What is an eLearning Authoring Tool? + LMS (Learning Management System)

If you're reading this, you already heard about eLearning authoring tools and trying to understand more about their use. Whether you're in the eLearning industry, a training center, or a corporate that does training for its employees, you probably need eLearning authoring tools for creating your digital training content.

In this article, we'll go through:
- What is an authoring tool?
- eLearning Authoring Tool Vs. LMS (Learning Management System).
- eLearning authoring tools output.
- Who uses eLearning authoring tools?
- eLearning authoring tools and LSP's (Language Service Providers).

What is an authoring tool?
Authoring tools are software tools that enable you to create digital content into a course structure. It could be a Microsoft Word document or a graphic design tool. Authoring tools allow you to manipulate multimedia objects for a specific purpose.

eLearning Authoring Tool Vs. LMS (Learning Management System)
Some people get confused between eLearning authoring tools and learning management systems (LMS). While both are different, they are complementary to each other. eLearning authoring tools are used first in the step of creating the training content whether it's a video, article, webinar, etc. The output here is usually in SCORM format. After that, you should upload your output SCORM to an LMS.
An LMS is an online platform or store for organizing and managing digital training that learners can access to go through the learning process. An LMS also tracks learners' progress and levels, calculate grades and generates certificates.
LMS features vary among:
- Learning tracks playlists.
- Subscription to playlists to keep up with updates.
- Recommending content based on user profile and interests.
- Learning communities.
- Gamification.

eLearning authoring tools output
The output of the eLearning authoring tool should be:
- In SCORM format. This is the most common output.
- Digital training content may include, but not limited to, e-courses, video lectures, assessments, webinars, and simulations.

Who uses eLearning authoring tools?
In eLearning, authoring tools are used by ID’s (Instructional Designers) in L&D teams (Learning and Development) to develop eLearning or training materials.
Training could be very basic to highly specialized ones. This way, you can create training content to train employees for a new job skill in a corporate, teach new classes for students in a school or eLearning website, or even explain general topics for entertainment. However, to create specialized training content, you may need to hire experts or SME’s (Subject Matter Experts), or do it yourself using eLearning authoring tools.

eLearning authoring tools and LSP's (Language Service Providers)
One more party that could use eLearning authoring tools is an LSP. A language service provider, like us, can develop translated training content for whatever language you need for your material.
This way you can offer a curriculum that's already created and let an LSP handle the translation/localization of the content for you.

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