Forum Discussion
Week 1 Discussion
Great work completing this week’s training videos and guided practice activities! You’ve explored how AI Assistant can help you build faster and design smarter in Rise and Storyline. Now it’s time to pause and reflect on what you learned.
✔️ Here's how to participate in the discussion below.
Choose at least two of the questions below to respond to. Then, take a few minutes to read and reply to a few of your peers’ posts. Sharing your insights and experiences helps everyone deepen their learning.
- Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?
- What surprised you about how AI handled text or media generation?
- Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
- What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?
Take your time reflecting, and be honest about what worked and what didn’t. Every experience adds to your growing skill set as an AI-powered course designer.
➡️ Next Up:
If you have questions about the AI Assistant features in Rise and Storyline, attend the Week 1 Office Hours session on March 5.
495 Replies
I have selected the following two questions.
- Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
The most valuable editing tools for me are "rewrite" and "shorten." Since English is not my native language, these tools help me write learning content in a more varied way.
- Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?
For me the most intuitive one is the AI Text-to-Speech Audio feature in combination with the additional function to create captions. This was the first AI feature that I used and it was really self-explaining. So, great job from the Articulate team 👍
I would agree with you there - it's very intuitive, and the Elevenlabs voices are incredible. They really do not need any tweaking most of the time.
I was impressed by the quality of the voices as well. Especially for drama and emotion.
I agree with you, Alex. English is not my native language either, so using AI tools to rephrase, shorten or lengthen the content is very useful.
Hi everyone. I understand a learning course creation starts in English but cannot be created directly in other language, right? So I would have the AI Assistant generate the content first in English and then have it translated?
The text to speech feature has been great! I like to switch them off between lessons within a module so that the voice changes and keeps people engaged, instead of melding all together.
I've had to start keeping a log of all the voices I used in a course as sometimes I work with multiple designers, and we choose different voices for the same images. 🤣 Oops!
- Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
- Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities? Absolutely has to be creating AI text to speech. Its phenominally fast, and I no longer need to worry about background noise or ambience, also when the SME comes along and asks for a word changed at the last minute - it takes seconds!
- What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted? I have a continued dislike of the AI image creation - there is a dullness to the photorealistic images - they need to be more alive and human for me - so thats where my challenge lies. Things are getting bettter and probably by next week they'll be super (things are moving so fast!)😄
I agree with you about the image choices for the gallery images. I have found that the Storyline AI image generator has saved me time though.
True, to be able to create your own image with your criteria is a huge time saver, and the quality is excellent.
I totally agree with you Brian. The text-to-speech is a great option! It IS super convenient if you have material that can change as well. Game changer!
I agree Brian - I do still get a lot of "uncanny valley" in AI generated photorealistic images.
- Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
The rewrite's helpful when I can't decide how I want to word something, and it gives some great ideas. I also love the image generator in Storyline. It has saved me so much time searching for the right image online that I would have to edit later. The closed captioning generator has also saved me so much time, - What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?
Since I create mostly systems processing videos, using AI for alt text doesn't really capture the context of the image well. I usually develop courses in storyline for that reason, but it's great for simple courses in Rise.
I love how you highlighted the strengths of multiple tools: the rewrite feature, in particular, really does shine when you’re stuck on phrasing or just want a fresh perspective. And yes, the image generator in Storyline is a game changer! Being able to skip the endless online searches and extra editing steps saves so much time and keeps projects moving smoothly. The closed captioning generator is another great callout.
I've had great luck with rewrite, too! Saves a lot of time editing, and saves time not having to hop out to another AI tool for that.
Hey Lisa!
I thought the same thing about the image generator and how much time we save now that we don't have to go searching for the perfect image online anymore. The rewrites do offer great suggestions on wording in a way that we may not have thought of originally.
I agree with you about using AI for alt text. It still has a long way to go to analyze complex images and create alt text that would be suitable. I think it's going to be interesting to see how it develops over time because often simple text that can be generated for images is for images that should be labeled as decorative anyway.
- Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?
Using the AI text-to-speech feature. It is very easy to use, whether it is to generate or revise the audio. One thing I have noticed though is that on occasion, when generating a lot of audio via Storyline and/or keeping the app open across desktop sessions, the AI dialog box disappears behind the main window. I have to close the application and reopen it to eliminate the behavior.
What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?
I have found that the AI image generator will on occasion show the same individual multiple times in the image or will often show multiple and sometimes all the individuals in the image in blue button down shirts or blue suits if you specify an office or corporate setting.
I have had that issue too where the image showed the individual multiple times or some strange language. I closed it out and redid it and it didn't show the same individual the second time.
I too have had that issue. Also, when I do want the same individual but with different facial expressions, I can't seem to get good results.
I agree and really love the AI Text-to-Speech feature. I also love being able to change the voice style and version. I've found the best results with V3 and it sounds very realistic when speaking.
I agree, the AI text-to-speech feature is very intuitive. It’s quick to generate and even quicker to revise, which makes it easy to update narration without re-recording everything.
I’ve noticed something similar with the image generator, which tracks with every other image generator- sometimes you get “same-face syndrome” where multiple individuals in a crowd look nearly identical. I’ve also seen that tendency toward uniform clothing (like everyone in blue button-downs in a corporate setting). It feels like a form of mode collapse where the AI defaults to a narrow interpretation of the prompt. When that happens, I’ve found being extremely specific in the prompt or manually adjusting in Photoshop afterwards is usually faster than regenerating multiple versions.
I'm really enjoying and shocked by the quality of the AI voices. I like pairing them with blocks of text to help the learners really drive home the important items that are being covered in the eLearnings.
Edit: To add to this and to answer another question, I guess something that surprised me is I could upload a handful of documents and resources and then it could give me some starting points of different ways to present the material. I used the AI Blocks to create sorting cards, flashcards, key points, and quick quizzes.It's such a stark difference from how AI voices first started! It used to be so robotic, but now it's tough to tell what has been generated and what is a real audio recording. I love the variety of voices Articulate has, it has grown exponentially! There's a perfect voice for every occassion.
Hi! I was thinking the same thing when selecting an AI generated voice, it was impressive how options there was to select from!
I agree! I was recently watching the eLearning heroes post about how you could add emotion to the AI voices using brackets (e.g. [angry] ) in the newest version and it was a gamechanger for a customer service lesson I was working on! I paired it with a dial so the learner could change the AI tone from one of four options and see how the customer responded to each.
This is a feature I’m really excited to explore more. In the past, one of the main drawbacks of AI voices for me was how difficult it could be to find the right inflection, tone, and emotion. I often felt like I spent more time searching for the right voice than working on the message itself. I was impressed by the wide range of voice options and the short summaries that describe each voice, which made it much easier to quickly narrow down the best fit.
Agree, the variety and quality of AI voices is impressive!
I agree, AHuttenlocher. I was quite impressed too with the variety of the inbuilt AI voices. I have used the inbuilt voices from Storyline earlier but there were limited options. This new library of 5K AI voices is super helpful! :)
I’ve been using AI Assistant a fair bit now in my current projects and, so far, the image workflow feels a bit clunky from one specific point of view.
Right now, the AI image tool can only create a NEW image, not REPLACE an existing one. The generated image is dropped into the centre of the slide, which means you then have to resize it, reposition it, re‑crop it, and sort out the layer order. That feels counterproductive. The AI should be reducing effort, not adding extra steps.
There does seem to be a workaround that helps. After generating an AI image, I can add it to the Media Library, delete it from the slide, then right‑click the original image and choose Replace Picture. This drops the AI image straight into the existing container, keeping the size, position, crop, animations, and triggers intact. If the image is used across multiple slides, replacing it via the Media Library updates every instance.
It works, but it feels like a missed opportunity. Hopefully future updates will allow AI to REPLACE selected images directly. Has anyone noticed this and got any other suggestions?
You can replace an existing image with a new one and it should drop in correctly as long as you pick the correct aspect ratio at the bottom of the AI image prompt page. The only time I've found that I have to crop an image is if I'm using an image from the content library, which I do often have to crop depending on what I'm dropping it into.
Hi BrianWaters-6b8! Try right-clicking the original image, then choose Replace Picture > Generate Image with AI.
As long as you select the same aspect ratio (Portrait for the example in the screenshot below) the new image will replace the original image in the same container.
Let me know if that helps!
Thanks for posting this - such an easy way to change out a picture that has been cropped!
Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
I’ve been using AI in both Rise and Storyline for quite a bit now and the tools to shorten or lengthen the content are very useful. Your text has changed, basically, instantly. On top of that, you can adjust what you do not like and add your content. This takes literally seconds to update your training. Don't we all like saving some time? 🤗
Also, I really like the instant convert. For example, you have an accordion or flashcard block, and you can instantly convert it into sorting activity which acts like a mini knowledge check. Great!
What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?
I would not call it a challenge, but when you replace static bike image with an AI image, AI added image does not have the Alt text by default. I’d expect that. Perhaps AI could use a part of my prompt to generate the image as Alt text? Our team takes accessibility standards/requirements seriously, so all images in Rise or Storyline must have Alt text for those using assistive technology. Also, we are working on our standards to ensure all images in Rise, or all media for that matter, have descriptive text underneath where is says “Add caption”. Just a thought...
Great catch! I completely agree that it would be helpful for Rise to add alt text to AI-generated images automatically. I’m also really impressed by the new “Instant Convert” feature. For example, converting an Accordion into a Sorting activity is a great idea. However, the Sorting activity isn’t fully accessible in Rise, so we may need to provide an alternative option (such as a quiz question) for learners who use screen readers.
I didn't even think about alt text. That's a really good point.
If an image is purely decorative, I don't think it necessarily needs alt text. Screen readers typically skip over elements without it, so I'm fine with AI-generated images not being automatically tagged when alt text isn't required. This might be a deliberate choice by Articulate, leaving the responsibility for adding alt text to designers, who can do so only when it's truly needed, or when their internal processes determine it. Additionaly, we've found that when designers add alt text to every image by default, translating the course into multiple languages nearly doubles the effort, and likely cost, since alt text also needs to be translated. This creates a lot of extra work with little to no benefit.
Q: Which Rise AI editing tools did you find most valuable, and why?
I really liked the Convert a Block feature and the Create a Knowledge Check tool. Convert a Block saved me time because I could quickly change layouts without rebuilding content from scratch. It made it easy to experiment and see what worked best.
The Knowledge Check tool was also helpful since it gave me a solid starting point for assessment questions that I could build using the existing content. Some of the more general AI features felt like things could easily do in ChatGPT, but the Rise-specific tools are game changers.
Q: What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?
The biggest challenge for me was image generation for flashcards and in Storyline. It was a bit hit or miss. When the details in the content were abstract or used words like "cookie", having to rewrite it in a way that allowed for accurate image generation was a challenge. The images didn’t always match what I had in mind. I found myself rewriting prompts to be more specific so the AI would generate something usable.
Who doesn't like cookies?! 😀 Even AI likes cookies 😀 To work on the 4th image for the flashcards task, I asked to generate AI image prompt and then told AI not to mention cookies. It defaulted to, basically, creating an image about privacy. It worked in this scenario but, yes, I can see how in some scenarios you'd have to sit down and write your own prompt to match what you have in mind. But overall, AI does a decent job.
I found much the same thing. When I told it to avoid showing edible cookies, I still got a few images with them. Still, this was better than a year ago when asking the image generator to avoid something guaranteed that you would get nothing but that thing. It was honestly a bit nightmarish😂 Still, I found the best way to avoid getting cookies in this exercise was to simply avoid using that word.
Hi there,
I observed the same pattern when generating images. The more specific and detailed my prompts were, the higher the quality and accuracy of the images produced.
I totally see how that can happen. I asked AI to generate a prompt for me, and I only got one image back that had cookies on it. I love the option for AI to help me generate prompts, because my prompts aren't always very good.
Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?
I found the rewrite, shorten, and change tone tools to be the most valuable. Each of these helped me refine my message while still preserving my original ideas. I especially appreciated how the tools could adjust the length and tone based on what I selected, allowing me to communicate more clearly and effectively. They made it much easier to tailor my message to the appropriate audience while still getting my point across in the way I intended.
What surprised you about how AI handled text or media generation?
What surprised me most was how responsive AI is to even small changes in wording. Changing just one word could generate a completely different image, and adding more detail made the results much more specific and aligned with what I had in mind. It really showed me how important precise language is when working with AI, and how even subtle adjustments can significantly influence the outcome.
I agree.
The shorten and change tone features can help keeping narration conversational.
And being able to hone in wording in the image creation prompt can really help get darn near the exact image I'm looking for.
I love the shorten. Sometimes SMEs, or the message conveyed, can be a little long, or need to fit to a particular shape/size/box. Shortening the message (while keeping the meaning) is extremely helpful.
Wording does matter. I've learned this as well. "Concise" is a synonym for "shorten" and "condense", but depending on word choice, AI may yield different results.LOL... I have SME's that love to ramble and restate just to be extra clear. I usually use a) improve writing and then b) shorten to make sure I don't lose key ideas as I reach for more concise text.
Hey Shelly!
The responsive AI was also a surprise to me and as you mentioned how one word can make all the difference. It's amazing to me how descriptive we can be on the image we want and AI will give that exact image!
Since I’ve been working mostly in Rise, I found the AI feature for generating first drafts the most helpful. As a newer instructional designer, starting from a blank page can feel overwhelming. Having AI create a starting point for lesson text or knowledge checks made the process feel more manageable.
I was surprised by how well it could adjust tone. The rewrite and shorten tools were especially useful for making content clearer and more conversational. That said, I did run into challenges when my prompts were too general. The responses felt generic until I added more context about the audience and learning goals.
Overall, I see AI as a support tool that improves efficiency, but it still requires thoughtful editing and alignment to ensure the content truly fits the course.
I have learned that prompts can be the "make or break" of creating content. Sometimes just changing a word or two in the prompt can make all the difference. Engaging in "conversation" with the AI tool can sometimes help get me to the right prompt in other AI platforms and I have found that to be the case with Articulate also.
I agree with you that AI is good for creating something to work from - and often, a very good something! - but it will always be important to read and edit in order to ensure content is accurate and conveys the information you want to convey. AI makes us more efficient, but it can't do all the work for us.
Erica - I completely agree! It all comes down to the prompt and I too have spent a lot of time on various projects tweaking them to get the output I want. The instructional designers where I work have created a prompt library for various tasks, tools or processes that have been tested with good results. This library of tested prompts saves us time by using them as a starting point and modifying only the specifics to the respective work we are doing.
Hey Erica! Thanks for sharing your experience! You're right that you'll get a better output from the AI Course Draft if you provide more specific details in the prompt section.
I've found the following prompt structure to produce stellar course drafts:
Create a training for [insert job role] to learn to ______.
Include strategies for _______.
Include a lesson for each of these items:
-Item 1
-Item 2
-Item 3
Tone: [insert words here to describe the tone of the course]Audience: [insert learner job role here]
Love this discussion!
I follow Dr. Phillippa Hardman, and recently she posted an intriguing prompt to align learning objectives with assessment. She was speaking about prompts for NotebookLM, but we could learn from her thought process. I will share it here:
"Constructive alignment, developed by John Biggs (1996), is the principle that every assessment item should directly reflect a stated learning objective. Put simply: if you can’t draw a straight line from your quiz question back to an objective, the question probably shouldn’t be there
Why it’s powerful
Misaligned evaluation measures the wrong things.How NotebookLM uniquely helps
Upload objectives + Kirkpatrick framework → instrument table with objective mappings + citations.Try This Prompt
Using Biggs constructive alignment, draft Level 1-3 evaluation items mapped to objectives.
Table: Item Type | Item Text | Mapped Objective | Kirkpatrick Level | Citation"
I agree that the AI feature is wonderful for generating first drafts. I like using it with a detailed outline that I've iterated with another AI tool from all my source documents. I find it helps make the Rise output more focused.
I agree with you that rewrite and shorten tools seem really useful. I find the output can be very wordy at times (much like myself!) and this is such an easy tool to fix that. That more conversational tone is helpful for keeping learners engaged and not having it come off as an information dump.
Good luck!!
