In today’s digital world, the delivery of education and training in a professional environment has become popularized with e-learning tools, such as learning management systems (LMS). Some eLearning tools offer built-in content authoring capabilities that allow administrators to create engaging and interactive courses within a single system. These eLearning authoring tools easily allow individuals (and organizations) to design and distribute effective training content to users quickly and efficiently.

The Litmos content authoring tool allows users to create visually appealing digital eLearning content within the LMS. Created specifically to offer support to beginner content creators, high-end instructional designers, and everyone in between, Litmos LMS helps design highly engaging content aiding in any organization’s educational goals. A fully integrated Content Author can even create unique modules directly from the intuitive Create Module feature. Additionally, all courses utilize a standard neutral theme with highlighted colors (and the option to highlight any logos) from the included Litmos Brand Theme.

In the article below, we’ll run through all you need to know about the Litmos content authoring tool and outline the key features and components that users of the eLearning software can utilize and enjoy.

Features of Litmos Content Author

The Litmos eLearning authoring tool comes equipped with a large collection of useful features that help users design engaging and interactive online authored content. When using the Litmos content authoring tool, users will be able to use essential features of the software such as:

Direct Creation of Courses & Modules: The Content Author tool makes a sometimes lengthy content creation process easy and simple to understand. Courses and modules are directly created within the LMS, with the modules themselves stemming straight from the Create Module feature. This system ensures the process goes smoothly from start to finish and eliminates the need to constantly switch between different tools and platforms.

Advanced Customization: As a way to ensure heightened consistency, courses utilize a standard, neutral theme that highlights colors and logos straight from the Litmos Brand Theme in the content authoring tool. Furthermore, Content Author offers flexibility in other areas of customization; fonts, colors, logos, and themes are all able to be designed to an individual’s or organization’s specific needs. The many customization options allow content authors to design the look and feel of their courses to match the branding and style of their respective organizations.

Easy-to-Use Navigation: The eLearning tool is also able to offer simple-to-use next/back navigation. This handy option makes it easy for both new and experienced learners to move between pages or slides. Additionally, the ”lock progress” option enables content authors to monitor the progress of all learners through each course.

Accessibility: Designed to be highly accessible (508 and WCAG AA) for administrative users, the Litmos Content Author produces approachable content by default. This enables all users, regardless of their unique abilities, to easily access and stay engaged with the content. This content authoring tool also helpfully displays all functions in the language specified by the user (which can be set and changed in the LMS user profile) making it convenient to use for a global audience.

Versatility: By choosing which language to build their courses in, content authors can painlessly make their content available for an audience that speaks more than one language. Content authors also have the option to create multiple pages or slides, ultimately resulting in comprehensive courses that easily cover all necessary topics. Further, the capability to add, delete, and reorder pages gives content authors total control over both the structure and flow of their courses.

Page Templates and Components

The Content Author tool provides a wide scope of predefined page templates and components allowing users to design visually stunning and interactive eLearning content. Below are some of the templates and components found within the content authoring tool:

  • Text & Image: This allows any content author to easily add text and images to the course. An excellent way to provide information, Text & Image helps organize data in a visual and easy-to-understand format.
  • Video: This component gives users the ability to add videos within each course, making the delivery of sometimes hard-to-understand information dynamic and engaging.
  • Quiz: A great way to test learners’ knowledge and comprehension, this component allows quiz results to be reviewed at any time by both the learners and the content author.
  • Headings: The heading component gives users the option to add headers to their course, allowing for breaks in the content which increase readability and understanding.
  • Text: A crucial way to provide information, the text component allows users to add text to their slides.
  • Picture: This component allows users to add visual images to their course that can then be used to illustrate an important point or provide visual stimulation to the learners.
  • Accordion: Allowing users to present information in an organized and easy-to-follow way, the accordion component can either be hidden or displayed based on an individual learner’s interaction with the element.
  • Tabs: The tabs component helps users present information in a tabbed format. This is an excellent way to show information to a group in an organized and easy-to-follow manner.
  • Button Popups: Users can add a pop-up button to their course that activates and shows displayed information in a pop-up window when a learner clicks the button.
  • Quiz Results: A straightforward component, the quiz results allow users to view and study the results of their latest quiz and see how they performed.
  • Cover Image: By adding a cover image to their course, content authors can provide visual interest to their course, or use it as a mark to identify the course.
  • Audio (Including Transcripts): Allowing users to add audio to their course, the audio component can be used to provide supplementary information or offer a unique touch that learners can interact with. The included transcript component allows the same users to read a transcript of the provided audio, making it simple for learners to follow along.
  • Review MCQ (Unscored Question) with Correct/Incorrect Feedback: This component gives users the ability to input a multiple-choice question to their course that can be utilized to review the covered material. The correct/incorrect feedback component is crucial and allows content authors to provide feedback to learners based on their answers.
  • MCQ (Scored Question) with Correct/Incorrect Feedback: Similar to the above, the scored MCQ component lets users add a multiple-choice question to the course that can be used to test the knowledge accumulated by the learners in the course. Paired with the correct/incorrect feedback component, this allows creators to provide feedback to those same learners in a timely fashion.
  • Gallery: Giving users the ability to display components in an intuitive, swipeable gallery, this component offers ease of use to every user while making the presentation of information both appealing and interactive which encourages users to engage with the e-learning tool.

Course Completion Options

LMS users have a few options for course completion, including:

  • Last Page: This option allows users to mark the course complete once they’ve reached the end.
  • Quiz Pass: This option requires learners to reach the end of the course with a minimum pass percentage.
  • Declaration: This option requires users to make a declaration that they’ve fully completed the course.

Additionally, users can attach resource documents to the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) module, save important resources using the Content Author Resource Library to easily access again within the module, and access an available Asset Library to quickly add images, video, and audio. The content authoring tool also saves progress automatically and gives users the ability to preview content on their desktop, iPad, and mobile device before publishing.

Publish Options

The Litmos content authoring tool gives users the ability to publish their created content directly into Litmos Training as SCORM 1.2 or choose instead to download a SCORM 1.2 ZIP file they can open later. This eLearning tool also allows users to easily download and save copies of content at any time via the Content Author or Module Library. Content Author, in addition to perfectly seamless integration with Litmos Training, can also be enabled or disabled through the Features page, and specific users can even be given access to the e-learning tool to control the content authoring and editing process.

Incredibly powerful and extremely versatile, the Litmos Content Author offers a host of features and options that help users create and design engaging, visually stunning, and highly interactive e-learning content. Whether you’re a novice content creator or an expert in instructional design and e-learning content, Litmos LMS is a content authoring tool that can elevate your organization’s capacity to train learners on any subject, no matter how complex.

Wondering Lenny

Learn more:
What is a learning management system?