Useful tools for creating e-learning courses

The article was written as part of the implementation of the project " Quality in Education in the Vocational Training Sector " (Quality in Education in the Vocational Training Sector)
funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 No. EOG/19/K3/W/0010.

In order to conduct training or lessons online, a special application is needed to manage the virtual "lecture hall", or LMS (Learning Management System). And what about software for creating e-learning courses? For this purpose, it is crucial to use tools compliant with the SCORM and/or xAPI standard. They make it possible to give educational content the form of a structured course and export it to a variety of multimedia formats, including the aforementioned SCORM or xAPI format. Such a prepared file, most often compressed with ZIP, can be easily uploaded to a compatible LMS platform.

There is a plethora of programs for creating e-learning lessons. If you don't know exactly what you need, choosing the right one for your needs can be very, very difficult. Take it easy! Before you make a final decision and choose a specific solution, read and answer the following set of questions, which will surely direct you to your right path, in the maze of described software:

• What is your level of technical knowledge - if you are not comfortable operating advanced applications, it will be better to bet on something simpler, which at the same time will allow you to achieve your goals.
• What kind of e-training you want to prepare - are you interested in simple courses in "presentation" mode, or an advanced, interactive course in xAPI or SCORM standard.
• On what scale do you want to publish your training - will it be for a small group of employees, or do you want to use it as a product offered to various companies.
• How will the substantive work on the course look like - will you take care of the course on your own, or perhaps together with a broad team?
• What budget do you have at your disposal.
• What are your technical capabilities.

As we know, the market of software for creating e-learning courses is developing extremely rapidly. We have described some interesting platforms, we hope to help you in your considerations!

• Moodle is an online platform for teaching. In more official language, it is a content management system (CMS, Content Management System) specialized for e-learning. In practice, Moodle resembles blogging platforms, but has specialized tools to better control and make the learning process more attractive. Almost eight million online courses have been created worldwide using this platform. Moodle is used by universities, schools and private individuals involved in educating others.
• Udacity was born out of an experiment at Stanford University, in which Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig offered an "introduction to artificial intelligence" online course to anyone for free. More than 160,000 students in more than 190 countries signed up, and not much later Udacity was born. It is a standardized platform through which you can "list" your training for a fee, just as you list a product, such as on Allegro.
• WP IDEA is a system for creating and selling courses on a website or blog. The tool is purchased once and for life. Orders, invoices, shipping, transfers - everything is automatic! You don't have to waste time creating your own course platform or buy it from external developers. WP Idea is a ready-made, boxed solution for those who want to make money online.
• WebToLearn is a tool that allows you to add content in video (mp4/mov/wmv/avi/flv), audio (mp3) and pdf formats. Training courses can be combined into full products or made available as separate lessons, sections and categories. The manufacturer focuses primarily on functionality and readability, which will significantly translate into increased sales and customer confidence.
• LearnDash is the most frequently chosen tool by schools and universities. It allows you to easily create and sell courses, deliver quizzes, award certificates, manage users or download reports. With LearnDash, you have more control over students and courses than any other learning management system on the market. Grouping users, changing progress, deleting data, re-printing achievements, revoking access - these are just some of the platform's capabilities.

As we can see, there are quite a few programs that allow you to create e-learning courses. I have included in the list only a few of them. Let's remember, however, that regardless of our choice, the quality of the program depends mainly on our preparation of content, knowledge and the time we allocate to "polish" our training courses.