is articulate 360 right for us?

Hi Iman, 

Great questions and you've certainly come to the right place. 

1. The new set up within Articulate 360 allows you to choose exactly how you want to publish for Flash, HTML, or both. It's an easy selection from within the publishing window shown here: ]

You'll also notice that you can determine which is the default as well:

• HTML5/Flash: This publishes your course as HTML5 first with Flash fallback. Learners will see HTML5 output if they’re using a supported HTML5 browser. If not, they’ll see Flash output.
• Flash/HTML5: This publishes your course as Flash first with HTML5 fallback. Learners will see Flash output if they’re using a Flash-enabled browser. If not, they’ll see HTML5 output.

So that should take care of the concerns about Flash being obsolete or security issues. 

2. The new set up in regards to the responsive mobile player of Storyline means they don't have to download something extra, it'll just appear as shown here if viewing on a mobile device and published with the HTML5 mobile option. Here is some more helpful FAQs about the new responsive player.  The Articulate Mobile player is still an option and if you choose that as a publishing option it'll be the default view for those on an iPad or Android tablet. 
Rise would be a different authoring environment than Storyline 360, and as such Rise courses were designed to be fully responsive, meaning the entire course and its content automatically adapt to any screen size and orientation. The responsive player is used for Storyline 360 and Studio 360 HTML5 courses on tablets and smartphones. The player itself adapts to the learner's screen size and orientation, but the content maintains its aspect ratio.

3. Our team can help you check the availability of academic discounts and answer any other questions you have, so you may want to reach out to them directly here. 

If there is anything else I can assist with, please don't hesitate to ask. :) 

Hithanks for the quick and helpful reply.
1. will all the sl2 files be updated to 360 flawlessly with no glitches?
2. when publishing on my sl2 I used the lms option and I checked the box for "include html5 output". which of the four publishing options in 360 is equivalent to the method I used on my sl2?
3. Will using html5 ONLY address ALL the problems caused by flash platforms? All modern browsers(safari, chrome, firefox,...) support html5 fully I assume don't they?
thank you :)

Hi Iman,

1. We've been pounding on it pretty hard in the time leading up to this launch and haven't run into anything that preventing us from releasing it, but with that being said the unexpected, well is unexpected. If you run into an issue we'd want to know about it immediately by having you contact our Support Engineers. 

2. If you used the Flash/html5 option - that'd be the same as what you're doing now. The benefit of the other options is you can choose to default to HTML5 first, or HTML5 only. 

3. Again, I'd hesitate to do such broad generalizations that it would fix all the things, but the HTML5 support we're able to provide in Articulate 360 is across many more browsers than within Storyline 2 and Studio '13. We felt confident in including those additional browsers based on the work our team did in streamlining the HTML5 output, even with certain browsers still having a less than stellar HTML5 reputation. 

Hope that helps! 

hi

I used the lms publish option with the html5 option selected on sl2. given what you explained this is the flash/html5 option which means "This publishes your course as Flash first with HTML5 fallback. Learners will see Flash output if they’re using a Flash-enabled browser. If not, they’ll see HTML5 output.". So why were some users who did have updated flash player installed experience problems while their browsers fully supported html5?

Also,If the flash/html5 means the base is flash and html5 is a backup for those who do not have flash enabled browsers, why would anybody choose the html5 ONLY option over the one with one main option available and a  backup?

Thank you for your help

Hi Iman, 

I'm not sure which problems or issues you're referring to, but I'd be happy to investigate that further if there was something specific you had in mind? Although the browser may have indicated being HTML5 compatible, our HTML5 support in Storyline 2 was limited to Chrome on a desktop or Mac and Safari on a Mac.

There are a number of users who have asked for HTML5 only as they cannot have Flash files on their servers or within their LMS. Similarly if you choose to have HTML5 be the default, you may not run into the issues such as the recent ones we saw here where users saw a Flash error message at the start a course in certain browsers. 

I think the big take away from this is, with Articulate 360 you've got options...how you publish, what tool you use, etc. :)

So for me on 360, do you think html5/ flash would be the safest option as opposed the flash/html5 I used on sl2?
Ps. Some problems experienced by users were:
Failing to load the course page for some
With a blank white page appearing(the most frustrating issue we experienced with nearly 10 percent of users).changing browser or updating flash did not work
No audio on some slides
Course loading taking forever(with that loading  circle turning around and around)
Quiz questions already answered begore users answering them

Also my last question to make sure ill go for 360 is this and id appreciate your reply.
When i published with sl2 the output scorm file was made up of several small files(not one main file) which made it impossible for the user to download the content as one complete flash file with "flash downloader" softwares. Will I also benefit from this degree of security on 360? As I make a living by making courses will I still be confident that users cannot download courses easily?   Thank you :)

And iman, nobody can reverse-engineer a course from the published output files; your hard work won't be easily duplicated.  Was that a concern for you?

Hi iman,

In regards to your courses loading slowly or just showing the blank page, that sounds like something our team would want to take a look at in terms of how the course is set up, where it's being hosted, and then the versions and iOS you're using to view it and having the difficulty with on the iPad. If you're able to share a copy of the .story file and a link to the published output we can investigate a bit further and if you'd prefer to share privately you can also send it along to our Support engineers here. You could also look at using the trial of Articulate 360 to take one of those courses and publish it to see the differences for yourself and how it'll behave. It's worth noting that once you update the courses into Storyline 360 they won't be backwards compatible to Storyline 2, but we will create a back up copy that you can still use and access if you decide to stick with Storyline 2.

I would highly recommend doing a trial of Captivate 9 before moving to SL 360.  I was very disappointed in many aspects of 360.  It doesn't seem worth it for my group.

Thanks for sharing your input, Stephanie.  Let us know if there's anything we can do to help out!

My team currently has SL 2 and are considering switching to A360.  Can you guys share pros and cons?  It is a big investment and I want to make the right decision.

Thanks.

Hi Michelle! 

Thanks for asking about Storyline 2 and how it compares to Storyline 360. 

Here's a grid that compares Storyline perpetual versions (Storyline 1 and Storyline 2 and 3) with Storyline 360 feature by feature.

While Storyline 360 has more than 20 new features, there are three major ways Storyline 360 differs from Storyline 2. 

First, Storyline 360 includes a responsive preview and responsive player. What that means is that you can now see what your course will look like on different devices before you publish. Then you can publish your course with one click for delivery to all those devices. The HTML5-based player detects the device and orientation your learners use and then provides the best possible viewing experience for that device by getting rid of browser chrome, hiding sidebar menus, etc. The best part is that you don’t have to do anything extra as a course author to make this work. And if you do move to Articulate 360, you can open and republish your Storyline 1 and 2 courses, and they’ll then be viewable via the responsive player. 

Second, because it’s part of Articulate 360, Storyline 360 integrates with Content Library, which has thousands of high-quality templates and characters that will help you create beautiful courses faster. I encourage you to check out Content Library assets here so you can see the breadth and quality available. Keep in mind, we’ll be expanding this library all the time. 

Finally, also because it’s part of Articulate 360, Storyline 360 integrates with Articulate Review, a simple web app that lets you share and gather consolidated feedback on courses from your stakeholders. We’re already hearing from many e-learning developers that Articulate Review will dramatically speed up their projects. 

Those are the main ways Storyline 360 differs from previous versions of Storyline. The key point to remember is that because it’s part of Articulate 360, you’ll have access to a ton of other apps, content, and even training with Articulate Live. Also because it’s a subscription, we’re able to release new features to Storyline 360 faster. For example, we’ll add closed-captioning and tables as soon as they’re done. 

If you’re interested in getting Storyline 360 as part of Articulate 360, keep in mind you’ll qualify for a significant first-year discount if you’re a customer. 

If the subscription model is not for you, don't worry - Storyline 3 was released a couple months ago and includes a lot of the great new features in Storyline 360 like the responsive player, closed captions and tables! 

Hi Ashley

We are currently using SL2 aswell and wanted to know if there was a payment gateway app integrated into 360 (or anything similar)?

thanks

Hello Joshua and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'payment gateway app'? You need a way to take payment from within a course? You could certainly use web object/links for this if needed. We do not have a way to take payment or charge for a course within our software if that's what you're asking.

Just let me know if I've totally missed your question here :)