An online education can really benefit from a lot of tools. The great thing about being on the Internet is that you can easily access tools and software programs that will help you manage and create online courses that can heighten the learning experience of students.
Among the things that you can use to improve your online classes are web authoring tools. This is a software program that allows users to create, design and present web pages that make up a website. Initially, web authoring tools require the knowledge of HTML, CSS, or Javascript. That limited the creation of websites to technical folks.
Now, it is possible for even non-tech users to create websites. While the knowledge of HTML is still a plus, it is not longer necessary. Most web authoring tools have a WYSIWYG editor – which is short for “what you see is what you get.” This means you can create a webpage that is shown in a graphical interface – much like a word processing or desktop publishing program. Simply put, you get to switch back and forth to the layout of the page even as it is being created.
So how is this beneficial to online education? The simple fact that it is online, web authoring tools will always be needed to create and deliver online courses. But beyond that, here are the specific benefits that it will bring online courses.
- It allows you to create online materials that are both time and cost efficient. Some people view this as an expensive purchase since it involves a recurring bill. You do not pay for it once. You have to keep on paying for it. That is because the maintenance of the software is already included in the payment. Not only that, some web authoring tools can be shared among different designers and developers. If there is more than one person creating the online education materials, it will not be a problem to give them access to the authoring tool.
- It is automatically updated. Apart from the inclusion of the maintenance cost, you can also be assured that the web authoring tool will always be updated. You do not have to do the updating yourself. If you choose a cloud-based authoring tool, this will receive automatic updates from your provider.
- It can help you implement improvements easily. If you have to use the same material but for a different audience, you can easily implement the revisions needed so it caters to the new group of learners. For instance, if you have to translate a new language, this is possible by setting up specific applications in the web authoring tool.
- It permits you to access the course anywhere and anytime. The beauty of using an authoring tool, at least a cloud-based one, is that you can access it regardless of where you are. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use the tool to monitor, track, analyze or improve your online education materials.
These are only a few of the benefits that you can get if you use web authoring tools for your online courses. The creation, updated and improvements that it will require over time can be easily implemented. That way, you do not have to keep on creating new courses. You can recycle the old ones – especially if they are quite effective in reaching your elearning goals.
Image courtesy of Kromkrathog for FreeDigitalPhotos.net