Providing the right training is essential for any organisation, but it can be expensive and time-consuming to create new custom courses.
This can be a serious problem if you have learners already waiting or you need to cover a wide range of topics. Thankfully, it’s often not necessary to develop custom material. Off-the-shelf elearning courses are a popular solution, especially when they are part of an elearning course library.
Off-the-shelf elearning courses have already been designed and built and are ready to go.
All the work of researching the topic, crafting the script, and creating an easy-to-use interface has already been done. You just need to choose the right ones for your organisation. You’ll also be surprised by the range of courses that are available and the sectors that are covered. You might be worked in a sector where it is difficult to get off the shelf courses – but there is often a supplier.
We’ll now continue to look at the benefits of choosing an off-the-shelf elearning course, how they compare to custom courses (also known as bespoke), and what types of companies use them.
Finally, we’ll look at where to find them and how to decide which one is right for you.
What Are the Benefits of Off-the-Shelf elearning Courses?
When you look at the benefits of using off-the-shelf elearning courses, it’s not hard to see why they are popular with so many organisations.
Here are a few of the main reasons why companies choose to use them.
Ready to Go
Because the work to create the course has already been done, the courses are ready to be used straight away.
You don’t have to worry about the long process of working with a development team to put together a course. Once purchased, all you need to do is upload them to your learning management system or learning experience platform and they’re ready to be deployed.
An off-the-shelf elearning course is ready to go when you are. If you find the right supplier you’ll get the SCORM files, thumbnails and the metadata that you can upload right into your platform. The integration into your platform can be done in hours and you can be quickly up and running. There might be some configuration to be done, but working with the right supplier should see you up and running in days as opposed to weeks.
Cost Effective
Creating a new course doesn’t just take time, it takes money to hire a development team. If you have your own in-house development team, don’t forget that this costs time and money. You’ll have the cost of development time, software licenses, training and more.
Custom courses can often be quite expensive if you want a quality final product. That’s not the case with off-the-shelf courses. Because the provider of the courses will sell each course to more than one organisation, they can afford to offer them at more affordable prices. It means you can get a great deal and make the most of your budget. What’s important is that you have a clear understanding of what you need and how much off the shelf courses cost.
There are still overly complex pricing models that make it difficult to understand and make a comparison when you are looking to make a purchase decision. Make sure you have a good review and purchase plan in place.
Uses Less of Your Resources
Expert Training
Each course is thoroughly researched. The learning material is based on up-to-date expert advice, best practice and legal regulations. Just as much effort goes into getting the content right as with a bespoke course. The same goes for the interface and visual design. You can be sure that the learner will receive an authoritative and engaging guide to the topic and will come away with the essential skills and knowledge.
A Large Range of Topics
Off-the-shelf courses cover a very large range of popular and essential topics. At Real Projects, for example, we offer courses on topics including information security, remote working, teamwork, management, productivity, and wellness at work. The courses range from quick 3-minute courses that teach an important skill to longer 15 and 20 minute courses that look in-depth at a subject.
Upload to Any LMS or LXP
Off-the-shelf courses can be uploaded to a range of different learning management systems, making it easy to deploy the off-the-shelf eLearning course straight away without having to change anything. This helps speed up rollout and means employees can get started straight away.
Why Choose Off-the-Shelf eLearning?
Off-the-shelf elearning is popular for good reasons. Here’s what makes them an attractive option:
- Immediate Availability: No development time is required. Simply upload the course to your LMS, and it’s ready to deploy.
- Cost-Effective: Shared development costs make these courses more affordable than bespoke options, helping organisations maximise their budgets.
- Expert Quality: Developed by professionals, these courses offer well-researched content, up-to-date guidance, and engaging visuals to deliver high-impact learning.
- Wide Topic Coverage: From leadership and productivity to wellness and compliance, there’s a course for almost any organisational need.
LMS Compatibility: Designed to work with multiple platforms, they’re easy to implement without technical adjustments.
How Are Bespoke and Off-the-Shelf eLearning Courses Different?
Due to the way they’re developed, off-the-shelf courses are suitable for a wide range of workplaces and organisations. They’re a great way to train employees in the skills and knowledge that are needed in a variety of different settings.
What they don’t cover are the specific policies and procedures that an organisation might need to train its staff in. For this kind of training, a bespoke course is better.
Rather than being pre-made, bespoke eLearning courses are created by the developer to the requirements of the organisation, based on the learning outcomes that the client wants. It’s a great way to provide personalised, custom-made training. However, it does take time to make and will generally cost more than an off-the-shelf course.
What Kinds of Companies Use Off-the-Shelf eLearning Courses?
There isn’t one kind of company that uses off-the-shelf eLearning courses, they’re useful for a wide range of organisations. After all, they’re designed to be as widely used as possible. But there are some situations in which they are particularly useful.
For organisations with a large workforce who require training in a number of topics, off-the-shelf courses provide a quick and cost-effective way to fill a learning management system with a large number of relevant courses. It’s possible to cover a wide variety of skills and make sure that everyone is receiving the right training.
They’re also great for companies looking to maximise their budget. With off-the-shelf courses, there’s no need to invest large amounts of time and resources. Instead, a company can put together a professional training programme created by experts without having to break the bank.
Where Can I Find Off-the-Shelf eLearning Courses?
The best place to search for eLearning courses is OpenSesame, an online catalogue of over 30,000 courses that cover a large range of topics from business skills to wellness. Within the library, you can search by category to help you find the courses that fulfil your training requirements. You can also search by language to find material that will be easy to understand for your workforce. For example, at Real Projects, many of our courses are also available in Spanish as well as English.
For each course you can read a detailed description before you buy it, so you can check that the content matches your requirements. There will also often be a course preview, allowing you to see for yourself whether it’s what you’re looking for.
At Real Projects, we’ve been creating award-winning courses for over 10 years. We’re constantly expanding our catalogue of off-the-shelf eLearning courses, covering the topics and skills that matter to employers. A lot of hard work goes into each of our courses to produce engaging learning experiences that include animations, interactive exercises, voice-over narrations, and quizzes. Why not take a look at what Real Projects has to offer?
