Learning Management Systems and the Death of the Textbook Ushers in Age of the E-learning

In that long ago time previous to the information era, e-learning tools like learning management systems were a mere idea still undeveloped. Most instructional material was paper-based, meaning its authors were subject to the will of the publishing industry, and its profit model. Trainers might have thrown a few video or audio aids into the mix, often willy-nilly, but otherwise, paper was everything.

Nowadays, of course, publishing continues to be a big and elaborate industry. And the idea of developing and selling instructional material is still compelling for many people with skill and knowledge in a particular field.

But the traditional processes of creating and delivering instructional material, which involve the forest-clearing and money-wasting, are neither simple nor sustainable. Not to mention they are expensive.

In the past two decades, textbook prices have grown 2-to-1 compared to inflation, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. Textbook prices have gotten out of control. And it’s not hard to see the impact of this trend on university students. The outlandish fees of textbooks are enough to prevent learners paying their own way through college from signing up for courses which require them to buy a textbook that costs hundreds of dollars.

After all of these factors are taken into account, it’s clear that the professional life of a paper-based instructional material author is neither a promising nor an easy one.

For this reason, many learning content creators are going online. They are taking advantage of both an expanding market and increasingly exciting elearning creation tools. Using learning management systems (LMSs) and other elearning tools, content developers are able to create unique and robust learning content.

Simple-to-use audio and video tools, screen recording, podcast creators, simulation, and animation tools are just a few of the exciting elearning creation tools available. Web 2.0 programs can also be integrated with an elearning course to give students a way to communicate and share information.

E-learning creation is very unlike textbook content creation. When you create learning material using a known elearning platform, you maintain full copyright and power over its fate. You can choose to alter it at any time, or delete it. You can also choose to syndicate it, meaning you allow other relevant web publishers to feature it on their websites. Doing so gets your product out there on the market, expands your market, and oftentimes greatly expands your revenue.

Of course, even expert content creators require time and patience in gathering and preparing content for uploading to an online courseware platform. But actually uploading and migrating your e-learning content is often extremely simple, and depending on the learning management system provider, free of charge.