Upcoming Articulate 360 Training Webinars
Stay ahead of the curve with our free Articulate 360 Training webinars. These weekly sessions are designed to help busy course creators like you enhance your e-learning skills without investing too much time. As an Articulate 360 subscriber, you can grow your expertise through targeted training on the latest techniques and best practices – all at no additional cost. And if you want to view some on-demand training to view at your own time, visit the Articulate 360 training site to see what's available. Check out our upcoming webinars and level up your e-learning game. If you can't attend, that's OK. We record all of the sessions, so just sign up and you'll get a recording emailed to you. Date Title December 3, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline December 3, 2024 ✨ Beyond Click-and-Read: Crafting Engaging E-Learning with AI Assistant December 3, 2024 How to Build Accordion Interactions in Storyline 360 December 3, 2024 Create Engaging Software Training in Rise 360 December 10, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Rise December 10, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline December 10, 2024 Tips and Tricks for Success Using Reach 360 December 10, 2024 Image Editing and Special Effects in Storyline 360 December 17, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline December 17, 2024 ✨ AI Assistant & Rise: Smart Strategies for Efficient E-Learning December 17, 2024 Using Dials to Create Menu Navigation in Storyline 360 December 17, 2024 How to Build Compliance Training in Rise 360 Not yet an Articulate 360 subscriber? Sign up for a 30-day free trial and check out as many as you’d like. And if the live webinar time doesn’t work for you, no worries! Simply sign up anyway and you’ll receive the recording in your inbox so you can watch it whenever you have time. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming webinars!Video Highlights of Our Favorite New Articulate 360 Features
We’ve added so many useful features to Articulate 360 in the past quarter. But there are a few we’ve been especially excited to share with you! In this video, check out some of the biggest game-changers that came out in the past few months. Want to do a deeper dive into a feature you saw in the video, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.All the Best E-Learning Heroes Content from 2023 in One Place
As we wind down 2023 and look ahead to all the things to come in 2024, now is the perfect time to catch up on the most popular content shared in the E-Learning Heroes Community in 2023. To save you time, we’ve rounded up the best of the best for your review. You’ll also find a comprehensive list of the 102+ new and enhanced features we released to Articulate 360 in 2023, in case you missed any. 7 Most Popular Rise 360 Examples of 2023 7 Most Popular Storyline 360 Examples & Downloads of 2023 Check Out the 102+ Articulate 360 Features We Released in 2023 10 Most Popular E-Learning Heroes Articles of 2023 Best of E-Learning Challenges 2023 10 Most Popular Rise 360 Placeholder Content Templates of 2023 10 Most Popular Rise 360 Real-Content Templates of 2023 All 12 Quick Tips & Tricks Webinars From 2023 And if we missed any of your favorite content, please let us know in the comments below. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.Check Out the 102+ Articulate 360 Features We Released in 2023
Brand-new features in Articulate 360 can help you create a broader range of exciting learning experiences. And enhancements to existing features can streamline your design and development processes, making course creation even easier. But when apps evolve constantly, it’s not always easy to see just how much has changed over time. That’s why we’ve collected the 102+ new and enhanced features released in 2023 in this one handy article! Take a look at how much our apps have progressed over the past 12 months to see if there are any useful updates you might have missed. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Content Library 360 Review 360 Reach 360 Articulate 360 Desktop App Articulate 360 Teams Storyline 360 64-Bit Version of Storyline Harness the processing power in modern computers with a 64-bit version of Storyline 360. Large, media-rich courses benefit from increased stability and faster performance. Video Playback Speed Let learners explore at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed between 0.25x and 2x. Closed Captioning Boost video accessibility by including closed captions when publishing projects as MP4 video files. Adaptive Streaming Video With streaming video support, deliver video content to all learners, regardless of their internet speed. Accessible Feedback Layers Empower learners with accessible question feedback layers that meet color, contrast, and focus guidelines by default. Publish Storyline 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Storyline 360 courses directly to Reach 360—a lightweight distribution tool to deploy your e-learning content to more learners, including deskless workers, contractors, and customers. Video Transcripts Generate synchronized video transcripts from closed captions so visual content is accessible to all learners, including those who rely on screen readers, use braille displays, or prefer to read. Background Audio Create immersive experiences with continuous background audio that sets the tone and keeps learners engaged. Learners can turn off background audio if they prefer. In-App Review Comments Speed the review process and never miss crucial feedback with in-app comments. Review 360 comments appear in context as you’re working in Storyline 360, so you can act on stakeholder feedback immediately. Reply to comments and resolve them in real time as you create content. Add images from comments to training with a single click. Cloud Backup Access your Storyline 360 project files from anywhere and share them with team members by uploading your source files to Review 360. Rest easy knowing your projects are backed up, making previous versions easy to recover. Improved File AutoRecovery Fix project files that won’t open with the help of strengthened Storyline 360 recovery capabilities. Live Caption Support in Google Chrome Make use of Live Captions while taking Storyline 360 courses in Google Chrome. Updated Default Fonts Access the latest versions of several fonts that get installed with Storyline 360. Enhanced Player Properties Enjoy easier access to the modern player controls (play/pause, volume, etc.) and player tabs (menu, glossary, etc.) checkboxes now that they’re all left-aligned. Streaming Video Support for Videos in 360° Images Make use of the streaming video feature for videos in 360° images. Create Time-Based Triggers Create time-based triggers in minutes and seconds instead of having to convert values to seconds only. Feedback Master Quickly apply a feedback master to multiple question slides simultaneously. Upgraded Embedded Version of Chromium Benefit from Chromium 112.0.5615.165 in Storyline 360. Insert Web Videos Insert web videos using relative paths. High-Res Animated GIFs Give learners the best visual experience possible with high-resolution animated GIF support. Wrap Text Ensure text in data-entry fields wraps more easily using the wrap text option instead of having to increase the height to be more than 60 pixels. Optional “Lost Connectivity” Alert Let your learners know when they lose their connection with this optional alert you can turn on in the player properties. Faster Trigger Wizard Performance on Macs Enjoy better trigger wizard performance on M-series Macs. Set Your Cover Photo To Fill the Player Frame Easily set your cover photo to fill the player frame in the player properties. Screen Recording on Primary and Secondary Monitors Record your screen on primary and secondary monitors with DPI settings over 100%. Full-Screen Storyline Block Display Display Storyline blocks in Rise 360 full screen on mobile devices when player controls are turned off. Display Crisp Text and Images Display crisp text and images in embedded web objects by unchecking the scaling option. Background Audio in Video Output Include background audio in published video output. Turn Player Navigation Elements On or Off Control how learners navigate submitted quiz questions by turning player navigation elements on or off. Neural Voices Generate realistic, natural-sounding text-to-speech narration with neural voices. New Neural Voices (US English) Enjoy two new English (US) neural voices options, Danielle and Gregory, for text-to-speech conversion. Icons and Text Displayed in Player For new projects that use the modern player, navigation buttons now display both icons and text by default. You can still switch to just icons or text instead. Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Support Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use SSML to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more. Fixed Positions for Modern Player Controls Make it even easier for learners to interact with your course thanks to fixed control positions at the bottom of the player. Text Wrapping Easier Benefit from an improved user interface for text-entry fields text-wrapping options. Enhanced Button Accessibility Provide learners with a more accessible experience now that the “Back to Top” and “Skip Navigation” buttons and the volume slider meet color contrast guidelines. Control Background Audio with Triggers Control the background audio for each slide using triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist. Tooltips Available Display tooltips that are accessible to mouse, keyboard, and screen reader users automatically using the built-in player controls and navigation buttons. Fine-Tune Background Audio Customize the background audio experience even further by fine-tuning the volume with a percentage-based variable. Rise 360 Microlearning Deliver bite-size, single-objective content with the Microlearning feature. Turn Off the Cover Page Turn off the cover page when you publish for LMS to improve compatibility, streamline training, and get learners into content faster. Theme Color Contrast Use theme color contrast to instantly ensure training content meets accessible color handling requirements for learners with low vision. Turn Off Lesson Headers Turn off lesson headers to provide a more focused learning experience. Reply To and Resolve Review 360 Comments Reply to and resolve Review 360 comments from within Rise 360 and add suggested images with a single click. Block Contrast Settings Automatically adjust the contrast of text and graphics at the block level or select your own contrast with block contrast settings. Enhanced Block Settings Customize your blocks with distinctive backgrounds and easily adjust padding options with enhanced block settings. Team Folders Create shared team folders to organize your team’s content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. Enhanced Dashboard Management Organize and keep track of what’s important to you more easily with the enhanced dashboard. New Real Content Course Templates Get even more great content out to learners fast with new additions to our library of real content course templates. In 2023 we added new courses and microlearning experiences on topics like exercise, forming healthy habits, Black History Month, discussing disabilities in the workplace, and more! New Placeholder Content Course Templates Jump-start course creation with even more placeholder content course templates. New additions include course outlines on equity compensation conversations and sales order management processes. Publish Rise 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Rise 360 courses directly to Reach 360—an add-on to Articulate 360 that lets you quickly distribute training, enroll learners, and track their progress. Specify an Admin When Publishing to Reach 360 Get the right eyes on your course when publishing it to Reach 360 by selecting a specific admin to notify from a searchable drop-down menu. Quote Block Accessibility Improvements Give all your learners a better experience with accessibility improvements for quote blocks. WCAG 2.1 Conformant Process Blocks Include process blocks in your accessible courses now that they’re WCAG 2.1 conformant with improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support. Translate Labels for Screen Readers Broaden your impact and enhance accessibility by translating screen reader labels into other languages. Added Labels for Sidebar Progress Indicator Enhance localization and accessibility with labels for sidebar progress indicator tooltips. Default Text Color Improve accessibility conformance on new courses without lifting a finger by leaving the default text color, which is now true black. Skip Video Compression Add _NOPROCESS_ to a video file name to skip compression when uploading it to your course. Exported Training Destinations Quickly select a destination for your exported training with the Rise 360 dashboard publish menu. Cover Page Overlay Setting Use the Overlay setting to preserve both image clarity and text readability by choosing a light or dark translucent overlay for your cover photo that automatically maximizes text contrast. Links in Button and Button Stack Blocks Use relative links in button and button stack blocks to link to training within your subdomain. Theme Color Selector Use the Theme setting in the block element color picker to quickly select your training’s theme color. Logo Size Options Crop your logo to decrease white space and increase its size to customize your cover page branding. Quiz and Labeled Graphics No Longer Animate Protect those with motion disorders automatically now that quiz and labeled graphics items no longer animate when learners enable reduced motion settings on their devices. Rise 360 Images Marked as Decorative by Default Mark images as decorative automatically when you leave alt text for an image blank so it’s ignored by screen readers. Block Background Images Randomly Selected Enjoy a wider variety of default block background images now that they’re randomly selected on a block-by-block basis. Progression Arrows Remain Visible on Zoom Give all learners a better experience now that labeled graphic progression arrows remain visible when zoomed in or viewed on a mobile device. Split Block Design Menu Apply design settings to blocks more easily now that we’ve split the block design menu into two new menus: Style and Format. Updated Placeholder Content Templates Enjoy the new and improved placeholder content templates, a makeover where you’ll notice that the “lorem ipsum” text has been replaced with instructional and sample content. To improve accessibility, we’ve removed italicized formatting. We’ve also updated block design throughout the templates to take advantage of recent Rise 360 formatting enhancements. Linked Block Padding Add a custom value for top and bottom block padding at the same time using the linked padding option. 4k Video Support Boost course video quality with the ability to upload 4k videos to Rise 360. Content Library 360 Thousands of New Images Find the perfect royalty-free photos for your online training even more easily with the addition of hundreds of thousands more high-resolution images from Pexels. New Illustrated Characters Represent a greater variety of learners with six new illustrated characters: Eduardo, Camila, Mike, Shanae, Don, and Wren. Review 360 Request Review Keep your team on track without the hassle of spreadsheets or phone calls thanks to the request review feature. Send and track requests for specific stakeholders to review a content item right from Review 360. With email notifications, due dates, visible statuses, and completion buttons, you’ll never miss another deadline. Team Folders Create shared team folders in Review 360 to organize your content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. You can even allow multiple authors to publish new versions of a course to the same Review 360 project. Comments Only Allowed on Current Versions of Courses Keep teams in sync by preventing stakeholders from accidentally adding new comments to old versions of a content item. Enhanced Dashboard Quickly and intuitively organize your Review 360 dashboard with nested folders, subfolder breadcrumbs, an action toolbar, and more project management efficiencies. You can even multi-select items and folders, then move them in bulk. Learn more about the enhanced dashboard. Review Status Labels Allow stakeholders to reset their status after completing a review for more flexibility. Send Bulk Review Requests Send a request to multiple reviewers simultaneously by copying and pasting their email addresses in bulk. Text-Formatting Toolbar in Request Review Send engaging review request messages with the new text-formatting toolbar. Content Privacy Settings Control access to your content by making your Review 360 items private while still allowing invited stakeholders to offer feedback. Reach 360 Reach 360 Launched Reach 360 launched! Reach 360 is a frictionless LMS that integrates with Articulate 360 so you can easily deliver training to more learners. Group Self-Registration Simplify learner management by generating a sign-up link that automatically adds your learners into a group. API Integrations Use the Reach 360 API to build custom integrations with your business systems, giving your team access to valuable training and data where they need it most. Connect Reach 360 and Zapier Automate your work and streamline your productivity by adding Reach 360 to your Zapier workflows (currently in beta). Custom Domain Brand your Reach 360 URL with a custom domain you own. Owner Role The purchaser of your Articulate 360 Teams subscription is now listed as the Owner in Reach 360. Improved Group Member Lists Improve performance with paginated group member lists that display 50 members per page. Bulk Delete Learners Use true “select all” to bulk delete learners, even every learner, from your Reach 360 account. Active Learner Usage Report At a glance, see how many users have logged in to your Reach 360 account with the Active Learner Usage report. Bulk Delete Members Bulk delete members, even every member, from a group with “select all.” Bulk Import Bulk import and delete group members via CSV. Connect with Slack Connect Reach 360 and Slack so you can share course previews and get in-app training notifications. Share Content with QR Code Share specific training items directly with learners via URL or QR code. Learning Path QR Code Allow users to directly access a learning path—and self-register as a new learner if necessary—with a QR code. Self-Registration QR Code Allow users to self-register as new learners or group members using a QR code. Custom Certificates Create and manage custom certificates. SSO for Learners Enable SSO for your Reach 360 learners directly from your Reach 360 settings. Manage Groups and Users with SSO Use SSO to manage learners and groups, allowing them to quickly access training using one set of log-in credentials. Users API Endpoint Delete users from training with this Users API endpoint. Reach 360 API Quiz Data Enhancement Include quiz data in the course.completed event type for Webhook Events in the Reach 360 API. Sortable Activity Report Column Quickly check completion status with a sortable column in the activity report. Separate Admins for Reach 360 Enjoy more organizational options by defining separate admins for Reach 360. Enhanced User Role Management Streamline Reach 360 user management to include learners and admins only. Reporter Access Delegate training analytics by assigning reporters who only have access to detailed reports for specific groups of learners. Custom Certificate Settings Select a custom certificate to be the default certificate for your Reach 360 training. Default Direct Sharing Direct sharing is enabled by default for all new content published to your Reach 360 library. Articulate 360 Desktop App Improved Error Reporting Resolve issues faster with updated error reporting. Articulate 360 Teams Retain Shared Content Maintain control over shared content when a member leaves the team. Wrap-Up As you can see, 2023 was a big year with lots of exciting updates to the Articulate 360 apps. You can see what’s up next by checking out our feature roadmap page. Want to try out some of these features, but don’t have Articulate 360 just yet? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.11 New Articulate 360 Features To Celebrate
We’re adding tons of new or enhanced features to Articulate 360—all inspired by suggestions from you, our community. Divided into three core themes—easier collaboration, enhanced quality, and faster distribution—these Articulate 360 features will make it easier than ever to keep up with your organization’s training demands. Features marked with (Beta) will be or already are available in our brand new beta program. Learn more about the beta program here. Let’s dive in! Collaboration Developers, SMEs, stakeholders, executives—creating effective courses takes a village. The good news is that organizing, sharing, and reviewing content just got easier thanks to these new features. Team Folders: Review 360 (Beta) and Rise 360—Coming Soon Instead of sharing each individual course, authors can now share folders of courses in Review 360—and soon in Rise 360 as well. This allows authors to manage who can see or edit content in each folder. It also means multiple authors can publish a course to the same Review 360 link, so you never lose track of your comments. Request Review (Beta) This feature lets you send and track review requests directly from Review 360. So you and your reviewers can easily see the status and due date for every project. The review process has never been easier! Learn more here: Review 360: Request Review. Integrated Comments (Beta) Now, instead of switching back and forth between your authoring app and Review 360, you can see both at the same time. With the integrated comments panel, you can see and respond to comments directly in Storyline 360 and Rise 360. So handy! Enhanced Rise 360 Dashboard Management (Beta)—Coming Soon Bookmarks, nested folders, and bulk content management are just some of the ways we're improving your Rise 360 dashboard. Whether you have one course or a thousand, you’ll be able to optimize your content organization with these new features. Quality We’re continuing to invest in Storyline 360 performance and quality to boost reliability and efficiency—for a smoother and more enjoyable course creation experience. Storyline 360 Bug Fixes From faster performance to improved support for zoomed images, animated GIFs, background audio, and high-resolution screen recordings, these fixes are sure to make your workflow even easier. For more details, see our full version history. Storyline 360 Cloud Backup (Beta)—Coming Soon With cloud backup, you’ll be able to access your Storyline 360 files anywhere, anytime. You’ll simply upload source files to Review 360 to view earlier versions and help ensure your latest file won’t be lost. New Realistic Illustrated Characters—Coming Soon We’re working on three new realistic characters in casual clothing for Content Library 360. Stay tuned! Distribution Meet your learners wherever they work with these new Reach 360 distribution features. Slack Integration Now you can quickly send your learners enrollment notifications and remind them of due dates using Slack integration. Authors can also share rich previews of their courses and notify admins when they’re submitted for publishing. Check out this article for more details: Connecting Reach 360 and Slack. QR Code Registration—Coming Soon New users will be able to register for your training anywhere thanks to this QR code feature. Direct Content Sharing Users can access content with links and QR codes, making it easy to integrate training into the flow of work. Learn more here: Reach 360: Sharing Training. Separate Admins for Reach 360 (Beta)—Coming Soon This feature will allow users to assign different Reach 360 roles, differentiating between 360-wide admins and Reach 360-only admins. Wrap-Up We hope you’re as excited about these new features and enhancements as we are! And if you have ideas for future features, we want to hear from you. With Articulate’s brand-new beta program, also releasing this quarter, you can share even more feedback with us. We want your help in developing tools that truly fit your needs. Click here to learn more about the beta program. Excited to try these features but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.4 Things You’ll Love About the Enhanced Review 360 Dashboard
As a former e-learning designer and project manager, I know how hard it can be to stay on top of things when you’re working on many different courses at once. And that’s why I’m so excited about the enhanced Review 360 dashboard —because it makes managing projects faster and easier than ever. Let me walk you through some of my favorite things about it. 1. Organize Your Dashboard You’ve always been able to organize your review items into folders. But with this enhancement, you have more control over what your dashboard looks like. That’s because now when you move a project to a custom folder, it disappears from the top level folder (called Personal). This gives you more options for making the dashboard your own. For example, if you want easy access to courses currently in stakeholder review, you can leave them in the main folder while moving other projects to specific folders. Or, you can organize all your courses into folders from the get-go so you’re left with the Review 360 equivalent of inbox zero. So satisfying! Whatever you decide, I’m sure you’ll enjoy having the power to make this dashboard your own. 2. Create Subfolders Another helpful feature of the enhanced dashboard is the ability to create subfolders. It allows you to get more granular when organizing your projects, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. For example, you can organize your review items by topic and subtopic. Or by topic and audience, if you’re creating multiple versions of a course. Or even by client and project, as shown below: It’s up to you to decide what makes the most sense! But no matter what you choose, having this level of control over the way you organize your review items will help you easily find what you’re looking for—even months or years later when your memory might not be as fresh. 3. Move Multiple Courses at Once Speaking of getting organized, you might be wondering how much time it’ll take to sort all your existing Review 360 content into these new subfolders. Thanks to this feature, the answer is not much! That’s because now you can select and move multiple courses at once. To do that, simply hover over each course tile, check the box on the top left, select the Move icon from the menu next to the search field, and choose the folder you want to organize them into. Easy-peasy! 4. Share Content Without Opening a Course When you’re busy, every click counts. That’s why I love that I can now grab a link to share with my stakeholders directly from the dashboard—without having to open the course. And you can too! Simply select the ellipsis on the dashboard and choose Share Settings to edit who can view your item and to easily copy the URL to your clipboard. So handy! Especially if you need to grab multiple course links at once. Wrap-Up I hope you’re as excited as I am about the new and improved Review 360 dashboard. Eager to try these enhancements yourself? If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber, simply log into your account to explore them further. Don’t have a subscription? You can sign up for a free 30-day trial to try out the updates that just launched and those that are coming soon. Want to hear more about the latest Articulate 360 features? Check out the articles below: Don’t Miss These New Articulate 360 Features 4 New Accessibility Features to Better Serve Your Learners Create the E-Learning Courses of Your Dreams With These New Customization Features And if this update made you curious about what other features are currently in the works, be sure to bookmark the Articulate 360 Feature Roadmap and check it regularly.7 Reasons Stakeholders Love Review 360
As a course creator, you want to make sure the e-learning you create hits the mark—that’s why getting feedback from subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders is an essential part of the course development process. But without the right tools, providing feedback can be time-consuming and complicated for reviewers. In many cases, reviewers receive a copy of the course as a file—like a PDF or Word document—and add comments in the file before sending it back to the course creator via email. By the time they’re done, there are multiple versions of the file and a lot of back and forth. If they want to interact with the content, they have to install an app or sign into a Learning Management System (LMS)—adding another layer of complexity if they don’t already have an account. And each time there’s a new version of the course to review, they have to track down the updated file. With all those potential obstacles, it’s no wonder getting timely feedback from reviewers can be such a struggle! Luckily, there’s an Articulate 360 app that removes all those barriers and makes the project review process easier and faster for everyone involved. Review 360 was specifically designed to collect feedback on e-learning—which is what makes it so handy. Let’s explore a few of the top reasons reviewers love using it! 1. It gives them easy access to course content. Nowadays, there’s an app for everything. And while that’s great, it often means there’s yet another thing to download, install, and manage. Thankfully, Review 360 is web-based, which means reviewers can access courses and provide feedback directly in their web browser. There’s no app to download, install, or run past an IT department—all reviewers need is the link to a project to access the content. And they don’t even need to have an account to provide feedback. To leave a comment in Review 360, reviewers simply need to provide an email address. 2. They get to experience the course like a learner. Reviewing a course without interacting with it—like in the case of a Word document version of a project—leaves room for confusion and misunderstanding. If reviewers can’t click, tap, and swipe through the course, how can they get a feel for the course flow? And if there are multimedia elements included—like audio or video—how can reviewers preview them? Review 360 solves those issues by allowing reviewers to go through courses just as a learner would, so nothing gets missed. They can take quizzes, run through scenarios, and watch videos—giving them a clearer picture of the learning experience. 3. It clarifies their feedback by adding context. Instead of reviewing a project in an LMS and providing feedback in a document or via email, Review 360 lets stakeholders do everything in one spot. And what’s even better, screenshots accompany all comments, so course creators know exactly what reviewers were seeing at that exact moment in time. This means that instead of toggling between screens or spending time trying to explain which part of the course their feedback relates to, reviewers can focus on the course content. 4. It makes it easy to provide course creators with additional resources. Reviewers can also add attachments to any comments they make. This makes it easy to point course creators to other resources and files—like a replacement image—to save time and reduce confusion. 5. It removes extra steps from the review process. Thanks to built-in notifications, the course creator receives an alert when a reviewer leaves a comment. That way reviewers don’t have to worry about letting them know there’s feedback to check out. And because reviewers receive notifications when someone replies, it’s easy to know when others react to comments or provide updates. 6. They can easily loop in other team members. Sometimes reviewers need a second pair of eyes—or even a third—to take a look at something. Thanks to the ability to tag others in comments by @ mentioning them, it’s easy to loop folx into a conversation in Review 360. By tagging other reviewers or course creators in a comment, everyone can collaborate and brainstorm in one spot—and Review 360 documents their ideas for future reference. 7. They can view every version of a course in one spot. As you incorporate feedback into a project, you can publish new versions of the project to the same review link. This saves reviewers from having to track down a new URL each time there’s a new version to check out. Instead, they can bookmark a single Review 360 link and refer to it whenever there’s an update to the course. But the old versions and their comments aren’t deleted—Review 360 keeps track of the version history. Thanks to this feature, reviewers can compare prior versions of the course to the current version and see how the content has evolved. Wrap-Up Next time you have a project that needs reviewing, publish it to Review 360! Without downloading an app or logging into an LMS, reviewers get the full course experience and can focus their time and energy on providing feedback rather than tracking down links or sending countless emails. And as a course creator, you’ll benefit from quick and contextual feedback—freeing you up to focus on all the other things on your to-do list! What are your favorite things about Review 360? Share your thoughts in a comment below. And to learn even more about collecting and providing feedback on e-learning, check out these helpful articles: How Stakeholders Review Projects in Review 360 Still Publishing to Word for Your SME Reviews? Here’s How and Why to Transition to Review 360 Who Should Review Your E-Learning Course Before Launch? 5 Steps to an Easier E-Learning Course Review Process Want to try Review 360, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial.And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice directly in your inbox.Looking Back at the 70+ Articulate 360 Features We Released in 2021
It’s amazing the degree to which new features can empower you to create even better e-learning. That’s one thing I love about Articulate 360 subscriptions—you get access to additional features as soon as we release them. Did you know that in 2021 alone, we released over 70? This list highlights every feature we released or enhanced last year. Browse through each one to discover how much your favorite course creation apps have evolved in just 12 short months. Storyline 360 360° Images Create immersive learning experiences by including 360° images in your Storyline 360 courses. And engage learners as they explore these images by adding interactive elements, such as hotspots and markers. Hotspot Hints for 360° Images Assist learners with finding all the hotspots in your 360° image guided tour interactions by providing on-screen text instructions. Learn more. Tooltips for 360° Images Help learners know what to expect before they click bydisplaying tooltips when learners hover over markers and hotspots in 360° interactions. Translation for 360° Images Simplify your translation process by exporting the content from your 360° interactions alongside the rest of your course when you export text to XLIFF or Word for translation. Learn more. Additional Accessibility Features for 360° Images Enable all learners to have the same engaging experience with your 360° images with new and enhanced accessibility features. Modern Player Accessible Contrast Meet WCAG accessibility guidelines for visual contrast and color with the updated modern player. These enhancements make it easier for all learners to read the player text, decipher the icons, perceive the controls, and navigate accurately. Learn more. Additional Keyboard Shortcuts for Learners Include more ways for learners to interact with courses with additional keyboard shortcuts, including options for Play/Pause, Previous, Next, and Submit. Plus, learners can now use the ESC key to close the shortcuts screen. “Previous” Button Accessibility Improvements Improve the course experience for learners using screen reader or keyboard navigation with this update to the Previous button. Now the Previous button on the first slide of a course or a lightbox gets disabled and skipped during keyboard navigation. Improved Closed Captioning Button Active State Make the Closed Captioning button active state more noticeable in the modern player. When the Closed Captioning button is enabled in the modern player, it’s now underlined in your chosen accent color Option to Display Accessible Text by Default Ensure your course content is accessible by setting accessible text as the default text for a course. Learn more. Improved Seekbar Accessibility Create a better seekbar experience for learners using screen readers on mobile devices. They can now seek back and forth and the seekbar is visible in high-contrast mode. Two-Color Focus Indicator Make the accessibility focus indicator in the modern player more visible against any background in your course by selecting two colors—one light and one dark—for it. Customize Captions Font Size Improve closed caption readability in the modern player. You can now increase closed caption font sizeup to 200%. Logo Alt Text Make your course logo accessible to learners using screen readers and other assistive technologies by adding alternative (alt) text to it. Learn more. Custom xAPI Statements Enable advanced tracking options that give you additional data about learner activity by using triggers to define custom xAPI statements. LRS Support Expand your options for collecting learner data by publishing your Storyline 360 courses for a learning record store (LRS). Learn more. xAPI Debug Tool Troubleshoot xAPI statements quickly using the new debugger. Language Identification in xAPI (Tin Can API) Courses Simplify how you identify the language of anxAPI (Tin Can API) course with the Language Code field in the reporting and tracking options. Additional Question Bank Scoring Options Refine how question banks with branching are scored in a course using the new “Only Score Viewed Questions” box. Learn more. Improved Scoring for Combined Result Slides Avoid scoring conflicts when you require learners to pass each quiz in a Combined Result slide. This updated process prevents rare situations where learners could get a minimum passing score for each quiz and still fail the entire course. Learn more. Elapsed Time Variables Create timed interactions and conditional triggers using built-in variables that track the total time a learner spends on a slide, a scene, or an entire course. JavaScript Editor Improvements: Syntax Highlighting and Line Numbers Speed up your workflow in the Storyline 360 JavaScript editor with the help of syntax highlighting and line numbers. Word Translation Improvements Speed up the translation process for you and your translators. Word export options now provide more context for translators, preserve all text formatting, and use the modern DOCX format. Also, basic formatting changes made in the translated Word document are preserved during the Storyline 360 import process. Learn more. SVG Support Help images stay sharp when learners zoom in and out by importing scalable vector graphics (SVGs) to Storyline 360. Increased the Built-in Widescreen (16:9) Slide Size Get more room to work and avoid unexpected scroll bars in text objects with a larger built-in widescreen (16:9) slide size: 960x540. Define Default Slide Size Speed up the start of course development by setting a default slide size for new projects. Learn more. Modern Player Custom Color Customize the modern player to match your course color scheme by selecting your own background color. Course Cover Photo Improve branding and give learners a preview of the subject matter by adding a course cover photo in the modern player. Learn more. Text Overflow Autofit Improvements Refine how on-screen copy is displayed and improve accessibility with more ways to manage and fine-tune course text elements. This update also includes options for how to handle text that doesn’t fit its bounding box. Learn more. Turn on these improvements by simply upgrading your project text. Seekbar Display Improvements on Mobile Devices Improve how your course seekbar looks on mobile devices. In landscape mode, the seekbar now displays below the slide content and no longer overlaps the slide content. Upgraded Microsoft .NET Framework to Version 4.8 Keep everything up to date with this shift to the Microsoft .NET Framework dependency for Storyline 360 to version 4.8. Updates to the Embedded Version of Chromium Stay current with these updates to the embedded version of Chromium. In 2021 it was upgraded to 90.0.4430.93 and then 94.0.4606.81. Classic Trigger Workflow Retired Simplify your choices for working with triggers with this change: the new trigger workflow is now the only trigger workflow. End of Flash Importing and Publishing Modernize your options for importing content and publishing courses with this update. Since Adobe discontinued Flash at the end of 2020, we removed Flash features, including the options to import Flash movies and publish Flash output, from Storyline 360. Rise 360 Section 508 Accessibility Support Feel confident that Rise 360 courses reach all learners now that it supports Section 508 accessibility guidelines. See our conformance report for details. Accessible Block Management While Authoring Improve course navigation accessibility. Screen readers can now see and announce the Move Up, Move Down, and Duplicate buttons. Fully Accessible Labeled Graphic Blocks Enable all learners to access your graphic interactions with improved keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and a color selector for markers. New Image Alignment Options for Interactive Blocks Enjoy even more ways to lay out your images with multiple alignment options in accordion, tabs, timeline, and process blocks. Text Contrast on Cover Photos Set the text contrast on your cover photo to 0% to avoid Rise 360 darkening it further if your course photo is already dark enough to meet accessibility contrast standards. In-progress Audio/Video Playback Position Automatically Bookmarked Automatically bookmark the playback position of in-progress audio or video when learners navigate away from or close a lesson. Video Player Language Support Localize the video player automatically by choosing one of 16 supported languages. Learn more. “Continue” Button Style Options for Quiz Lessons Customize your quiz lesson user interface by choosing what kind of button displays at the end: the standard Next Lesson button or a Continue button. Learn more. New Course Template: Effective Workplace Presentations Use the latest course template to help learners deliver more effective presentations in a workplace setting. Review 360 Manually Upload Storyline 360 Courses Manually upload your courses to Review 360. This feature is helpful when publishing directly from Storyline 360 is blocked by a firewall or the published output needs to be edited before it’s shared with stakeholders. Manually Upload Video Versions Simplify your review process by creating new versions of videos that you’ve manually uploaded to Review 360. Version Management Control which versions of a project stakeholders see in Review 360 by using thehide and restore options. Unfurl Links in Collaboration Apps Make it easier for people to preview a Review 360 link when it’s shared in collaboration apps, like Slack. The link now expands to give your team a preview of the project’s title, author, and thumbnail image. Content Library 360 New Template Sets Synergy templates Vitality templates Essence templates New Characters Renita Craig Dante Pamela Charles Simone Jayla Eric Maya Jada Jamal Replay 360 Digitally Signed Executables Improve security with this update. All executables installed with Replay 360—such as lame.exe and encoder.exe—are digitally signed for better performance in highly secure environments. Studio 360 End of Flash Importing and Publishing Modernize your options for importing content and publishing courses with this update. Since Adobe discontinued Flash at the end of 2020, we removed Flash features, including the options to import Flash movies and publish Flash output, from Studio 360. Articulate 360 Teams Team Member Removal Options Avoid accidental content deletion with simplified options when removing a team member. Removal choices are now limited to transferring that member’s content or doing nothing. Manage Undelivered Invites Make identifying and resending invitation emails that bounce back easy with improvements to the team management console. Learn more. Articulate Training English Closed Captions View our on-demand videos and recorded training webinars with English closed captions. Articulate 360 Desktop App and Dashboard Browser-based Sign-in Experience Align with the latest security best practices by using your default web browser to sign in to the Articulate 360 desktop app. Learn more. Automatic Updates Get access to all the newest features and functions in Articulate 360 with automatic updates. Automatic updates are now enabled by default for all new and existing installations (unless your organization has disabled them). But you can always choose to opt out via your Articulate 360 desktop app preferences. Refreshed Articulate 360 Dashboard Discover helpful Articulate 360 resources—such as Rise 360 templates and Articulate 360 Training videos—with the new dashboard layout. That’s a lot of exciting ways to speed up your workflow and broaden what you can create! So be sure to check out any you might have missed when they launched and let us know in the comments which you’re enjoying most. Want to try out some of these features, but don’t have Articulate 360 just yet? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.The Secret to Simplifying Your Video Training Workflow
When it comes to creating engaging, relevant e-learning, video is a great way to capture content and your learners’ attention. Whether it’s an instructional video on how to use your company’s new time-tracking software or converting an instructor-led training session into a video-based training gives you an impactful way to share ideas with learners. And it’s an easy-to-consume format. Articulate 360 has everything you need to create e-learning videos—including an easy way to share them with stakeholders for review and export them to your LMS. Wondering how it works? Let me walk you through the steps below. Step 1: Publish or upload your video to Review 360 If you created your video using Replay 360 or Peek 360, you can seamlessly publish your video to Review 360. Just navigate to Publish and choose the Review 360 option. If you created your video outside of Articulate 360 apps, don’t worry! From the Review 360 dashboard, you can simply upload the video file using the blue Upload a File hyperlink. Step 2: Gather feedback and approval With your video uploaded to Review 360, it’s time to send it to your stakeholders for feedback. Simply click Share and then copy the link into an email. Anyone with the link can view and comment on your video—even if they don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription. All they need is an email address and they’re all set! One great thing about Review 360 is how it simplifies the video review and approval process. That’s because it timestamps all feedback—which means you’ll know exactly what part of the video your reviewers were watching when they started commenting. Not only does this make your life easier, but it also streamlines the review process for your stakeholders! Step 3: Export your video for LMS distribution Once you’ve made any necessary changes and re-published your video to Review 360—or uploaded a new version—it’s time to export! Open your project in Review 360 and click on the More ellipsis (...) in the upper right corner and choose Export to LMS. From there, select the output standard used by your LMS and choose a completion percentage. Then, click Export. And that’s all there is to it! You’ll get a .zip file that includes the video and any LMS-required files that you can upload to your LMS, just as you would any other course. If you’re looking for an even faster way to do this, simply find your project on your Review 360 dashboard, choose the More ellipsis (...), andfollowthe same steps. Wrap-Up Now that you know how to upload, share, and export your videos using Review 360, you’re well on your way to optimizing your video creation process. If you’re looking for more resources on creating video-based courses, check out these articles: A Complete Guide to Creating Videos for E-Learning 6 Types of Video You Can Include in E-Learning Record and Edit Videos Like a Pro with Peek 360 and Replay 360 New in Storyline 360: Publish to Video Want to try using Review 360 for your video training, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. Do you have any other little-known tips or tricks for using Review 360? Share them below!Project Management Tools & Techniques
Struggling with managing your e-learning projects? Feeling overwhelmed by the expectations of your training clients? Not sure how to get and stay organized? You’re not alone. The struggle is real, my friends. Thankfully, loads of free tools and techniques exist to help with the daunting task of organizing, planning, and managing e-learning projects. In this article, I’d like to unpack a few of those tools in the context of a typical e-learning project workflow—from kickoff to execution. Along the way, I’ll hook you up with some freebies to save you a little time and help you get your next e-learning project off to a winning start. Let’s dive in! Kickoff Most training projects start with a request—often from the training audience, managers, or executives. And when you get those requests, it might seem like the next logical step is to start formulating a project plan (or maybe just dive into designing a course); but is that really the smartest way to go? One tool that could save you some agony down the line is a project charter. A charter is a tool you can use before you even assemble a project plan. Project Charter A project charter is a document that serves to align expectations and gain authorization from project stakeholders and the organization’s leadership for the project to move forward. A charter also lays out who the stakeholders are, the scope of the work to be performed, and provides some definition around the deliverables, schedule, and budget. In many settings, a project charter is the norm—developed by the person or department paying for the project. But if it’s not the norm in your environment, a charter may be worth asking for. Charters can be especially helpful if you find yourself routinely saddled with projects that are ill-defined or lacking in broad support from your leadership. And while there are many free online project charter templates online, I love this simple but effective E-Learning Course Development Agreement template from Jeanette Brooks. Planning The planning phase of a project is where you’ll start to dig into the crucial details that will help you manage all aspects of your training project—everything from detailed requirements and stakeholder expectations to timelines and budget. You don’t necessarily need to crank up fancy project planning software to create a robust project plan. I find that simple tools generally do the trick, as long as they’re not too time-consuming to keep up-to-date. If you’re looking to streamline your project management duties, here’s a rundown of some free and easy planning tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. Estimating Tools Sometimes, before we even get into the weeds of planning, clients ask us to provide a detailed estimate of how much time or money is needed to create their e-learning course. If you’d like to provide them with something a bit more accurate than an educated guess, check out tools like this E-Learning Project Estimates Worksheet from Richard Watsonand this Course Seat Time Estimator from Mike Schwind. I’ve also found it helpful to track my time to get an estimate of how long it takes me to create various types of e-learning courses—from simple, linear courses to highly customized or gamified courses. There a loads of free time-tracking tools online, like MyHours or Toggl. Most offer simple ways to track how much time each task in a project takes you. The great thing about tracking your time is, eventually you'll see trends, giving you insights into your own productivity, ultimately helping you make more accurate estimates. Planning Tools The challenge with project plans is that assembling one isn’t a one-and-done activity. Projects are living and breathing animals, and “the plan” for completing a project, particularly one with a lot of complexity, inevitably evolves over time. In other words, plans change, so put some mechanisms and tools in place to make it easy on yourself to keep everyone in the loop and accountable for their piece of the project. Here are some simple tools I've found helpful: This Basic Project Management Plan is an easy-to-customize Word template that can be used to keep all the moving pieces easily cross-referenced for your project team. This Project Accountability Matrix Template from Holly MacDonaldgives you a handy resource for documenting who’s accountable for what and, most important, a clear escalation path when the project hits a snag and needs someone with authority to make a decision to get things moving. Cross-reference it in your project plan. This Project Management Timeline is another easy-to-use tool—an Excel spreadsheet you can cross-reference in your project plan. (And of all the tools you’ll use as a project manager, this one is most apt to change frequently, so why not keep it simple, right?) Break down tasks and use some of Excel’s color fills to show the task duration. Easy-peasy. Execution In the execution phase, you’re putting your project plan into action. This is the portion of the project where you’re expending the most effort, balancing project management work with your course-authoring responsibilities. One of the trickiest aspects of the execution phase, from a project management perspective, is making sure you’ve got the resources you need for each activity in your project. For a project involving the creation of an e-learning course, this may involve making sure you’ve got reviewers lined up to provide feedback on your prototyped interactions, or allocating budget toward custom video if the project warrants it. The execution phase can be tricky (and tiring!) but, at the end of it all, you should have the project deliverables to show for your efforts. Here are some more free tools that can make this phase of the project go more smoothly: Does your course have a lot of interactive content? Storyboarding or prototyping right in your authoring tool can be a timesaver and a wonderful way to show stakeholders your progress. Nicole Legaultwrote this nice article to show you how to do it in Storyline 2. When it comes time to get feedback on your deliverables, an E-Learning Course QA Template is one way to make sure your course functions well and fulfills the requirements identifiedduring the kickoff and planning phases. Another tool for capturing feedback is Articulate Review—part of Articulate 360. Articulate Review is a web app that’s included in your Articulate 360 subscription. It lets you easily share published courses with reviewers and see their feedback, all in one spot. To learn more about Articulate Review, check out this quick video tutorial. More Learning Effectively managing e-learning projects doesn’t require a project management certification or a lot of expensive software. You’ll find that resources like E-Learning Heroes offer tons of free advice and support to help you manage your e-learning projects. For instance, check out these project management articles: How to Write Requirements for Your E-learning Project Five Project Management Tips for Creating Online Courses Best Practices for Effective E-Learning Project Management How to Manage E-Learning Project Scope Creep 4 E-Learning Project Management Mistakes and How to Fix Them What tools and techniques do you rely on for managing your e-learning projects? Have any pointers for project management noobs? Share your tips, tricks, and ideas with us in a comment, below. We’d also love for you to follow us on Twitter, where we post the latest and greatest news about everything e-learning. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate software? Get a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360 to check out Storyline 360, Review, Content Library, and more. Also, be sure to come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything e-learning.
