Online courses help businesses and educational institutions make teaching and training more accessible for every kind of learner. But how do you create an effective one?

Online courses are made for a variety of reasons. People use them to learn new skills. Businesses use them to train their employees and provide certifications. Educational institutions use them to create new and engaging curriculum.

Because eLearning is so pervasive in today’s world, you might find yourself having to create an online course for the first time. That can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have a background in education or instructional design. And it’s even tougher if you don’t have the right tool on your side for it.

We put together these essential steps to help instructors and trainers get on the right path.

6 Essential Steps to Creating an Online Course

 Creating an effective online course takes time and planning. Here’s how to do it.

#1. Pick Your Topic

 What’s your course going to be about?

There are a few ways you can go about answering these questions, but in general, you want to pick a topic that fits an organisational need and has enough information to warrant the creation of an entire course. You’ll also want to pick a topic that you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

 Depending on your situation, and who you are creating the course for, ask yourself questions like…

• Does this topic need an entire course or to be an activity within a course?
• What skills do learners need to succeed?
• Does it fill a gap in your curriculum?
• Will learners benefit from this topic being an online course?

Questions like these will help guide your thinking as you go about the initial planning stages.

#2. Start with Learning Outcomes in Mind

Next, before you do anything else, you need to consider what the learning outcomes should be for this course.

• What do you want your learners to get from it?
• What value do you want to bring them?
• What value does this course bring your organisation?

These are critical questions that help focus your content, narrow down your audience, and gives your online course a purpose.

For example, if you have a goal for your learners to become experts in a topic, then you will need to have expert-level content and modules to guide them to that ideal state.

This also ensures that the right learners are taking your course. You don’t want complete beginners taking an expert-level course and vice versa.

#3. Write Your Content

Now it’s time to start creating the course!

Start by creating an outline. This outline will act as your curriculum and your overall course structure. Make sure that you have enough lessons and activities outlined that will last the duration of the course. Give your topics a logical order, making sure each topic seamlessly transitions to the one after.

Then you can start filling in the blanks of your outline by either creating new content. Or if you have applicable content that already exists, feel free to repurpose that existing content. That can save you time and money.

When writing out your content make sure that it’s always focused on your learners and the learning outcomes you set out.

This can also be where you create your assignments, quizzes, and tests.

#4. Produce and Edit Your Content

 With the meat of your course content and structure finished, it’s time to gather and produce the multimedia elements of the course. With the right authoring software, it’s easy.

Gather all the assets you have, and if you find some gaps, then consider producing new elements like images and video. 

Find where each element fits in your course and consider your media mix. It’s best practice to keep content types varied. Add games and interactive activities that will grab your learners’ attention. Consider how those activities will be scored, whether it’s automatically or manually. These elements help your online course stand out, and they also drive engagement. So, get creative!

#5. Share Your Online Course

Now that the course is finalised, it’s time to send it out to your learners. There are a lot of eLearning software packages out there that can help you do this, but these days, a dedicated, all-in-one Learning Management System is the best way to get your courses to your learners. 

Through an LMS, you can easily publish, manage and distribute your courses, communicate with your learners, and offer immersive learning experiences to keep people engaged.

 #6. Track Metrics and Constantly Iterate

Last but certainly not least, you’ll want to track engagement metrics on your online course.

Track statistics like…

• How many people complete the course
• How long it took them to complete the course
• How well they did on assessments and quizzes
• How much of the content did the watch, listen to, or read

These metrics will show you where your course can improve. If people are tuning out in certain places, then you know where you can work to improve your course so that your learners or trainees achieve the desired learning outcome.

Conclusion

By taking the time to think through these steps, you’ll create an online course that fully covers a topic and serves the needs of your learners and your organisation. eLearning software gives you the tools to create beautiful and engaging online courses that get results.

Ready to create effective online courses? Avallain can help. Contact us today and tell us about your needs.

New to eLearning? You probably have some questions. With so many terms, concepts, and eLearning products floating around, it’s difficult to find the right solution for your organisation’s needs. This list of eLearning software FAQs should clear up some of the basics.

At Avallain, we get a lot of questions about eLearning software. And with the demand for eLearning increasing, organisations are searching for solutions to meet this demand. If you’re the person tasked with implementing an eLearning program, then you’ve come to the right place.

These FAQs will give a level of base knowledge to make an informed decision when looking for an eLearning software solution for your organisation.

eLearning Software: 15 Frequently Asked Questions

#1. What is eLearning?

eLearning is short for electronic learning. It’s a catch-all term for any learning content delivered electronically.

It’s a way of learning that enables publishers, businesses, and educational institutions to distribute engaging and effective courses that help people learn new skills, employees gain new certifications, and students succeed in their studies.

#2. What is eLearning software?

eLearning software is a term that can cover a wide swath of software applications. At a top-level, these are programs that create, administer, publish, and track any kind of eLearning course or activity.

Once delivered offline, these software solutions have taken on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which offers a higher level of performance and flexibility.

#3. What are the different types of eLearning software? 

There are four main categories of eLearning software. They all fulfill different functions, and they can be used separately or in any combination depending on your needs.

• Online Authoring Tools – These are tools that are solely used to create eLearning content. They can deliver that content via an API or by publishing directly to a connected learning platform.
• Learning Management System (LMS) – A software application made specifically for the administration and delivery of eLearning courses. An LMS helps you manage every stage of delivering learning to an audience.
• Learning Experience Platform (LXP) – A newer application that’s making a splash in the online training industry, an LXP is essentially and LMS with higher level functions to foster a better user experience. These functions include gamification, personalised dashboards, reporting capabilities, and artificial intelligence.
• Comprehensive or All-In-One Software – These programs deliver both authoring and distribution functions into one package. They allow you to create, deliver, and manage the learning experience from start to finish. Platforms like these have grown very popular because you can get the benefits of two platforms for the price of one. Avallain Magnet is a perfect example of these software packages. It’s a seamless and easy-to-use bespoke LMS and LXP with authoring capabilities built in.

#4. What are the different types of eLearning?

eLearning courses can come in many forms. Some of the most popular include lectures and seminars delivered in audio or video format. eLearning can even be delivered in eBooks and interactive games and quizzes.

#5. What features should you look for in an eLearning software?

Each business has its own goals, and a bespoke eLearning software can help businesses reach their goals. Some general qualities businesses should consider include the ease of use, user experience, level of interactivity, accessibility, security, and customisability. 

#6. How do you create content with eLearning software?

The specifics on how to create content depend on the software you choose, but there are some general tips to creating great content for learning. 

• Break It Up – It’s important to keep your learning content organised. Break your content up into courses and modules, that way it’s easily digestible for your audience. Plus, it’s easier to keep track of on the admin end.
• Use Multimedia – Interactivity has a profound impact on learning outcomes. Make sure to incorporate a variety of media forms into your eLearning courses.
• Prioritise Interactivity – Make sure to take the time and ask your learners to interact with the material. Whether through quizzes, games, or other tools, getting learners directly involved in their learning always leads to better results.

#7. What sort of media can eLearning software support?

Not all eLearning software can support all forms of online media. That’s why it’s important to find a software that can. Multimedia learning content is a key to keeping your learners engaged.

Whether you’re looking to create engaging infographics, PDFs, video, audio, or even fully functional games,  the right eLearning authoring software can help. 

#8. How interactive can eLearning be?

The quick answer is very interactive! And the more interactive, the better.

With the advancements in authoring software and LXP’s, eLearning is more interactive than ever before. Multimedia content creates plenty of opportunities for the learner to take complete control over their learning experience.

#9. Is eLearning accessible to people with different learning styles?

Definitely! The great thing about eLearning software is that they can support all forms of online media, allowing you to create a variety of learning content that resonates with all learning styles. Be sure to test your engagement to find out what works best for your learners.

#10. Can eLearning software publish content to all devices, including desktop and mobile?

Yes, and that should be something you look for. One of the best parts about eLearning is the flexibility it provides for the end user. And with the right software, they can learn on a tablet at the library. Then they can continue that module at their home office on a desktop computer. Later on, they can pick it back up on their morning commute through their phone.

#11. Can you integrate existing courses or in-person courses with eLearning software?

Yes! In fact, a blended learning environment can be highly effective, allowing you to get the full benefits of eLearning and in-person learning. The best eLearning software provide that flexibility.

#12. Can eLearning software create e-books?

Again, not all eLearning software is created equal. Some eLearning software packages have limited capabilities in this area. It’s important to verify what each software package you’re considering can and can’t do.

The right eLearning authoring tools (like Avallain Author) can help you compile and manage content into cohesive eBooks ready for publishing.

#13. Who can or should use eLearning software?

Anyone can use eLearning, and the right solution will vary, depending on their industry, their needs, and their objectives.

Traditionally, eLearning has been boosted by publishers, educational institutions, and publishers, but small, mid-sized and large businesses are also taking their piece of the cake, after seeing the advantages of online training, bespoke learning content,

#14. How does eLearning software benefit businesses?

The right eLearning solution can spark growth in your employees and, as a result, your entire business. eLearning benefits organisations by providing easy and comprehensive solutions to onboarding, professional development, compliance, culture, certifications, and change management. We cover these benefits in a lot more detail in this blog post.

#15. How does eLearning software benefit schools and universities?

eLearning solutions enable schools and universities of all sizes around the world to develop their own interactive digital education content. These assets can be courses unto themselves, or they can supplement existing courses. They allow universities to enroll students across the globe, expanding their offerings and reach.

Conclusion

There are a lot of eLearning software programs out there, so having a basic knowledge of what’s available and how it can be used to benefit your organisation will help you find the right solution.

Now that you know the basics, ready to find out more about how eLearning can benefit your organisation? Avallain can help. Contact us today and tell us about your needs.

Corporate training is more important now than ever. In today’s dynamic working environment, processes such as onboarding, upskilling, corporate compliance, and professional development can be highly optimised by implementing online employee training software. Here’s how.

Online employee training software enables organisations to train and share knowledge with their teams online. A solution specifically designed for the needs of the corporate sector, it makes it easy to build, deliver, and track training efforts through an all-in-one online platform.

In today’s highly remote work environment, this type of solution matters. Online training is independent of location, time, and schedules, which means an unlimited number of employees can be trained at once across different time zones at the click of a few buttons. It’s cost-effective for your business—saving you from travelling and training staff costs—while automating training in a consistent manner across your entire organisation.

The best online employee training software offers interactive training and personalised training paths for employees, boosting engagement and retention—and faster, clearer, and more manageable data on performance and outcomes for organisation leaders.

To see these benefits in action, let’s take a look at how corporates are using employee training software.

6 Ways Companies Use Online Employee Training Software

Online training software serves many purposes. There are solutions available that are suitable for the specific training requirements of the corporate sector.

Different companies across different industries will have their own reason (or reasons) for implementing online employee training software. Here are some of those purposes.

1. Onboarding

Companies use online training software to onboard new employees, ensuring a consistent and seamless transition for any new hire. It helps organisations deliver all pertinent information to newcomers and, at the same time, an acceptable level of understanding and learning about the company, specific processes and tasks related to each accountability, depending on the role of the new hire. Online training software prepares them for immediate success and allows new hires to show up on their first day with a firm grasp on the job and company policies.

 2. Continuous Professional Development

 Companies also use this type of solution after the initial onboarding process to continuously improve their employees.

With the support of online employee training software, companies of any size can upskill employees with no limitations of headcount or skills and easily, accurately, and efficiently train employees on specific areas of interest.

 3. Compliance

Other organisations—namely those in tightly regulated industries like finance and healthcare — rely on online training to ensure compliance on a global scale on topics relevant to their business. Global compliance standards are vital for these industries and easily achievable with online training.  

Regardless of industry, though, most organisations need to care about meeting IT security, work safety, legal, and ISO standards. With accurate data about employees’ performance, organisations can easily identify areas of improvement and quickly assure standardisation and compliance across all branches.

4. Corporate Culture

With an ever-increasing competitive hiring landscape, companies need to work on their corporate culture and level of engagement to attract and retain the best talent in the market.

That’s why more and more companies implement online employee training software, which enables trending benefits such as remote work and personal development.

Above all, companies can reinforce company values and other items that are essential to the corporate culture. Doing so maintains a strong company culture and keeps your employees engaged, dedicated to their work, and aware of their important role in the company.

5. Employee Certification

Since online training software allows companies to train an unlimited number of employees in topics and skills according to their needs, companies use it to speed up the process of employee certification.

This is especially beneficial to organisations that are part of industries where certifications are equal to compliance, or when potential clients base their final decision on the possibility of working with certified professionals.

6. React to Changes

Now more than ever, companies need to be able to react quickly and accurately to rapid changes. An online training platform allows you to quickly create modules or courses related to the latest industry changes.

Whether it’s new hygiene regulations as a part of COVID-19 or new data privacy regulations, training software provides your company with the flexibility to respond to changes in a timely and consistent manner.  

Online Employee Training Software: 6 Essential Features

It’s clear that online employee training software plays an important role for a number of corporate purposes. But to have the benefits described above, you need a suitable and efficient solution that includes at least the following features: 

• Dedicated Roles: Companies need the power to divide users by roles, such as learner and trainer. This ensures their interaction with the platform is coherent with the company’s and the user’s objectives and hierarchies.
• Multimedia Content: The use of videos, audio files, images, PDFs, PPT presentations, eBooks, and more is essential for organisations to deliver training that works and keeps your employees engaged.
• Performance Tracking and Reports: To know what works and what doesn’t, companies need a high level of detail and accessibility on the performance of learning programs. Training software should easily and clearly keep track of metrics like content usage, employees’ learning process, and performance.
• Secured Access and Storage: Considering how sensitive corporate information can be, the training solution must be secure. Your learning software should offer privacy and protection against any type of threat, including the ones that might even be in the office.
• White Label: Branding is a very important element of organisations. As such, learning software should offer white label capabilities, allowing corporations to customise their dashboards with the intention of creating a personalised experience for their employees. This allows employees to fully interact and connect with the brand and the company’s identity.
• Bespoke Content:  It’s vital to be able to create bespoke and engaging training content in order to ensure inspiring and effective learning experiences tailored to the individual company.

Conclusion

With the right solution, online employee training software can help your organisation in a number of areas. Overall, it helps you reach all your training and business goals by making sure your employees are certified, compliant, knowledgeable, and in touch with your organisation’s culture and values.

Avallain Magnet, combined with Avallain Author, offers all the features you need to create custom content, deliver and manage top-notch digital training experiences, and fulfill the training purposes outlined above. Packed in a fully functional suite with no additional setup costs and no risks of lack of compatibility (two common issues many corporates face when implementing training software), Avallain ensures the best outcome for a corporate digital learning strategy.

Ready to meet and surpass all corporate training requirements? Avallain can help. Contact us today tell us about your needs.

eLearning authoring software is helping publishers, universities and corporations produce online courses and training programs at an unprecedented rate. In this post, we break down the top 4 reasons why.

eLearning authoring software is a creative tool used by instructional designers to create and deliver high-quality eLearning content.

There are two general types of authoring software:

• Standalone software that offers advanced authoring capabilities. Standalone authoring tools also have publishing functionality, but they need a destination to deliver the content (learning platform, website, mobile or web application, etc). Standalone software can fully integrate with a learning management system as an all-in-one solution. 
• Prebuilt authoring tools with limited authoring and publishing capabilities, included in learning management systems or all-in-one solutions.

In this blog, we’re focusing more on standalone eLearning authoring software.

While each type has unique specialisations, having dedicated authoring tools for creating learning content offers a number of benefits for publishers, univeirsities and businesses.

Reason #1: Better Learning Outcomes

The main benefit of eLearning authoring software is how easy it makes the process of creating customised learning content. Using advanced features and multimedia functionality, course designers can rapidly create more engaging and interactive content. And that can have a profound impact on learning outcomes.

In online courses, interactivity is defined as requiring students to engage with content through different senses, tools or actions. Courses with higher levels of interactivity tend to provide greater learning outcomes. 

For example, an exercise requiring students to read a passage, listen to audio and complete a question uses multiple touchpoints to reinforce a concept, producing a better learning result.

Reason #2: Content and Asset Management 

To create better learning outcomes with more engaging and interactive content, you need more than just a way to create said content. You need a way to manage it all in one place. This is where online authoring tools excel. 

eLearning authoring software provides full flexibility and overview of your assets when it comes to storing and structuring your content. This is helpful because you will likely reuse the same content for different learning products in order to stay as efficient as possible and get the most out of each created piece of content. 

Another component of content and asset management is version visibility. This allows you to identify which piece is the latest version so you can quickly update content or even restore an older version as needed. This also provides full control over all your media and other assets. You know exactly when it was uploaded, by who, as part of what content and learning product. Then, you can update or replace the asset with just one click everywhere. 

Lastly, content and asset management needs to be backed by high security and performance. Standalone authoring tools offer state-of-the-art shared or dedicated cloud-hosting solutions, providing instructional designers with the utmost security and performance of their data and assets. 

Reason #3: Production & Project Management

Another benefit of authoring software is that it offers robust production and project management capabilities alongside content creation.

In the same way that marketing teams or video developers use project management software to track their deadlines and resources, authoring software can serve as a production management tool to help instructional design teams.

eLearning authoring software allows designers to work with different stages and workflows to match editorial workflows, such as “in progress,” “final draft,” “approved” and “published.” Also, you can work with different user roles and rights to seamlessly get your offline team processes and responsibilities mirrored online. If wished, you can easily and safely work with outsourced capacities. 

This is particularly useful for design teams and publishers who have to work on concurrent projects, meet deadlines and track the performance of their work. With a more structured way to create and manage learning content, many teams find that their designers can work faster and more flexibly.

Reason #4: Integrations

A final benefit of authoring software is its ability to integrate with your learning management system (LMS) or learning experience platform (LXP) software or solution. Using industry standards such as xAPI or Scorm, most common authoring applications allow you to publish a course to a connected LMS or LXP for users to enjoy.

However, eLearning software integrations are most successful and beneficial to instructional designers when the standalone authoring tool integrates with an LMS or LXP from the same brand. To understand why, let’s look at all possible combinations:

Standalone Authoring Tool + Different Brand LMS/LXP

When you use a standalone authoring tool and an LMS or LXP from different vendors, complications may arise during publishing.

For example, content may not display precisely in the platform in the way it was initially authored, and publishing processes may require cumbersome manual import/export. Also, when it comes to updating your content, you may have to update the same content piece in each single course – instead of clicking once to update across everything. 

Prebuilt Authoring Tool Within LMS/LXP

Alternatively, you can opt for a prebuilt authoring tool within an LMS or LXP, making the publishing and updating process much smoother. However, you miss out on the benefits of standalone eLearning software—including engaging content with a lot of variety, powerful content and asset management features, production, workflow and project management features, and more.

Standalone Authoring Tool + Same Brand LMS/LXP (All-In-One) 

This leads us to an all-in-one solution that offers a standalone authoring tool and an LMS/LXP from the same brand, perfectly tuned to each other and seamlessly integrated. You get the benefits of both worlds: Full features of a standalone solution and smooth and quick publishing and updating processes. 

Conclusion

Instructional designers are creating online courses and digital training experiences faster than ever thanks to eLearning authoring software. From better learning outcomes to project management functionality, authoring software offers a number of benefits for publishers, universities and businesses looking to level up their online courses.

Need eLearning tools for authoring, distributing and managing your content? Avallain can help. Tell us more about your needs today.

Demand for engaging and informative online courses has never been greater. But producing these types of content at scale is no easy task. In this post, we’ll break down what eLearning software is and how it helps organisations create better courses. 

eLearning software is a digital tool that a company, organisation or individual uses to create learning content and experiences online. In some ways, eLearning software is an umbrella term that comprises numerous subcategories of specialised learning software.

While researching eLearning software, you’re likely to come across dozens of synonyms for the term. These include, to name a few:

• Learning management system
• Online training system
• Content authoring tools
• Digital instructional design
• Digital learning software
• Instructional design tools
• Online training platform for business
• Learning experience platforms

Each subcategory of eLearning software provides unique specialisations or features. But one thing they all have in common is their ability to create or distribute content and learning experiences online.

Traditionally, learning software was delivered offline, but this is becoming less common every day. Now the industry-standard for learning is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which offers a higher level of performance and flexibility.

How Does eLearning Software Work?

Producing an online course involves two steps: creation (or authoring) and distribution. eLearning software provides course designers a virtual environment for each.

The administration environment is where platform administrators will manage courses, products and the platform. The environment is also designed to provide the optimal user and learning management experience for the organisation operating the platform.

The frontend environment is where the end users, such as teachers, trainers, students and learners engage with the content and courses, as well as with each other. The design of this environment is focused on providing a positive user experience for the person taking – and the person grading – the course.

Types of eLearning Software

While there are dozens of providers of eLearning software – each with their own specialisation – they all fit into four general categories.

Comprehensive or All-in-One Software

Comprehensive eLearning software delivers both authoring and distribution functionalities in a single package.

This allows you to create, deliver and manage the entire learning experience, from inception to engagement with end users.

All-in-one software has become popular because you get the benefits of two platforms for the price of one, without losing functionality. 

Authoring functionality for all-in-one solutions is usually either built-in, which often limits their capabilities, or achieved through seamless integration with a more robust authoring tool that has better features and functionality.

Some providers also offer solutions that allow you to customise your learning platforms, such as adding your own branding. These solutions check all the boxes of comprehensive software, but allow for a greater degree of customisation and flexibility.

It’s worth noting that a cutting-edge all-in-one solution should offer the capabilities of both a learning management system (LMS) and a learning experience platform (LXP), depending on the individual requirements and demands of its users.

(More on that in a bit.)

Online Authoring Tools

Online authoring tools are solely dedicated to the creation of eLearning content. They cannot deliver the content to end users. However, they do have the capability to export content via API (such as xAPI and SCORM) or by publishing directly to a connected learning platform.

Authoring tools have three main use cases:

• Publishers use them to both digitalise their educational content and create more interactive digital content
• Corporates use them to create and maintain high quality training courses for their employees
• Agencies use them to create content that they can then sell to publishers or corporates

Learning Management System

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, and delivery of educational courses and training programs. Put simply, an LMS helps you manage every stage of delivering a learning experience to an audience.

There are standalone learning management systems on the market, but in many ways LMS represents a range of functionality that other applications provide. For example, an all-in-one solution might provide LMS features.

Learning Experience Platforms

A learning experience platform (LXP) is a new type of application that’s having a huge impact on the way the industry thinks about learning content. An LXP is essentially all-in-one publishing software but with a higher level of features and functionality that fosters a better user experience.

LXPs help you create personalised learning experiences through a number of innovative features, including:

• Gamification
• Personalised dashboards
• Advanced reporting capabilities 
• Artificial intelligence 

Conclusion

Engaging online learning experiences don’t happen by accident. eLearning software makes it easier than ever to create and deliver courses to users anywhere.

Need eLearning tools for authoring, distributing and managing your content? Tell us more about your needs today.