Rapid Authoring – So What?

by Mike Alcock, MD Atlantic Link

Rapid Authoring tools are the hot topic in the e-learning world.  In June, 2007 the E-Learning Guild published a report which revealed continuing growth in demand for rapid authoring tools with a massive 82% of the guild members reported a demand for the tools.  The report concluded "Both the 2005 report and this year’s study suggest that rapid e-Learning is becoming a more pervasive and disciplined practice as it struggles with and solves problems common to all e-Learning design and delivery efforts.  The bottom line: rapid e-Learning is for real and seems to be here to stay."

This is great news but it is also important to assess whether interest in rapid authoring is just allowing existing e-learning producers to operate more quickly and cheaply, or whether these authoring tools are making a fundamental and permanent change to the world of e-learning. In other words, are rapid authoring tools actually allowing trainers to try new things in their e-learning and blended learning or is rapid authoring just a way of saving on existing e-learning costs?

As we introduce clients to rapid authoring tools I have identified a regular pattern in adoption of the tools. Most buyers are initially looking for a way to avoid high costs of developing new material or amending existing material. Having successfully achieved this they then perceive that the tools allow them to produce e-learning to tackle issues that they haven’t been able to justify e-learning expenditure on in the past. Once the door to the possibilities has been opened we find that the minds of trainers begin buzzing with new ways of integrating e-learning into their operations in ways that can be genuinely innovative, often involving quite small packages of e-learning which were not previously economic or timely enough to be delivered.

Faster and Quicker

For years development cost and time has been the drag anchor on e-learning usage. The need to employ specialist programming skills for long periods has led trainers to look for other solutions to their needs.  The pace of business becomes increasingly fast and furious and consultants Kineo reckon that 21 days is now the magic number within which e-learning solutions must be delivered, not just design but development and implementation across complex groups.

In our view rapid authoring tools are well on the way to proving that they cope with this kind of pressure as more and more users accrue the benefits of ease of use. Typical of this is a major banking group who report that:

“The main benefit of purchasing the rapid authoring toolset is to significantly reduce online course development time when building system simulations.

The current process requires a designer to storyboard the course, which is then developed in a development package. The new tools negate the need to storyboard, as the screens required are captured from live systems rather than constructing them as new. The Learning & Development department has already piloted the toolset, which has allowed us to generate the following figures showing the differences in development time:

This means that productivity increases by 900%.

I wonder if the tools could help me….?

Our experience is that there is always a further step. Rapid authoring tools will tend to liberate a trainer by providing an underspend on e-learning budgets which can then be utilised in new areas.

First on the list is usually old courses which the tools can be used to capture and then to bring up to date. The dream of having a suite of e-learning, all amendable using the same tools and all identical in their hardware and software needs is a short term Nirvana that most training managers will find irresistible.

The second area of new spending is on extensions to existing courses and conception of brand new courses.

Typical of this experience is Optimum Contact Solutions who provide call centre operations to the retail sector. Since purchasing courses which were authored using rapid e-learning tools, their trainers have started adding additional screens to the 4,550 originally created. They then expanded e-learning from the call centre operations into other parts of the business, covering topics such as Induction and Legislation in the workplace.

As often happens, associate companies within the same group also purchased tools to start their own e-learning developments. One associate company (Everyday Financial Services) have created more than 18,000 screens of e-learning within the past year, a project which would most likely have cost in excess of $1million if outsourced for development.

Rethinking the use of e-learning

All this is encouraging for the future growth of e-learning, utilising the benefits that rapid authoring can bring, but it is the blue skies thinkers that can really take e-learning to the next level as they realise the true potential that the release from development constraints provides.

A leading IT consultancy was looking at rapid authoring tools as a way of reducing their e-learning bills but they soon realised that there were possibilities for utilising the tools to implement projects which had only been pipe-dreams to that point.

Their forward plans allow us to see how rapid authoring could lead to major changes in the way in which e-learning can be used, exploiting the low cost, fast development, possibilities which the software allows.

IT consultancies will often be implementing systems on an international basis involving regular updates and systems changes. Rapid availability of e-learning can greatly assist implementation of new versions. If a new release involves changes to year end routines, it might be that extensive training is required to ensure that users are familiar with the changes and their importance in the overall process, perhaps within a very tight timescale. E-learning provides an excellent way of delivering this knowledge. In the past appropriate e-learning material just couldn’t be produced quickly enough and without high cost. With rapid development tools, an in-house developer can pull together the required learning very rapidly. Once authored, the learning can be delivered immediately online through central servers.

At face value, the business case for the new authoring tools is simple. The development cost of producing existing learning is significantly reduced and this, in itself, justifies the investment in the software. However, it is the follow up possibilities which make the investment particularly worthwhile. The flexibility and user friendly nature of the software enables learning to be built in much tighter timescales, allowing the response to training needs to be timely and for e-learning to be delivered in situations where development time would simply have been too long.

There are also significant benefits in server side remote authoring. Real time collaboration with clients and partners in any part of the world allows collaborative working on developing the same training course. For example, if a new version of a piece of software was initially rolled out in Mexico the e-learning package demonstrating new procedures could be developed in liaison with the consultancy personnel and users based in Mexico. Improvements to the training could be suggested and implemented in a single, joint authoring session, with all parties able to see the amendments as they were made directly on the server. This process can ensure that a proven e-learning package is available so quickly that it is available for the rest of the international rollout, already tuned from first hand user input.

The flexibility of the authoring tools will allow the consultancy to offer much more cost effective training to clients. Instead of pulling users into central training facilities or despatching consultants to user sites to assist new software implementations, e-learning will be able to be run by users at site from central servers, giving excellent cost savings in training. The increased knowledge retention that e-learning allows as part of blended learning, will be reflected in reductions in the usage of customer support help-lines, allowing savings in support staff. Similarly, e-learning solutions can be provided for the most frequently asked support questions, saving the time that would be required for support staff to repeatedly talk users through their problems.

So What?

As a developer of authoring software, it is the clients who see the vision of what is possible that catch my imagination. Rapid authoring started life as a cheaper and easier way to develop what was already being commissioned from third parties in the normal manner. In the hands of experienced training practitioners you can suddenly see how the responsiveness and speed of rapid authoring tools will revolutionise training and support in an enormous range of situations. Little packages of e-learning which previously were uneconomic or too slow to produce will be delivered electronically to individual relevant users, without them even having to leave their desks, ensuring that they have the information they need, in very short timescales, to enable them to operate effectively. The potential for savings in training and for delivery of exceptional user care are enormous. E-learning always held this promise but is the availability of fast, low cost development which will allow e-learning to fulfil a range of new training roles which are probably only limited by trainers’ imagination.

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Mike Alcock is MD of e-learning authoring software provider Atlantic Link Ltd,
B Online Learning Pty Ltd is Atlantic Link's Australian Partner www.bonlinelearning.com.au