In this post, I will be highlighting my experience (pros/cons) using the top e-learning authoring tool on the market; Articulate Storyline/Rise 360.
I find that my team and I use an incredibly diverse mix of tools in our day-to-day work. Because we deliver a lot just-in-time content and e-learning/m-learning, produce video content and animations, and develop process diagrams, it was important for us to choose tools that provide the optimal mix of cost, efficiency, and features. Maybe in a future post, I’ll lay out more of the tools we use. We develop interactive e-learning content and serve it up via an LMS. We opted out of developing content natively within the LMS (it is allowed), because of the setup and distribution process of our content.
I was introduced to the Articulate suite of tools back in graduate school. I’ll admit, I fell in love. At the time, I only used Storyline 2 (I’m dating myself, lol). Eventually, after I moved to the 360 suite, I was introduced to Rise 360. For those who aren’t familiar with Rise, it is a web-based e-learning authoring tool. It is very easy to learn and use, and you can import custom interactive elements from Storyline if you like. Rise has its own library of interactive components though. Additionally, you can export SCORM, TinCan, or AICC formats for inclusion in just about any LMS. So we have really settled into a routine of embedding custom Storyline 360 elements into a Rise course; while using Review 360, the web-based review and feedback tool, during the UAT process.
This sounds like a no-brainer, right? WRONG! For many teams, Articulate is way out of budget. Running about $1,200 per Articulate 360 license, it adds up quickly. Also, if you are a Mac user, like me, Storyline is a no go. As a workaround, you can use Parallels, a Virtual Machine, or Bootcamp to boot into Windows from Mac. This tends to be very resource-intensive though.
Before I officially adopted Articulate, I attempted to use other tools, namely Adobe Captivate. The interface was just not as user-friendly as Storyline (which is very similar to Microsoft Powerpoint). Plus, the Rise 360 component was just a winner!