Glossary

Authoring Tool

What is an Authoring Tool?

An authoring tool is a purpose-built application used to create digital content that focuses on developing eLearning courses, presentations, or interactive training materials. These tools provide users with an easy-to-use platform to design, develop, and publish educational content without requiring extensive programming knowledge. 

An eLearning authoring tool allows trainers to easily create courses that can be accessed digitally through a web browser, learning management system (LMS), or learning experience platform (LXP). These tools have features that simplify how trainers create content, helping keep course material fresh and up to date.

Key Features of an Authoring Tool

Authoring tools are easy-to-use, purpose-built platforms that allow trainers to focus on the content of training courses rather than on getting the nuts and bolts to fit together. 

Features that make authoring tools perfectly suited to internal training or customer education include:

• Advanced multimedia integration: An ideal authoring tool supports high-quality videos, audio narration, interactive animations, and image galleries. These capabilities enable the creation of dynamic and visually engaging eLearning content that caters to various learning preferences.
• Customizable templates and branding: Authoring tools offer pre-built templates that can be tailored to align with an organization’s branding. This feature saves you from reinventing the wheel and provides consistency in design, while allowing flexibility to adjust layouts, fonts, colors, and other visual elements.
• Interactive learning elements: Interactivity goes a long way in maintaining learner engagement, with features such as drag-and-drop activities, branching scenarios, quizzes, and simulations. These elements also promote problem-solving, decision-making, and knowledge retention. 
• Responsive and adaptive design: Responsiveness ensures courses automatically adjust to different screen sizes and devices, from desktops to mobile phones. Built-in responsiveness offers a frictionless learning experience without compromising readability or usability.
• Compliance support: You can’t risk non-compliance, so authoring tools adhere to industry standards such as SCORM and xAPI to integrate seamlessly with LMS/LXP platforms. These standards ensure content compatibility, accurate learner tracking, and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Each of these features supports trainers in their mission to develop and refine training courses without needing new technical skills.

Business Benefits of Using an Authoring Tool

What makes authoring tools worthwhile for developing eLearning courses? The features explored above only paint half the picture.

What are the tangible benefits of adopting these platforms?

Streamlined Content Development

Content development is a foundational aspect of an effective training program, but the creation process is often a time sink. An authoring tool can significantly reduce the time required to design eLearning courses. 

Providing user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces, pre-designed templates, and automation tools makes efficient workflows possible, allowing educators and trainers to focus on content quality rather than technical challenges.

Lower Development and Outsourcing Costs

An enterprise learning authoring tool cuts overall training costs by eliminating the need for expensive third-party course development services — you can build everything in-house.

As a result, you’ll empower trainers to create and update their training materials in-house with minimal ongoing expenses.Authoring tools focus on usability so trainers can quickly get to work.

Scalability and Integrations

An effective authoring tool allows organizations to create scalable training programs that can be deployed across different teams, departments, and global locations. Trainers can also benefit from options for quick updates and modifications to keep content relevant and up-to-date.

Additionally, the right platform will integrate with other training tools you already use, such as your LMS, so it’s easy to push updates and continually refine course content.

Data-Driven Insights and Performance Tracking

A quality LMS authoring tool will also offer detailed analytics on learner engagement, progress, test scores, and completion rates. Performance tracking helps businesses measure training effectiveness and make data-driven decisions to optimize learning strategies.

Additionally, the metrics these tools provide can help your organization determine when it’s time to create entirely new courses or lessons to address areas that students consistently struggle with.

Consistent and Engaging Learning Experiences

The right authoring tool offers the necessary features to consistently create uniformity across several courses by leveraging interactive elements and multimedia. 

When done right, these factors help enhance motivation, engagement, and knowledge retention for every learner. Trainers are also equipped with the necessary tools to refine course material and boost engagement, in case student outcomes fall short of the organization’s goals.

Authoring Tools Enhance Learning Success

Armed with the right authoring tools, businesses can streamline the process of creating high-quality eLearning content, ensuring an effective and engaging learning experience for users. 

Over time, courses can be refined to eliminate bottlenecks and friction and continually produce optimal learning outcomes. Finding a platform that offers the necessary features and integrations is necessary to drive meaningful improvements to your training courses, so take the time to weigh all your options.