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?
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. For additional resources on Articulate's security and data protection, visit our Trust Center.
What content is best suited to connected packages? Is there content I shouldn’t use with connected packages?
Connected packages is best used to deploy content that’s updated frequently or that you plan to iterate on once it’s live.
Since the feature doesn't provide automatic version tracking, we don’t recommend using connected packages with content that requires strict audit trails or enhanced compliance procedures.
Are connected package updates in Rise considered new versions by my LMS?
No, only the files you manually upload to your LMS are considered new versions of the content. Updates you make in Rise are sent to whatever version of the file is currently uploaded to your LMS.
In which regional data center does my content reside?
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.
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.
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.
237 Replies
Hi,
We are so excited about this feature! This would make our live a lot easier, since we regularly (have to) update our courses.
I've tested it with my own LMS (Rise Up) and it works as a charm. But then, I tested it with our client's LMS (SAP Success Factors), and she does not see the update. I've also tested it on SCORM Cloud, and there are no updates there either.Is this normal? Does it only work with an LMS in the same environment as the Rise author?
In both tests, the learner completed the course (since it is so short for testing purposes :-)
Hey OpforArticulate Thanks for trying this out and reporting the issue you experienced. Do you recall if you clicked "update" after making changes to the course?
Noting a few places below where this happens. If you didn't click update, that's the culprit, if you did then I would need support to grab the URL for the course from inside Rise from you so we could look into it.
If you've made edits to the course, you'd see the orange dot indicator in the publish menu, like so:
If you click the "view updates" button above, this pop-up opens and provides a quick way to update:
If you click onto "Connected Package" from the publish menu, you'd also see an update button at the top of the course:
Hi there, this is awesome - i have a question about resetting learner progress.
The way we use Articulate is that for one 1hour session we create 1 Rise course, and then 5-6 different sections within the lesson. (ie. in Articulate lingo: one Articulate course, with several Lessons - designed to all be done in roughly one sitting - see screenshot)
Suppose a user is halfway thru a lesson when my connected package updates - what happens? can they still complete that current lesson?
also i presume all the lessons they've completed previously stay completed.Hi, we're very interested in this feature at my company because we have a lot of content in various languages that is updated frequently. I’ve tested it on our test environment, and so far everything is working well, but I’d like to ask: when will this feature become an official part of Rise, rather than still being under development? I wouldn’t want to start using it in production if it’s still under development.
Hi tom_h,
Thanks for reaching out! It sounds like Connected Packages could be a great fit for your workflow.
You're correct that, by default, any lessons a learner has already completed will remain completed after you publish an update. If you choose Reset Learner Progress when publishing, only in-progress learners will have their progress reset and start over, while learners who have already completed the course will keep their completion.
For your question about someone who is actively in the middle of a lesson when you publish an update, the update isn't applied during an active session. They should be able to continue working through the course, and the updated content will be picked up the next time they launch or refresh it.
Feel free to share your thoughts via our feedback form as you continue to explore this Labs experiment!
fantastic! thanks LucianaPiazza
This feature is going to save me so much time! I build software training and we are CONSTANTLY updating our courses. We keep complex inventory spreadsheets with all of the links from our LMS and our articulate files so we can quickly connect source to course and re-upload content. With this feature, I don't have to do all of the inventory upkeep that I have in the past on top of the obvious time save with re-uploads. Being able to push updates directly will help us iterate faster and keep our customer base happy and more trusting of our content. I'm so happy about this update I could cry! Thank you!
Hello BethanyAlston,
It's so great to learn how Connected Packages will simplify your workflow and save your team time, especially with frequent course updates. Amazing news!
It sounds like this experiment will help you iterate faster and keep your content current for your learners. Thanks again for sharing your excitement!
We'd love to hear more about your experience via our feedback form as you continue testing! ✨
Is there a list of LMS's that support this feature? In particular, I am interested in whether it is compatible with Success Factors and/or Workday.
Hi MatthewGiancola Connected Packages are distributed as standard SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 files, so they're compatible with any LMS that supports those standards, there's no official "supported LMS" list beyond that.
We've had community members confirm here in this discussion it working in Workday, Cornerstone, SumTotal, Docebo, and others. SuccessFactors supports SCORM, so you should be good to go. If you give it a try, we'd love to hear how it goes!
Is there a timeline of when this will be available in the live system and not just as a Beta version? catganim
I'm wondering this as well. I've been hesitant to use it in our workflow because it's not confirmed as a permanent production feature. I've tested it and see the value! Fingers crossed
SandraSchlag436 FreddyPinto-4f6 We'll be making this into a permanent capability. I'm hopeful our timeline puts this into the general audience's hands by the end of October, but I can't promise that date won't shift a little.
We're loving this feature so far and are really excited about the possibility to streamline workflows and make it less disruptive to learners when we update something. Updates have previously meant we have to wipe a learner's progress entirely to stop them getting stuck between SCORM files so this is a gamechanger for us.
The only bug we've found is that the fullscreen button in the native video player controls of a 'Video' block no longer works when a module is published as a connected package. It works perfectly when in preview in Rise but no longer does anything once published as a connected package.
One more update for you HollyC storyline blocks now also work in full screen mode in case that was also an area of concern for you.
Steps are the same:
- Make a small change to the course (adding a space is enough)
- Click Update on the existing connected package
- Click Download Package and re-upload the new file to the LMS
Sorry for the slow follow-up on the Video block fullscreen question. That one is fixed now. Packages downloaded before August 18 need a refresh to pick it up:
- Make a small change to your course
- Click Update on the existing connected package
- Then Download Package again and re-upload it to your LMS
(Fullscreen for Storyline blocks is a separate issue we're still working on, very close to a fix there too.) Could you give it a try and let us know if the Video block goes fullscreen now?
Hello HollyC!
Thank you so much for sharing this! It's wonderful to hear that Connected Packages are already helping streamline your workflow and avoid disrupting learners when you need to make updates. That's exactly the kind of experience we're hoping to enable.
Regarding the fullscreen issue, thanks for pointing that out. One known limitation to be aware of is that the fullscreen button within Storyline blocks doesn't currently work in Connected Packages. We have this tracked internally and have a plan to repair it.
Everything else should function as expected, but since Connected Packages are still in Labs, if you notice anything else that doesn't seem right, please continue to share it here or reach out to our Support team. Feedback like yours is incredibly valuable as we continue to improve the experience!
Not sure if this has been asked. How does the connect package work when it comes updating a Storyline block that is in Rise?
Hello AmandaSchust054,
Great question! If you update a Storyline block in your Rise course (for example, by republishing your Storyline project and replacing the block in Rise), those changes will be included the next time you click Update now for your Connected Package.
One known limitation to be aware of is that the fullscreen button within Storyline blocks doesn't currently work in Connected Packages. We have this tracked internally and a plan to repair it.
Other than that, everything should function as expected. Since Connected Packages are still in Labs, if you run into anything unexpected along the way, please let us know in this thread or reach out to our Support team. We'd love to hear more about your experience via our feedback form!
Hey!
I'm having issues with publishing microlearning course. Links that lead to the package (I've tried pushing few) have a button, but it doesn't start the downloading of a package.
Am I doing something wrong?Hello YevgenKruglov,
Thanks for reaching out. I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with publishing your microlearning! I've opened a support case on your behalf so we can take a closer look at your setup. We'll be in touch shortly via email!
This feature is really exciting and everything runs smoothly. The only bug we’ve hit is that the Exit LMS button in the top‑right corner shows “object not found”. Wondering if there’s a way to resolve it.
Following up on the "object not found" screen you were seeing when exiting in LearnWorlds: we've shipped a fix for the exit button. To pick it up, you'll need a fresh package:
- Make a small change to your course
- Click Update on the existing connected package
- Then Download Package again and re-upload it to your LMS
Could you give it a try and let us know whether the exit button works for you now?
Hey ChristineT-gwx Thanks so much for sharing this! This is a known issue and we plan to fix this before we bring this feature to all users (and out of Labs).
Hi ChristineT-gwx! We had a similar issue with the Exit button and I've reported the issue to Articulate. We're using Docebo and it'll show a 404 Not Found graphic for a split second and then return the user to the LMS. What LMS are you using?
@JenLynnRusso We’re on LearnWorlds. When we click to exit the course player, we get a black screen with “object not found” and no redirect.
What if the Rise file contains Storyline blocks? Like for web objects. Will it still work?
Sportsphoto5466 Storyline blocks are supported when added to a Rise course distributed as a Connected Package. One known limitation to be aware of: the fullscreen button within Storyline blocks doesn't currently work in Connected Packages, we have this tracked and a plan to repair it. Everything else should function as expected, but since this is still in Labs, if you run into anything else please reach out to support or share it here!
