Prepare Your Tech Toolbox
Chapter 3
As a business leader, it's crucial to know L&D software applications and tool basics. These resources enable your team to produce outstanding courses efficiently through e-learning—a vital component of L&D. Any missing pieces make it more challenging to build toward company goals.
of L&D and training executives invest in learning technology to accelerate remote and digital workforce training.1
This baseline knowledge can help you expedite the approvals process, establish a budget, and foster strong, trusting relationships across departments.
Next, we'll cover five essential types of e-learning tools your team may need to achieve powerful results.
Types of e-learning tools:
Course authoring
Course distribution and hosting
Media creation tools and resources
AI
Analytics
Of course, these may vary depending on your budget, team size, and course type.
Familiarizing yourself with key L&D software tools will help you stop bottlenecks before they occur and set your team up to work as efficiently and effectively as possible.
1 KPMG
I'm not sure
The bread and butter of e-learning software, course authoring or creation tools allow your team to build valuable learning experiences for computers, tablets, or mobile phones.
Apps vary in the learning elements they can incorporate, like quizzes and videos, and the level of customization they offer. Many don’t require any programming knowledge, increasing efficiency and ease of use.
Once your e-learning has been created, you need to get it to the right learners. Two popular choices for course distribution are learning management systems (LMSes) and learning experience platforms (LXPs), which can vary in their agility, complexity, and ability to share and track learning results. Some web-based course authoring tools have easy integration with LMS platforms, which may impact the distribution tool you choose.
Adding media to your courses is a key way to increase engagement. Resources that allow you to easily access course templates and stock assets can allow for more agile and budget-friendly course creation, while media creation tools can allow your team to produce their own assets.
Though relatively new, AI tools are transforming the landscape of workplace L&D. Whether focused on idea generation, administrative tasks, or research, they allow for more efficient course creation.
Beyond analyzing how courses perform, you also need qualitative data. This supports the impact of L&D on business goals, as well as insights on who has taken legally mandated courses. Some course authoring and distribution tools include built-in analytics.
L&D software tools can help your team keep up with the pace of learning today, allowing them to work more efficiently, produce content on a larger scale, and easily customize their courses to suit a variety of audiences.
However, while these tools are important, they're not the be-all, end-all resource for organizational success with L&D. They're an enhancement, not a replacement, for the individuals you hire and the goals you set.
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