The folks at Yukon Learning have followed up on their Cameo learningreinforcement tool with another promising product that provides some uniquetwists on a familiar idea.
Launched at the DevLearn conference last year in Las Vegas,Rapid Course is an online library of eLearning courses. That is not a new idea, but there are two keyfeatures that make Rapid Course unique. First is their “Buy the Course, Get the Source” model. (Figure 1) That means that when you purchasea course from their website, you get not only the published course files, butalso the source files needed so that you can customize the course to your needs.
Figure 1: The Rapid Course Website
“Buy the Course, Get the Source”
This is a bit of a paradigm shift for many of us who havebeen in the eLearning field for a while. Instead of offering only the published SCORM files for the course, yourdownload package also includes all the source files used to create and publishthe course. These files are currentlyavailable in the Articulate format and include images, audio, video, and otherresources.
Think of it as a cross between an off-the-shelf and acustomized course … with you, the eLearning professional, providing thecustomization. This can include simplethings like adding your company logo or changing the color scheme, to makingchanges to the actual content and adding your own resources and job aids. It’sup to you.
There are currently forty courses available online at theRapid Course website. The courses are ontopics that are “universal” in nature, subjects like Communication Skills, Coaching,and E-Mail Etiquette. (Figure 2) The universal nature of the courses means thatthe content would be relevant to a wider target audience, which quickens theROI for the user.
Figure 2: The Rapid Course on Negotiation Styles
To make the courses more visually appealing and engaging,Yukon Learning partnered with a company called Narrator Files to provide imagesand professional narration. Some of thecourses offer video segments as well.
I have long been a skeptic of ready-made courses becausemore often than not it seems that the vendors spent more time working onvisuals than on instructional design. However, to me it appears that the teamat Yukon Learning spent a lot of time up front developing a set ofinstructionally sound templates to build the courses. This makes changing or adding new content relativelyquick and easy. (Figures 3 and 4) In addition, there are tutorials on the RapidCourse site to help you make these and other changes to your courses.
Figure 3: The Rapid Course templates are set up to makechanging the content fairly simple.
Figure 4: It is possible to change any or all of the contentin the templates.
One price fits all
The second unique feature of Rapid Course is theirdistribution model. Unlike many otheronline eLearning libraries that price courses on a per-seat basis, Rapid Courseuses a “one price fits all” approach. That means that you pay the same price whether you have 100 learners or100,000.
Prices currently range from $2,920 to $6,580 based on boththe content and duration or seat-time of the course. Volume and other discounts are available aswell. The only caveat is that you can onlyuse the courses for your organization and that they cannot be repackaged,resold, or redistributed to others outside your organization.
The reach of Rapid Course has recently expanded to the UnitedKingdom with British versions of many popular courses offered in Europe byYukon Learning’s partner, Omniplex. Thecompany has plans to offer courses via a partner in Australia later in 2012.
Rapid Course limitations
While Rapid Course seems to offer great value for the do-it-yourselfer,there are some limitations, as is the case with any product or service.
- The courses are currently available only in theArticulate format. While the tools fromArticulate are popular, offering the courses in this format alone leaves a lotof us on the sideline.
- As a new product, there are only forty coursescurrently available in the library. YukonLearning is partnering with several content providers to expand the library,with as many as 200 courses planned by year end.
- To match the audio narration for a given course,you will need to use the voice talent from Yukon Learning’s partner, NarratorFiles. While this is a limitation, youget all of the necessary contact information with your course, including thespecific narrator(s) used, and the narration services provided are high qualityand affordable. Since you get all of thecourse files including audio, you could always choose to record your ownnarration or use another provider.
Overall, I think Yukon Learning is breaking some new groundwith Rapid Course. If they can find away to expand both the number of authoring tools supported as well as thenumber and variety of courses in their library, their products will be anattractive option for eLearning developers.
