Forum Discussion
New in Labs: Connected Packages
Connected packages is still in development and will receive updates as part of Labs. Functionality will change over time. Some options could be modified, while others may be removed based on feedback and feature stability. There is no guarantee that Labs experiments will become production features.
The Connected packages feature solves the ages-old headache of keeping your training up to date in your LMS. Now, instead of having to download a fresh package from Rise 360, then uploading it to your LMS every time you make a change, you can deliver updates to your content across LMS environments with just a few clicks.
Connected packages fulfills the dream of publishing once, then dynamically updating your content without re-uploading to your LMS!
Note: Currently, connected packages can only be exported from Rise 360 as SCORM 1.2 and 2004 files.
How to Use Connected Packages
Unlike with standard packages, connected packages let you quickly update your training and notify your learners of changes.
Publishing a Connected Package
Creating a connected package for training content is as simple as creating a standard LMS package.
- Open the content you want to publish from your Rise 360 dashboard. Then click Publish in the upper-right corner of the screen and select LMS.
- Choose an LMS standard. For connected packages, you must select SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 (any edition).
- Select Connected package.
- Toggle the Notify learners option to display a banner to learners when you update the training.
- After selecting any tracking, reporting, and advanced options, click Download.
- Upload the package to your LMS as usual.
Updating a Connected Package
After you’ve published your connected package to your LMS, all future updates happen right in Rise 360.
- When you make changes to your content, an indicator displays on the Publish menu.
- Click either the View Updates button or you can select Connected package from the Publish menu to jump to step 4.
- Select Connected package. If you’ve published your content to Reach 360 or shared with Quick Share, you’ll be able to select those as well.
- Click Update now. Rise handles the rest!
If you toggle or have previously activated the Notify learners option, your learners will see an update banner the next time they refresh or log in to the training.
Note: You can also download a copy of the last-deployed LMS package by clicking Download again.
Connected Packages FAQs
When I deploy training to my LMS via Connected Packages, is Articulate the host for my content? If so, in which regional data center does it reside?
Yes, training deployed to LMS via Connected Packages is hosted on Articulate's systems and is subject to the same security and data policies as other data hosted on the platform, as outlined in our Terms of Service.
While regional hosting isn't a consideration at this stage of development, Connected Packages should be available in your regional hosting location when launched for general availability.
What happens when I delete training in Rise that's been deployed using connected packages? Will training work in my LMS if I turn off the Labs feature?
Content deleted from your Rise dashboard will still function in your LMS until you permanently delete the source training. You’ll be able to restore it from the trash and continue to update via Connected Packages without manually uploading a new package to your LMS. When permanently deleted, the connected package is also deleted.
If you disable the Labs feature, all connected packages are deactivated and deleted, but the source content remains untouched.
Permanently deleting associated Rise content or disabling Labs, will cause the training in your LMS to stop functioning. To restore, manually upload a standard package as a new version of the same training.
Can I use the same troubleshooting steps with Connected Packages as I do with Standard Packages?
Yes, while your content is hosted by Articulate, the same troubleshooting steps, such as resetting learner progress and hiding the LMS interface, can still be applied as detailed in the Rise 360 user guide.
Do Connected Packages send information to Articulate from my LMS?
While the Connected Packages feature is in Labs, we use a third-party data subprocessor, Datadog, to track certain information in order to identify and debug issues as they arise. In particular: Course ID, Learner ID (based on the Subscription ID plus an LMS Learner ID, if one is returned by the LMS), and your subscription ID. This information is not captured for every Connected Package.
Additionally, Allow usage data collection is enabled by default for all content exported to an LMS. This option provides Articulate with the course ID launched and non-identifiable learner usage data, as shown in our data collection details. It can be disabled on a per-package basis.
If I collaborate with other creators, can they update training deployed to my LMS?
Only content owners and collaborator managers with the feature enabled can send training updates via Connected Packages.
What content is best suited to connected packages? Is there content I shouldn’t use with connected packages?
Connected packages is best used for content that’s updated frequently or that you plan to iterate on once it’s live. Due to the nature of updates, we don’t recommend using connected packages with content that requires strict audit trails, enhanced compliance procedures, or LMS version history tracking.
Can I download packages after initially publishing via connected packages?
Yes. There’s a Download button at the top of the LMS publish screen. Keep in mind that you have access only to the last-deployed version of the package.
Do connected package updates count as versions? Can I revert to a previous version of my training?
When working with connected packages, your LMS will only count as versions the files you manually upload, not the updates you make in Rise. While you can revert to a previous Snapshot, then update the connected package as indicated in the steps above to see restored content in your LMS, this isn’t considered a new “version” by your LMS.
Will connected packages be available for other LMS export standards? Is it coming to Storyline 360?
We would love to hear your feedback on what export format you’d like to see next for Connected Packages! And while Storyline support isn’t planned at this time, if it’s something you’d like to see, please let us know.
Share Your Feedback
For this initial Labs release, we want to hear how connected packages perform across real LMS environments and whether the experience feels as intuitive. Your feedback will directly influence development, so consider sharing your thoughts on the following topics:
- Uses: Does the "publish once, update anytime" workflow sync with how you manage training content?
- Bugs. Is anything not working as expected? Do the updates behave as you’d expect with your specific LMS setup?
- Improvements. How could this feature be better? What changes, if any, would you like to see?
- Insights. How does this new publish-to-update workflow fit into your day-to-day?
You can enable and disable this feature from the Labs page in account settings. Share your thoughts in this Labs forum or use the feedback form directly within the feature.
71 Replies
UPDATE: I have been waiting for this!! I work in customer education for a SaaS so we are frequently updating our courses, if I use the the connected package option can I control when to push the changes? That didn't seem clear to me in the article. We are trying to work ahead of our new features releases, so there are instances where I am updating a feature that isn't GA for our customers yet.
We tested this and see that we can push the changes when we are ready. This looks like it will be very useful for our team.
Hi LaurenGray-27ee I'm so excited to hear that this will help you and to answer your question: YES, you get to choose when you hit the update button and changes go out to the connected package.
Please be sure to fill out our feedback survey and share how it went :)
Insights:
We use 3 or 4 different LMS across my organization worldwide.
We currently have to republish every time an update is made… so “publish once, update anytime” worflow sync is a real game changer!
I looked into the Rustici SCORM Cloud platform a long time ago to share SCORM content like your Connected package do.
This would save time and ensure that everyone, everywhere, has the latest version of each course at the same time.Improvements:
No doubt I’ll need to involve my IT department sooner or later… because the fact that content we own is ultimately “hosted outside our organization” could raise concerns.
Maybe providing technical documentation specifically for them could help.Matthieu_W If there's something you need that you don't have, please reach out to us and we will do our best to support. It would help to see what an IT department might need first before we produce something that misses the mark.
I love that feature, but need to play a little bit with scenarios in my mind.
What happens if a seat or subscription will be canceled.
I guess, the content linked to a canceled seat will be taken by another seat. Does that work for the connected packages as well?
What happens if someone will cancel the whole subscription? Will the content still be available or for a defined time period only, for how long? Or should the leaving subscription owner publish the (former) connected packages as "real" SCORM files import them to their LMS and cancel the subscription when that is done?
By the way, it should never be a good idea to cancel an Articulate subscription. :-)
RalfHartmann-16 Please take a look at our Terms of Service for the full details on the subscription cancelation scenario, but the short version: shortly after subscription cancelation, course content is deactivated/no longer available for end users if it's hosted on our servers.
And when a seat is canceled, course ownership is transferred, so the course distributed via Connected Package or Quick Share would remain active and a new owner would be assigned.
Does Rise send question-level interaction data for each quiz question to the LMS via Connected Packages?
SelvaMalakia-f5 Yes, we send question reporting to the LMS.
Hello
Are connected packages supported by Sumtotal LMS?
I've made a test but it doesn't seem to work.
Thank youandres_marcos It should work with any LMS, but this type of feedback is something we hope to learn during Labs. Can you be more specific about "it doesn't seem to work"?
- Are you able to download the file successfully from Articulate?
- Are you able to upload the file to your LMS?
- What happens when you try to launch the course via your LMS? White screen? Error?
- Is your LMS "offline" or can it access a network/the internet?
Hello catganim
Thank you for getting back to me.
Here below my comments:- In my first tests I wasn't able to download the connected packages, but since the last update made by Articulate it works.
- I'm able to upload the connected package to Sumtotal. My test of Yesterday showed the status "failed". Today I was lucky and could get it to work. The course shows up and works.
- The LMS can access the network.
- THE UPDATE WORKS AND SHOWS UP IN SUMTOTAL!
Congratulations for the good work on the updates! We find them very useful and appreciate.
Hello, I ran into an issue today when trying to upload a Connected Package to Cornerstone LMS. In the Rise course, there were multiple Custom Blocks that contained PNG files and Ai-generated audio clips. When the Connected Package was uploaded, the PNG files were missing, and the audio clips wouldn't play. I published it as a regular SCORM 1.2 file, and both issues were resolved. Please inform!
Hello Mason_Osepchuk,
We're sorry to hear you ran into this while testing out Connected Packages. It may have been related to an AI incident we fixed late yesterday.
As a troubleshooting step, please try again today and let us know how it goes!
Hi Luciana,
I just tested again and the issue is not resolved. I tried updating the Connected Package, and even re-downloading and re-uploading. No luck.
Just tested this with our LMS! Works perfect! This will save loads of time in the feature. However only after a while, since I would have to repackage with the feature turned on! 🙃
That's great to hear, Iris! 🎉 Thanks for testing it with your LMS and confirming it's working well.
We know having to republish existing content to take advantage of the feature isn't ideal, but we're glad it looks like it'll be a significant time-saver going forward. 😊
I left this feedback through the form but also wanted to make it visible to any Docebo LMS users:
I downloaded the 2004 3rd ed SCORM for Docebo LMS. Several issues so far:
- If you add an exit button to the course, and learner clicks on Rise exit button while in Docebo player, the player will display a 404 message for about 2-3 seconds before returning to player table of contents.
- If you have a skip ahead quiz in your original published course and then try to delete it from Rise, it will show "processing" forever. Instead you have to convert the quiz to a normal quiz and then delete. That seemed to work and was reflected in the LMS, but...
- If learner's progress is stopped at lesson/quiz that then gets deleted on Rise side, and the learner returns to LMS, they will be greeted with a very blank page 😢
- Subsequent updates to the course did not work after this. LMS iFrame displays "Your content is loading" message and does not load Rise content.
What did work: Update banner 🎉
JenLynnRusso Thank you for sharing this feedback, our engineering folks will look into this and we will reach out if we need more details.
Thanks so much for the detailed write-up, this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps us improve Connected Packages, and I appreciate you flagging it for the community.
Issues 2, 3, and 4 (structure changes + blank page + content not loading)
These are all related to how the LMS handles course structure changes. When you delete a lesson or quiz, or make any change that alters the course structure, you'll need to toggle on Reset Learner Progress when publishing the update. This applies to Connected Packages the same way it does with standard LMS exports.
From our support docs: "If you delete a lesson in your course, then update the course in your LMS, some learners might see a blank page. If this happens, toggle Reset Learner Progress and click Continue to confirm. When learners launch the newly updated course, their progress will be reset. Their quiz data will be retained."
The full article is here with more scenarios that may be useful: Rise 360 Export to LMS, PDF, and the Web, bullet 6 is especially relevant.
Issue 1 (exit button → 404 flash in Docebo)
This one we want to dig into further. It may be specific to how Docebo handles the exit event, we haven't confirmed whether this is unique to Connected Packages or present in standard LMS exports too. I'm going to ask support to reach out to you for some specific info that would help us debug it.
Thanks again — really helpful report.
What exact learner data is transmitted to Articulate when a Connect Package launches? For example: name, email, LMS user ID, course ID, completion status, IP address, device/browser data, analytics, quiz responses, suspend data, or interaction data.
KellyMcDonald-6 We use a third party data sub-processor, Datadog, to track some information for debugging purposes while this feature is in Labs (subprocessor info). In particular: Course ID, LearnerID (based on the Subscription ID + an LMS Learner ID if one is sent back by the LMS), and your Subscription ID. This is not captured for every Connected Package, only a percentage to try and debug any issues that come up.
In addition to that, when you export the course you have the option to enable "Allow usage data collection", which lets us know the Course ID was launched and some basic browser data from the learner. This feature is optional and is anonymous in terms of the learner identity.
Ok, I've tested some more and found a possible bug:
within the custom blocks various items do not display in the Connected Packages that do appear in the regular single download. I have tested various custom blocks, and they all have the same issue. It seems to have no problem with text, but rather with some shapes, colors, and sometimes even images. I add some attachments so you can see the difference.
Single Download - this is what it should look like:
Connected Page - this is what I get with the connected page and update
IrisSchlabitz Thank you for sharing this, we're looking into it and will reach out if we have questions.
IrisSchlabitz We've just rolled out a fix, would you mind giving this a fresh try? I was advised that no republishing or exporting should be needed.
Hi catganim
it seems to be working well now. But I realized another bug: The Connected Packages option now removes our LMS header. This is what it should look like (packaged with the single download package):
But this is what I get (Connected Package):
The header is important since the learner would have no way to return to the other content within the LMS.
I hope you can also fix that problem as quick :-)
