Week 1 Discussion

Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?  Instant convert is especially helpful for brainstorming and exploring different ways to present information. I love that you can quickly generate and see multiple formats and you can choose what’s clearest, saving significant time and effort.

What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted? Instant convert is very helpful, but it can sometimes change or omit important details. As with any AI tool, you must review the output carefully to ensure the message remains accurate and reflects what you intend to say.

Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?
--> The knowledge check block generator. I love the idea of taking a block that is already made, and having AI generate the quiz or the knowledge check based upon what I've already added to the course. From there I can tweak, but I liked the thought of seeing what it came up with. I also found it extremely useful to be able to not only drop multiple files when you start from scratch using AI, but also being able to add in your own prompts. It was very beneficial to be able to drop in multiple resources, and tell it which one to focus on. 

What surprised you about how AI handled text or media generation? 
--> A tip I have never thought about is adding hex codes into the prompt. I liked the example of taking one of the prompts for the already established image options, copying it, and tweaking it to fit my needs. Although the image generation wasn't always solid (the example was a child in a shopping cart, facing the wrong way), for the most part it provided a starting point that is useable. 

• Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities? I really liked the ability to convert blocks; sometimes I might want to add a more interactive element to a course, so converting a block from an accordion to flash cards or creating a matching activity is really nice!
• What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted? The biggest challenges were with the image generation. Even if I told it explicitly to not include words, it would include them anyway (and usually spell them incorrectly or create weird fake characters). I also tried a suggestion from the Rise video to include a hex code for a specific brand color in the custom style, and it printed the hex code as text in the image and used incorrect colors in the image!

As I was going through the activities I noticed that the video in the last Rise task didn't really match what was intended. It appears that the video misses a step. You have to go in and delect the sample video and activity instructions to get the summary to come up correctly. Otherwise you just get placeholder info on the importance of key takeaways.

Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?

The feature that felt most intuitive and immediately useful was the inline text generation and rewrite suggestions within Articulate 360. Being able to highlight existing content and ask the AI to refine it—without leaving the authoring environment—made the workflow feel seamless. As I’m applying this training to my own courses in parallel, I could immediately see the value during active development. It supported quick iteration, especially when improving clarity, adjusting learner‑facing language, or generating alternate versions of instructional text. This felt particularly valuable during early drafts, where speed and momentum matter more than perfection.

What surprised you about how AI handled text or media generation?

I was surprised by how well the AI maintained instructional intent and context, especially when generating or refining content tied to learning objectives. What stood out most was seeing it break down content from my existing PowerPoint slides into more interactive, learner‑friendly elements—that part was honestly mind‑blowing. Rather than producing generic text, it preserved the tone and purpose of the original material while enhancing clarity and flow. I was also impressed by how effectively it could generate structured content, such as step‑by‑step explanations or concise summaries, from minimal prompts. It reinforced the idea of AI as a true co‑creation partner rather than just a drafting tool.

My answers are going to about AI Assistant for Rise.

• Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities?

Most of the instant convert (accordion, paragraph, etc.) because the content was basically the same, just presented differently.

• What surprised you about how AI handled text or media generation?

How realistic it looked. It seemed like a human had actually typed out the text or created the graphic (but sometimes the graphics do have obvious errors, so that needs to be fixed).

• Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why?

AI Image because I usually have a good prompt to use and I know what style I want. Change tone is also helpful in order to avoid typical monotonous training.

• What challenges did you face when trying to get AI to produce the results you wanted?

I have to get used to highlight the text, selecting the Edit with AI button, and then choosing what I want (make shorter, change tone, etc.). I usually only highlight text if I am going to copy, delete, or change the font.

Also, the AI block feature looks a little too open-ended, I need to learn how to use it better so I get the results I want.

Lastly, I don't think there is Control Z when it comes to using the AI Assistant, so I need to get used to copying the original content before playing around with the AI feature.

Which editing tools (rewrite, shorten, change tone, etc.) did you find most valuable, and why? I like the shorten option - sometimes AI can make content wordy, and using the shorten option can make the text more clear, concise, and to the point.

Which AI Assistant feature felt most intuitive or useful to you during the practice activities? I really enjoyed the create knowledge check feature. It took the content and easily added a question that was accurate and relevant, which will ultimately lead to better learner retention during a course. 

1. Most intuitive or useful feature
   The accessibility support stood out most, especially the ability to quickly generate alt text for images. It made meeting accessibility standards easier, and it didn't feel like an extra step.
2. What surprised me
   Refining my the generated content sometimes took longer than expected, and the output oftentimes still needed a lot of work to be professional and usable. While the AI is helpful, it still has a long way to go. In many cases, I found myself thinking that writing the content myself would be faster than revising multiple AI drafts.
3. Most valuable editing tool
   The “Shorten” tool was the most valuable for me. It helped tighten up content without losing meaning, which is especially important in e-learning where clarity and brevity matter.
4. Challenges
   The biggest challenge was getting the tone and details to align with my organization’s specific voice and internal language, and, as previously mentioned, the several rounds of revisions it took to get the content (text, audio, and video) to an acceptable and usable state.

The most intuitive and useful features for me were Rewrite, Change Tone, and test creation. They make it easy to adapt content for different audiences without rewriting everything from scratch. Image creation has potential, but it’s still not intuitive and the quality isn’t there yet for professional use.

For me the most intuitive were:
1. AI text to speech
2. AI image generation
I used the text to speech feature to voice videos on another project. I had to export to SCORM/LMS and pull the files from the assets folder then over to Premiere Pro for final authoring. Saved a bunch of studio and production time!
AI image generation was fast and fluid, without having to use another tool and all the fingers were correct :)
Prompting is key as I refined the "woman working at a desk..." prompt with a Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli  and added a Lo-Fi cat on the desk. Instant engagement as end users recognized the cat and liked the anime vibe.