5 Reasons Why a Cloud-Based Authoring Tool Is More Cost-Efficient
Cloud-based authoring separates the truly modern eLearning tools from the dated ones. Working in the cloud can also be a massive factor for the ROI of your courses. Read this article to learn more about 5 key reasons why.
Organizations are increasingly relying on cloud-based solutions to provide essential tools. Even desktop installations of business stalwarts such as Microsoft Office are becoming a rarer sight: the cost and time benefits of letting the software provider host, update, and manage the programs they build are obvious. The same principles remain true for cloud-based eLearning authoring tools, and give us at least five reasons why desktop is dead.
1) No need to involve your IT team
Even a piece of desktop software that works perfectly on every machine it’s installed on is going to require your organization’s IT team to step in at some point. Desktop software has to be installed and supported—and your IT team will have to keep track of where licenses are in use as people enter and exit the business.
Subscribe to a cloud-based tool and your IT team will barely have to lift a finger. So long as the internet connection is up and your web browser works, you’ll be able to log in and work.
For more about the first few weeks and months of working with a new authoring tool, read:
‘How to introduce a new eLearning authoring tool: Your first 3 steps’2) Low system requirements
Can every desktop and laptop machine in your business run a modern web browser such as Google Chrome? Then it’s more or less guaranteed to be able to run a cloud-based authoring tool as well as every other machine in the office.
With a desktop-based tool, all processing has to be done locally, meaning higher system requirements and plenty of time waiting around for low-end machines to crunch the numbers. With a cloud-based tool, processing time is almost entirely dependent on the tool’s servers.
Provided you have a reliable internet connection, you have little to worry about.
Save space
One popular desktop-only authoring tool requires 10GB of hard disk space everywhere it’s installed. This can slow down your device’s processing time, especially on older machines.
3) You always have the latest version of the software
Updating a cloud-based tool isn’t something you’ll ever have to worry about. The same can’t be said if you go the desktop route.
Imagine you haven’t used your authoring tool for a few weeks. If it’s on a desktop, you will:
- Have to start work without all the latest new features until you manually or automatically download them
- Be unable to work at all while the latest version is installed
- Be liable to encounter problems sharing files if you’re part of a team of people all working on different versions of the tool
Meanwhile, a cloud-based authoring tool will be updated by the provider, on the servers they use, outside of your working hours. No matter how long you’re away from the tool for, the latest version is ready and waiting for you when you need it.
Want to stay up to date on Gomo’s latest updates? Keep an eye on:
Gomo learning suite—release notes.4) Centralized resources
A cloud-based authoring tool doesn’t just put your courses in the cloud—it will give you a shared space to pool all of your image, video, and other assets, making them available team-wide. This prevents designers from having to maintain their own libraries individually, or the organization having to spend time and money on providing (and securing) something similar on their own network.
5) Collaborative working
Desktop authoring tools are particularly time-inefficient when it comes to working with others. At best, you’ll be messaging each other to coordinate when a file on your local network is open for editing—forced to take turns by the one-at-a-time nature of the file. At worst, you’ll be emailing each other a succession of half-finished files, tripping over an increasingly arcane set of version names, and hoping the mess can be compiled into a single finalized file.
Cloud-based tools allow multiple people to work on and review a document at once, with no time wasted waiting for others to finish up. Or trying to track down the latest version so you can contribute.
More from the blog on collaborative working:
‘Subject matter experts: The key to knowledge transfer’Discover more time and money-saving methods for eLearning
Our complete guide, ‘How your authoring tool can save you time and money’, covers many more tips that will help you greatly improve ROI in your eLearning process.
Features and eLearning methods we cover include:
- Five authoring tool features that deliver incredible value
- Getting the most out of branching scenarios (while not over-doing them)
- Focusing on interactive assets to engage without distracting
- Avoiding next-screen fatigue by using assets that put information on fewer pages without overwhelming the learner
About the author: Simon Waldram
As Product Manager at Gomo, I’m passionate about delivering value at every interaction and to increase sustainable proven value for our customers and business.
I have extensive experience of working within both the commercial and educational sectors, and approach all projects with a strategic mind.
This combination of education and commercial experience has enabled me to stay at the leading edge of emerging technologies to ensure that customers are provided with a framework for success.
