What Is An Authoring Tool And Why Is It Important?
First of all, one of the benefits of the software application is that it helps eliminate situations where you'll have your eLearning content spread out over several different hard drives. What that means is that a good learning management system app will help you organize all your content in one selected location. Another thing that an LMS can do for you is that you'll be able to offer your audience unlimited access to your eLearning materials. Also, the software app will enable you to track your learners' progress and performance quickly and easily. But here's a burning question: Is an LMS enough to make your digital business thrive?
Let's face it, having a learning management system is a good first move for anybody running an eLearning business. However, having the software application paired with a reliable authoring tool will give you the best results.
In the rest of this article, I'll be sharing with you the benefits of using both an LMS and an authoring tool together.
A digital learning authoring tool is a type of software that allows you to create online training content, convert it into an eLearning format, and distribute it among your audience. When paired with an LMS app, an authoring tool will allow you to create your content, make the necessary conversions, and then distribute it among your learners through the LMS app.
With the right eLearning authoring tool, you'll be able to create online courses, video trainings, assessments, simulations, and many more. Before the days of authoring tools, for you to successfully create any online content from scratch, you needed to employ the services of subject matter experts, designers, and programmers. However, with the introduction of the software, there's absolutely no need for any technical expertise.
A reliable authoring tool should have a pretty simple user interface. That's not all; its functionalities must also be very easy for people to operate, including those with zero technical knowledge. Given that, it means you can always build your digital learning content from scratch regardless of who you are.
Why It Is Important To Use An Authoring Tool Alongside Your LMS
1. More Engagement
One of the benefits attached to having your LMS paired with a reliable authoring tool is that it allows for more engagement. As mentioned earlier, with an LMS your audience will be able to gain quick and easy access to your eLearning materials. However, it's worth noting that this experience isn't what engages your learners.
Just so you know, what engages your audience can be seen from the way they interact with the learning content. One of the best ways to engage your audience while they interact with your content is to make sure your content is enough to make them acquire the necessary skills needed to get their job done. Of course, here's where the need to pair your authoring tool with your LMS app comes into play.
With an authoring tool, you can always create the right engagement for your learners. Some of the best ideas include gamification, assessment, branching scenarios, and learning videos.
2. Better System Security
To some people, there's no need to secure their data from hackers. When you ask them why, they'll say that digital learning content doesn't contain sensitive data. However, there are still many organizations out there who believe there's a need to secure their content. For this type of corporation, the best approach to reduce any security threats is to stay away from using many systems. And here's where the need to pair your authoring tool with your built-in LMS comes into play.
There are many authoring tools out there that come with an in-built learning management system. With both apps, the authoring tool and the LMS fully integrated into a single system, you'll be able to better secure your data without having to necessarily worry about threats.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
By pairing your LMS with an authoring tool, another thing you'll be able to do is to save costs. "How?" you ask me. It's pretty simple. As time goes by, there'll always be a need for you to update your LMS with new content. Fortunately, there are a couple of content creation options that you can utilize to make that happen. However, from all the options, the best way to update your LMS while also saving yourself unnecessary costs is by pairing the software app with a reliable authoring tool.
Don't get me wrong. You can always assign your content updating project to an agency. But, you shouldn't be surprised that the cost the agency will charge for just a single course will be equivalent to what you'll pay annually for a license or anything else in order to use an authoring tool.
