Question 2: Do I have to purchase special courseware development tools, to create effective training? I’ve seen many of these popular courseware tools cost several thousand dollars for each yearly license? Is this a necessary expense?
Answer: We say NO , here’s why. For the majority of training programs, purchasing expensive courseware development tools is just an added cost to the total cost of ownership (initial investment and course maintenance) or keeping licenses current, keeping trained staff or hiring consultants to update the course lessons (which always happens).
We also say NO to expensive additional development tools, because we’ve delivered 100’s of hours of highly effective training using just the Microsoft Office Tools. Most companies already have an enterprise license and your employees are already active users of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint. Our teams produce professional quality training delivered in formats like: facilitated, live webinar, and self-paced eLearning modules from one PowerPoint source document.
Here’s why we recommend using PowerPoint to design training modules.
1. Standardization is the key to delivering effective company training. This means that everyone sees and hears the same information. PowerPoint is time-saving because it delivers standardized training for self-paced and live training events.
2. Company employees are already familiar with using PowerPoint in the workplace. It comes in most handy in the review / approval process since review team members quickly view and provide feedback on the visual (graphic) and speaker notes.
3. Easily add video and interactivity elements into PowerPoint for engaging learners.
4. PowerPoint can easily converted into a video format. If you need to re-work or add new modules, just add the new information and convert to video. Saves time and money on future updates.
5. PowerPoint videos meet SCORM requirements of learning management systems (LMS) using Camtasia editing software.
