LYNDA Style Courses in Articulate 360

Great idea, Coniqua! I haven't seen any examples like this in the community, unfortunately. Here's my take on pros and cons of these 2 methods:

In-Course Simulation Pros

• You can add in tips that alert them if they click in the wrong spot, so they can't really get lost. This may make people who are not super comfortable with technology feel less intimidated since it's a more guided approach.
• You can test them on whether or not they follow the correct click-path

In-Course Simulation Cons

• Because it's more guided, learners typically can't click anywhere they want at any time. There's a "correct" and an "incorrect" place to click in most situations, which is not the case in the actual software. For people who are more tech savvy and who are comfortable learning how to use new software more independently this may feel limiting.

Independent Exercise Pros

• Allows people to practice in the actual environment they'll be working in, so it's more realistic. (All the buttons are active, for example).
• People who are more advanced may feel less limited with this approach.

Independent Exercise Cons

• Some people may feel intimidated by this approach, which is a little less guided. They won't get in-app feedback if they're not doing something correctly.
• There's no way for test how they did on the exercises.

I'm sure there are many more pros and cons for each method. I'm curious to see what other people think! :)

Thanks for your reply Allison. In my case the software itself isn't new (Excel) but the walkthrough is how to use this specific workbook. Given that people have a general working knowledge of the Excel basics I think it's ok to allow for a bit more exploration. You are right in that there are no "checks", in some instances I'm using a screenshot to say, if you input the sample data correctly this is what the resulting output should look like. In this way they are able to at least do a self-check and hopefully catch any errors. 

That makes total sense! :)