Lionbridge Content Development

Authoring Tools: The Chicken or the Egg

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Please join us in welcoming our newest Content Development blogger: Jacques Pondaven, Lionbridge E-learning Solutions Architect, from our Clichy, France office.

Back in the beginning of the 2000s, a gold rush took place in the E-learning world. Whoever was involved in putting together an E-learning department had to have their own LMS (Learning Management System). Whatever the cost was, whatever the price was, whatever their learning strategy was. Soon enough, lots of companies could proudly demonstrate their uber-efficient training system and brag about the number of simultaneous users they had.

But there was a tiny problem: those cathedrals of learning were full of desperately empty echoes. No content to satisfy the thirsty learners. And when they turned to E-learning providers to start creating some, they soon discovered they had no money left for that purpose. It was a hard but valuable learning experience. In this new high-tech Industry, we discovered the hard way that it is important to consider all aspects of a training policy upfront before making any decision. What should have come first, the chicken or the egg?

A similar situation seems be to occurring nowadays when creating content. Stakeholders tend to rush into purchasing authoring tools as a response to their training needs. How can they be wrong? How could the newest online authoring tool, pumped up with trillions of templates, zillions of user profiles, not be the ultimate solution to all our needs? Maybe it is perfect for some organizations, maybe it isn't. But neglecting to consider all aspects of one's learning strategy is holding us 10 years back.

Rushing out to buy an authoring tool is actually a very human reaction. Investigating the purchase of an authoring tool helps to focus on something tangible, but induces procrastination on the real issue: learning strategy. It's easier to study and compare a list of features rather than ask, "what is my strategy, what do my learners need?"

Ironically, it's never been easier to match authoring tools to one's learning needs. The market offers numbers of Rapid e-Learning tools, Courseware tools, simulation tools, Media tools or home-made frameworks. So, once you define your strategy, you will surely find the authoring tool to match it in a snap.

So how do you define your learning strategy?  There is no fixed formula. Too many factors need to be taken into account. However, it is good practice to identify first your business goals such as the following:

• Why do I need training?
• What will my company gain from training?
• What increase in market share do the sales need to reach this year?

Although these questions don't necessarily confine themselves to the learning department only, they will help you to focus on what's important to your business, evaluate the seriousness of your effort - and help convince and motivate your troops and superiors. Whatever you do, the outcome should be a mapping of the learning goals to business goals in terms of:

• Number of hours to develop per year (maintenance, localization)
• Level of the content complexity (very interactive, bespoken, simulated environment)
• Budget (external and internal costs, which will be the topic of another article)
• Technical environment (Html, flash-based, etc).

The next step is to decide how to set up your production process. A possible approach is to consider the numbers of hours to develop per year as a starting point: your process should be different whether you intend to develop 2 hours or 20 hours per year. The following table gives you an idea on how to approach this. This is not a universal table - its purpose is to give you an overview of the kind of questions to ask yourself.

One last thought: Defining your production process could also evolve in time. It's all about acquiring enough internal competences at the right time to control the learning curve and manage your providers. For this reason, you might want to combine the different above cases: Starting with Case 1 for your first experience then moving towards a Case 2 or 3.

So what will come first in your case, the chicken or the egg?

Please feel free to post a comment here, or send me your best recipe at Jacques(dot)Pondaven(at)lionbridge(dot)com.