Studio 13 review on LinkedIn - Fair?

Oct 16, 2013

Thought I'd share this review I came across on LinkedIn this morning: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Articulate-Studio-13-Review-3734743.S.5795964562545074176

Having upgraded to Studio 13, I think this review was written by someone who hasn't tried the software.

My team works on 64-bit Windows laptops and we have no issues. We don't have Office 13 so I can't say if that works. Even Articulate's tech specs confirm that Studio runs on 64-bit machines: http://www.articulate.com/products/storyline-tech-specs.php

There is not even a single mention of the illustrated characters or photographic character that comes with Studio.

I don't normally read reviews, but this one seems out of order. 

22 Replies
Bruce Graham

Hi Nancy.

That link seems to be for Storyline and he's reviewing Studio.

He completely misses the distinction between people who have PowerPoint as their main data source (Studio) and those who work from a blank canvas (Storyline).

Would be interesting to get a rebuttal/comment from Articulate on his site.

Apparently he's the "4th most influential person in the eLearning world", so perhaps his view counts for something?

Dunno - and do not feel qualified enough to say anything.

Tom Ashcraft

I'm running Studio '13 and Storyline on a 64bit OS Dell without any problems.

Maybe he "forgot" to mention the built-in characters so he could get more clicks on his affiliate links to the brothers templates? I noticed he included it twice in the review.

Compare the LinkedIn review with that this guy did: http://www.tim-slade.com/top-5-new-features-in-articulate-studio-2013--oct.-7%2c-2013.html#.Ul6seFDYeoo You can tell which guy actually uses the software to build courses.

Alexandros Anoyatis

Tom Ashcraft said:

Maybe he "forgot" to mention the built-in characters so he could get more clicks on his affiliate links to the brothers templates? I noticed he included it twice in the review.

To be fair to the guy, that's incorrect. The first URL link gets added automatically by the LinkedIn "linter" (similar to Facebook) at the bottom of the page.

Alex

Tom Ashcraft

Alex - good catch and my bad. I didn't realize how LinkedIn handled affiliate links.

Speaking of fairness, his affiliate links should be disclosed in his review. In this case, it feels even more egregious because he's suggesting Studio is deficient in characters by leaving out the 40 built-in characters while advertising another product which he gets kickbacks from.

That's quite slimey, IMO.

Sheila Bulthuis

I've read many of Craig's reviews (on his actual website), particularly those for LMSs, and have the same issue that's evident here - I think he has some pretty strong, long-standing opinions about certain products and/or features, and it often seems his reviews are overly influenced by those opinions, rather than being open-minded, start-from-a-clean slate reviews.

And Jerson, most of his reviews (that I've seen) have typos, etc. If that bothered you in this one, it would drive you crazy in some of the others.

And yet... I actually had a client refer me to his site "because he's an expert."  *sigh*

Jerson  Campos

I once developed a script in Unix that would fix some of the glitches in some software we used. After that I was considered an expert by my coworkers ( and a majority of the software users) and they would go to me with all sorts of software issues.  To tell the truth, I just got lucky when I put that script together, I had no clue what I was doing.

I wonder how Craig got designated as an expert and "thought leader". I read some of his post, but I couldn't really get into them because of his writing style and lack of content. From his website I see that he is a LMS consultant and was a Instructional Designer/Developer in the past. But his website and his writing lacks the professionalism that should match the pedestal that he/others have put himself on.

I don't know the guy and I don't mean to knock him down, but comparing his writing to Tom Kuhlman's, heck even some of the feedback provided by Bruce, Phil, Steve, (and many others here) I just wonder how he became the 4th most influential elearning person. 

Christine Hendrickson

Hi everyone,

Great news! I wanted to stop by and let you all know that Studio '13 Update 3 is now available.

Along with many other improvements and feature enhancements, Studio '13 will now support 64-bit installations of PowerPoint.

Click here to view the list of changes made in the new update.

Click here to download Update 3.

Thanks and have a great day!

Christine

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