Looking Back at the 70+ Articulate 360 Features We Released in 2021

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 by displaying 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 size up 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 an xAPI (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.

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.

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 the hide 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.

New Template Sets

• Synergy templates
• Vitality templates
• Essence templates

New Characters

• Renita
• Craig
• Dante
• Pamela
• Charles
• Simone
• Jayla
• Eric
• Maya
• Jada
• Jamal

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.

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.

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.

English Closed Captions

View our on-demand videos and recorded training webinars with English closed captions.

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.