Greetings from sunny Orlando! I’m at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Conference and Foundations Intensive this week. Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking with about twenty participants through the Foundations table talk on the pros and cons of rapid authoring tools. The main message I’ve wanted people to walk away with is that tools are important, but only so far as they serve a design (which, in turn, serves an analysis of a business need). So choose tools that are both powerful and easy to use!

A few Q&As from the table:

Q: I have legacy content that was created in Articulate Studio. What’s the easiest way to publish it for tablets?
A: Wait for Storyline to come out; convert and re-publish your content. Also, see this Rapid eLearning Blog post.

Q: Most of the elearning in my company is created by SMEs. How do I prove the importance of the designer?
A: Continue to sell what you do through great work and don’t expect change overnight. Let your org get tired of boring, inconsistent content dumps and be prepared and ready for them to come to you for solutions. Celebrate great designs regardless of who makes them. Help SMEs solve the easier challenges through style guides, templates, etc. Quit for a job at a company that places due value in what you do. There is no one right answer here (except for the first one); this is an organizational issue and any combination of the above may be right for you and your org.

Q: Will you just tell me which tool to buy?
A: Nope. But I only consider tools that have certain features; I’ll tell you more about that — and why — on Thursday!

Thanks to all participants for sharing your stories and helping each other!