Hypertext editors running on your local workstation will always do a better job. But the environment can be used as a resources manager for a pool of hypertext pages, quizzes, references, video clips etc. One or more authors can then use these resources to assemble a course. They do this preferably via a platform independent web interface. An important part of WBCs are interactive quizzes, which are usually directly authored within the system with a web interface.
Quizzes are a simple and powerful way to introduce interactivity into a course.
The author should be able to define actions based on the answers of students like giving the correct answer, sending the student a message to rework parts of a course, to grant or deny access to parts of a course or to update a gradebook. The teacher's job is to guide the students through the course and to provide individual help for anything related to the course. He therefore needs to be equipped with the same asynchronous and synchronous communication tools as the students. Additionally, he must be able to keep track of the student's activities in the web course, in particular access to the course material. The most important administration aspect is the users management, especially students.