And you will agree with me that there are more benefits of saving your pictures or videos on the internet whether on Facebook or Instagram than the old way of printing it.
The same can be said of the cloud-based authoring tool. Years ago, when eLearning practice was emerging, authoring tools are downloaded and installed on the local computers.
Back then, authored content is uploaded on the Learning management system (LMS) for it to be accessed. In a recent work environment, cloud-based authoring tools are now being used to deliver quick and effective training to a very large workforce remotely.
In this article, we will talk about the key benefits of a cloud-based authoring tool.
Benefits of cloud-based authoring tools
1. Secured online storage space
If there is a reason to use the cloud-based authoring tool, it will be because of its security. Your data are backed-up electronically online with your preferred host multiple times over with good data performance.
It means no worry, as this will minimize the risk of losing vital documents and data if your computer crashes. It frees up storage space on your computer so you don’t need to spend extra money on bigger storage space.
2. Time-saving
Time is money. And I believe you understand the importance of being able to create and deliver timely content for your workers.
A company that has a large workforce in a different location will benefit from using the cloud-based authoring tool to create quick eLearning training content for their workers even within a limited time frame.
Course admin could create a training course on the cloud, publish it, and get it across to all their workers across different countries in hours.
3. Easy collaboration
Creating good eLearning content may require a team effort. But imagine the stress of creating course content if you are working with your team of experts in different locations.
A cloud-based authoring tool makes team authoring easy since all contents are stored in the cloud. Course contents can be assessed and reviewed by each team member irrespective of where they are.
4. Easy access from anywhere
Courses created with a cloud-based authoring tool can be accessed from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection.
Both your authoring team and your learners can have access to your course eLearning content from any up-to-date web browser.
5. Free and easy installation
Imagine the stress of having to install new software multiple times on different computers. Knowing that you may also need to fix any error shown by any of the computers later.
It is time-wasting, not cost-effective, and not worth the energy spent when you can easily host only one on the cloud. Unlike the former, the cloud-based authoring tool, after the first and one-time cloud set-up, you don’t need to install any other software.
What you need is to create a new username and password for every member of your team and they can log in from their devices.
6. Easy update
With a cloud-based authoring tool, no more boring updates. You don’t need to sit in front of your computer waiting for software updates when you have serious work needed to be done.
Often at times, you may be tempted to delay updates or avoid it totally. Leaving you out of the latest features and improvement needed in your eLearning course content.
For the cloud-based authoring tool, you’ll get an automatic update on the software. You and your team will get software update notification anytime you log in.
7. Template
Obviously, starting an eLearning content from scratch can be time-consuming. If you think working with a template will make your work easier, you should reach for cloud-based authoring tools.
There are many amazing templates that can give you inspiration when working on a new project. Enhanced templates are added regularly and this will always give you options anytime you are working on new content.
8. Video content
Video content enables you to create more interesting contents that could increase your learner’s engagements.
However, video content may take a lot of space on the desktop authoring tool compared to the cloud-based authoring tool.
If you plan using more video content in your course, it’ll be advisable to consider the cloud-based authoring tool.
9. Easily controlled permissions
For a cloud-based authoring tool, you don’t need to spend time setting up permission for all your computers.
All you need to do is set up an admin password which can be assessed from any devices but only by the admin.
The admin can grant others (either the authoring team or the learners) the permission to use or not to use specific features of the cloud-based authoring tool.
10. Centralized content library
Why should you have multiple storage locations when you can have all your content folders and emails stored in one single location?
Cloud-based authoring tools will reduce the time wasted on searching through multiple storage locations since all your content will be in one large storage space on the internet.
