Learning Resources, SA`s largest and most successful provider of e-learning solutions, has been awarded the exclusive rights to distribute Click2learn`s suite of ToolBook authoring tools.
This follows the company`s recent launch of Click2learn`s Aspen 2.0, the integrated knowledge management platform.
ToolBook is the most widely used authoring toolset in the world, with more than 28 000 users. Some 100 companies in SA use it, having acquired it through their own channels.
ToolBook, being brought to market in version 8.5, is available in two variants:
* ToolBook Assistant, a wizard-driven solution for subject matter experts who need to capture and distribute their knowledge, but who have no experience with course design or programming, and do not wish to acquire it.
* ToolBook Instructor, a full-featured solution for super-users to develop the most complex, powerful and high-impact training courses.
"Now it`s easy for any organisation to develop its own technology-based training at low cost," says Norman Auerbach, business development director for Learning Resources. "Within two hours, rather than the days or even weeks people are used to, a trainer can develop a high-impact course using Assistant.
"Traditionally, the high cost of developing course content has made many companies shy away from creating their own. ToolBook bridges the gap, allowing business people to develop impactful courses that are specific to their company and aligned to their strategy."
ToolBook Instructor, says Auerbach, takes technology-based training to a new level. "It allows the creation of exciting graphics, performance-based simulations, animations, and sophisticated assessment techniques, all qualities that lay a foundation for the imparting and retention of knowledge."
Important features and benefits of ToolBook include:
* No need for plug-ins for external functionality: when these are needed - typically when delivering content across the Web - they create complexity and integration problems, which companies would rather not have to manage and deal with.
* Click2Learn has developed instructional CDs on using the programs: other, competitive products often lack these.
* The output of both ToolBook programs can be delivered through any learning management system (LMS), and because output is SCORM 1.2-compliant, the assessments can also be tracked with any LMS.
* Instructor can create a simulation of Microsoft Windows software applications, in hours rather than days.
* Simulation widgets and editors, feedback and instruction text objects, and evaluation objects, allowing authors to create robust software simulations.
* Low-bandwidth deployment: in a country such as SA, with its telecommunications shortcomings, ToolBook compresses content for efficient use of available bandwidth. This is vital for learners needing quick access across standard telephone lines.
"The need to link strategy to execution has never been greater," adds Auberbach, "which emphasises the need for human capital development, customised in line with corporate objectives. ToolBook has a major role to play in fulfilling this requirement."
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