not be able to provide the one-on-one attention that some learners require to succeed. 

Cohort-based courses are notoriously difficult to scale, given their hands-on approach and focus on smaller groups. 

Cohort-based learning vs self-directed learning

Cohort-based learning is emerging as an alternative to self-directed learning for many in the elearning space. Naturally, there are distinct contrasts between self-paced online courses and cohort-based courses. 

The self-paced approach allows learners significantly more freedom and flexibility to complete the course material at their own pace. This learning style may appeal to some employees who’d prefer to get their head down or have heavy workloads and schedule issues.

Cohort-based elearning, on the other hand, provides access to an instructor or facilitator, as well as a community of peers to offer support and accountability. As mentioned, this learning method allows all students to experience the course together in real-time.

The pacing of the curriculum differs between the two models. In self-paced courses, learners often have unlimited access to the course materials and can take as long as they need to complete the course. 

Conversely, cohort-based courses have set deadlines for completing the course material that need to be adhered to. This difference can have a significant impact on success rates.

Finding the right method for you depends on the structure of the organization and the desired learning outcomes. Cohort elearning is great for encouraging cross-department collaboration and can be applied to global workforces, although a self-directed approach may be more suitable for those in different time zones to prevent any delay in the delivery.

How to design cohort-based courses for remote workforces

Designing a cohort-based course has some intricacies that self-paced courses don’t have to consider. While the learning outcomes remain the same, there’re factors like schedules, experience, and of course the dreaded Zoom fatigue to bear in mind. 

Following these 7 steps will help you design a quality cohort-based course for remote teams. 

1. Identify learning objectives and outcomes

Before you get your hands dirty designing and implementing a cohort-based course, it’s important to identify clear learning objectives and outcomes. Doing so ensures the learning materials align with the needs and goals of the cohort, as well as the wider business. 

Your objectives are, in essence, milestones that will be hit during the course. Outcomes are the knowledge skills and behaviors gained by the end of it. 

2. Create a structured curriculum

You need a structured pathway for your cohorts to head down. Designing a curriculum achieves this. To determine what to include in your program, you should first seek answers to key questions such as:

• Who is the intended audience for this course?
• How can I assist them in solving a problem or achieving a goal?
• Which portions of the curriculum should be self-paced and which should be completed as a group?
• How does my role as an educator or teacher factor into the lessons?
• What learning outcomes should employees derive from each lesson?

When developing a curriculum for a cohort-based course, it’s crucial to strike a balance between active and passive learning. Additionally, incorporating fun and interactive methods, such as gamification, can help students connect with the material and provide a break from learning new concepts.

3. Design the learning experience

With the curriculum in place, you’ll need to determine the structure of the learning experience to get the best results for your remote workforce. Consider the delivery method, the duration of the course, and the frequency and duration of the sessions. 

You may consider methods such as microlearning and gamification here to ensure that the materials are engaging and fun, as well as fully collaborative. 

4. Choose your cohort model

There’s more than one way to deploy cohort-led learning. Opting for a full cohort could be too demanding to your remote workforce, particularly when time restraints come into play. If this is the case, you may opt for hybrid cohort learning. 

Also referred to as semi-synchronous collaborative learning, it’s essentially a mixture of self-paced and cohort learning. It can take the form of a combination of pre-recorded materials that can be accessed anytime and live remote sessions. 

This can help overcome hurdles such as varying schedules and time zones while still reaping the rewards of the cohort-based model. 

5. Equip yourself with the right tools

An elearning course is only as good as the tools that facilitate it. Ensure you have all the relevant software and communication tools to hand, as well as a robust learning management system that can be the home for the course itself. This is essential for maintaining consistency and monitoring progress. 

You may also enlist the help of an authoring tool, such as Elucidat, to help design your learning materials. 

6. Carefully choose your facilitators

Facilitators are as important to the process as an LMS or the materials themselves. They’ll be the sherpa that leads the cohort to the desired learning outcomes, nudging them back on track should they drift. 

This is particularly crucial in remote workforces, as the likelihood of falling behind increases compared to office-based learning. Choose a highly organized facilitator with leadership experience. 

7. Develop assessment and evaluation methods

Assessment and evaluation methods are essential to analyzing the effectiveness of the course and where improvements can be made in future. This can include everything from quizzes and exams to focus groups and surveys. 

Ensure that the feedback mechanism is able to easily gather feedback from participants. Use this data to measure the effectiveness of the course and make changes accordingly.

Launch optimized cohort training with Elucidat

Elucidat provides a range of features to support cohort-based training, such as collaboration tools, social learning features, and the ability to track progress and engagement. 

Try it out for yourself and book a demo today to see how Elucidat can help you unlock a world of cohort learning possibilities.