Training Best Practices/PowerPoint for E-Learning/Drawbacks

Limitations of PowerPoint for E-Learning

There are none.

A number of vendors of more complex, more expensive authoring tools would have you believe that quality, interactive, e-learning is beyond the capabilities of PowerPoint. The advent of motion path and trigger animations (post-2002 versions)has made PowerPoint an attractive alternative to higher-end, longer-learning-curve authoring tools. Thoughtful instructional design, use of meaningful art and graphics, and carefully planned hyperlinking can provide excellent interactive simulations (especially instructionally sound as they allow learners to see the consequences of their decisions and actions), engaging games and other interactions.

Plenty of bad e-learning exists, much of it created with products costing many times more than the version of PowerPoint most training professionals already have. As Jane Bozarth (see "E-Learning on a Shoestring") says: "Good e-learning is about design, not software."

For those still not sure of the remarkable capabilities of PowerPoint, see the PowerPoint Heaven site: [1].