Many of our daily lives are digital-centric, so why shouldn’t workplace learning follow the same concept? E-learning software and authoring tools allow you to digitally author hours of training sessions in a fraction of the time. This has an immediate and everlasting impact on your team, allowing them to dedicate these hours to course creation and driving the business forward.
The shift to e-learning across all industries is here to stay. It has seen a 900% increase in revenue since 2000, with continued growth on the horizon. Here’s a guide to the best e-learning tools to help you make the most of this virtual future.
How HeyGen can help you create e-learning content
HeyGen is your ultimate solution for authoring e-learning content. It can update your existing e-learning videos and eliminate the need for extensive video production. Utilize HeyGen’s features like:
- AI-driven avatars: Use avatar personalities to deliver your training content. The next-generation avatars provide realistic character features, full-body movement, and impressive expressionism.
- Text-to-video conversion: This feature allows you to input your script and produce a training video in minutes.
- Video customization options: Send personalized videos (while only recording once) to your entire team with AI technology.
- Scale video production with API: Use HeyGen’s API to create e-learning videos with the template API, create interactive avatars with the streaming API, and more.
- Cut costs and speed up production: Cut costs by up to 80% and increase productivity by 50% with HeyGen’s AI-supported video editing process.
Combining these features into one tool saves you time and money while creating stellar content.
Another standout aspect is the video translator. HeyGen's translation services can expertly match over 170 languages so users can learn without interruption. Take it a step further and use the localization feature to expertly match dialects through audio and subtitles. HeyGen goes beyond simple text translation to offer a natural learning experience for users in any market. This allows you to reach untapped locations across all your courses.
HeyGen is the clear choice for video production, customizable avatars, and translation across your e-learning content. Once you generate professional-grade videos with HeyGen you can use them across other e-learning software to amplify your curriculum. Let’s dive into some other e-learning platforms that help you organize course criteria and overall presentation.
Best e-learning software overview
There are various e-learning tools on the market, and all have different capabilities. Some are built for the novice designer with templates and AI assistants, while others require more in-depth interface knowledge. The key is finding the right tool for your budget while maximizing output potential.
Here’s an overview of the best e-learning software and their key features:
1. Elucidat
Best for: Capturing subject matter expert-generated content through templates
Elucidat offers a cloud-based e-learning platform. The tool provides guided authoring workflows so you can easily gather information from team experts.
Guided authoring allows you to set up pre-approved, branded company templates to share with new authors during onboarding. It also provides inline guidance throughout the course development process.
Elucidat also allows users to edit multiple courses at once using the variations workflow function. Users assign ‘parent courses’ and ‘child courses’ so edits correspond to all courses within the family. This speeds up the editing process across the team.
While the software offers auto-translation, it only includes 75 languages, leaving room for improvement.
Key features:
- Templates for ease of use across the team
- Text-to-speech capability
- Ready-to-use stock images to enhance projects
2. iSpring Suite
Best for: Utilizing PowerPoint-style animations to create courses
This tool utilizes PowerPoint to build out courses with options like quizzes, learning paths, and progress tracking. It also provides over 2,300 ready-made slide templates to build your course quickly. Use their character builder function to add fully customizable characters to your course.
iSpring Suite also offers an AI assistant to help generate ideas surrounding writing, editing, and formatting. Allow AI to automatically highlight important sections and create lists to save your team time and energy.
While there are positives, iSpring Suite has a high price tag for even the lowest-tier membership. It begins at $770/author per annually.
Key features:
- Character builder
- iSpring AI feature to help generate ideas
- Role-play simulations to mirror real-world workplace scenarios
3. Gomo Learning
Best for: Creating simple courses compatible across all devices
Gomo Learning is an e-learning tool rooted in simplicity with cloud-based content and AI capabilities. It offers pre-set and custom themes based on your needs.
If you want to take further control over your courses, you can utilize advanced features like dynamic branching that allows users to tailor content by job role and control over display conditions based on device type or pre-set conditions.
User reviews often point to a lack of functionality across the platform. While it may satisfy basic course creation needs, businesses often require more customization features to keep up with the digital landscape.
Key features:
- Course organization
- Animation capabilities
- Theme library to use as a starting point for your courses
4. Adobe Captivate
Best for: Advanced designers looking to customize courses
This desktop application allows users to create advanced content with design freedom. The native audio editing feature allows users to add audio files, record their voice, or create voiceovers from captions. You can also remove background noise to add a polished level of production to your content.
While it is a desktop application, users can use the share for review and precise commenting functions broken down by device type. This makes it easy to keep edits organized.
With this freedom comes a need for in-depth knowledge. It is not suited for beginners and is not as collaborative as other learning software.
Key features:
- Adobe Spectrum-driven user experience
- Native audio editing
- CSV question import template
5. Articulate Storyline 360
Best for: Small teams with central project ownership
This platform includes integrated AI to speed up course content creation. The AI is built for instructional design suggestions and content ideation. It can also change the tone of your content and check for grammatical errors.
Articulate also has an expansive online community, making it easy to find inspiration from other creators. You can discuss Articulate products, discover completed projects for inspiration, and share your own ideas across the community.
However, Articulate Storyline 360 is not built on internal collaboration, so it is more challenging to share project edits across the team.
Key features:
- AI assistant
- Over 13 million templates and images
- The option to create courses, games, and more
6. Evolve
Best for: Users familiar with the Intellum platfor
Evolve is a simple e-learning platform designed to complement Intellum. While you can publish directly to the Intellum platform, you can also export for SCORM, offline use, the web, and more.
The software features intuitive content development and the option to customize for your business. Add your logos, colors, and fonts for easy access across the platform. You can also utilize the image optimization feature to optimize images across every device.
While the customization options are available, it can be difficult for beginners to fully utilize these functions and bring their vision to life.
Key features:
- Live reviews to foster collaboration
- Automatic image optimization
- Course templates
7. Adapt Learning
Best for: Creating a cost-effective e-learning platform
Adapt Learning targets two different skill sets with a framework option and an authoring tool. The framework powers the authoring tool and allows developers to go more in-depth with design. The tool is free, making it a great option to test out e-learning.
They also offer a forum so users can learn from each other and collaborate. You can ask technical questions and receive feedback from other developers.
While the tool is free, you may still need to hire a developer to use the features to their full potential.
Key features:
- Free platform
- Asset library to use across projects
- Online forums to ask questions and discuss the tool
8. dominKnow ONE
Best for: A centralized system for authoring, managing, and publishing
This software is a one-stop shop for course creation. It allows author roles, so you can easily collaborate with team members across large organizations. The cloud-based system allows your team to share edits and provide feedback instantly.
Authors can also create a single course with personalized versions for language or region. They offer a free trial so you can decide if these features suit your business needs.
While the platform is dynamic, this may present a learning curve for design beginners.
Key features:
- Collaboration and review tools
- Project reporting to track progress
- Localized text and imagery
9. Rise 360
Best for: Creating general content quickly
Rise 360 is another product from Articulate. Specifically, it is the basic authoring tool associated with the platform. It provides a block-based design system, so it is simple to drop text and imagery directly into your courses.
Rise 360 is templated and cloud-based, whereas Storyline360 offers more customization options. This software also provides AI assistance to speed up the authoring process.
While it offers a great starting point, it lacks flexibility, and it’s difficult to customize courses using this tool.
Key features:
- Pre-built course templates
- Interactions like timelines, quizzes, etc.
- AI assistant
10. SmartBuilder
Best for: Building a course with live support and tutorials as backup
SmartBuilder boasts an expansive customer support team, including demos to make designing a breeze. It also offers wizard-based templates to get you up and running quickly.
Use features like charts, animations, and question templates to take your courses to the next level. Need to control interactions? Simply drag and drop behaviors to make your course run efficiently.
While SmartBuilder offers useful features, it provides fewer in-tool stock options than other platforms.
Key features:
- Fully customizable course interfaces
- Wizard-based templates
- Action block authoring for intuitive design
11. SHIFT eLearning
Best for: Using AI for agile development
SHIFT eLearning makes it easy to collaborate with team members and review courses throughout the project lifecycle. It serves a variety of industries including finance and banking, retail, hospitality, and more.
The software offers AI assistance to speed up creation. You can use AI to translate your videos into over 55 languages or the image suggestion engine to find the perfect stock images for each course.
While these features help, the tool is more involved than some platforms and may present a learning curve for new designers.
Key features:
- AI features
- Course templates available
- Mobile-first design
12. Warp VR
Best for: Creating a fully immersive training experience
Warp VR allows you to turn training into an immersive experience. It creates 360° scenarios and live actor simulations to make users feel like they’re participating in each scenario. Use cases include virtual tours, customer service training, and security training.
The platform enables you to structure scenarios, edit videos, and keep track of scripts in one location. You can also analyze learner activity in real time.
On the other hand, creating videos of this caliber can take time and may take team members away from their daily workload.
Key features:
- Real-life simulations using video and scripts
- Support from learning and production experts
- Supports offline mode
13. TalentLMS
Best for: Quick course startup
TalentLMS is the tool for businesses who needed a training course yesterday. It offers 100s of pre-made courses for purchase and requires little initial setup. AI capabilities speed up production even more.
The platform also integrates with tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and more. This saves users time and can provide a more cohesive learning experience.
While templated options are nice, it leaves room for improvement in the customization features across the platform.
Key features:
- AI content generation
- Premade courses for purchase
- Videoconference support
14. Easygenerator
Best for: Smaller teams looking for a user-friendly option
Easygenerator is a user-friendly tool that works well for small businesses. It includes EasyAI to speed up workflows and live co-authoring to improve collaboration.
It allows you to import PowerPoints to utilize existing content and offers course autotranslation. However, it also provides pre-made templates if you want to start fresh.
The downside of this tool is the membership cost. The jump from the pro membership to enterprise is a steep increase.
Key features:
- Auto-translation services
- Templated course option
- PowerPoint import
How to choose the right e-learning software
Choosing the right e-learning software is critical to the foundation of your business. Universal, easily accessible training sets employees up for success and promotes cohesiveness across the team. How do you find the best e-learning software?
Some considerations include:
- Pricing: Ensure the pricing fits your budget, with flexible plans for different needs. Also, consider how much the tool will cut production costs internally.
- Features: Does it offer essential tools like course creation, assessments, interactive videos, and customization?
- Quality: Look for high-quality outputs, such as clear visuals and reliable performance.
- Innovation: Does the software include unique features like AI-driven recommendations or advanced analytics? Does it offer AI avatars to speed up production?
- API compatibility: Does the software integrate with other tools you already use?
- Translation needs: Do you need to translate and localize content to reach your intended markets?
Choosing the right e-learning software requires diving into these questions and recognizing the importance of authoring quality. HeyGen’s e-learning solutions take the guesswork out of authoring and allow you to expand globally while delivering high-quality content. The translation and localization features are unmatched and allow you to upgrade new and existing video content.
Get started with HeyGen now and see how your business can reach new markets.
