LMS vs. Authoring Tools: What’s the Difference?

Tools you can trust to drive learner performance

Create, deliver, track, analyze, and repeat. Sound familiar?

If you’re a learning and development professional, those five steps are ingrained in your workflow, guiding you toward alignment with organizational goals. But if you’re just starting your instructional design or content creation journey, those five steps are a best-selling book without a publisher—a marathon without a map.

To effectively create, deliver, and track training initiatives, you need to understand two essential tools: learning management systems (LMS) and course authoring tools. The purposeful combination of their unique features—which every effective learning and development department uses—provides a comprehensive, end-to-end training experience that drives learner performance.

In this post, we’ll cover the definitions, features, and differences between an LMS vs authoring tool, explore why it’s important to have both, and help you match the right tools to your organization’s needs.

What are authoring tools?

Definition and purpose

Simply defined, authoring tools assist in the design and development of digital learning experiences. Their primary purpose is to streamline course creation through intuitive user interfaces that allow for responsive, adaptable course design.

These tools give educators, instructional designers, and corporate training departments the ability to easily transform source material, integrate interactive multimedia content, and make course creation accessible to users of all technical skill levels.

Common features of authoring tools

Common features of authoring tools include the following:

• Easy user interface. An intuitive user interface allows content creators of all technical skill levels to easily build custom content blocks and add interactive features without needing any coding skills.
• Responsive, adaptable design. Course content is easily customizable for any audience, ensuring accessibility for all learners and seamless functionality across different devices.
• Pre-built templates. Most authoring tools come pre-loaded with customizable course templates that cover your essential training needs. Ranging from common onboarding topics and compliance training modules to customer service and soft skills training, templates provide the head start you need to ensure consistency and save time.
• Rich multimedia integration. Easily integrate media of all types—text, video, audio, and images.
• Interactive elements. To provide an engaging learning experience, authoring tools allow for the inclusion of quizzes, assessments, simulations, and other interactive features like drag-and-drop activities, flashcard interactions, and click-to-reveal content.
• SCORM/xAPI compatibility. Authoring tools integrate learner progress tracking and reporting metrics once courses are uploaded and distributed through a learning management system (LMS).

The combined features listed above allow learning and development departments to develop high-quality e-learning initiatives that meet the needs of diverse learners.

Popular authoring tools examples

While there are many options for instructional designers when it comes to authoring tools, few offer the efficiency and adaptability needed to help save time and money without sacrificing quality.

Here are three of the top authoring tools on the market, and why they’re favored by L&D pros across the globe:

• iSpringSuite. This PowerPoint-based authoring tool allows users to convert PowerPoint slide decks into courses, quizzes, simulations, and screecasts. It’s very fast to learn for PowerPoint users, and includes built-in assessment tools, multimedia integration, and a large content library.
• Articulate 360 (Storyline and Rise). With a desktop-based option (Storyline) and a browser-based option (Rise), Articulate 360’s authoring tools enable fully customizable, scenario-based course authoring as well as pre-built templates designed for fully responsive mobile learning. Its flexibility, efficiency, and ease of use have earned it widespread adoption across the L&D community.
• Adobe Captivate. Sharing many of the same features as iSpringSuite and Articulate 360, Adobe Captivate integrates with other Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator to streamline workflows. It’s capable of creating immersive e-learning simulations, screencasts, and even VR/360° experiences.

Now that we’ve taken a look at the definition, purpose, and features of common authoring tools, let’s do the same for learning management systems.

What is a learning management system (LMS)?

Definition and function

Whereas authoring tools help streamline the course creation process, learning management systems (LMS) are the software applications that distribute, track, and report on training initiatives. They automate learner enrollment, completion reminders, and course certification processes.

Overall, content distribution, management, and tracking are the most important functions of an effective learning management system. They provide support for role-based access control, tracking analytics, and automated learning paths.

Common LMS features

Common features of learning management systems include the following:

• Easy course management. Learning management systems make the organization of course content simple. Content blocks and assessments can easily be customized and distributed to individual and grouped learners.
• Learner progress tracking. L&D departments monitor individual and grouped learner progress and analyze learner metrics for specific courses. In-depth reporting from an LMS allows instructional designers to spot common learner pain points, modify content as needed, and identify additional training opportunities.
• Mobile learning ready. Most LMSs are mobile learning ready, able to distribute learning wherever and whenever it’s needed.
• Personalized learning paths. Role-based learning paths can be set up to provide automated learning requirements, recommendations, and certifications, providing an intuitive learning environment.
• Integration with third-party tools. Seamless integration with third-party applications like customer relationship management (CRM) software, single sign-on (SSO) apps, and analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 streamline workflows for both content creators and learners.
• Security and access controls. Role-based access control secures learning management systems from data privacy threats and provides learning and development managers with a centralized database of enrolled learners.

Going far beyond a simple content library, the most effective learning management systems provide a complete learning experience from personalized content delivery to advanced progress tracking. Seamless distribution allows for timely, relevant, and engaging learning material.

Examples of popular LMS platforms

As with authoring tools, there are many options when it comes to learning management systems to distribute e-learning. Their features can vary by use case, and their effectiveness depends on the specific organizational needs they’re meant to fill.

Here are three examples of LMS platforms trusted by learning and development departments:

• Docebo. The Docebo LMS features AI-powered personalized learning paths, mobile learning readiness, gamified learner progress, and advanced learner metrics. It’s best for organizations seeking seamless integration with third-party applications like Salesforce, Zoom, and HR tools.

• 360Learning. The 360Learning LMS platform is best known for its AI-driven course creation, peer-learning capabilities, and built-in authoring tools. Its advanced learner skill-mapping abilities means it’s best used for reskilling, upskilling, and social learning opportunities.

• Articulate 360’s Reach LMS. Considered a lightweight, frictionless LMS, Articulate’s Reach allows for seamless course distribution, easy learner management, and built-in analytics and tracking tools. When paired with authoring tools Storyline 360 and Rise 360, it’s ideal for delivering training content quickly to any device through an intuitive learner dashboard.

Now that you’re able to understand the basics of both authoring tools and learning management systems, let’s take a look at a few of the key differences between an LMS vs authoring tool.

Key differences between authoring tools and LMSs

Content creation vs. content delivery

Authoring tools are built primarily for content creation and LMSs are built primarily for content delivery, but there’s a bit more to it. Let’s use an example to understand where each tool’s unique features help guide the learning process.

Imagine you’re responsible for taking old onboarding source material—pdfs, videos, and PowerPoints—and turning it into engaging, personalized training content for a batch of new hires.

Initially, you’ll need an authoring tool to transform source material into course modules, assessments, and interactive features. You can also use pre-built templates or create content from scratch to achieve any relevant learning objectives.

Once your courses are built, you’ll upload them into an LMS where you can manage content, assign content to learner groups, distribute via personalized learning pathways or as needed, and track relevant learner outcomes and performance.

User management and tracking

User management and tracking is almost exclusively done through an LMS. Authoring tools may help create the content, but a comprehensive LMS is what you’ll need for tracking advanced learner performance and engagement metrics.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of metrics LMS platforms commonly keep track of:

• Log-ins/active user counts
• Time spent/session duration
• Engagement metrics like clicks, views, drop-off points, and quiz attempts
• Course completion and progress tracking
• Performance metrics like quiz scores, knowledge retention over time, and skill tree progression

In addition to the metrics above, LMS platforms can also gather learner feedback from surveys and course ratings, flag “at-risk” learners to enable proactive support, and help calculate ROI metrics like cost per learner.

Integration between LMSs and authoring tools

Rather than looking at this as an LMS vs authoring tool contest, integration is the best way forward for an effective user and learner experience. As the previous sections in this post have highlighted, authoring tools help create interactive learning modules, but an LMS is needed to manage learners, distribute learning content, and track performance metrics.

Why do you need both an authoring tool and an LMS?

Use cases for each

Course authoring tools are helpful for the following use cases:

• Transforming old source material into highly engaging training modules
• Creating from-scratch interactive training modules
• Using pre-built, customizable course templates to cover common training topics
• Creating accessible learning modules effective for any learner
• Designing functional learning modules for any device

Learning management systems are helpful for the following use cases:

• Comprehensive content management and organization
• Advanced learner management and data tracking
• Gamified engagement features like leaderboards, challenges, and completion rewards
• Automated and personalized learning pathways

When to use one vs. both

If content creation and customization is your only goal, an authoring tool is your best bet. If content has already been created and you need comprehensive content management and learner tracking, then an LMS is the solution for you. Realistically, you’ll need both.

Examples of end-to-end training setups

Let’s take a look at what using both an authoring tool and an LMS would look like to achieve organizational learning objectives, from course creation to tracking. We’ll use the Articulate 360 platform—trusted by every Fortune 100 company—as an effective example of an end-to-end training setup.

• Step one: Create. Create a course from scratch or using a pre-built template in Storyline 360 or Rise 360.
• Step two: Publish and upload. Choose the correct output format—SCORM or xAPI—, set tracking criteria unless already built-in, and upload into the Reach LMS.
• Step three: Learn. Learners launch and complete courses within Reach LMS.
• Step four: Track. As learners progress, performance and engagement metrics are tracked.
• Step five: Maintain and update. Use data metrics and learner feedback gathered from Reach to influence future iterations of training modules, modified through Storyline 360 or Rise 360.

Repeat these steps, understanding that no course is going to be perfect right away, and content maintenance—updateing for timeliness and relevance—is an essential part of an effective L&D department.

Choose the right tools for your organizational needs

If your goal is to implement end-to-end course creation, distribution, and tracking process, you need a comprehensive platform that does it all. Organizations that offer effective course authoring tools often offer their own LMS platforms to help users benefit from easy integration.

Ready to level up your L&D department? Start a free trial today of the Articulate 360 platform, and enjoy faster course creation with a powerful AI assistant, simplified collaboration with in-app feedback, and frictionless distribution to any device with advanced learner tracking.