Authoring tools are also mentioned as popular mechanisms for supporting the production of computer-based instruction.
Some tools contain features representing more than one type of system.
ID Expert assists designers in creating transactions by presenting a set of decision-making steps involving instructional components, formatting, resources, etc. Several instructional technologists have proposed systems that more subtly advise the instructional designer, rather than prescribe a set of solutions. Some examples are described below. Instead of controlling the problem-solving process with expert knowledge, advisory systems assist or coach users in accomplishing a given task. A prototype for the advisory system approach is the Instructional Design Advanced Workbench, an architecture for a computer-based workbench that supports the cognitive tasks of instructional design without constraining the designer.