A common practice in software buying is to compare exhaustive lists of features. Often, the tool with the most features wins, even if the features are functions the organization may never need. We’ve spoken before about moving away from feature comparisons when looking for a new learning management system and instead considering use cases and proof of concepts to determine which LMS/LXP is for you.
When it comes to authoring tools, we believe it’s important to move away from a direct comparison between tools because they are all truly different animals.
The approach to Lectora—and therefore what it allows you to do—is simply different from traditional slide-based development tools.
Let's relate that to the current L&D environment:
There's a big swell in the training community to move from an Instructional Designer (ID) to a Learning Experience Designer (LXD). That is, to begin considering the overall experience of a learner in your approach to content development, in terms of both format and broader training reality.
The power and flexibility Lectora provides allow you to move outside the typical instructional slide presentation if you choose, and move toward designing and developing a more holistic experience for your learners. Other tools lock you into creating slide-based presentations and don't account for the broader training experience.
With Lectora, you can create slide presentations and so much more to build a learning experience that does account for the training that might occur outside the LMS.
You can think of that in a couple of simple ways.
First, the actual consumption experience is wholly different…
If you want a microsite, a single-page mobile-first course, a heavy-weight game...you name it...you can build that in Lectora, and do so in a way that is both pretty easy and geared to the way your users actually want to consume the learning experience you've created. And it can be best-in-class accessible if you need that too.
Second, the vast majority of learning that gets done in a business occurs outside the slide.
Formal LMS training only accounts for about 10% of how we learn in our work environment; the remainder is on-the-job learning and in-person skill sharing.
Because of the flexibility and power Lectora offers, you can use it to create support for the other 90% of learning that occurs: just-in-time performance support and remediation, chat integrations, two-way data connection and reporting...the possibilities are pretty endless because Lectora doesn't restrict you to a set format or limited subset of tools.
When you open up Lectora to start developing, you aren’t forced into one specific way of approaching your content creation.
And that's the key difference, in my mind, between authoring tools—it’s not features, it’s the approach.
When we compare tools directly, it's like comparing an ID and an LXD—the roles are very similar in many regards, but the approach is different.
So don’t let a long list of features make your purchasing decision for you. Think about the types of learning that your organization needs and how you want to approach building those experiences to engage and inform workers.
If you want to create a true learning experience, not just a piece of learning content, you want Lectora.
