An authoring tool for creating eLearning courses on specialist topics

The options for training people digitally are just as diverse as the requirements of their workplaces.
eLearning is ideally suited for imparting technical knowledge in specialist courses, whether about programming languages in the IT industry or on imaging procedures in the medical field. You can incorporate interactive modules and practical exercises to help learners understand how to transfer the knowledge into practice, even while still training.
eLearning can also make an important contribution to training occupational safety and minimizing accidents. Realistic simulations of dangerous situations raise your learners’ awareness of safe working practices. 
With the right authoring tool, you can also vividly display content related to interpersonal and communication skills. In the service sector, soft skills such as communication, conflict management and teamwork are indispensable.
Here, learning becomes an adventure when role-playing games, engaging case studies and interactive scenarios strengthen your employees’ social skills. It allows them to professionalize their capabilities when interacting with their team and customers.
From healthcare to technology, manufacturing and finance, the potential of eLearning can be felt in all industries:

• Efficient knowledge transfer on compliance topics, e.g. annual data protection and security training
• Timely updating of content following amendments to legal requirements
• Effective use of resources through the digitalization of typical onboarding topics
• Ensures a uniform level of knowledge among all employees concerned, e.g. field sales staff before a product launch
• Targeted specialist courses tailored to a range of target groups
• Self-directed learning anytime and anywhere, even when working from home
• Analytics for the documentation and management of education and training within the company

As eLearning is set to remain an integral part of professional development, it makes sense to firmly anchor the creation of specialist eLearning courses in the company’s processes and to use an authoring tool that gives you a flexible and efficient process for doing so. This keeps you in control of course creation.
 

With an authoring tool that meets these requirements, you can implement your courses successfully and efficiently, whether you are training soft skills, imparting product knowledge or systematizing compliance training.

Knowledgeworker Create is the authoring tool module of the Knowledgeworker suite. Let’s take a look at this specific example to see how these requirements can be implemented in an authoring tool.

Creating learning content has traditionally been a time-consuming and costly task. Authoring tools have changed this dynamic. Companies no longer need to rely on outside experts to create courses. 
A template-based tool enables you to create courses quickly without compromising on quality. You can get started straight away and add content yourself based on templates with different elements. With Knowledgeworker Create, you can develop your own creations based on templates, which allows for deeper integration into the learning process.
Just like content templates, Knowledgeworker Create also offers templates for different question types. Learners receive feedback on their level of knowledge and you can ensure that they have understood the pivotal content. If necessary, the data also documents learners’ progress.

When you have an authoring tool that supports a variety of media like Knowledgeworker Create does, you can get creative. Text passages, media in the form of images, audio or video files, interactive click elements and test questions.  These different elements give course creators the opportunity to present the learning material in a variety of ways to meet the different needs of their industries.
Text-based content can always be created quickly and easily. At the same time, videos can also be used as the basis of modules and to explain complex content in a vivid way. It makes sense that an audiovisual presentation can be more efficient and clearer for explaining processes and procedures than text and images alone, e.g. when introducing a new manufacturing process in production.

At a time when sustainability is playing an increasingly important role, efficient authoring tools make it easy to reuse content such as individual quizzes or chapters of a learning module. Content created once in Knowledgeworker Create can be reused across different specialist courses. This not only minimizes time spend, but also contributes to sustainability by requiring fewer resources for repeated content creation. For example, a question about the use of a company cellphone could be integrated into both an onboarding course and a course on data protection without creating unnecessary duplicates. 

If you want to create eLearning courses for different screen sizes, responsivity is a fundamental requirement you should have of your authoring tool. It enables your content to be displayed in the best possible way both in desktop view and on a smartphone. 
In Knowledgeworker Create, for example, you can see how the content appears on different devices during creation right in the editor, and can simulate different views.

Whether you’re creating a single course or setting up a whole curriculum, there are usually several people involved, e.g. subject matter experts or the HR department. Ideally, an authoring tool should offer access and feedback opportunities for everyone involved. 
In Knowledgeworker Create, integrated review and task management facilitates collaboration between several people. Each task is assigned to the person(s) responsible. Feedback on the content can be retrieved centrally and is also stored in the editor, directly on the respective element. This ensures efficient review loops between the parties involved.

After creating content and consulting with all your subject matter experts, your course should be delivered to learners easily and promptly. However, not every company has its own learning platform, which makes the question of export options all the more important. Depending on the format, content can be seamlessly integrated into common learning management systems (LMS), embedded on websites or used as stand-alone offline content. 
Small and medium-sized companies, which may not have a separate LMS, can integrate content via their websites. For knowledge-intensive and highly regulated sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, it may be relevant to make the specialist course easily available to employees offline for future reference after the eLearning course is complete.
Knowledgeworker Create offers the export of courses as a SCORM package, web element and PDF. 

Data protection is often an important argument to consider where eLearning is arranged by agreement with your works council. You’ll need to clarify how learner data is processed by an authoring tool before selecting it. 
Knowledgeworker Create is GDPR-compliant and thus guarantees secure handling of data.