In this digital world, engaging modern students with paper-based learning materials is no piece of cake. To help students absorb information better, teachers have to master technologies, such as course authoring tools.

Finding the best solution among the numerous options on the market can take a lot of time. Thus, we compiled a list of the most popular free tools, so you don’t need to spend hours searching for them online.

What Is an eLearning Authoring Tool?

An eLearning authoring tool is software that helps you create digital learning content that can
be published to a learning management system or shared on the Web. The best thing about authoring tools is that they let you create training modules with no coding or design skills required.

Read on to learn what some free tools can offer.

1. iSpring Free

iSpring Free is an easy-to-master PowerPoint add-in that allows you to turn presentations
into mobile-friendly online courses. You can convert your slides to HTML5 to easily share
them online or publish them as SCORM courses for your LMS.

iSpring Free enables you to build slide-based courses with text, images, and YouTube
videos the same way you create a presentation. Once the slides are ready, you can enhance
them with quizzes. 


You just need to choose among three available question templates: multiple-choice, multiple response, and short answer. Then set time limits, the number of attempts allowed, and provide feedback if desired. iSpring Free is available to you at no cost, with no time or slide limits, and no experience is required.

For those who want to create more advanced courses with video tutorials, role-play simulations, and a wider range of question templates, the vendor offers the powerful iSpring Suite authoring toolkit.

2. IsEazy

IsEasy is a cloud-based authoring tool with a modern and minimalistic interface. Thanks to pop-up hints provided when a user starts leveraging a tool, it takes almost no time to  understand how it works.

With the free plan, you will get 3 eye-catching slide templates with the opportunity to customize colors, upload audios, and choose from 500 pictures from a stock image bank. You can also create multiple-choice quizzes and customize settings: randomize questions, set passing marks, the number of attempts allowed, and show or hide feedback.

Courses made in IsEazy can be published to SCORM and HTML5, but the free plan comes with several limitations: it's available for just one author and three projects with a total size of 0.3 GB. Plus, you will see the IsEazy logo watermark on the courses you export.

3. CourseLab Free

This is a simplified version of the CourseLab authoring tool that provides a code-free environment for creating high-quality interactive learning content. The last update was over 6 years ago, so the interface is a bit outdated and may seem complicated for those with no tech background.

CourseLab Free offers six module templates, six quiz question types, and the ability to use all the fonts supported by Windows. Created courses are SCORM and AICC compatible, but as the vendor claims, they have restricted functionality in some major browsers. Plus, they cannot be displayed on mobile devices.

4. H5P

H5P is a plug-in for popular platforms like WordPress, Moodle, or Drupal. It helps create a
 large variety of eLearning activities, including interactive videos, 360-degree virtual tours, presentations, structure strips, information walls, Cornell notes, and interactive books. There are also more than 10 quiz templates for creating student assessments.

H5P is an open-source tool, so tech-savvy users can customize the content using numerous tutorials provided by the vendor: for example, you can develop new content types or change colors to fit your style. Created interactivities can be embedded in any website or exported as a SCORM package.

5. AdaptiveU

This online platform is not only for creating eLearning content, it works like a learning
management system and allows you to enroll students in courses. It also provides learning
statistics.

It doesn’t have rich functionality for creating eLearning content: you just type the text, add images and videos, and attach files or links if needed. You can choose from four quiz types
to create knowledge checks: single select, multiple select, true or false, and paragraph answer.

AdaptiveU has several limitations. You can't share the courses on other platforms. It allows you to create up to 2 courses with up to 1 GB of storage and share them with 5 users only with the free plan.

6. Udutu

Udutu is a web-based authoring tool. It's completely free for up to 5 users per month if you deliver your courses via the Udutu learning management system. Although its interface is a bit outdated, it doesn't take a lot of time to master the tool. 


It offers 15 pre-designed slide templates for different activities, including interactive modules and complex assessments with branching scenarios. You can use 14 question templates to assess your students’ knowledge. Udutu can also convert PowerPoint presentations to SCORM.

7. Pandasuite


Pandasuite is an intuitive desktop application for Windows and MacOS for creating multi-  device learning content without writing a single line of code. With the free plan, you can create only one project with unlimited screens that will automatically be responsive and adapt to any screen size.

You can choose to start from scratch or use a template. The app allows users to import any media to the project: images, audio, video, animations, 3D files, and more. Pandasuite’ s free plan provides 50 interactivities, including maps, scrolling areas, before and after sliders, drag-and-drop, 360 virtual tours, and image spinning to create a wheel of fortune. 


Each project has a unique sharing link. You can copy this link, send it by email or SMS, scan the QR code, or embed it in a web page. For iOS and Android, you can use the PandaSuite Viewer.

8. Moovly


If you want to only create video content, Moovly might be a good fit. It’s a cloud-based video editor with an extensive library of 1.3 million free images, sounds, and footage and the ability to upload personal media. 


You can create videos from scratch with video templates and over 75 million media objects available, or use your PowerPoint presentation as a basis: set timing to slides, add voiceover, or other media. However, you can’t make screen or webcam recordings using the free plan.

Moovly allows for team collaboration, so you can work with colleagues — review video projects and add feedback. When videos are ready, you can publish them on Moovly Gallery, Vimeo, or YouTube. The free plan also limits video length by 2 minutes and quality to SD 480p.

9. Classtime


Classtime is a cloud-based authoring tool primarily for creating numerous quizzes. You can challenge your students with more than 50,000 prepared questions on English, Science, Math, or History. Plus, you can create your own quizzes using 10 different question types, including checkboxes, categorizers, hot spots, true or false, and more. 


The tool allows you to set up scoring rules and shuffle questions and answer options to avoid cheating. Classtime also offers some features of a learning management system. You can invite students by sharing a QR code and download a PDF report on your class performance.

10. EdApp


EdApp is a cloud-based authoring tool with some functionalities of an LMS. It allows you to create engaging and mobile-friendly microlearning courses. You don’t need to spend hours starting from scratch, since it provides more than 80 easy-to-use templates. You can just enhance them with videos, images, quizzes, and games. 


Besides the ready-made templates, you can use a library with over 1,000 editable courses from instructional designers, customize them by adding your materials, and then share them with the students.

Conclusion


We have made an overview of the 10 best free authoring tools that can help you create more captivating learning content, whether you’re teaching preschoolers or working with college students. We hope this article will help you choose the perfect option to start creating eLearning content at no cost.


Disclaimer: This is a promoted post written by iSpring team.
This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).