Article for e-learning age

By Mike Alcock, Managing Director, Atlantic Link Ltd

Like all businesses, e-learning providers have to monitor their business environment and predict the major changes which are going to take place over the short and medium term. In our industry technological changes have been driving a fundamental shift which marks the end of traditional e-learning design and programming companies, allowing trainers with little or no IT expertise to author e-learning.

Software designers have been utilising the latest technologies to make e-learning authoring tools increasingly easy to use. This process has had a dual effect, firstly allowing e-learning providers to produce courses more quickly and easily than ever before, leading to more intense price and service competition, and secondly to allow non programmers to provide e-learning courses of a very high standard.

Technological factors driving change:

The technology changes which are driving this change are familiar in all areas of computer usage. They can be summarised:

Improved User interfaces:

Software automation is allowing tasks such as writing flash animations, which were once the preserve of programmers to be undertaken by non specialists. Graphical user interfaces have improved beyond all recognition allowing users simply to point and click to create content just the way they want it to look.

Ever cheaper, quicker and more powerful hardware:

The reducing cost of remote webspace together with the increasing speed and penetration of broadband connections together with more powerful client machines in the offices of ordinary users allows non programmers to interface with collaborative development projects in ways which were unthinkable just a few years ago

Universal acceptance of some common office software technologies:

While some sections of the IT world may despair, the truth is that Windows based software is now pretty well universal in the business world and allows some pieces of software such as MS Office (in particular Word and Powerpoint), pdfs, Internet Explorer and Flash animations to be familiar to virtually all general office computer users. Combine these technologies with the capability to collaborate on web projects via server side technology environments, in particular the use of Microsoft .NET technologies, and the way e-learning projects are put together must change.

Implications for e-learning providers

These technological changes have meant that it is now possible to produce comprehensive authoring tools which provide a sufficient variety and range of functionality to allow non-IT specialists to produce high quality e-learning material. At Atlantic Link we like to think that our products are ahead of the field but there are a wide range of authoring products on the market making similar claims which allow non-technical users to develop e-learning courses with a level of ease.

The development of such tools means however that the face of e-learning is changing for ever. No longer does authoring require the bringing together of both learning and IT skills. E-learning users who have a distinct idea of how they would like their e-learning to function, are able to use the latest tools to obtain just the look and design that they want. Much e-learning authoring will be undertaken "in-house" and even where companies commission the building of e-learning courses externally they will expect it to be written using common authoring tools which allow them to make amendments and extensions to the programme themselves.

The freedom provided by the technology will also mean that training experts without IT expertise will be able to provide courses, leading to increased competition for the provision of e-learning projects that are not being undertaken "in house". This means that the pool of e-learning providers will increase significantly and competitive differentiation between them will come in terms of the quality of the training solution and the speed and price at which it is produced. This is good news for e-learning users but less so for providers who aren’t fleet of foot to adapt to the new environment.

Features of the new generation e-learning authoring tools

So what features will users be expecting from their authoring tools in the next few years. Not surprisingly they are all features which current technologies make possible and which future users will view as necessities.

1. Ease of use

Authoring tools will have easy to manage Graphical User Interfaces which allow users to manipulate e-learning screens easily and intuitively. This will allow them to add to and edit existing courses and, if they wish, to author entirely new courses from scratch.

Tools will be expected to have easy interactivity with common software, particularly Microsoft office products. Automated output engines (Flash etc…) will allow sophisticated effects and solutions without programming knowledge.

Speed of development will be a key feature enabling sophisticated learning courses to be available rapidly and be amended quickly and easily. User licensing will be simple and not restrictive giving companies internal flexibility to develop courses as they desire.

2. Collaborative Development Environment

Remote authoring will be the norm– particularly server side using ‘smart’ Windows clients which will allow all users to see amendments as they are made, so changes and additions can be easily facilitated. Remote manipulation through browser only interfaces will allow unrestricted collaboration with colleagues across the globe. Workflow based development and multi-stage publishing will allow rapid implementation of ongoing projects.

3. Quality features

Integrated Learning Management Systems will ensure that learning can be fully monitored while easy and effective screen, and audio capture will ensure that learning environments replicate real environments with absolute accuracy. Mode switching between self learning and classroom delivery will ensure that the learning tool is flexible to meet training needs.

Impact on the Industry

E-learning is at something of a crossroads in its development. As a developer of a highly user friendly authoring toolkit, Atlantic Link often finds itself drawn into authoring courses utilising our software, simply because we can do so faster and with better results than traditional providers. However, we fully expect that as time passes, we will cease to have to provide this service as users realise just how easy the task is and as a raft of non-technical training and subject matter experts take on the tools to develop all sizes of e-learning solutions.

There will still be a place for the high end e-learning developers but they will generally be using the common authoring tools and their competitive advantage will be in managing complex projects and delivering innovative training solutions rather than in supplying IT expertise. They will have to adapt their way of working as they will find that those commissioning e-learning will increasingly want to work collaboratively in a "live" environment and will not expect changes to the brief to incur large costs as they will understand the flexibility that the new generation of authoring tools offers.

As more users and subcontractors discover just how easy the new technologies are, software developers like Atlantic Link will withdraw entirely from authoring specific courses. We will focus purely on selling authoring software and be able to focus purely on providing more and more new features, maximising the use of new technologies to reinforce the ease with which sophisticated solutions can be developed without programming expertise.

Authoring tools have reached the point where there is no longer technical mystery in the production of e-learning courses. Non IT specialist trainers can now produce courses for an electronic environment just as they can for paper based workbooks or classroom delivery. It will take a few years for the industry to adjust to this fact but those who have been monitoring their environment will have seen it coming.