What The Benefits Of Outsourcing eLearning Development Are
In a competitive market, organizations today must ensure their employees are constantly and continuously developing new skill sets and competencies to stay up-to-date. This can be achieved if there is effective content which can keep learners engaged, support successful outcomes, and at the same time help learners be productive and reach their work goals. The ideal way to deliver that content will depend on the business goals organizations want to achieve and the resources they can draw on. In general, an organization can choose to either: (i) create content in-house or (ii) outsource the content development to eLearning vendors.
This article considers 5 reasons organizations should consider outsourcing eLearning development and not take the risk of developing in-house.
1. Get Specialized Experts On Board
Even if organizations have an in-house team charged with content development skills, some skills are far too specialized. For instance, the in-house team may not be highly experienced with the authoring tools to create sophisticated interactivities for your eLearning. When the eLearning development is outsourced to a vendor, companies gain access to individuals who are skilled and experienced in Learning and Development (L&D), Instructional Design, and every other area of creating effective online learning.
These experts use advanced Instructional Design strategies to keep your eLearning up to the modern standards. That is, if the organization wishes to implement a mobile learning solution or wants learner tracking, then sourcing eLearning experts for the task is the way to go.
2. Faster Turnaround Times Plus High-Quality Content
Given that vendors are experienced (and informed) regarding the development process and also have the required expertise to get the job done, chances are that development will be finished more quickly. Why? eLearning vendors are far more equipped to scale up production than the in-house team because the former specializes in using rapid authoring tools which allows them to rapidly produce high-quality modules, all while keeping the content engaging and effective.
So, if an organization is working within tight deadlines and wants to deliver the training to their learners within weeks, eLearning vendors will work toward offering a much faster turnaround time to accommodate their rapidly approaching due date.
3. Lower Your Training Development Costs
Partnering with an eLearning vendor allows organizations to significantly cut down on the development costs because they spend money on content development only when it is needed. The cutting down of development costs is possible due to the ability to either ramp up projects or slow down outsourcing projects.
By outsourcing eLearning development, companies reduce the expenses they incur if they hire their own teams to do the job. Also, organizations do not have to worry about acquiring or upgrading technology because it is already undertaken by the eLearning vendor.
4. Easily Scale Up Or Down As Needed
The biggest challenge with in-house development is that organizations cannot scale the eLearning development at will. With outsourcing, on the other hand, organizations can create scalable solutions, on demand. Companies get to decide at the pace at which they want to outsource eLearning and then place the requirement with the vendor.
The tools that vendors employ come with built-in templates and asset libraries which make it easy to achieve such scalability at a rapid pace. One could argue that instead of outsourcing the development to a vendor, organizations can simply hire their in-house teams to produce eLearning using these authoring tools. However, what would be missing within the in-house team is the Instructional Design expertise, years of domain-specific knowledge, and the knack of working in tight deadlines which is available only with the eLearning vendor.
5. Achieve High Learner Engagement And Productivity
Modern learners prefer and are stimulated by online learning courses that contain a good dose of multimedia and interactivities. Outsourcing the eLearning development to an expert third-party vendor multiplies the likeliness of realizing that objective. When learners are trained with high-quality, meaningful content, they are equipped with the necessary skills for their job roles and feel more committed to the tasks assigned to them, which in turn boosts their productivity.
Nowadays, outsourcing has become crucial for organizations belonging to different industries to offer quality content to their learners. In fact, organizations realize the benefits of outsourcing eLearning development such as increased completion rates, better learner engagement, improved productivity and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, it makes sense that many organizations have started hiring expert eLearning vendors to realize their training objectives and reduce development costs and increase productivity.
