Authoring tools are basically a collection of authoring elements and functionality that you can use while creating e-learning content. Authoring tools are available either as an online tool or desktop tool. These tools help you create custom e-learning content without having any technical know-how.
Here are good examples of training authoring tools.
ProProfs
As a SaaS LMS platform, ProProfs is designed to help training consultants ease up the process of creating training content. Its course creator allows you to create courses and quizzes with hundreds of available templates and media content. It provides a premium course library available with pre-made courses on topics such as compliance, customer service, and many more that you can easily deploy to your personnel. A collaborative learning environment is also promoted through features like discussion forums and virtual classrooms. Through its training management system, you’re able to efficiently streamline processes in developing training materials as well as track the progress of each employee.
Gyrus
Gyrus is a cloud-based learning management platform designed with AI-driven intuitive features helping you bring world-class training and development objectives for your employees. This LMS serves as an e Learning creator software and blended learning solution by allowing you to develop training materials delivered through various digital formats – such as e Learning videos, webinars, documents, and virtual classrooms – which provide support in traditional onboarding and training activities, as well as 24/7 accessibility across any device. Its smart learning features are optimized for building customized e Learning programs for various groups of employees, and streamlining organizational compliance becomes easier for training managers.
Tovuti LMS
Tovuti LMS is another learning management platform that you can use to streamline your employee training process. With its built-in course creator suite, you can create, schedule, and deploy interactive courses in just a few easy steps. You can also include gamification and leaderboard features to encourage them to complete their assigned learning tasks. If you want to integrate synchronous learning sessions into your training, Tovuti LMS’s live virtual classroom allows you to meet with your team members in real-time and discuss learning content through third-party online video conference platforms like Zoom and GoToMeeting.
Raptivity
Raptivity is an e Learning creator software that you can use to design engaging and visually stimulating online learning experiences. The tool features a growing library of pre-made responsive interactions that include parallax displays, panning slides, and 360 interactions. Even with no design expertise, anyone can customize interactive quizzes, games, simulations, flashcards, and brainteasers through the tool’s user-friendly interface. Whether you’re a teacher or an instructional designer, you can maximize the tool’s many capabilities to keep your learners engaged and motivated throughout their learning journey. But it is important to note that the tool has a few feature limitations and you might need to download additional tools to design a well-rounded eLearning course.
Composica
Another authoring tool with a strong focus on smooth collaboration, Composica enables you to work with your colleagues straightforwardly.
You can add different users, assign tasks, and always have the most up-to-date version of your content at hand. It also has competitive pricing so it’s a relatively affordable option for your business.
knowbly
If you’re looking for a simple, yet powerful authoring tool, knowbly is one to check out. It’s got all the features an eLearning newbie needs like drag and drop content creation, quick customizability, mobile-responsive, and more.
The platform also enables you to easily organize all of your content within one system so you’ll never lose track of any of your assets.
Glo Maker
Glo Maker is an open-source eLearning authoring tool, offering the ability to create generative and interactive learning modules. It is also ready for mobile devices and delivers superb power and control for authors, L&D teams, and other educators looking to create vibrant and meaningful multimedia eLearning objects.
Here are the key features you could expect — animated tutorials, planners and designers, tool overviews, freestyle patterns, and compatible file formats, among others. It’s interesting that Glo Maker is by Oxford University, making it completely free for use for students and aspiring young entrepreneurs. The website has extensive tutorials to help you get started and even a few samples showcasing exactly what the tool is capable of doing.
Scratch by MIT Media Labs
This is another authoring tool for eLearning courses from an educational institution — this time, from MIT. The Scratch website pegs the tool as a creative and innovative approach to content creation. In fact, it’s suggested that Scratch can actually break through traditional page-turning mechanisms.
With Scratch, you can build an entire ecosystem of animation, music, and art. In other words, it helps to create an interactive storytelling methodology instead of legacy eLearning methods. A quick glance at their website is enough to make a case. Minimalist and highly visual, Scratch provides a huge repository of existing stories and lessons to inspire eLearning authors and even has an active community of users to address the lack of sales support.
Also read: eLearning Brothers, the Game Agency tie-up for the Training Arcade
Udutu Course Authoring Tool
The Udutu online learning suite offers this free eLearning authoring tool. It comes with a wide variety of WYSIWYG applications, letting users create content in an environment that’s engaging, interactive, and conversational. The website says that the tool can export SCORM 1.2/2004 conform-ant for use in third-party LMS integrations. Courses created can also be embedded in social media channels such as Facebook.
The great thing about Udutu is that it is fully in-sync with more complex eLearning needs — so when you are scaling your learning system and transitioning to a proper SCORM or TinCan-based system, import is an easy task. You can also convert courses to a presentation format, but it would involve an additional subscription at USD 10 per month.
The internet is a hive of possibilities, where there are free platforms, applications, and suites for every human need, whether personal or professional. However, it’s advisable to carefully consider the pros and cons of any program/tool before venturing into utilization.
PRODUCER
PRODUCER helps you quickly create professional interactive eLearning courses, consistently and at scale. PRODUCER supports you and your team throughout the entire learning design process – helping you scope, design and build engaging digital and blended learning that delivers results. It also encourages collaboration with project management and commenting/review tools.
PRODUCER has a suite of prebuilt learning modules that you can easily adapt for your own organisation. Screen templates and themes make it simple to create beautiful and consistent learning. You can use the inbuilt asset library, or add your own assets for use across one or multiple projects.
Pros:
- Simple to learn
- Inbuilt adaptive learning logic
- Truly mobile responsive
- Agile project management
- Scoping tools and collaborative design
- Thousands of templates and assets, including pre-built learning you can make your own
- Themes to keep learning on brand and consistent visually
- WYSIWYG editor
Cons:
- Limited ability to customise layouts
- No software simulation capability
- No inbuilt video capture/editing functionality
Suitable for:
- Scaling quickly
- Creating consistent, reusable learning assets
- Customising prebuilt learning for your organisation
Articulate Storyline
Storyline 360 is part of the Articulate 360 suite and is the company’s flagship authoring tool. In this article, we’ll also take a look at Rise 360. Articulate is the more traditional eLearning tool, whereas Rise is focused on quick, simple development.
Articulate uses a PowerPoint-style interface, with an advanced feature set that excites experienced eLearning authors but may overwhelm novices. It enables greater customisation than some competitors though this may slow down development.
Pros:
- Design is flexible and customisable
- Allows for PPT import
- Advanced feature set
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Requires complex, custom logic
- Not truly mobile responsive
- Not available on Mac (unless using an emulator)
- Desktop based, therefore collaboration is challenging
Suitable for:
- Experienced eLearning authors
- Complex learning or custom interactions
Adobe Captivate
One of the first tools in the eLearning authoring space, Captivate is a desktop authoring tool, which unlike Articulate Storyline, is available for Windows and Mac. Captivate is a powerful eLearning tool for experienced authors to create complex interactive content and simulations, but is less suited to those new to eLearning authoring.
There are a wide range of prebuilt interactions and an asset library. Captivate 2019 also includes the ability to create VR projects and interactive videos.
Pros:
- Skilled authors can develop high quality interactive learning
- Convert PPT to eLearning
- Develop VR content
- Large range of third party templates available
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Requires complex custom logic
- Mobile responsive learning is limited to specific templates or fluid boxes
- Desktop based, therefore collaboration is challenging
Suitable for:
- Experienced learning authors looking to develop highly interactive content and simulations
- Users looking for quality over speed
Articulate Rise 360
Rise was released by Articulate as part of the 360 suite in 2016, and compared to Storyline, is targeted at novice users or those looking to put learning together quickly. It uses prebuilt interactions and drag and drop content blocks to build out your learning, making it easy to create high quality interactions. However, there isn’t much flexibility when compared to Storyline 360 or many of the other authoring tools available.
Pros:
- Designed for easy course creation
- Access to Articulate Content Library 360
- Allows multiple authors to collaborate on learning
Cons:
- All courses end up feeling the same
- Cannot create complex interactions (however, you can import through Storyline 360)
- Mobile responsive
Suitable for:
- Those new to eLearning development
- Simple programs that need to be developed quickly
Lectora Online
Lectora Online is the cloud-based version of Lectora, one of the early eLearning authoring tools. Like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, its rich feature set comes at the cost of a steeper learning curve – to create truly great eLearning with Lectora Online, you need to be an experienced eLearning designer.
While Lectora Online can export device-responsive HTML5 content, the layout for each view needs to be done manually, adding significant development time. Lectora Online includes access to eLearning Brothers AssetLibrary with templates and stock assets.
Pros:
- Cloud-based
- Access to eLearning Brothers AssetLibrary
- Fully customisable
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Not truly mobile responsive (you need to create new views for each device)
- Complex user interface
Suitable for:
- Experienced learning designers
- Customised, highly interactive content and simulations
Gomo
Gomo produces mobile-first device responsive learning. Pre-built templates and the quick-start wizard help you get up and running quickly, and there are a range of interactive templates you can use. Gomo offers a range of themes that can be configured to suit your brand or project. Shared libraries and a team-based approach support collaboration.
Pros:
- Interactive templates
- Easy to learn
- Truly mobile-responsive
Cons:
- No WYSIWYG interface
- Fewer customisation options than some competitors
Suitable for:
- Organisations looking to build mobile-first content
EasyGenerator
As the name suggests, EasyGenerator focuses on creating learning easily and quickly. It is suitable for those without experience in eLearning authoring. In fact, the company encourages employee-generated content, enabling learners to create content themselves. You can drag and drop content blocks for questions, video and audio.
While EasyGenerator doesn’t have an asset library like some of the other authoring tools, it does have a range of course templates you can customise for your own organisation.
Pros:
- Easy to learn
- Ability to import PowerPoint
Cons:
- No inbuilt asset library
- Limited interaction types
Suitable for:
- Novice authors
- Organisations create a small number of courses
Elucidat
Elucidat makes it easy to develop digital learning at scale. It is cloud-based and has a strong focus on collaboration, with role-based permissions, multiple authors, and a central asset library. The library of prebuilt templates makes creating high quality learning easy, but more advanced users can use the ‘layout designer’ to build their own pages.
Elucidat’s interaction types include social polling, gamification, flexible rules and branding options. The user interface is intuitive and you can build a course quickly using templates, content blocks and through adding style elements.
Pros:
- Great collaboration features
- Intuitive user interface
- Truly mobile responsive
Cons:
- Expensive unless you’re developing programs at scale
- No custom interactions
Suitable for:
- Large organisations developing learning at scale
- Dispersed teams
iSpring
iSpring works as a PowerPoint plugin, making for a familiar interface and allowing you to use a PPT as a starting point for the course. It includes a quizmaker, video and audio editor and conversation simulation tool.
Ready-made templates and the extensive asset library make it easy to build high quality learning. iSpring Space, included with the iSpring suite, is an online space for collaboration and review.
Pros:
- Extensive template and asset library
- Video and screencast recorder and editor
Cons:
- Only works in Windows
- Need PowerPoint installed to be able to use
Suitable for:
- Experienced PowerPoint users looking to develop eLearning
- Creating learning from existing presentations
Conclusion
Authoring tools can make authoring interactive eLearning courses easier. The better the authoring tools, the easier it is to create courses. These instructional technologies are widely used in K-12, Higher Education and Corporate/Institutional training segments. Authoring tools also support interactive multimedia learning – since they can import Object Linked Data (OLM) files created by PowerPoint animations, or XML files designed with Flash animations.