When to Use Articulate Rise ™ over Storyline™ for Your Project

Why Articulate Rise Might Be a Better Fit For Your Business

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 fuelling necessity to a shared experience.

Here are some of my favourite features of Articulate 360, and Rise in particular:​
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• 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. This is 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. This is 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 are 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. 

​Pro-tip: It helps that Storyline 360 is easy to transfer from internal to external teams (and vice-versa), so it’s a convenient way for us consultants to collaborate with internal learning development teams.
Be sure to discuss your requirements and barriers with your eLearning consultant who can help you navigate the many course authoring options out there!

Questions? Let me know!