Is Elucidat the right eLearning tool for you? We asked our experts about the pros and cons, and their likes and dislikes of this specific software.
The way we learn is quickly changing. Think about how the tools, process, and technologies you use have changed, just within the past couple of years. As eLearning becomes more mainstream in companies the options of eLearning authoring tools used to create the content has exploded. These tools are a huge help for eLearning professionals, giving us the ability to create eye-catching and engaging courses that look great on laptops, tablets, or mobile devices.
One of the newer authoring tools on the market today is Elucidat. Elucidat is cloud-based and allows eLearning developers to create high-quality digital learning with a user-friendly interface that’s suitable for novice or experienced instructional developers. Prebuilt themes, templates, and interactions make course creation quick and efficient; yet each course can be customised for a different look and feel – so nothing appears “out of the box.”
Elucidat also uses collaboration to speed up development. More than one developer can work on any project simultaneously and the commenting platform allows for communication between developers, as well as between developers and clients. This feedback system encourages an agile approach to course creation, helping the instructional developers work faster and smarter.
As instructional designers, choosing which eLearning authoring tool to use for course creation is crucial. We need a tool that produces high-quality results, offers flexibility and allows us to create courses quickly.
We’ve asked some of our Instructional Designers to give their thoughts on Elucidat:
Will
- Pros: I find Elucidat very user-friendly. All the options are clearly laid out in front of me, which makes it super intuitive. It’s also simple to make edits on the fly. The courses we create with Elucidat look great on any screen size and you’re able to see how your course looks on all devices as you’re creating it. Another huge advantage is that Elucidat prompts you to save your work or edits on each page first before it allows you to proceed – so you won’t ever lose all your hard work!
- Cons: There is a lack of flexibility with Elucidat as compared to some of the other authoring tools, such as Articulate Storyline.
Jake:
- Pros: Elucidat is easy on the eye and the interface is very friendly. You may have fewer options than other tools out there, but you have complete control over the visual design and interactivity of the finished product. Another fantastic plus is the collaborative tool. Being able to communicate with our clients throughout the development process is extremely helpful. Since it’s cloud-based, there aren’t tons of files and folders to keep track of – everything is right there when you need it. And since Elucidat produces a scrolling web page, not a slide presentation, I feel it creates a better experience for the learner.
- Cons: Elucidat is relatively new, so there isn’t a strong community built around the product yet – so sometimes getting answers on how to solve a problem can be tough.
Sean:
- Pros: Elucidat is great because it’s fully responsive. When we design the course, we design it for all the different devices available whereas with other tools we design it once and then rely on the responsiveness of whatever browser we’re using.
- Cons: You need to be creative when working with the tool, figuring out workarounds to compensate for certain constraints in order to be able to do what you want to do. In saying that while some other tools do offer a more flexible approach, sometimes that flexibility can be negative as you lose out on the consistency of the course itself.
Alisa:
- Pros: I like the simplicity of Elucidat. The interface is clean and you have all of your options laid out in front of you as you’re building your course. So you can easily play around with different interactions on the fly to see what works best.
- Cons: You don’t have as many options as other authoring tools. Elucidat isn’t quite a blank canvas where you can just do anything your imagination comes up with.
So that’s it, overall we recommend Elucidat for many of our clients. It allows us to create effective courses, that work on all devices where we can easily change content keeping courses up-to-date. There are some nice features for course maintenance that allow one update to be made across multiple versions of a course and translation is supported. This can be a deal braker if you need multiple versions of your courses but most probably won’t need this and this is probably why it is an additional feature. There is also a very nice review function where stakeholders can review the course online and add your feedback directly to where you see or hear it on the course. We also still use Articulate Storline and other tools for many projects where we have specific requirments or to fit with a clients development workflow but we have really got some great feedback from our Elucidat work.
We would love to hear what you think or to answer any questions you might have. Please write your comments below.
If you want to have a personalisd eLearning course made with Elucidat contact us here.