The Hindu Business Line : e-learning made easy!

A Pune-based company has developed software for e-learning that helps a company, it says, to convert existing learning content in an organisation into full-blown e-learning applications.

IN a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is power and the success of an organisation depends on its ability to educate and train customers, partners and employees effectively. And in today's context, the industry seems to be shifting towards e-Learning as the preferred mode of instruction.

Organisations need to create their own learning courses as each company has its own training needs and requirements. Some common features of these courses include digital images, PowerPoint presentations, manuals and the like. In one way it is good as the organisations know precisely what has to be taught to the employees so as to maximise their output. However, the courses do become obsolete after sometime unless continuous upgradation is carried out.

For this again, the requirement is that of a person who knows the subject matter and who has kept himself abreast of the latest happenings in the field.To meet the demands of today's competitive businesses, the Pune-based Harbinger Products India has come out with Elicitus, which, according to the developers, has the capacity to convert existing learning content in PowerPoint, Word and other legacy formats into full-blown e-learning applications in real time. This is the only such product developed in India and has scored top marks for correct conversion of legacy content at a new product contest held in Online Learning 2002 Conference and Expo at Anaheim, California, US, during September this year, say the developers.

The developers claim that Elicitus is the only e-learning authoring product developed in India to be subjected to critical analysis on a global platform. Designed specifically to make authoring of e-learning experiences a breeze, it enables users with no programming knowledge to generate powerful e-learning courses using existing content. The e-learning packages can then be easily disseminated through CDs, intranets or the Web.

An earlier version of Elicitus bagged the Parkhe Memorial Award of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Pune, India, for product innovation. The product has since been substantially enhanced and is being readied for a global launch, say the developers who claim that "Elicitus is a standalone tool which delivers a cost-effective solution for rapid development of e-learning content by people who are not necessarily computer experts."

What users say

S.V. Kulkarni, General Manager (Engineering), Eagle Poonawala Industries, who has been a user since the first version came out in 1996, says the product has been helpful in disseminating product knowledge across the employees. "This product has been particularly useful to make the employees understand the assembly procedures in a language that can be understood easily by them.''

Hari Athavale, Principal, ICICI Training Centre, another user, concurs with this view. He feels it has helped his students to develop a better understanding of Java and Visual Basic."So far about 60 students have benefited using this product, especially in the areas of financial ratios and foreign exchange. It is useful in the sense that students don't have to spend too much time on learning the same subjects sitting inside a classroom,'' he says.

Vikas Joshi, Chairman of Harbinger, looking back at the genesis of the product, says it was launched with a vision to introduce computer-based training in India in 1995. "After three years of talking of the computer-based training concept, the product got early adoption in pockets. This led to the 1998 GS Parkhe award for industrial innovation. In global markets, Elicitus is being launched in 2002. The Anaheim conference was the first time Elicitus was showcased to the global e-learning community, although discussions are in advanced stages with potential channel-partners in the US and Singapore with a sound customer base."

What about the customisation required at the customer's end? Joshi says the most valuable training in enterprises often has to do with their own products, processes and practices. Therefore, more often than not, companies have to create their own custom training modules. "Elicitus makes creation of custom e-Learning programs easy. This is because Elicitus users need not know programming: they simply have to drag/drop and arrange content into templates that Elicitus provides. Once the templates are filled out, it generates sophisticated learning interactions such as questions, assessments, glossaries and navigation. What is more, Elicitus courses can be deployed either on the Internet or on intranets or through CD-ROMs. This flexibility of hassle-free distribution appeals to course developers,'' he says.

According to him, since Elicitus is a tool (and not an enterprise system) the installation is easy. There is no required customisation beyond selecting options that control the training programmes' look and feel. "If you leave those alone, there is a standard look-and-feel anyway,'' he notes.

Any drawbacks? Athavale of the ICICI training centre feels that as such the product does not have any drawbacks. However, at their end, they had not been able to upgrade their system because of lack of personnel. Kulkarni says additional features such as animation, drawing formats could be added in the versions to come.

What about the pricing? It's about Rs 55,000 to Rs 1,25,000 per licence depending on the selection of products in the suite. The fees include customer training and technical support. Kulkarni says an investment of about Rs 1.5 lakh was made after which the software was upgraded. Now the company has also come out with a special offer.

What are the other comparable products in the market? Authoring tools come in several flavours. In the specific category of rapid-development authoring tools, Elicitus has five other competitors worldwide. These are DazzlerMax, TrainerSoft, Docent Outliner, Lectora Publisher and RADAuthor. The first four are American products, the last one is Australian, says Joshi. "DazzlerMax is stronger in presentation than learning capabilities. TrainerSoft recently merged into a larger company, so we don't know where that goes. Docent Outliner is not available stand-alone, you have to buy an expensive learning management system. Lectora and RADAuthor are good contenders, and will catch up with Elicitus if we stop innovating," he says.

Joshi cites authoring products available in India such as Macromedia Authorware, Director, Flash. Click2Learn Toolbook. "They do not compete with us either in price or in target user segments (professional authors who know programming). Our target user segment is the subject matter expert who does not know programming, but would like to share knowledge through training: the safety trainer, the finance specialist, the line manager, the product designer or even the biology teacher," he says.

rsavitha@hotmail.com

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