Basic Features Of An E-Learning Authoring Tool

We all are aware of the benefits of eLearning. Whether you are a corporate worker or a student, online courses are a highly efficient way of enhancing your knowledge base. They are interactive, engaging and easily accessible.

This mode of learning became all the more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the deadly virus forced us to shut down all physical offices, schools and universities, eLearning tools and platforms allowed us to continue the learning process from the safety of our homes.

However, the efficiency of these online courses or eLearning platforms depends greatly on the authoring tool being used. An authoring tool is a software that allows you to create eLearning content with various media elements. For example, Easygenerator. It can be available either as a standalone tool or in a package with an online learning platform.

In the absence of a dedicated tool, the content creation process can be too cumbersome and time-consuming. Thus, there are certain features that every eLearning authoring tool must have, in order to make this process more efficient and streamlined.

Here are a few of them:

1. Responsive Design

One of the primary advantages of online learning courses is that learners can access them from anywhere anytime. Therefore, your courseware needs to be compatible not only with laptops and PCs but also with mobile devices. This allows learners to access the training or other learning programmes even if they do not have computers/laptops with them at the moment.

So, the first basic feature for your authoring tool to have is responsive design. It should allow you to create mobile-friendly courses that can respond to screen size, orientation and layout elements swiftly.

2. In-built Media And Template Library

eLearning, unlike traditional classroom training, uses visual components such as graphics, animations, videos, images, etc to impart knowledge. Therefore, your authoring tool should offer an in-built image and media library. Otherwise, you will have to browse through the internet for hours or create one yourself, every time you need an image, video, or any other media element.

In addition to this, your authoring tools should also have a broad collection of templates and layouts. Having them in one place can make your process more time and cost-effective. Using pre-built layouts and templates can also make the appearance of your course more consistent and polished.

3. Language Translation

It is only natural for an organisation to have a diversified workforce. Nowadays, almost every organisation has employees with different cultural backgrounds working together as a team. On the other hand, having branches of your organisation in different geographical locations is also fairly common. Thus, it is important that you take into consideration the language preference of your audience while creating an online course. Your employees from every part of the world should be able to understand your training material. In other words, your authoring tool should enable you to translate your course into multiple languages. This will help you in imparting consistent training for your global workforce.

4. Gamification And Interactive Elements

As opposed to traditional classroom learning, eLearning involves interactive strategies like storytelling, leaderboard, ranking charts, branching scenarios, colourful badges, simulations, and much more. Your authoring tool should, therefore, come equipped with such interactive elements and enable you to easily integrate them with your courseware. This can make the course creation process simple and learning fun. 

5. Content Repository

Sometimes, you may want to create successive online courses, like level 1, level 2, etc or divide a single concept into multiple courses instead of just one. In such instances, you require an authoring tool that is capable of storing and managing the content that has already been created. This can save you from working on every course from scratch. 

6. Editing Features

Last but not the least, your authoring tool should come with a wide and useful range of editing features. This includes fonts styles, font sizes, colour palettes, background, borders, etc.

We hope that this article helps you in choosing the right authoring tool. However, keep in mind that this list is not exclusive. Today, many authoring tools come with more advanced features. So, explore the market and select the one that best suits your needs.