32 Best Online Training Tools for Employees for 2023 and beyond

Finding the best online training tools can be a difficult task. If you’re creating elearning, you will need to produce quality content and courses quickly, especially if you are to meet the ever-changing needs of your end users. To do this effectively, you’ll require a range of software. To help you with the task, here’s our roundup of the best employee training tools, split into seven useful categories:

1. Online training tools for authoring
2. Learning Management Systems (LMSs)
3. Production process tools 
4. Screen and audio recording tools
5. Audio and video tools
6. Graphic design tools
7. Mind mapping tools

These online training tools will help you produce elearning quicker. See here for an in-depth guide to successful elearning development processes.

1. Online training tools for authoring 

Your authoring tool is probably the most important item in your elearning delivery toolkit.

Ideally, an authoring tool should be flexible, easy to use, responsive, and enable quick content development that meets the needs of your end users. Many modern authoring products, like Elucidat, tick all of these boxes. Ease of use is especially important so that you can rely on Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), rather than tech-savvy developers to create content. Spreading the development load in this way enables you to get your learning to market more quickly.

Since time is a precious commodity, the faster the tool the better. But keep an eye on the quality. The last thing you want to do is produce online training quickly but sacrifice the quality. 

Here are three authoring tools to consider:

1. Elucidat: our cloud-based authoring tool is packed with features and tailor-made for collaboration. Be sure to check out the Learning Accelerator that will help you produce training 4x faster. Templates are recommended based on your project goals. Just follow the best practice guidelines and create something awesome. A great way to produce web based training for employees.
2. Articulate Storyline 360: this well-known authoring tool provides a clean and simple approach to content creation.
3. Lectora: this is a well-established and powerful tool designed for experienced authors and elearning professionals.

For more tools check out: 10 Elearning Authoring Tools: Comparison and Review

2. Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Whilst employee training tools like Elucidat have self-hosting options, you may need a platform to deliver all your online learning to your audiences, either so you can create personalised learning journeys, up your tracking, or because you sell your corporate learning commercially.

The learning technologies market is fast-growing and full of innovative products. With so many options and acronyms (LCMS, LMS, CMS …), it can be tricky to work out exactly what you need and which products can deliver it. We provide a guide to LCMS vs. LMS here.
Your own unique needs will determine which LMS, LCMS or even Learning Experience Platform, is best suited to your organization. Three well-regarded LMSs that you may want to investigate are:

4. LearnUpon: This is a customer-centric cloud-based learning management tool which provides an easy-to-use interface; a favorite of L&D teams and users alike.

5. Knowledge Anywhere: A highly-rated learning management system that offers an end-to-end solution and great customer support. Ideal for large companies with 50+ learners. 

6. Docebo: A cloud-based LMS platform that combines innovative technologies and methods to support different learning styles. It’s easy to use and affordable for most organizations.

7. Administrate: An easily-configurable training platform that allows you to plan your training, analyze learner performance and scale your corporate elearning projects quickly. 

8. Cornerstone: This LMS offers a range of different formats including video, audio and VR so you can adapt your training to suit your users and their learning styles. 

3. Production process tools – 5C’s

With over 50 years of digital learning production experience under their belt, the Professional Services team at Elucidat know a thing or two about how to get to great results. Use our 5C’s framework as your secret weapon to help you plan, design, create, improve and commercialize your online learning.

They share five free guides and templates that you can download and use on your project:

9. Capture – The first step of the 5C Framework. This template helps you pin down the problem you are trying to fix and create profiles for your audience so that you can shape your solution to meet a specific, measurable goal.

10. Conceptualize – This guide helps you work outwards from your central goal (with a handy template), get ideas to inform the design of your digital learning, plot out a rough structure for your learning experience and think about how to prototype and test your design.

11. Create – This template helps you flesh out your ideas, get your visual style sorted, plan how you’ll collaborate with key stakeholders and ensure a thorough quality assurance process.

12. Cultivate – Most modern online learning producers are keen to refine and improve what they do and foresee issues before they arise. This guide will show you how to use data analytics, track trends and make all important improvements.  

13. Commercialize – Whether you are selling your online training or not, thinking commercially about what you do helps you ensure you meet your goals efficiently and smartly. 

4. Screen and audio recording tools

Capturing static screenshots and screen interaction sequences is useful when developing systems training, guides to online tools or resources, or even for onboarding. Here are some helpful examples to add to your tech stack of online training tools:

14. Snagit: A powerful tool for screen capture of videos and static images. Snagit is a staple tool for most corporate elearning pros.
15. Screencast-O-Matic: This allows you to capture screen interaction videos (e.g., software how-to videos) either with or without your webcam ‘narrator’ image included.
16. PrtScn: If you just want a static image of a computer screen, use your PrtScn keyboard key. Use the Alt + PrtScn key combination to capture the active window rather than your entire desktop. PrtScn copies the image to your clipboard. From there you can paste it into a PowerPoint slide or something as simple as Paint and export the slide as a PNG or JPG graphics file.
17. Zoom: A great all-rounder for video calls and delivering live online training. It has a useful screen-recording feature, so if a user is unable to make a training session, they can watch the recording back and catch up in their own time.

5. Audio and video tools

Audio and video are very effective in online learning and continue to grow in popularity as users can watch or listen easily on mobiles, wherever they are.

Audio and video don’t have to be expensive assets. Recording a best practice sales call, giving some top tips, or combining audio with screen captures are incredibly powerful ways to communicate with learners. You can take it a step further and use audio and video to create scenarios, which put learners in the hot seat to answer questions or take actions.

18. Audacity: This is the go-to online training tool for most non-professional sound recordists. It’ll give you all the functionality that you’re ever likely to need.
19. Twisted Wave: This is a very simple sound recorder and editor. Its advantage is that it’s web-based, so no downloads or installs, but there are downloadable versions for Mac and iOS, too.
20. Loom: Video tool that Uuses your webcam to capture you talking, for free. You can appear or switch yourself off and instead show something on your screen.
21. Your smartphone! Simple yet effective; point it at the world or flip the camera round at yourself and get recording!

Related: See examples of audio and video in action in online training, here

6. Graphic Design tools

If you’re not a professional graphic artist but need to create some graphical elements for your online learning or edit something you already have, here are some tools to try:

22. Canva. One of the best places to go for design inspiration and tools for creating infographics, layouts and stunning presentations is Canva, a great one-stop tool for creating infographics, presentations, and graphical layouts, easily.

23. Easel.ly helps you create professional looking infographics for free. A useful online tool for adding interesting graphics to your online learning in a flash. 

24. Infogram is similar to the above in that it enables you to create smart infographics and visualizations to supplement your training.

25. GIMP is a free photo-editing tool that helps you crop, chop and enhance the photos you need to present.

26. Inkscape is a useful editing tool that does much of what Adobe illustrator lets you do, but for free.

7. Mind Mapping tools

An important task during the early design stage of most large corporate elearning projects is prioritizing what needs to be covered, and chunking content into specific areas.

Mind Mapping tools, especially collaborative ones, are great for this. Here’s some to explore:

27. Coggle: This is a web-based tool that allows teams or individuals to brainstorm, group and prioritize ideas very easily. A great option for knowledge sharing among SMEs and L&D teams.
28. Mindjet (MindManager): This product has evolved over many years, so has greater functionality than many other Mind Mapping products. This functionality comes with a slight learning curve and is also reflected in the price.
29. Cathy Moore’s fantastic action-mapping and decision-making tools are incredibly useful to any learning designers, novice or experienced. Great to use alongside our Capture Needs template.
30. Trello: This is a nifty tool that allows you to create lists and cards for different projects, assign tasks and attach documents for seamless collaboration. It’s particularly useful for collating ideas and mapping out course content during your planning phase.

8. Interactive training tools

Interactive training tools are software applications that facilitate immersive and engaging learning experiences. These tools are designed to enhance the learning process by providing learners with hands-on training, simulations, and other interactive features that increase retention and understanding.

31. Mursion – Mursion’s virtual reality platform provides immersive training experiences for soft skills such as communication and leadership. Its platform simulates real-life scenarios and uses AI-powered avatars to provide personalized feedback to learners.
32. Skillsoft – Skillsoft offers a range of interactive training tools, including simulations, gamification, and microlearning. Its platform aims to provide personalized learning experiences that improve learner engagement and retention.

In conclusion

Like any craftsperson, the quality of the tools you use and how effectively you wield them will directly impact what you create.

In these competitive times, you need to maximize quality and output by using the best online training tools for employees, up-to-date technology and techniques like those highlighted here. So, make sure this is planned early into your digital learning strategy!