What is Courseware?

Courseware is a term that combines the words 'course' with 'software'. Its meaning originally was used to describe exercise workbooks for teachers and trainers, or as tutorials for students, usually to teach computer applications. Today, the meaning and usage of the word courseware has expanded to include any knowledge area, especially soft skills topics, and encompasses supporting materials such as an instructor guide or lesson plans, classroom activities and ice breakers, quick reference sheets, classroom slide show presentations, and web-based online training, videos, and testing.

Many companies are using the term courseware to describe 'open source' training materials intended as kits for trainers that can be completely customized [and re-branded].  This allows trainers to easily edit any courseware component to better address the needs of participants.