ELearning Tools for Better Online Courses
Originally published at eLearning Tools
Today when the e-learning industry is increasingly growing, many people create online video courses. However, not all of these courses are attractive and engaging for the learners. So, if you want to be one of the specialists who bring a difference to the e-learning industry, then your main focus should be on creating engaging training content. This may take a little more time than you use to spend but the results are better than you may think. Besides, creating attractive content is more interesting and engaging even for the trainers. But how to create such content, what eLearning tools to use, and which approach to take in order to get the best of possible.
What Is An eLearning Authoring Tool?
An eLearning authoring tool has significant importance in your teaching business. First of all, it provides an opportunity to create content from the ground up. Sometimes there is even a chance to make use of built-in advantages to save time and other resources. However, these days you can also use feature-rich authoring tool software to repurpose your existing content. But why do you need an authoring tool?
One of the most common assets of such tools is that they help us create and design better courses that align with current gaps and goals. For instance, today you can make use of automated test checking tools or certificate generators to facilitate the certification paths to build relevant skills. After all, you get an opportunity to quickly update content using different templates to keep up with trends and policy changes.
Top 6 ELearning Tools for Creating Better Online Courses
If you are looking for eLearning authoring tools, then go on, you are at the right place. Putting together the basic blocks of the online video course, eLearning tools help to manage the fundamental content which is to reach the user, in this case, potential learners.
#1 Adobe Captivate
Adobe is a global leader in digital media, digital marketing, as well as among eLearning solutions. The tools and services offered by Adobe, allow the users to create revolutionary digital content, deploy it across media and devices, measure and optimize it, aiming at achieving greater business success.
This tool allows the users to create, publish, and manage their eLearning content with this leading digital learning solution. Adobe Captivate is a rapid authoring tool that empowers the eLearning content creators to build mobile-ready, engaging, interactive courses within minutes.
Adobe Captivate offers a useful tool — the ready-to-go slides that provide any eLearning content creator to simply plug and play their own content (no matter text, images, videos, and so on). Accordingly, they rapidly create nice and attractive eLearning video courses, having access to more than 75000 assets. As an addition, the tool enables the users to develop interactive courses without any tech knowledge, just with text to speech, quiz slides, and a host of plug-and-play interactions, such as drag-and-drop and click-and-reveal, it has everything one needs to create a stunning and engaging eLearning course. If you are interested in the pricing plans, here we are. Adobe Captivate offers flexible buying programs for any kind of user:
- Individual Subscription: US $33.99/month
- Perpetual License Price: US $1299
- Student Teacher Edition: US $399
- Upgrade Price: US $499
As for the beginning, you get 30 days of a free trial.
#2 ProProfs Training Maker
This is one of the useful tools for eLearning that offers either to use existing material or author content. Using ready-made templates is also available. As a user, you will also get an opportunity to cover different formats of files to make your course even more engaging. Add images, videos, slide share presentations, different textual documents, and even more. You may rely on such points and use them as gamification elements, making the learning process more engaging with the help of brain games, learning paths, quizzes, and certificates.
This tool is very often used for managing staff training and providing a better experience. Such tools are very useful to manage both the students and activities. Accordingly, ProProfs Training Maker also provides real-time reports and analytics to measure the engagement and the performance of your courses. It supports knowledge-sharing, seamless third-party integrations, customization, and branding, as well as course monetization.
To create online courses, you just need a few minutes to take the following steps:
Step 1: Browse templates or create from scratch
Step 2: Add images, quizzes, tests, videos, & presentations
Step 3: Customize with your logo, theme, & brand colors
Step 4: Share with your learners
Step 5: Track progress in real-time
#3 Udutu
If you want eLearning tools free, then Udutu is the right choice for you. This web-based tool will help you build courses, allowing you to create different kinds of activities, such as assessments, interactive modules, and branching scenarios. With the help of this tool, you can convert your PowerPoint slides to online courses. However, this option requires a subscription. The price is $10 per month. You may download the ready courses to your computer as SCORM packages. And, there is also an opportunity to upload previously authored SCORMs and reedit them.
Unlike many other authoring tools, Udutu offers a real-time collaboration option — several people may use it at the same time from different locations. However, if you are using the free membership it will allow you to distribute a link to a course only with watermarks placed on each slide. Besides the platform does not automatically save the changes; frequent saves are required.
The main advantage of this tool is that you can make use of it without any programming skills. The pre-designed templates will help you to create interactive learning objects and branching scenarios.
#4 IsEazy
Another cloud-based authoring tool, with a user-friendly interface, is isEazy. There is no more need to invest your time in training. It is possible to create courses with slides both as a free plan subscriber and the paid pricing plans. You should create slide share presentations in advance and use templates to make them more attractive. Ready-made templates are available where you may edit and add texts, images, videos, and audio. This tool also allows you to add and customize interactive elements such as interactive quizzes, timelines, catalogs, process interactions, and even more. IsEasy also provides a stock image bank. However, it also has a limitation. You can use up to 500 images.
However, although there is a rich arsenal of features, tools, and ease of use, the free version of isEazy has significant limitations. The tool restrictions include its use in 3 eLearning projects. Besides, there is a 0.3 GB limit on the space for courses and in the free version, courses include the logo of isEasy. In order to get access to more advanced authoring options, you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
#5 Adapt
This is one of the eLearning authoring tools open source which will help you create eLearning courses without technical knowledge. The Adapt Framework is a good option to build content. The vision statement for this award-winning free tool is presented in the below-mentioned points:
- Create a leading authoring tool for offering a responsive, multi-device e-learning experience
- Encourage the global community of the target users
- Drive wider adoption with a free and open-source license
- Ensure the authoring tool is intuitive and easy to use with different LMS systems or websites
- Support collaborative development and transition to community-led governance
Like the above-mentioned tools, this one also allows creating of courses based on slides. However, unlike the others, this tool does not support branching scenarios. It offers a very limited animation scope, and it is suited only to those who want to create long-read courses with linear navigation.
#6 CourseLab
CourseLab is powerful, at the same time an easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool. Users may create high-quality attractive educational content with a programming-free environment. This free authoring platform provides an opportunity to publish courses on the web or an LMS. Like other similar tools, it allows users to create the content in the WYSIWYG model. This means that you get what you see. Therefore, the platform interface looks a little bit outdated. Not being very intuitive, CourseLab can sometimes seem quite complicated for non-technical users and course creators.
Instead, it is a great solution for tech geeks, thanks to quite an extensive set of provided features. It is possible to build slide-based courses including visual content, images, videos, complex multi-object interactions, as well as quizzes. CourseLab comes with a large set of ready-to-use eLearning module templates, though learning how to use and customize them may require quite a lot of time.
To Sum Up
If you like one or more of the above-mentioned tools, then you may use them in creating better course content for your active and potential learners. The choice is wider today, and you will surely find the best fit for your needs. When you have already created your content material and need a platform to present and sell content, take into consideration creating your personal eLearning platform. It will become a brand that will help you reach a wider audience and offer your valuable knowledge. Keep in mind that your experience and skills are required in the market.
Sharing is caring. Take the first step. Check out Uteach and learn how you may start online teaching. Do not miss your chance or waste your time. It is your turn to present valuable knowledge, arouse the learners’ interest, guide them in the right direction, and be appreciated for your efforts.
In order to get familiar with the Uteach features and functionality,
