Use Collaborative Technology to Streamline Your Elearning Process with These Three Tips

• 3 min read

Using Collaborative Technology to Streamline Your Elearning Process with These Three Simple Tips

Managing an elearning production process can be difficult if you have an unresponsive team that must endure large timescales for elearning projects. This issue becomes even more difficult if you have a virtual team working from different geographical locations. The good news is that this issue can be tackled to let you streamline communication and handle your elearning process with ease. But to achieve this, it is important to always utilize collaborative tools that work together and complement one another.

Let’s look at how you can use collaborative technology to streamline your elearning process.

Hone in on Complementary Project Management and Planning Tools

There is an array of project management and planning tools available that can help keep information focused on creating structure, the importance of which is illustrated in this Forbes Magazine article on late visionary Steve Jobs’ approach to project management at Apple. However, it’s critically important to leverage such tools at the beginning of a project. The multitude of project planning tools on the market can be overwhelming, but it also enables businesses to find the right tools for their individual requirements and budget. There’s an array of free and trial-subscription tools available that businesses of all sizes, from small to enterprise, can try to find the right fit.

In addition to selecting project planning and management tools that feature shared calendars to keep team members aware of specific tasks and deadlines, it’s important to find project planning and management tools that allow you to assign tasks and subtasks for elearning projects so team members can be accountable for their assignments. Here are some project management and project planning tools that feature both of these elements:

Choose Authoring Tools That Meet Your Needs

Content is, of course, a fundamentally important aspect of any elearning project. If you don’t have authoring tools that can meet your needs for creating and planning content, you could be setting your team up for failure. Consider content authoring tools that allow you to edit and assign tasks as well as plan and create content.

It is also desireable to find a collaborative authoring tool that lets you communicate with your team efficiently. This can reduce production time on your elearning projects by 75%. Authoring tools that empower users to build and test courses on multiple devices, such as tablets and laptops, can also help enhance your team’s productivity. For example, Elucidat’s collaborative authoring platform lets you build and test multi-device elearning quickly.

Go for Collaborative Communication Tools

Choosing communication tools with collaborative components that let your team respond in real time is the key for surviving in today’s digital world. Video conferencing tools such as SkypeGoogle HangoutsFaceTime, and Appear.In can help save time and travel expenses while keeping your team focused on the elearning project at hand. Consider video conferencing tools that let you share your screen, ideally  in high definition. This will enable you to see tasks clearly and work effectively with team members without slowing down the process.

Final Thoughts: Agility for Stability

When you equip your team with collaborative communication, authoring, and project planning and management tools, you’re giving it the chance to excel and push forward with few interruptions. Your team will embrace agility so you can create a stable elearning production process that facilitates quick completion of tasks, on time and within budget.

For a responsive team, embrace speed with an approach that uses Agile project management. Consider the Agile management method to improve productivity on your next elearning project.

Is your company leveraging the ideal LMS and the right content authoring and communication tools to optimize eLearning processes? See for yourself how you can maximize the profit-producing power of your Salesforce platform by integrating it with your LMS.

Steve Penfold
Steve Penfold is Customer Success Director at Elucidat. He helps large companies and online training providers use Elucidat to simplify and speed up their authoring process.