If you need to quickly create beautiful, responsive e-learning, Rise 360 is the authoring app for you. With stunning prebuilt themes and countless options for personalization, it’s never been easier to create unique, cohesive learning experiences. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to make your online courses look gorgeous and professional.
1. Choose a Theme
In Rise 360, you’ll find three beautiful, prebuilt themes created by award-winning designers that you can apply to your courses in just a few clicks. Let’s take a look at each option.
Rise
Our original theme—Rise—is modern and clean. It’s extremely versatile and works for all subject matters.
Apex
If you’re looking for a bold, contemporary theme, Apex is a great option. Your learners will love its striking, angular finishes.
Horizon
For something a little more elegant, look no further than the Horizon theme. Its sharp and stylish feel with understated flourishes can set the right tone.
To apply one of these themes to your next project, simply open a Rise 360 course, go to the Theme menu, and select the style you want.
2. Select Customization Options
Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can further customize the look and feel of your Rise 360 courses to ensure they’re on brand. Let’s take a closer look at some of the options available.
Cover Page Layouts
Each theme includes a variety of stunning cover page layouts to make a strong first impression on your learners. You can use the same one for every course, or switch it up to keep things fresh for your learners. Here’s a peek at the different cover layouts you’ll find for each theme.
Rise
Apex
Horizon
As you can see, there are tons of possibilities! So you’re sure to find one that works well for your project.
Navigation Types
Another thing you can customize is the course navigation type. Let’s take a peek at each option.
Sidebar
The sidebar navigation option is tried and true. It allows learners to access the course menu and content simultaneously, while also giving them the option to hide it when they want to focus on learning. This versatility makes it a great option for any course.
Compact
Like the sidebar, compact navigation lets your learners decide to either view both the menu and content or minimize the menu for fewer distractions. The main difference here is that even when learners hide the menu, they can still see where they’re at in the flow of the course—allowing them to continue monitoring their progress.
Overlay
If you want to give your learners a more immersive experience, where they’re only focusing on one thing at a time, overlay navigation is a good option. When they open the menu, they’ll be able to give your course outline their full attention. And when they close it, the content will be the sole focal point.
Button Styles
You can also customize the look and feel of the buttons that guide learners from one lesson to the next. In addition to a few different color options, you can choose whether you want them to be full width like in this screenshot …
… or floating, like in this one …
Or you can remove them entirely. It’s up to you!
Lesson Headers
There are also a number of options for personalizing the lesson headers. For starters, you can choose whether or not you want one. If you decide you do, you can customize the background color or image. Then you can select the height option you prefer: low, medium, or high. And finally, you can opt to show or hide the lesson number and author avatar.
Colors
When it comes to colors, you can choose one of our default theme colors or select your own by using the color browser or inputting a Hex code.
Once you’ve selected your theme color, it’ll be applied throughout your course automatically.
Font Pairings
Rise 360 gives you a variety of professionally selected font pairings, so your course text looks polished. Of course, you also have the option to create your own by mixing and matching default fonts or uploading your own for a truly personalized look.
And that’s just the beginning! With all these customization options—and more—the possibilities are truly endless.
Wrap-Up
With Rise 360, it's easy to create cohesive, professional-looking learning experiences—even with no prior training or design experience.
Ready to try it out for yourself? Simply head to your Rise 360 dashboard, create a new course—or open an existing one—and click on the Theme tab to check out the customization options. It’s that easy!
Don’t have Rise 360? Start your free 30-day trial of Articulate 360 now.
For tips and inspiration on how to use themes to create beautiful, branded e-learning, check out these helpful resources:
- Make Over Your Rise 360 Courses in 4 Easy Steps with Themes
- 3 Ways to Use Rise 360 Themes to Tailor Your Projects
- How to Brand Your Rise 360 Course
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