I’ve had many clients come to me requesting a Storyline course, but after hearing more about their time or budget constraints and doing a needs analysis, I often recommend Articulate Rise instead. Why would I suggest using a rapid course authoring tool like Articulate Rise to develop eLearning deliverables and not the more robust, customizable Storyline? The answer is simple: Agility. 

Take this lunch metaphor…

I liken the Rise vs Storyline debate to a business lunch: Sometimes you just need a healthy, but uncomplicated quick lunch at Freshii (where the ingredients are prepared in advance, and you have a menu with set options that are made in front of you while you wait). 

Other occasions might call for a different venue: An artisanal, farm-to-table restaurant where you’re having the chef’s daily tasting menu. You’ll wait longer for your meal, and you’ll pay a lot more, but the seasonal ingredients are more likely to be ethically sourced and prepared with care, elevating your meal from a fueling necessity to a shared experience.

Here are some of my favourite features of Articulate 360, and Rise in particular:

• Great collaborative tools: It’s easy to use Articulate Review to edit, preview, comment, or solicit feedback from Subject Matter Experts (and easy for SMEs to use, no matter how tech savvy they are).
• Wide selection of kick-ass templates (perfect for organizations who are new to online course delivery and who don’t have fully developed templates or eLearning style guides yet).
• Rapid authoring that’s easy to iterate (ideal for the budget conscious- or for projects when the content isn’t fully developed yet, or when building a pilot or prototyping project).
• Beautiful and modern: low effort and access to beautiful stock images in the content library make for a very sexy looking course (that’s mobile responsive too!) The overall layout options don’t look or feel like a “death by PowerPoint” eLearning. The stock assets are also royalty free, and plentiful.
• Articulate products get updated frequently- the new Rise scenario blocks are a perfect example of a highly impactful, custom interaction that is quick to build in Rise (a new feature that is well-loved and used by yours truly).
• Internal resources are newer to instructional design and course authoring, and you don’t want to invest. Be sure to read these warnings before you purchase Articulate or Captivate for a brand-new employee or team.
• Rise incorporates Storyline blocks- so you can still create custom content in Storyline where it counts the most, then insert it into a Rise course. Win-win!
• All Rise 360 courses are HTML-5 compatible (good-bye, Flash!)

What Canadian organizations need to know about Rise 360

If you’re a public authority, provincially-funded charity, or regulatory body in Canada, a cloud-based eLearning tool like Articulate 360 may NOT be a good fit if:

• You require data storage in Canada. (If you’re not sure if USA data storage is a deal-breaker or not, check with your legal or data sovereignty team.)
• If your organization has strict policies on cloud-based software in general– you may need to do a Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA) and assess the risks with your IT group. 
• If your organization has particular privacy or data transfer protocols or regulations to follow (i.e. relative to PIPEDA, PIPA, etc.) 
• If you are designing for accessibility (Rise 360 courses are not compliant with accessibility guidelines—not yet, anyway).

In short, Articulate Rise is the right course authoring tool some of the time: When limited resources or project constraints dictate quick content turnaround, Rise can be more agile than Storyline. If your organization’s requirements pose a barrier to cloud-based tools, then Articulate Rise won’t be a good fit for you. Work with a consultant to leverage other custom course authoring tools instead, and be sure to clearly outline your data management protocols with any external consultant. 

Are you assembling a new learning or training team in your organization? Or onboarding a new employee who has never used eLearning authoring tools before? Here’s why you’ll want to stop and ask yourself a few key questions before you buy that expensive eLearning subscription or software.

Third party course authoring tools like Articulate Storyline™, 360™ or Adobe Captivate™ can be expensive. If $1,600 USD for a subscription to a cloud-based suite of tools seems reasonable to you, think about the extended learning hours, trial and error, and upskilling necessary for your team to get up to speed.

If you’ve read my other article on the benefit of Rise over Storyline, you know you might not need an annual subscription or new tool at all. In fact, many organizations overlook the course authoring tools directly available in their Learning Management System (LMS), and purchase a costly authoring tool to essentially replicate what they could have done via their LMS.

In my experience, organizations just getting started with eLearning are often too quick to purchase a subscription to an eLearning course authoring tool, slow to invest in training on those tools, and in denial about how long it takes to develop decent courses with those same tools. 

The result: new employees spend hours developing a hodgepodge of courses without a consistent strategy, template or instructional design principles. Sure, they’ve explored the tool, but how does it align with the business goals?

Questions to determine your organizational readiness for software subscription

Here are the questions I recommend asking before purchasing any annual software subscription; because it’s not just the cost of the software—it’s all the hours your team will spend trying to learn it.

• Do your internal resources have experience with this tool?
• Is there a clear strategy or plan for when, how and why to use these tools?
• Will the organization invest in building templates and best practices?
• Do you have existing course authoring abilities in your LMS? (More often than not, you can build quizzes and deliver content with tools you already have; you might not have to buy a third-party course authoring tool.)
• Are the employees new to instructional design (e.g., new career change, or are they Subject Matter Experts who recently became trainers) and would they require professional development or funds to attend training themselves?
• Is there anyone in the organization who already uses Storyline who can mentor them?
• How much of their time do you anticipate they might spend using it? It takes years to become proficient at these tools. Are you sure you want to invest in them becoming proficient? Is their time or expertise better used as a SME?
• Would it be more cost effective to use internal resources to develop the content (draft it first), and outsource the course authoring? 
• Do you encourage employees to join professional development groups outside of working hours (e.g., the Articulate Users’ Meetup group in Vancouver, or a local offering of an Articulate Roadshow where they can find support?

Only invest in learning tools if you can invest in training as well

Yes, it’s definitely a good idea to invest in tools for your learning or training team, but only if you can also invest in training or upskilling your team on those tools. You’ll also want to provide leadership for them to use the tools consistently, align with your organizational goals and create a style guide and guidelines of use (or be prepared for the wild west!)

I’m not saying you shouldn’t support your team with the tools they ask for, and I’m not saying they shouldn’t experiment with new tools. But instead of agreeing right away, ask instead:

​For any new system or tool, be prepared to build in discovery time if your team is inexperienced with eLearning software, and be sure to ask for rationales behind their prototypes and samples of work to ensure they’re on the right track.