How to Share Your E-Learning Course for Free With Google Drive

Mike Taylor
By Mike Taylor

Share your e-learning course for free with Google Drive

UPDATE: Google is deprecating this feature and it'll no longer work after August 31, 2016. Consider using Amazon S3 or your own website instead.

For a quick and easy way to share your published Articulate projects, you might want to consider Google Drive. You probably already know about Google Drive’s file sharing capability, but did you know that Google recently added a web hosting feature? This new feature means that Google Drive can host your published Articulate projects.

STEP 1: How to upload your published Articulate project to Google Drive:

1. Log in to Google Drive.

2. Create a new folder.

3. Set this folder’s sharing settings to “Public on the web”

4. Upload the published output from your Articulate project.

5. Rename the appropriate launch file to index.html

STEP 2: How to find the link for sharing:

1. From within the folder containing your published content, copy the characters after drive.google.com/#folders/  from the address bar as shown below.

Host Published Articulate Projects for Free With Google Drive

2. Then, to get the link you to use for sharing with others, paste those copied characters to the end of http://googledrive.com/host/ 

Host Published Articulate Projects for Free With Google Drive

https://googledrive.com/host/0B-p5Xrlt8ArKaTlPd3RSOHdjSG8/

HELPFUL HINT: I have found that Google Chrome is the best web browser to use with Google Drive. Not all Google Drive features work by default in other browsers.

Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any comments, please share them below.

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331 Comments
Nick Sagal
over 9 years ago01/08/15 at 2:27 pm (UTC)
I understand how the process can be quite challenging! Through this process I also came to find out that web builders like Wix, Square Space, and GoDaddy are not overly Storyline friendly - unless you build your web page from scratch (with code). It seems that most of the website builders that use templates don't host files in a public folder, at least not in a fashion that allows Storyline to play correctly. I really think Amazon may be the best option w/o restrictions to browser (The Google Drive option will not run all features correctly if you aren't using Chrome) but I am at a loss as to how to get that to work.
Jennifer Rourke
over 9 years ago01/09/15 at 9:45 pm (UTC)
Jennifer - Thank you for sharing the step by step instructions! Initially I was using the new drive and then realized I needed to switch back to the old drive. Although even in the old drive I was still having issues. Not exactly sure what was different in your blog post, but it finally worked (90 frustrating minutes later). Thank you again for sharing with pictures - helps us visual learners!
Pamela Carr
over 9 years ago01/12/15 at 12:35 pm (UTC)
Hi all I'm currently in the middle of my 30 day free trial for Articulate Replay, and was hoping I could test it out on everyone with a video explaining how to load Storyline 2 files into the NEW Google Drive. If you'd like to check it out, here's the link to my website http://e-learningzone.weebly.com/recordings.html P.S. If the screen goes black after your first click, click on the black screen, then you will see the controls, then click on play button (it does this on my tablet but not on the computer). It can be viewed in Chrome or Internet Explorer. I'd love to know if this worked for you. Keep in touch!
Emily Spencer
over 9 years ago01/12/15 at 5:09 pm (UTC)
This did not work for me until I did steps 2 & 3 in order and manner listed below: 1) Export the course from Storyline using the Web option 2) Change the "story" file to "index" on my computer 3) Synced the folder to drive using the Google Drive desktop application 4) Updated the privacy settings on the folder to public Looking back, I may have needed to use the desktop application because of my upload settings reading "Convert to Google Docs format" as other users mentioned. Following those same steps but changing the file name in Google Drive gave me an error message, I needed to make the change prior to syncing.
Emily Spencer
over 9 years ago01/15/15 at 9:13 pm (UTC)
I think that Google changed how this works and now it's a little trickier than it used to be: 1) Right click on the folder and choose Share (or from the Details sidebar next to Sharing, click the pencil icon). 2) A box titled "Share with others" will pop up. In the top corner of the box click "Get shareable link". 3) Under Link sharing on, click the dropdown "Anyone with the link can view" and choose "More..." 4) Choose the top radio button for "On - Public on the web" 5) Click Save.
Tonya Weathers
9 years ago02/24/15 at 11:24 pm (UTC)

My eyes are crossing (sigh)...okay... I have read all 211 comments on this post and I still can't get this to work. I've tried the following: 1. Exported as web in Storyline 2 with 'include HTML5 output and mobile player' unchecked 2. Published locally on hard drive 3. Changed story.html to index.html (before uploading to Google) 4. Made sure Google convert setting was OFF 5. Accessed Google Drive through personal account 6. Uploaded to Google Drive 7. Made folder public on web 8. Copied end of url 9. Pasted it behind http://googledrive.com/host/ 10. Received 404 error. I did try, however, to paste the end of the url associated with just the folder displaying (without opening it to show the files inside). It gave me a link to my drive with just the folder. Then, i clic... Expand

Wes Escalante
9 years ago02/25/15 at 2:59 pm (UTC)
Here is what I do and it works. 1, Publish locally 2. Upload to Google Drive (Old Version, I have heard the new version is much harder to host with) 3. Set setting to "Anyone on the web can find and view" 4. Open the folder and check the box next to Story.html 5. If the details and activity window is not open on the left, open it via the menu's on top of the screen. When the Details window is available, there should be a blue link about two thirds down the window under the tag HOSTING. 6. Click and drag to highlight the link. With that it should work just fine. Don't worry about highlighting other parts, just paste the link, delete the extra and use the link. Feel free to email me if you need anymore help.
Tonya Weathers
9 years ago02/25/15 at 10:30 pm (UTC)
This is what I see under the details section: https://googledrive.com/host/googledrive.com/host/0B2IQZiX90IFLTU8yM29ybVZXSm8/ When I click on the link and it opens up, it changes the url to this: https://d1ba747bd167ff7f0d36ccca111f0130720814f2.googledrive.com/host/0B2IQZiX90IFLTU8yM29ybVZXSm8/ See how it places a long string in front of the .googledrive? The first link works fine when I click on it, but doesn't work when I copy and paste it. The second works fine when I copy and paste and send it to someone else. Help!
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