There are three ways to turn a PowerPoint into e-learning. A narrated video, exported from PowerPoint: nothing to install, but no questions and no score. An authoring tool (iSpring Suite, Storyline 360): a SCORM package, tracked by your learning management system (LMS), at the cost of some rework. AI generation: a rebuilt module to review, which your LMS must accept.
No path keeps everything, and most often your LMS decides: what it can host, and what it must record.
Export a narrated video from PowerPoint: no extra tool, but no score
- How to do it: record and time your narration in PowerPoint, then export the presentation as a video. According to Microsoft's help page, the feature exists in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 and in versions 2016 to 2024. Rendering the file can take several hours, depending on the length of the video and the complexity of the presentation. Without timed narration, each slide stays on screen for 5 seconds by default, a duration you can change.
- What you get: an MPEG-4 or Windows Media Video file, from 480p to 4K, which can include the narration, animations and transitions.
- What gets lost: animations come through, but macros and OLE/ActiveX controls don't. Microsoft's page says nothing about speaker notes: use them as your narration script. As Microsoft describes it, the video has no quiz or interactivity, so there's no score. According to Moodle's documentation, for example, an activity counts as viewed as soon as the learner clicks its link. For a video, that doesn't tell you whether they watched it to the end.
- The right choice if: you're sharing a talk as is, without assessing anyone, for example an onboarding presentation you replay every year. As soon as you need a grade, take another path.
Bring the deck into an authoring tool: LMS tracking, but expect some rework
- How to do it: two approaches. iSpring Suite adds a tab to PowerPoint on Windows, according to its system requirements, and you stay in the software you already use. To import a PowerPoint into Storyline 360, you need a PPTX file, which Articulate says is the only supported format; from there, you work in Storyline 360.
- What you get: a SCORM package, meaning a file that the LMS hosts and that reports back to it on the learner's progress. iSpring says it exports to SCORM, AICC or xAPI. According to Articulate's help on publishing, a Storyline 360 module reports its completion to the LMS (slides viewed, quiz finished) and sends it the quiz results.
- What gets lost: iSpring says it keeps animations, transitions, audio, video and triggers; its product page lists no limitations. Articulate's help on importing details its limits: most animations and transitions come through, except those Storyline 360 doesn't support. Embedded fonts don't carry over: a font that isn't installed on your computer is replaced with Arial. Animated GIFs become still images; charts, Excel spreadsheets and other embedded files aren't imported. The iSpring and Articulate pages cited here say nothing about speaker notes, so test a few slides. Tracking, on the other hand, is the whole point of this path.
- The right choice if: your LMS expects a SCORM package and you need to record completion or a grade. To choose a tool, see the comparison of 8 e-learning authoring tools, then check its system requirements. If there's nothing to assess, the video from path 1 saves you an extra piece of software.
Features as listed on the Microsoft, Moodle, iSpring and Articulate websites on October 3 and 4, 2026. Check their current documentation before you decide.
Have an AI generate the module: questions included, but it all needs review
- How to do it: in Complement's AI authoring tool (Complement publishes this blog), describe the training you want and add your PowerPoint. The AI generates the chapters, the slides and their visuals, the script and the quizzes. Complement advises allowing one hour of review for each hour of generated training.
- What you get: a conversational session, not a file. An AI avatar presents the course, answers questions within the limits of your sources, quizzes the learner and gives spoken feedback on the answers. The module is shared through a public link, or inside the LMS via LTI 1.3: the LMS opens it, Complement hosts it.
- What gets lost: your file serves as the source, speaker notes and animations included, according to Complement, and you review and edit the generated slides. Progress, scores and completions also flow back to your LMS automatically over LTI 1.3, Complement says. But the module can't be exported, to SCORM or any other format, and the price list shows LTI integration as quote-based.
- The right choice if: an avatar needs to question the learner, and either your LMS accepts LTI 1.3 or a link is enough. If your LMS only accepts SCORM packages, take path 2; for a video file, path 1.
Before you turn a PowerPoint into e-learning, ask your LMS two questions
Put them to your platform's administrator before you convert a single slide.
- What does your LMS accept? A video file or a link, a SCORM package, or an external tool via LTI 1.3.
- What does it need to record? Just a view, completion or a grade.
The first answer already rules out some paths:
- Your LMS only accepts SCORM packages: the authoring tool, path 2.
- A view is enough: the narrated video, path 1, if your LMS accepts a video file or a link.
- You need to record completion or a grade: path 2 if your LMS accepts a SCORM package, path 3 if it accepts LTI 1.3. If it accepts both, choose between a module built from your slides (path 2) and an avatar that questions the learner (path 3).
Then try the path you've chosen on about ten slides before converting the whole deck: you'll see what's left to redo. To test path 3 on your own slides, Complement offers a 7-day free trial, no credit card required.