Captivate Html5 Adobe Creative Cloud and or Video Editing Courses

Are you looking for an eLearning authoring tool that will let you create high-quality eLearning courses? Well, you've come to the right place. In this article, we provide a detailed review of five popular eLearning software solutions.

We'll analyze their main features and compare pricing to help you make a more informed purchasing decision. Click on the tool you're interested in seeing a description of.

• iSpring Suite Max
• Adobe Captivate
• Articulate 360
• Lectora Online
• Elucidat

Continue reading the article to learn what an eLearning authoring tool entails, how it can help, and what to consider when choosing authoring software.

What Is an eLearning Authoring Tool?

Authoring tools are used to build digital learning content from little bits and pieces of information: text, images, audio, and video. In addition to helping you "glue" together various media into entire eLearning courses, they have some unique features that can only be used for training. For example, some elearning authoring tools allow you to create software simulations so you could teach your staff how to use certain software that they need for their everyday work. Or, some of them let you build quizzes that can be included in a course or become a standalone training unit.

All this content needs to be packed in a format that can be easily distributed via the Internet and that learners can open with minimum software installed, preferably just a web browser. Back in the 2000s, Macromedia ruled the online content world with their Flash plug-in that allowed browsers to run games, video, and, among everything else, eLearning courses. But, as time went by, Flash was slowly pushed off the stage by a new more powerful standard called HTML5, and this is how HTML5 eLearning development software appeared. Let's take a look at the advantages of building courses in this format:

• HTML5 content is responsive and supported on a wide range of platforms and browsers. Moreover, it's mobile-friendly, so learners can take their courses with them and view them whenever and wherever they like, instead of having to be tied to a computer.
• HTML5 opens up a lot of opportunities for interactivity that allow course developers to produce more engaging learning experiences.
• The standard supports rich media elements – it has an inbuilt capacity to play video and audio.
• It's easy (and cheap) to keep content up to date. HTML5 course development tools are able to modify and edit existing content.

What Issues Can Authoring Tools Solve?

"eLearning authoring" is not just some flashy term that's more about buzz than meaning. There are actual reasons why getting an eLearning authoring tool is a must for a business these days. Here are some things that an eLearning authoring tool is struggling against:

• Unappealing content – curb good old Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents to introduce learners to quizzes, interactive video, and gamified training.
• Generic training materials – author unique content in-house, without having to involve third-party instructional designers who have no real grasp on the specifics of your business.
• Unhelpful data – choose what training data to report to your learning management system (LMS) to have learners' stats in the palm of your hand.

• High training costs – move your training meetings from the classroom to a digital space and free up time for your most experienced workers.

Who Can Use eLearning Authoring Software Effectively?

Continuing from the previous point, it is quite clear who might find a course authoring tool useful in their work:

L&D managers

L&D managers are responsible for employee training and development. They aim to make the most out of people's abilities and help them develop to their full potential. Training each staff member face to face can be a challenging and very pricey task, and that's why many L&D managers opt for online learning. An eLearning authoring software is a necessary tool for repurposing classroom training and creating new learning content from scratch.

SMB owners

Small companies typically don't have a dedicated L&D team, and it's often a business owner who reveals the need for talent development and decides to buy software for course authoring. They might hire a professional course creator or assign the content authoring task to some of their existing employees who are SMEs and have a deep knowledge of the topic.

Freelance instructional designers

These are individuals or a small team of people who create digital learning content. They usually look for a full-featured but cost-effective authoring solution that allows them to build versatile content: interactive courses, quizzes, software simulations, role-plays, etc.

Corporate trainers

Since face-to-face employee training is still alive and, in some cases, indispensable, many instructors go online. Authoring tools let them pack their knowledge into online training experiences and deliver them to their trainees on the Web. It's a great way to save time and money on job-related travel.

Training centers and individual course sellers

Certification centers and other training companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs, use eLearning authoring software to create courses and sell them online. But they typically also need a course selling platform to distribute their products, so that's why they sometimes avoid buying a separate authoring software and opt for a platform that already has a basic authoring tool.

What to Consider When Choosing the Best eLearning Authoring Tool

There's a vast selection of authoring software on the market, with most of these tools being built with a particular type of client in mind. Before you decide on one of these solutions, you should clear up some things:

• What types of training content can be useful in your case? Interactive video lessons, software simulations, quizzes, or all of these? Imagine what sort of eLearning you'd like to provide to learners, depending on their professional duties.
• How well does the authoring tool work with mobile devices?You need to be clear about your learners' habits. Mature audiences would probably be fine taking their training on a desktop, but how about zoomers and even younger generations? Most 20ish-year-olds can't imagine their lives without peeking into their smartphones at least once an hour, so their eLearning should work the same way – 100% mobile compatible. And though most authoring tools allow you to create responsive courses, some of them require building different versions for desktop, tablet, and smartphone that definitely consumes a lot of time.
• What is your annual eLearning budget?Don't choose an authoring tool just based on price. More expensive doesn't translate to handier in the eLearning world. Similarly, grabbing the cheapest option just because it's cheap is a bad idea. A really low price for an authoring software is often a sign that there might be hidden fees for functionality you need the most.
• Do you have an LMS where all training stats can be recorded?If you're an advocate of continuous learning and regularly provide your employees with new courses, you're likely to see the results of your training. There should be an LMS where your content sends all stats from all training sessions. Plus, the authoring tool of your choice should have impeccable compatibility with your LMS.

What Are the Key Authoring Tool Features You Might Need?

We've already outlined the main factors that can influence the choice of an authoring tool. Now, let's focus on the technical aspects. Here are some features you need to consider to get the most value for your money.

Ease of use

Intuitive UI is what can save you a vast amount of time, especially if this is your first authoring tool and you don't have ID experience. Opt for a user-friendly tool that won't make you spend months or even weeks on training.

Assessment tool

Quizzes and assessments are must-haves in online training. Besides, the more diverse quizzes you use, the more engaging the learning experience will be for your trainees. So, choose software that has pre-built templates for creating a variety of question types.

Branching scenarios

Another way to boost engagement is to let your learners be decision makers. By implementing branching scenarios, you can create content that depends on the actions taken by a learner. A good example of branching scenarios is a dialogue simulation, in which a conversation will develop, depending on the learner's responses.

Content library

A tool that comes with ready-made course templates, characters, locations, and other eLearning assets can help you speed up the authoring process several times over. Just imagine: you don't need to look for relevant pictures and even create slides from scratch. Instead, you can customize already existing templates and insert ready-to-go images that fit your training scenario.

Collaboration

If you work on courses in a team, this might be a priority feature for you. With collaboration options, you can dispense with creating multiple versions of a course and emailing them back and forth once and for all. Quickly share the content with other content creators, stakeholders, and SMEs, receive feedback, and review the content on your own.

Desktop vs. Cloud-Based vs. Open-Source Authoring Tools

Deployment is another point to consider when selecting eLearning authoring software. Below is a quick overview of the various deployment types of course creation tools, as well as their peculiarities you should know about before making your purchase decision.

Desktop authoring tools

Tools installed on your computer usually have more advanced authoring features and more customization options. Another reason that makes this type of software preferable for many organizations is security – the company itself is in charge of the services and data protection protocols. Besides, it doesn't require a steady internet connection to work with such a tool.

Cloud-based authoring tools

The main advantage of web-based authoring tools is that they're accessible anytime, anywhere. This is especially important for those who work on content from different locations. Designers, content creators, and SMEs can all collaborate remotely. You also don't need to worry about lost content, because everything is backed up in the cloud.

Open-source authoring tools

This type of software is typically available for users at no cost and allows them to modify every aspect of the software based on L&D needs. But they're usually not very user-friendly. Furthermore, you need some tech expertise and even coding skills to make needed changes.

Now, let's take a detailed look at 5 top-performing authoring solutions on the market in 2021. You can watch the video or skip to the article if you prefer reading. If you're limited on time but need to choose a software right away, proceed directly to the comparison sheet to view all the options of the 5 best eLearning authoring tools in one place.

The 5 most popular elearning authoring tools

1. iSpring Suite Max

iSpring Suite Max is a full-featured eLearning solution focused on making rapid content development easy and intuitive. A major plus with iSpring  is that the core authoring tool works as a PowerPoint add-in, which makes for a familiar interface that's very easy to use.

iSpring Suite Max takes a modularized approach to the user interface, with special tabs for different types of training tasks. There's a quiz maker for assessments, a video and audio editor for creating video lectures and screencasts, and a conversation simulation tool for building dialogue simulations with branching. Creating interactions is made simple with a whole set of ready-made templates for creating glossaries, catalogs, timelines, references, and FAQs.

The workflow puts the focus firmly on content development and dispenses with the manual configuration of complex interactive elements and coding variables. To make the process of building courses even faster, there's a content library full of high-quality images, characters, location backgrounds, icons, and controls.

iSpring Suite Max also comes with iSpring Space, an online space for teamwork on eLearning projects. You can build your course, and other authors from your team will be able to review the content and leave comments or edit texts, add knowledge checks, and polish the course look and feel on their own. There's also a built-in authoring tool for creating microcourses right in a browser.

Learning curve

iSpring's seamless integration with PowerPoint means that most people will be able to pick it up and immediately get authoring. The familiar interface and streamlined workflow make for a gentle learning curve that allows the user to explore other modules and features at their own pace.

Fortunately, ease of use doesn't mean you can only create simple interactions and courses – there's a lot of flexibility to add more complex scenarios and interactives.

Assessments

iSpring Suite Max lets you build graded quizzes, surveys, and quick knowledge checks that can be included between course slides. There over a dozen question types, from the ubiquitous multiple-choice to the engaging drag-and-drop.

Interactions

Separate from the quiz editor, iSpring Visuals is centered on building learning interactions. What's best about this component of the tool is that you don't need to start from scratch – just pick one of the interaction templates like Timeline or Accordion and fill it in with your data.

Video and audio editor

This features a fully functional video editor, enough to merge several videos with transitions and captions into one MP4 file and insert it into a course.

Conversation simulations

iSpring has a special tool that allows you to build realistic conversation simulations that will help your learners master their communication skills. This is a must have for sales and customer service training.

Mobile learning

With all its components supporting HTML5, iSpring-published content is 100% mobile ready. Unlike with some other authoring tools, you don't need to build separate content versions for desktop and mobile. The software automatically adapts your content to all display sizes, saving you time and your nerves.

Publishing options

A number of output formats are available: pure HTML5, eLearning standards like AICC, SCORM, xAPI and cmi5, plus MP4 for video courses. You can upload published content to an LMS, iSpring Space, or open it directly in a Web browser.

Pros

• Ability to use an existing PPT presentation as a starting point for a course
• Simple familiar interface for building courses quickly
• Built-in dialogue simulator with branching conversation scenarios
• Professional video studio for recording and editing screencasts and webcam footage
• Robust tool for creating interactive quizzes and surveys
• Perfect playback on all devices
• Text-to-speech function
• Ability to turn PPT presentations into SCORM courses
• Ability to convert Word and PDF documents into interactive SCORM flipbooks
• Professional grade content library with 68,000 assets, including templates, characters, backgrounds, and icons
• Cloud service for fast content sharing and collaboration

Cons

• PowerPoint needs to be installed for iSpring Suite to work
• Doesn't support closed captioning (CC) for video and audio narration
• No software simulation support
• Only works in Windows

Best for

iSpring Suite Max is a great pick for PowerPoint lovers looking to take the leap into a full-fledged content authoring tool.

It's also a perfect choice for those who are searching for the easiest and fastest way to move existing instructions, manuals, and textbooks online. If you already have PPT presentations, you can turn them into e-courses in just a couple of clicks.

You can also quickly convert your Word and PDF documents into interactive e-books with a realistic page flip effect. When you want to get more creative and add quizzes, dialogue simulations, and interactives, there's plenty of power under the hood too.

Pricing

$970 (Annual license)

Get a free 30-day trial →

2. Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is well suited for general eLearning development such as creating slide presentations or quizzes, and for developing complex interactive courses. Also, it's traditionally a preferred choice for developing software simulations with the help of effects, triggers, and slide settings. This allows for a lot of versatility in creating realistic simulations and presenting them to users in different modes, ex.: see it, try it, do it.

A standout feature of the latest 2019 Captivate release is the ability to create Virtual Reality projects and make interactive videos and studio-quality HD videos by simultaneously recording webcam and on-screen content and adding interactive elements. The wide range of interactions is another strong point of this toolkit. You can make eLearning fun with drag-and-drop, puzzles, games, and other interactive activities.

Learning curve

Captivate is known to have a fairly steep learning curve for new users, and in past releases, a rather confusing workflow that relies on a lot of separate windows to select variables and triggers, and perform other functions.

To create really great eLearning in Captivate, you need to spend a lot of time getting to know its functions, so it may not be the best choice as a first time authoring tool. It's perfect for creating more technical simulation-based training.

Assessments

Having fewer question templates than its competitors, Captivate offers a unique type of assessment in the form of software simulation. This feature might be indispensable if your training program is based on computer software.

Interactions

It has 19 learning interaction templates including games like "Jigsaw Puzzle" and "Who wants to be a millionaire?" They might look a bit sloppy and prove to be hard to configure, but the diversity here is truly impressive.

Video and audio editor

Adobe Captivate has a built-in editor that can help you put together a video tutorial with transitions and various effects like zoom and pan. The best part is that when you record yourself from a webcam, you can use the "green screen" feature to replace the background of your video on the fly.

Conversation simulations

There's no special tool for building conversation simulations or character-driven dialogues in Adobe Captivate, so if these are a big part of your training design, it may not be the best pick.

Mobile learning

Captivate suggests an interesting workflow to those who consider mobile compatibility their top priority. The tool lets you break up your slide contents into the so-called "fluid boxes" that can change their size and positioning based on what device the course is being viewed on. This, in theory, gives you total control over the look and feel of your content on all possible devices – including smartphones.

Publishing options

The tool supports HTML5 and all popular eLearning standards such as SCORM, AICC, and xAPI. Plus, it still lets authors publish to Flash with an option for creating lessons in the EXE format.

Pros

• Extensive variables and branching that allow creative customization
• 360-degree (VR) capability to embed virtual reality into your eLearning
• True responsive screen display on all devices, viewable as you create the training
• Asset library including templates, people, headshots, and full-body shots
• Ability to generate text-to-speech (TTS) voiceovers automatically
• 'Green screen' feature where you can insert your own background
• Mobile-specific development tools such as geolocation tagging
• Complex software simulation recording options
• Has a version for Mac

Cons

• Unintuitive user interface
• Requires you to put in a lot of hours to learn how to use it
• Customers report that Captivate can get buggy and crash in Windows
• Designing responsive content is difficult, since you have to create separate versions for desktop, tablet, and smartphone
• Imported PowerPoint presentations don't preserve all their animations after being converted with Captivate
• Technical support outsourced to a call center

Best for

Adobe Captivate is less easy and intuitive but more powerful than its competitors. It's best suited for experienced eLearning developers who are comfortable working with variables and some coding to make the magic happen.

In contrast to some vendors that offer an LMS or hosting solution as part of the package, if you want to host the courses that you author directly via Captivate, you'll need to purchase the PRIME package, which is more expensive and probably not suitable for small organizations with less than 100 employees.

Pricing

$33.99/month or $1,299.00 (Perpetual License)

3. Articulate 360

Articulate 360 is a suite of nine tools, three of which are designed especially for course authoring: Storyline 360, Studio 360, and Rise.

• Storyline 360 is Articulate's flagship authoring tool. Its interface is quite similar to PowerPoint, but it recreates it with some changes rather than fully integrating with it.
• Studio 360 is a PowerPoint add-in. It combines three tools: Presenter 360, to transform slides into mobile and online courses; Quizmaker 360, to add quizzes to your course easily; and Engage 360, to build interactions easily.
• Rise is a really easy web-based tool for creating simple courses. You can create custom lessons by combining different learning 'blocks.' Although originally limited to a fairly small set of interaction types, Rise offers regular updates and has recently introduced Storyline blocks for those who want to get a bit more custom while retaining the 'app-like feel' of the Rise interface.

If you hear an instructional designer say "I use Articulate," chances are they're actually referring to Storyline. Storyline has an advanced feature set, though it's limited with built-in interaction templates such as tabs, simple two-step dialogue simulations, and hotspots that will get you started creating courses. To get more imaginative and creative though, you need to go deep into working with layers, variables, and object states, plus spend a lot of time on learning, then fine-tuning and testing the tool.

Like iSpring Suite, Articulate 360 has a full set of tools for adding different objects to slides, as well as a content library, which is a collection of course templates, backgrounds, characters, controls, and icons. It includes fewer professionally designed assets, but provides access to over 4.5 million stock photos, illustrations, and icons via an online library.

Learning curve

Articulate 360's learning curve is somewhere in the middle: it's not as easy to pick up and use as iSpring Suite, but it doesn't have the steep time investment of Captivate to start creating decent-looking courses.

On the plus side, you have greater opportunities for customizing your digital learning content. But on the downside, you need to allocate more time to building courses, since you have to add many items manually. Plus, it takes time to explore all the content creating capabilities, so if you're not ready to invest the training time, your authoring efficiency can be limited.

Assessments

Articulate's QuizMaker 360 offers users the standard multiple response, fill-in-the-blank, hotspot, and a few other question types that can be inserted into a quiz or a survey.

Interactions

A component of Articulate Studio called Engage 360 has a selection of interaction templates that you can insert into your course. There you can find things like FAQ and Checklist – if you'd like to use one of them in Storyline, you'll need to import them from a Studio project. Otherwise, you'll have to build your interaction from scratch or download one of the community-provided templates.

Video and audio editor

Storyline includes a simple video editor that lets you perform transitions from one recorded take to another, add captions, and save the output to your course. However, it's not half as advanced and useful as what Captivate and iSpring have to offer in terms of video editing.

Conversation simulations

Rise 360 (the cloud-based tool) has a built-in dialogue simulation feature. Engage 360 includes a "Conversation" interaction template, but it can only be used as an educative tool, not as an assessment with a passing score.

Mobile learning

Articulate, just as Adobe and iSpring, has its own mobile app that lets learners play the content on their phones. Also, courses published with Storyline and Rise are fully mobile-compatible.

Publishing options

This authoring tool lets you create lessons in HTML5 that you can publish to your hard drive or directly to the online storage of Review 360. In terms of eLearning standards, it supports SCORM, AICC, xAPI, and cmi5. You can also use it to publish a version of your training course that can be burned to a CD.

Pros

• Solutions for most eLearning tasks
• Ability to create responsive HTML5 courses quickly with drag-and-drop in Rise
• Similar to PowerPoint interface of Storyline 360, but with greater opportunities for customizing the content
• Ability to create basic interactions quickly and easily
• Screen recorder for making screencast capture and editing simple
• Lots of different authoring options for all levels of developers
• Large content library
• Adaptive player that makes courses compatible with all smartphones
• Free mobile app for playing courses offline

Cons

• Not the most user-friendly interface, steep learning curve
• Interaction templates don't work properly
• Screen recording functionality is basic compared with other solutions
• Can slow down computer (heavy software)
• Ensuring Section 508 compliance doubles the time spent on a single course
• No version for Mac

Best for

The 'suite of tools' approach works well for large eLearning departments where there are not only multiple types of courses to develop, spanning the range of complexity, but also differing skill levels of course developers, from beginners to experts.

The reviewing and collaboration options also make this a good fit for larger teams. The drawback is that most individual developers and small to medium-sized organizations won't need all of these tools, but will still have to purchase the entire set per license.

Pricing

$1,299/year (for teams) or $999 (for individuals)

4. Lectora Online

In this comparison, we'll look at Lectora Online, the cloud-based version of Lectora, which offers content authoring plus similar tools that are comparable to the other products in this article.

A big focus of the Lectora product range has always been compliance with web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG). This ensures that any course created in Lectora Online will be accessible to those with disabilities such as hearing or vision impairment. If you work in or develop content for federal government organizations, this is a good choice.

Lectora's popular Getting Started templates are a great shortcut for authoring. Each template includes built-in navigation, interactive samples, page layouts, and instructions for use. Plus, these built-in templates offer different learning styles and course types such as basic linear, non-linear, microlearning, scenario-based, adaptive, time-of-need/just-in-time training, multimedia, and more.

For more experienced developers, Lectora Online supports scripts, custom libraries, fonts, and CSS, so the sky's the limit in terms of customization.

Learning curve

The interface will look familiar to Windows users, since it uses the Windows toolbar format and folder structure icons to represent the different sections, topics, interactions, quizzes, and assets in a course. Compared to other tools, the menu system looks a bit confusing and the layout will take some getting used to.

Getting a standard eLearning course up and running using some of the templates provided should be within most people's reach, but there's definitely more complexity involved in creating and editing courses compared to the other authoring tools.

Assessments

Lectora lets you build quizzes or surveys using a selection of 12 question types. They range from simple ones like true/false to more interactive varieties such as drag-and-drop or rank sequence.

Interactions

There are form elements like list box and radio button that you can insert to your course and link to certain variables and actions, thereby setting up a custom interaction. If you'd like to start from a template, eLearning Brothers offer a library of readymade interactions like Puzzle and Drag & Drop that you can easily customize.

Video and audio editor

Lectora has a very capable video tool that lets you record from both your screen and/or webcam and edit the results: you can create transitions from one segment of video to another, add effects, record narration, etc.

Conversation simulations

The tool doesn't have a dedicated instrument for building dialogue simulations. You can try to find a suitable template in the eLearning Brothers library or create your own from scratch using the advanced programming capabilities of the tool.

Mobile learning

Lectora is perfectly capable of publishing responsive content, and so is suitable for mobile-oriented usage. However, it doesn't have an app for downloading published content and viewing it offline like iSpring and Articulate do.

Publishing options

Even though it's hosted in the Cloud, Lectora doesn't come up short on the standard set of output options: HTML, AICC, SCORM, and xAPI. And besides, you can always publish your course to its online storage.

Pros

• WCAG compliant
• Supports conditional branching and sequenced events
• Ability to add your own scripts, custom libraries, fonts, CSS
• Built-in versioning for collaboration
• Robust quizzing options
• Getting-started course templates that include navigation and sample interactions
• Global content management and update of assets
• Reviewing integration with review link
• Stock images and templates from eLearning Brothers

Cons

• More expensive than its competitors
• Clunky, outdated UI
• Not the most intuitive authoring tool on the market
• Advanced features don't support Section 508
• In order to create a responsive course, you need to edit the same content in 5 (!) different views

Best for

Lectora has a legion of fans, but they mostly fall into the 'power user' category, meaning they've spent considerable time learning the tool and are truly experts with it.

It doesn't offer a user experience as clean as iSpring Suite or Articulate Rise, but certainly offers a great degree of power and flexibility for experienced and more technically inclined eLearning developers.

Most suitable for larger and geographically dispersed organizations with a mature L&D model encompassing multiple authors and reviewers.

Pricing

$500/year (Starter), $900/year (Pro), $1390 (Team)

5. Elucidat

Elucidat's cloud-based eLearning authoring tool lets you produce responsive SCORM-compliant content that they claim will work with any modern LMS.

Being a cloud-based platform, your whole team, from content designers to subject-matter experts, can contribute to, review and take part in the eLearning authoring process at any time.

Elucidat aims to be an all-in-one cloud-based solution for creating high-quality eLearning, managing content at scale, and analyzing performance. It has all the features you'd expect from an authoring platform: templates, resources, video and audio management, a mobile responsive editor, a layout designer, and the usual interactive elements you'd expect such as buttons, flip cards, and input boxes.

There's also a focus on collaboration with multiple authors, and powerful features for role-based development and translation projects across multiple regions. These include separate modular views for team leaders, SMEs, designers, and reviewers, who all get access to feature sets relevant to their roles and position in the development process.

Learning curve

The user interface is clear and uncluttered so you can get started building projects immediately using templates and content blocks, and applying style elements with great looking results.

For more experienced developers, there's a lot that can be done, but this will require an investment of time and training.

Assessments

Elucidat boasts a wide range of question types for your rated quizzes. You can also download one of their templates to come up with some other type of assessment, like an interactive game with a branching scenario.

Interactions

The software has just a couple of available interaction types that you can use in your courses: these are Hotspot and Flashcards.

Video and audio editor

Unfortunately, Elucidat lets you neither record nor edit audio or video.

Conversation simulations

The tool also doesn't feature a dedicated conversation simulation feature.

Mobile learning

Elucidat is mobile-ready with all content it publishes being fully responsive, but it doesn't feature a dedicated mobile app that can download and run courses offline.

Publishing options

This authoring platform only lets you publish courses to SCORM or store content in their cloud storage.

Pros

• Management of eLearning content at scale
• Streamlined workflows for teams
• Page transition effects
• Ability to create single courses that are responsive on any device
• Personalized learner clips
• Flexible item animation; it's possible to animate almost any course element
• Easily access data and insight into how users engage with learning content
• XLIFF Translation support for automatic course localization

Cons

• Cloud-based means you have to store all your contents on the vendor's servers
• Lacks flexibility in comparison to other toolkits, so experienced content authors may find themselves limited in their abilities
• Doesn't give too much control over custom interactions in your content
• Can get more expensive than any of its competitors according to user reviews

Best for

Elucidat is well suited to organizations with dispersed L&D teams and requirements to deliver course variations by locality.

The variations manager allows an author to create a central "master course", which has full control over its "child courses." Once an edit is made to a master course, the child course will then follow — edits can still be made locally in a child course. Elucidat authors can manage several course variations within one location, saving the hassle of creating numerous versions and editing each one individually.

Price

No price listed; must contact the vendor.

Comparison Sheet

To help you compare each HTML5 authoring tool in more detail, we've compiled a comparison sheet. It's based on the features that eLearning designers and developers expect from the best eLearning authoring tool:

eLearning Authoring Tools Comparison Chart

	iSpring Suite	Adobe Captivate	Articulate 360	Lectora	Elucidat
Type of solution	Robust HTML5 authoring suite, including a quiz editor, a dialogue simulator, an interaction editor, and a video studio.	Powerful authoring tool with advanced capabilities. Part of Adobe Creative Suite.	Bundle of nine tools for deploying a large-scale authoring environment.	Online collaborative authoring suite with great WCAG compliance and translation tools.	Authoring tool with a focus on teamwork and extensive versioning and regional variation options.
Learning curve	Low	High	Medium	High	Medium
Multimedia support
Can insert images	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can insert video	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can embed video from YouTube/Vimeo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can insert audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can insert shapes, SmartArt, and charts	Yes (Fully integrated with PPT)	Yes (Proprietary)	Yes (Proprietary)	Yes (Proprietary)	Yes (Proprietary)
Can insert equations	Yes	No	No	No	No
Can insert hyperlinks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Built-in visual content library	Yes	Yes	Yes (Online stock library)	Yes	Yes
Built-in audio/video clip library	No	No	Yes (Online stock library)	Yes	No
Assessments
No. of question templates	14	9	20	12	15
Interactive activities	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Answer feedback	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Branching scenarios	Yes	Manual	Manual	Yes	Manual
Quiz scoring	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Question design	Editable templates	Standard templates	Standard templates	Standard templates	Question pages
Interactions
№ of interaction templates	14	19	20	100+ (Available via eLearning Brothers plug-in only)	8
Voice-overs for interactions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Color scheme adjustment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Built-in Audio and Video Editor
Screencast recording	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Webcam recording	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Video editing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Audio/Voice recording	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Audio editing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Conversation simulations	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Software simulations	No	Yes	No	No	No
Virtual reality projects	No	Yes	No	No	No
Mobile learning
Responsive design	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile app	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Others
Publishing options	HTML5, Video, SCORM (1.2, 2004), xAPi/Tincan, AICC, cmi5, HTML5	HTML, SWF, Exe, Adobe Connect, Captivate PRIME, SCORM, AICC, xAPI	Review 360, Web, Video, Articulate Online, AICC, SCORM, Tin Can API, CD, Word	ReviewLink, HTML5, Tin Can API, SCORM, AICC	SCORM, Online link, API integration
Broad LMS compatibility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Desktop/Saas	Both	Desktop	Both	Saas	Saas
Community forum	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Help documents	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tech support	Via phone, email, or online chat	Via phone or chat	Community forum, helpdesk ticketing	Via email or contact form	Via phone and email

To Sum Up

We hope you found the information useful and are well on your way to selecting an authoring tool that's perfect for you.

Sign up for a trial for each tool you're interested in, use it, and make sure you enjoy it. If your authoring experience is causing you problems and forces you to deal with technical issues instead of making great learning content, consider another tool.

If you want to produce content right out of the gate without spending hours training or reading support forums, start with an iSpring Suite 30-day trial and explore all its features right now.

Captivate Html5 Adobe Creative Cloud and or Video Editing Courses

Source: https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/html5-authoring-tools

Share this post