Content creation company & eLearning: why should they team up?

What’s a content creation company? 

We use the term content creation company to encompass any training company that provides training courses and content to companies, institutions and/or the government. The area of expertise differs from one content creation company to another, as well as the client's portfolio, the learning strategy, the type of content, and so on, but there are some similarities between them, such as their needs when it comes to creating and delivering content in an effective way, adapted to the market’s needs and profitable to the company. 

Among the needs that we’ve noticed while working with clients from this area of business, there are a few that are common to the content creation companies, such as: 

• Managing the content and its distribution to their customers in an efficient way
• Incorporating brand identity and individual client portals with eLearning platforms that offer the multi-tenant features
• Implementing business rules for a smooth management of their relationships with customers
• Finding the perfect balance between enhancing knowledge & skills for their clients and having full control on the content management process
• Fostering connectivity and collaboration between their clients with tools such as communities of practice
• Generating new revenue streams and creating sustainable relationships with their clients

Using an eLearning platform as an asset

Learning Management Systems are a great asset for a content creation company, for a variety of reasons: they make the content management process easier and smoother, they offer tools that facilitate the relationship between a content creation company and its customers, and they even offer a competitive advantage in the market, fostering hybrid learning and learning collaboration. 

Useful eLearning tools for training companies

• Multitenant tool 

According to eLearning Industry, “multi-tenancy support is one of the major selling points of LMS for a content creation company since you can create different instances or portals for each client or user group. Clients can access their own branded online training content that aligns with their messaging.” 

• White-label tool

White-labeling is an important tool for the content creation companies because it offers them an online learning environment that meets their own branding and the customization needs of their own clients, acting as a market benefit. “But branding also transforms your online training course into a marketing tool. Publish free sneak previews to generate interest and give them a taste of your quality online training content.” (source)

• Communities of practice

Social learning is an essential aspect of the training process, leading to greater outcomes and fostering the collaboration between members. You might think it is not a necessity, but rather a bonus, and you might be right. But we all live and work in a business environment where competitiveness is at its highest and innovative tools make the difference between a product that exists out there in the market and a product that someone actually buys and uses. 

• A variety of learning methods

An eLearning platform should give the content creation company and its clients the possibility of deciding how training is delivered, with a series of approaches to choose from: blended learning, adaptive learning, social learning, microlearning. The content creation company can thus use a hybrid learning approach to make the most of its content and to maximize the learning outcomes of the courses.

• Allow time-limited access

Most often than not, training companies have to set up a time limit when it comes to accessing the courses, and this is where business rules engines come in help. Knolyx, for example, uses the business rules engine to manage the training process and the relationship between the company and the person being trained. The client can use business rules for various learning entities, such as courses, resources, learning paths, communities of practice, quizzes and so on.

Conclusively, to go back to the beginning of this article, the answer is yes: content creation companies and eLearning should team up for all the reasons listed above and for many other reasons specific to each company.