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.
Notifying Learners of Changes and Resetting Learner Progress
If you update your content and want to notify learners but didn't select the option when you initially published your package, you can enable it when you publish changes.
- In your updated content, click Publish in the upper-right corner of the screen and select LMS.
- Toggle the Notify learners option.
- Click Update now.
With this option enabled, a banner displays for active learners whenever you update the training. Learners who've already completed the training don't receive any notification.
Sometimes, after making updates, you also need to reset learner progress so that active learners don't end up in a blank state when they resume the training. This functionality can now easily be enabled at any time when using connected packages.
- In your updated content, click Publish in the upper-right corner of the screen and select LMS.
- Toggle the Reset progress after updates option.
- Click Update now.
This operates the same as the Reset Learner Progress option in standard packages and does not reset the progress or cancel quiz scores for learners who've already completed the training.
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.
188 Replies
Game changer
So glad you think so, RobGibson-25619!
So far this has worked well for the most part, with a few expected glitches but overall it's a great addition. One thing that seems to cause an issue for me, is that I cannot download the packages that have been published on the LMS, the download button just does nothing. I don't know if it's a temporary bug or not but it's a problem, because I wanted to make another course from scratch and I no longer have the original files.
Hello SpirosZoumperis,
Great call opening a support case. I see that you're working with my colleague Genelyn. You're in excellent hands! We'll continue the conversation in your case, so everything is in one spot.
Thanks Luciana.
Thanks for the comment. It seems I found a quick workaround for now, so in case any one else has this issue I will post it below:
It looks like the issue stems from the language formatting. I was using Greek characters for the titles of my courses and some of them seem to cause that non-download thingy (only for the connected packages option).
Renaming the course to something else (preferably in standard English) will allow the download and, once you have the zip file, you can go back to changing the name to whatever you like. It will auto update once the user opens the course in the LMS.
We've noticed that if you are updating a connected course package and you have other Rise courses open, it seems to redirect all the open Rise courses to the course that you have just updated. You have to close them all and start over and update them one-by-one to avoid this happening.
Hello MITOLearningDes,
Thanks for flagging this and for the detailed description. That's helpful to know!
When you say other Rise courses are "open," do you mean multiple browser tabs? That context will help us better understand what you're experiencing.
Yes sorry, when there are other browser tabs open with Rise courses/modules, these become the course that was just updated via a connected package. It does not affect other browser tabs that are not Rise related.
I’ve submitted several support tickets about the 404 error message upon exiting the course when using connected packages. Maybe I’ll have better luck getting some help with this in the forum. LMS is Absorb.
Sorry you've been running into this and sorry the support tickets haven't gotten you to a resolution faster.
This is a known bug and it's not specific to Absorb; we've seen it across multiple LMSs. The fix is in our development queue, and once it ships, you'll need to redownload the package from Rise and re-upload it to Absorb to get the corrected version.
it works and it's awesome!
When using connected packages. The native exit course link in rise throws an error when clicked:
We have been noticing that when you are updating a connected package it sometimes doesn't 'update'. Depending on which method you use to update the package if you don't receive a 'notification' we advise doing it again until you get a successful confirmation notification. (See notification images below)
Thanks for sharing this, we have a small number of reports of updates not confirming on the first attempt, and we're investigating, but we haven't pinned down the root cause yet, so we don't have a fix to share right now.
Your workaround is the right call for now: if you don't receive a confirmation notification, retry the update. Once you see the confirmation, the update has gone through.
If you're able to share details about which update method you're using (the in-editor prompt vs. going through Publish → LMS → Connected Package), that context would be helpful as we dig into this.
Hi we only use the *Publish → LMS → Connected Package* method to update connected packages. This method remembers the previous update settings so this helps with consistency. Plus the full screen confirmation that the update has been successful is very helpful.
Full screen for videos (both Storyline embedded and Rise mp4) isn't working with this - can you confirm when it will be?
Thanks for flagging this! Both of these are known issues we're tracking:
Storyline blocks: The fullscreen button doesn't work in Connected Packages.
Rise video blocks (and embed blocks): Fullscreen also doesn't work — videos play inline only.
Both are on the roadmap for our broader release. In the meantime, if fullscreen is essential for the learner experience, a standard SCORM export is the workaround for now.
This feature is great!! What will happen with the SCORMs that you have uploaded to LMS if the feature goes away? We would like to do this to our trainings but is afraid that we will have to do more work if the feature is no longer available for us.
Hello HannaEinebrant! We're so glad you're enjoying this Labs Experiment! We will be making Connected Packages a permanent capability, so no need to worry about it disappearing. We're hopeful our timeline puts this into everyone's hands by the end of October, though that timeline may change.
I am so going to try this out!
That seems like a phantastic feature to me. Need to check with my IT if it will be OK to use (from what I read here, it should be), but I am certainly going to play with it to test it...
Productive work will only be possible once it is out of the lab stage (company rules...)
