If you’re in the early stages of converting your training content, you may be asking yourself why you should use authoring tools or wondering what authoring tools even are. They can offer incredible benefits to you, your client, and end-users. This guide will explain the critical reasons that training providers need authoring tools. They can positively affect online learning and offer innumerable benefits to both the learner and client.
Why Use Authoring Tools?
First, let’s discuss the difference between a learning management system (LMS) and an authoring tool. Your LMS is software designed for the administration and distribution of your training courses, while an authoring tool is a program that enables you to create custom e-learning content to upload to the LMS. While some LMS have built-in authoring tools, many do not. Having your LMS separate from your authoring tool and content ensures that you can retain control of your materials. You can upload the content that you create to any LMS, so it is mobile and safe if you need to move or change anything.
Second, if you use a multi-tenant LMS, you can grant your clients access to courses through their own site or portal. Using a separate authoring tool gives you customization options and flexibility when creating content for multiple clients. This is one of the best reasons to use an authoring tool. Customized courses will also bring you a high ROI on the e-learning materials that you create. Courses can be recycled and used repeatedly for multiple clients, with only slight adjustments to materials. Using your authoring tool, you can quickly and easily update, reformat, or add to existing content. You can also efficiently work with SMEs and content designers or authors within the authoring tool, giving you a highly collaborative and creative environment in which to build.
Now that you know what authoring tools are and why you should use them, you can choose one that best fits your business and client needs. If you’re unsure about options, feel free to reach out to an e-learning expert at any time.
How Do Authoring Tools Affect Learning?
Authoring tools have benefits other than their ease of use in creating content. They also enable you to build courses that can help users have a better e-learning experience. With a bit of help from technology, learning outcomes can be built into the content design of your courses. When you have a good understanding of a client’s objectives, you can organize the content in a way that maximizes learning. You can design with these objectives in mind and use an authoring tool that can increase a learner’s ability to pay attention to material and boost their motivation to complete a course.
Building out your course with an authoring tool gives you options for many kinds of interactive content. For example, you can set up a branching scenario where the user has to make choices to move through the content or create a game where learners must complete challenges to earn points. There are many options when it comes to making engaging content. For more examples, check out Elucidat and Articulate.
Benefits to Learners and Clients
Your clients and their learners have specific needs. Therefore, you must have the ability to design and customize courses in whatever way works best for both parties. Using your authoring tool, you can have your master courses customized for the client and then use your LMS to deliver them.
When you build courses that are optimized for learner engagement, it will benefit both the end-user and your client. If learners are actively engaged in the courses and are achieving their learning goals, they will be able to take these new skills and apply them in the workplace. Clients will get to see an incredible ROI on their training investment, such as increases in productivity, more workplace engagement, and better personal development outcomes. This, in turn, guarantees your success as a training provider.
Conclusion
The question of why you should use authoring tools is simple to answer. They enable you to easily create and maintain high-quality learning materials with a high ROI. They also help you design courses for maximum learner attention span and motivation. As a bonus, all the benefits for learners get passed on to your client, helping them reach their goals and become successful.
Here at Firmwater, we don’t just sell an LMS for training providers. We partner with our clients, giving them the tools and insights they need to implement the best practices in e-learning course development, growth, and delivery. We care too much about our customers’ businesses to have them wade through forums and chatbots for help.
Ready to use an LMS that’s designed for the way YOU work, with a team dedicated to YOUR needs? Book a no-obligation consultation directly with our team today!