What are the best eLearning tools for content authoring?
Selecting the right eLearning tool for content authoring can be difficult, but it’s a crucial step toward building an inspiring and engaging learning experience for your organization. Content that’s passive, dull, or doesn’t encourage interaction can negatively impact learner productivity and retention, which is why leveraging the right content authoring tools for is critical for training success.
If you’re comparing content authoring tools, there are lots of options out there, and more seem to arrive on the market every day! This article will compare three of the most popular content authoring tools — Adobe Captivate, Evolve, Articulate 360, and Litmos built-in Content Authoring Tool.
Each content authoring tool has its own strengths and weaknesses, but which one is right for you?
Litmos Content Author Tool
Completely free as part of the Litmos learning management system (LMS), the Litmos Content Authoring Tool allows you to design, build, and deploy customizable and visually appealing Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) content from within your existing LMS system, saving you the hassle and expense of separate software.
Designed to support everyone from the novice trainer to the expert instructional designer, the Litmos Content Authoring Tool allows users to build courses from standard templates or create custom ones from components. Making learning interesting and motivating is simple with AI video assessments, quiz-functionality, and gamification that can drive learner engagement and retention.
The Litmos LMS also offers thousands of pre-built training courses and robust reporting, which means that users of the content author tool can create, curate, monitor, and optimize their learning content, from a single platform. Having access to built-in content authoring also allows you to easily update courses without having to boot up another build tool, edit, republish, and upload. It’s also important to note that Litmos LMS users can incorporate the content that they create from any authoring tool.
The key strength of this tool is that it gives you many of the same robust features of external build tools, but at no additional cost if you’re using a Litmos LMS.
Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate has long been a stalwart in the eLearning industry. It offers a useful suite of features, tailored for creating immersive and interactive learning content. One of its standout features is its responsive design capabilities, allowing content to adapt seamlessly across various devices and screen sizes.
Captivate’s intuitive interface also makes it accessible to both beginners and seasoned e-learning professionals. Its drag-and-drop functionality simplifies the creation of interactive elements like quizzes and simulations. Adobe Captivate’s asset library provides a wealth of pre-built components, saving time and effort in content creation.
Additionally, its robust analytics and reporting tools enable creators to gather valuable insights into learner progress and engagement. This facilitates ongoing improvements in course content and delivery.
Evolve
Evolve is a relative newcomer in the eLearning tools arena but has quickly garnered attention for its user-friendly interface and extensive template library. Designed with simplicity in mind, Evolve aims to streamline the content creation process while maintaining high-quality output.
One of its notable features is the ease with which users can create responsive courses without needing in-depth technical knowledge. The platform offers a range of customizable templates, allowing for quick customization and deployment of content. Evolve’s focus on collaborative authoring also facilitates teamwork among multiple stakeholders, enabling smoother content creation workflows.
Evolve places an emphasis on multimedia integration, making it convenient to incorporate various types of media, such as videos, animations, and interactive elements, into the learning modules.
Articulate 360
Articulate 360 is a comprehensive suite of e-learning tools that includes popular applications like Storyline, Rise, and Review. This suite caters to different aspects of course creation, offering versatility and flexibility to instructional designers.
Articulate Storyline is renowned for its powerful capabilities in creating highly interactive and customizable courses. Its timeline-based interface allows for precise control over content elements, animations, and triggers, enabling the creation of intricate learning experiences. Meanwhile, Rise, a web-based authoring tool, focuses on responsive and mobile-friendly course design, enabling quick content development optimized for various devices.
Articulate Review, a part of the 360 suite, facilitates collaboration and feedback among stakeholders, streamlining the review process for smoother course development.
Key considerations for choosing a content authoring tool
When it comes to deciding which content authoring tool is the right fit for your eLearning needs, there are several factors to consider. By understanding the strengths and limitations of each tool, you can make an informed decision and choose the perfect tool to bring your learning vision to life.
Here are a few elements to consider when deciding on an eLearning content authoring tool:
1. Ease of Use:
Litmos and Evolve plus Rise 360 (part of the Articulate 360 suite) stand out for pick-up-and-use interfaces and relative simplicity, so these could be a great option for beginners or those with limited time.
Adobe Captivate offers lots of options and features but may be a steeper learning curve for those starting out. Articulate 360 has so many options and a wide range of tools, catering to both beginners and advanced users with different levels of complexity. Storyline 360 is a powerful tool, and among vendors of bespoke eLearning builds, it remains a go-to option, but for no-power users, it can get complex quickly because it has so many ways to achieve the same thing.
2. Value:
Since Litmos Content Authoring Tool is integrated within the Litmos LMS, there are no hefty licensing charges. Users find value in being able to access an array of powerful LMS features, like a wide library of pre-built content and robust reporting, in the same platform where they build course content. All the other tools we’ve explored will cost extra for Litmos LMS users and may cost even more if your team requires multiple users.
While professional-grade and complex additional options, like those offered by Articulate may be attractive, your team will need to assess the return on their investment for these tools. How often will they actually be used? Understanding the value of the tool you choose can help you decide whether additional spend is justifiable.
3. Customization and Interactivity:
Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline excel in providing extensive customization options and interactive capabilities, allowing creators to design complex and engaging learning experiences. Litmos Content Author offers branding and customization capabilities in an easy-to-use platform, and Evolve is also rather user-friendly; however, these tools may offer less intricate customization options.
4. Collaboration:
Evolve and Articulate 360, particularly Articulate Review, prioritize collaborative authoring and feedback processes, which may help teams streamline content development. Adobe Captivate nd Litmos offer collaborative features that are perhaps less robust than the other two, but still suitable for most teams.
5. Responsive Design:
all the tools we’ve discussed have options for fully integrated responsive design, to ensure that learning content will work across full-screen, tablet, and mobile devices. However, Adobe Captivate and Rise from Articulate 360 specifically focus on this aspect, offering extensive options for mobile-friendly content creation. Litmos offers an easy-to-use drag & drop functionality, which makes configuring custom dashboards and training widgets on both the PC, tablet and mobile a lot more approachable for novice users.
Choosing the right content authoring tool for you
Deciding on what eLearning tool to use depends not just on what you need it to do, but also on its usability and value. Once you know what you need from your content authoring tool, you should be asking whether you have lots of time to familiarize yourself with the product’s use cases and features, or whether you need to be able to pick it up and run with it in just a few hours. You’ll need to calculate the true value of the tools you’re considering. Do you have the budget to pay for license or subscription fees, as well as additional features? And are those additional features must-haves or nice-to-haves?
If you’ve made it this far, you may already know what tool is right for you! But just in case, here are some of the key takeaways from the content authoring tool comparison above:
- Litmos’ Content Authoring Tool is the perfect option if you already have or are implementing Litmos LMS for your organization. It’s easy to use and available at no extra cost.
- Adobe Captivate, with its extensive feature set and emphasis on responsiveness, suits those looking for advanced capabilities and customization.
- Evolve stands out for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a strong choice for beginners or those preferring a straightforward approach.
- Articulate 360‘s suite of tools caters to a wide range of users, offering versatility but also expert-level features for power users.
Whether you opt for Litmos, Adobe Captivate, Evolve, or Articulate 360, choosing the authoring tool that suits your team’s needs, budget, and experience level is crucial for creating engaging and effective learning experiences. If you’re already a Litmos customer, rest assured that the content you create with the content authoring tool of your choice can be easily embedded into new or existing learning paths.
The best way to see whether an eLearning tool is right for you is to give it a try! Sign up for a free trial of Litmos today to see how our LMS and its integrated Content Authoring Tool can help you create your best training content. See the difference for yourself!
