7 features of an authoring tool that you should know of 

Effective training material that is created using an eLearning authoring tool like Adobe Captivate is one of the aspects that contributes toward effective training and learning in organizations. 

While there is no shortage of commercially available learning materials that can be used to construct high-quality content training materials, the advantages of creating course material explicitly pertaining to your company’s priorities are too great to be disregarded. 

So, before spending money on the first eLearning authoring tool you see on the market, consider the following 7 features:

It should provide the possibility of integrating multimedia and interactivities.

Multimedia: Videos, in particular, have recently been acknowledged as excellent training tools in the world of multimedia. The videos’ entertaining format is perfect for breaking down complex ideas and can almost perfectly replicate the atmosphere of an instructor-led class. That being said, with the growing popularity of video content, even learners love and enjoy learning in a format they are already accustomed to. So your authoring tool should enable you to collaborate with multimedia.

Interactivities: The authoring tool enables users to engage with the course material through interactions rather than passively consuming it. Interactivities enable learners to gain knowledge by discovering information or by being forced to address an authentic problem by allowing them to actively take part in the learning process. E-learning courses have an advantage over conventional learning techniques thanks to interactivity. Ensure that adding interactivities such as triggers, pop-ups, variables, as well as scrolling panels is simple with your authoring program.

The ability of the authoring tool to offer a range of assessment tools

Any authoring tool you use should have assessment features to assess your learners’ knowledge, identify weak areas, and create new courses. It should provide options that enable quizzes, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, spin-the-wheel, true-false, sorting, and categorization questions.  

The authoring tool should provide a simple template and layout system.

It is a wise idea to have predetermined templates and an intuitive layout system so that you don’t have to start from zero when designing e-learning courses (when creating each slide and without having to arrange each element separately). This will significantly enhance productivity. You should be able to utilize actual templates with an authoring tool, templates that make it simple to change the content and sequence of slides completely. This enables you to recoup the time and work you put in.

The authoring tool should be able to provide gaming formats and tactics.

Due to its ability to increase involvement and engagement, gamification has become a popular buzzword in the learning and development sector. As a result, when searching for authoring tools, think about those that enable you to include game formats and strategies, including, but not limited to, branching scenarios, presentation pop-ups, sales simulations, virtual missions, and quizzes with incentives.

The authoring tool should enable seamless translation to several languages.

Without the right resources, translating a course’s material into numerous languages results in a needless loss of time and effort. It can take a couple of days to remove the text from each piece, translate it, and re-insert it into the new version. Businesses want quick, scalable options that make it simple for every team member, regardless of language, to publish online content. Due to this, having a quality content translation system can assist you in saving a lot of money annually.

The authoring tool should have a user-friendly interface.

Even the most feature-rich authoring tool on the market will be useless if you can’t easily use the capabilities. An easy-to-use user interface is possibly the most crucial component of any software. Unsurprisingly, the goal of an eLearning authoring tool is to make it possible for you or your training developers to quickly and efficiently produce a substantial volume of course content for your microlearning platform. This becomes virtually impossible if you spend time learning how to use the platform’s capabilities.

The authoring tool should enable multi-device content formation.

Users, these days, demand that the material of their e-learning courses be accessible on all devices, particularly mobile phones. One of the reasons authoring tools have been required to adjust to responsive design is the growing use of smartphones; consumers now demand to be capable of accessing material from any location at any time without sacrificing interaction. A multi-device course should not be created using static courses and tools that have few interactive capabilities for mobile devices.

Conclusion-

The best feature you could have is an authoring tool that is simple to use, intuitive, doesn’t require prior training, and has no degree of difficulty. With the help of a good authoring tool with top-notch features, the training materials as well as the learning experience, will feel familiar and secure to your team and any other content creators in your company, enabling you to utilize it repeatedly.