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. 

What does eLearning mean in your organization? I’ve learned that whenever we’re talking about online learning assets, it’s better not to assume! Is it a standalone "module" that looks like a self-directed PowerPoint deck? Or is it any combination of interactive files, media and learning activities— basically any learning that isn't delivered in person in a classroom?

With any gig I take on, I always check with my client to clarify what we both mean by eLearning. It's surprising sometimes to see how close or far our definitions can be! Having worked with a variety of customer and employee-facing online learning materials, my own definition of eLearning has broadened over the last few years. I’ve embraced a more inclusive understanding of eLearning than its traditional definition, in line with many of the organizations I serve. 

Don’t forget about the course authoring tools in your LMS
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How eLearning is built (or authored, to use industry jargon) has a wider array of options now too. Formerly, eLearning mostly referred to custom developed content using a third-party authoring tool like Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. Period. And that’s still completely acceptable and highly impactful. But many organizations forget that they can author courses directly in their LMS (arguably a better strategy than third-party applications, depending on your LMS, of course!) If you haven’t explored using your LMS itself to develop an eLearning course, this might be the time. 

What are some effective course objects (or rich media assets) used in eLearning? 

Depending on what your organization needs and how it makes sense to deliver them, any combination of these learning assets or course objects could form an engaging eLearning experience:

• Discussion forums
• Live or recorded webinars
• Assignments (downloaded/uploaded)
• Proof of training or certification
• SCORM file (a Sharable Content Object Reference Model usually becomes the course itself, but could also be one of many types of media that makes up a course)
• Graded or non-graded assessments: Exam/quiz/survey
• Videos, interactive videos, 360 videos
• PDFs or other types of static file downloads
• Text with hyperlinks to internal/external pages, wikis, collaboration channels, etc.

​There is a valuable movement happening in the eLearning industry right now; we’re finally shifting away from thinking of learning as a course and more as an experience. Learning doesn’t begin and end within the confines of an eLearning course—it happens on the job, during a commute, in discussion on social media, and a million other digital ways. Thinking of eLearning in the broader context of the experience will help you build more impactful online learning too.

The term custom course development is widely used, but what does custom actually mean? Essentially, custom eLearning or instructor-led materials can mean anything that has had instructional design applied to create a unique course object. Instead of acquiring an out-of-the-box training product from a third party, you create your own (or outsource this to an eLearning consultant like me). 

Here are a few examples of custom strategies I’ve helped clients work through:

• Cost-benefit analysis of developing our own fleet vehicle training versus buying defensive driver eLearning and coaching from another provider. (They chose the latter, which turned out to be more efficient use of internal resources.)
• Whether to use a provincial government developed Data and Privacy compliance module, or develop their own. (They decided to develop their own, for greater impact, and outsourced this to me, their trusted eLearning contractor.)

​Extras – Not included unless identified within scope requirements

• Development of content or materials in languages other than English
• Audio (especially professional voice work or including multiple actors)
• Additional edits that diverge from previously approved deliverables
• Custom photography, illustration, graphic design, animation, video production or redesign of any of your existing media assets (for some projects, depending on the scope)
• Custom development in Storyline
• Special design considerations for web accessibility (e.g., WCAG 2.0)
• Multiple versions of the course for different audiences (e.g., repurposing client-facing content for employees)
• Creating content specifically on/for tablets or mobile
• Uploading the course into your LMS, hosting the course, any admin around the course

​I love designing custom course content for my clients; it’s one of the many stimulating challenges of my work that help me continually evolve as a professional. It’s the perfect opportunity to try innovative instructional design techniques, incorporate findings from new studies on how adults learn, and clients and learners get a course that meets their needs. 

Do you have a custom course project in mind?