Differences Between Custom Elearning And Off-The-Shelf Elearning - What'S Best For You?

With the growing demand for eLearning content development, learning and development managers are faced with the decision of whether to purchase off-the-shelf courses or create custom eLearning material from scratch. This article explores the differences between custom eLearning content development vs. off-the-shelf eLearning courses. This article will also examine the advantages of each and provide you with the knowledge you need to evaluate which platform is the best match for your training requirements.

Customized eLearning Is the Best Option for You.

1. When Your Training Requirements Are Specific.

Each company has distinct training requirements based on its culture, procedures, and systems. Big organizations cannot rely on ready-made training material to meet their particular needs. Custom eLearning is the optimal solution for product training, software system training, and new employee orientation, among other applications.

An off-the-shelf eLearning course may not be ideal for the training of a newly launched software in the market. Software that is inextricably linked to the internal procedures and operations of a business may be difficult to expertise with off-the-shelf training material. Once software like SAP or other new software is acquired, it has to be tailored as per the organization's business operations and hence, off-the-shelf courses are irrelevant. 

The same is true for new employee orientation, during which you must walk your workers through applicable rules and regulations, as well as introduce them to your company's goal and vision, various divisions within the business, and safety and security procedures. These are not areas that can be addressed with off-the-shelf courses.

Apart from having complete control over your training and adding the information you choose, once your bespoke eLearning project is launched, you will also save a significant amount of time and money. This is because all templates, pictures, and media components used in previous projects are reusable in subsequent projects.

2. When You Wish Your Courses To Become A Mirror Image Of Your Brand.

Certain businesses believe it is more relevant to include branded pictures of their organization in their eLearning courses. When developing a course on a product or a safety procedure, establishing a realistic backdrop and situations specific to your business can help you connect with your learners far more effectively. Additionally, you may utilize the preferred graphical user interface, colors, and logo to showcase your company's identity throughout the course.

3. When The Training Content Is Frequently Changed.

Training requirements might alter over time. For instance, if a product is updated with a set of new features or if your organization adopts new regulations, your training should be updated to match these modifications. Custom eLearning is the best option in this instance since you control the course. Additionally, this implies you control the source files, meaning that any modifications to the content are simple. Additionally, you would only be required to pay once, since there are no ongoing license or user registration expenses.

For whom customized eLearning content development is the apt solution?

Automation of industrial operations is most successful when employees are properly trained on how to do each task correctly while also considering safety and other factors. As a result, training is vital for obtaining the desired level of productivity. Under such conditions, it might be prudent for an employer to invest in a customized e-learning solution that is tailored to the workforce's learning style and speed.

Also, customized eLearning solutions aid in the improvement of industrial processes and operations management. Further, custom eLearning enhances the dynamic and engaging nature of training and enables it to deploy at a decided time.

Furthermore, customized eLearning provides a more tailored approach with a variety of learning methods to ensure that learners remember the knowledge they learn.

Additionally, since the training content is available in a variety of e-learning forms, including animation, simulation, PDF, PPT, and any other text-based format, it facilitates the learner's comprehension of the ideas.

Why do certain corporate firms seek customized eLearning solutions?

Custom eLearning Development services are well aware that there must be a systematic approach for training a vast workforce with varying levels of ability, experience, and knowledge. As a result, corporate companies opt for creating customized eLearning courses as it is a scalable and cost-effective method of creating and distributing training material for a vast number of employees.

With the appropriate personalized eLearning solution, created by a reputable eLearning Development service, businesses can reimagine their training processes with more engaging interactive courses. Additionally, personalized courses aid in the development of a deeper comprehension of the themes, the retention of workers' attention, and the expansion of their expertise.

You Are a Good Candidate For Off-The-Shelf eLearning:

If you're looking to distribute courses for various purposes such as team development, conformity assessment, change management, negotiating skills, excellent customer service, and Microsoft Excel, you probably don't need to develop specialized personalized courses.

1. Small requirement:

Oftentimes, organizations with less number of employees can opt for Off-The-Shelf eLearning courses. Many organizations opt for off-the-shelf e-learning programs when the training is small and the topic is simple and straightforward.

2. When A Requirement Is Time-Sensitive.

Commercially accessible courses are easily uploaded to a Learning Management System. If your demand is urgent, you may simply deploy these courses to your learners in less than 24 hours; this is in contrast to bespoke eLearning courses, which take around two weeks to build a 30-minute course.

3. When Your Budget Is Strictly Limited.

Expenditures are minimal because development costs are spread over a large number of consumers. The majority of commercial off-the-shelf manufacturers offer implementation and maintenance services after selling their courses. This makes perfect sense when your training expenditures are really constrained. Thus, off-the-shelf courses make logical sense for small and medium businesses that lack dedicated Learning and Development departments to assume responsibility for training.

Conclusion:

With so many material choices accessible, it may be difficult to determine what is available and what would best meet your learners' requirements. Thus, we have provided all the possible differences between personalized eLearning vs. off-the-shelf eLearning debate. This will help you to understand what would suit you better based on your requirements. 

VKCL, with more than 10 years of experience, has been creating both custom and off-the-shelf courses to fit its client’s training requirements. You can go through their tons of courses or call them and explain them your requirements.