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.
158 Replies
Nice addition to Publishing. The so-called 'Dynamic SCORMs' are available in Articulate. I hope the 'Standard SCORM publishing' method stays as usual.
Thank you for the improvement. One question: once the content has been published, do students lose their progress in the LMS, or is their progress still tracked?
Great question! Learner progress is not automatically reset when you publish an update through Rise to Connected Packages, your learners will pick up right where they left off.
The one exception is if you toggle on Reset Learner Progress when publishing an update. That's an intentional setting you'd use when you've made structural changes to the course (adding/removing lessons or quizzes) and want learners to start fresh.
A couple of caveats worth knowing:
- If you're replacing a standard SCORM file with a Connected Package for the first time, how the LMS handles existing progress data can vary. Some LMSs treat it as a new course version, which may affect prior completion records. Worth double-checking in your specific LMS.
- LMSs handle versioning differently in general, so if you see unexpected behavior, it's often worth checking your LMS's versioning settings alongside the Rise toggle.
I look forward to exploring this feature with our home-grown LMS. We've had issues in the past with course corruption after publishing minor course updates. While our IT has updated the LMS to "fix" the course corruption issue, this new feature will do much to help us avoid any issues when we republish. Can't wait to give it a go on my latest course.
This functionality is a game changer for us. With over a thousand Rise modules linked to shared courses this reduces our admin editing significantly. There is one additional setting we would need to be able to use the connected package. We have written assessments that we link to Rise course topics and these are opened and viewed as external links to the LMS (Written assessments are open book with no time limit). So we would need the share external setting to be included in the connected package, currently this setting disappears from the options.
MITOLearningDes Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're taking a look into this case and are planning on bringing this capability back as soon as we can.
MITOLearningDes This should be fixed now, give it another look and please let me know if you run into any issues.
@catganim Hi there, I've tried it with different courses and settings and it doesn't work. The error code "not found 404" is displayed when you copy a Rise course and paste it directly into the web browser. If it helps these are the two pathways. The first one is the traditional SCORM package which works.
https://elearning.mito.org.nz/pluginfile.php/145826/mod_scorm/content/58/scormcontent/index.html#/
https://packages.articulateusercontent.com/content/V6QiQZYWYS8LMQAgkue7mQYn5TyzLEs5/content.html#/
How do you reset a course if you've already downloaded and used the connected package in one LMS course but you want to use it in another course that shares the same content? If you lost the original connected download SCORM or your colleague used it, you'd want to be able to create a new, or duplicate version, and start again?
This screenshot shows a course before you create a connected package (Key word Recommended)
This screenshot shows a course after you have created a connected package (Key words Previously exported)
Once you've created the connected package the only download option is to update.
MITOLearningDes There are two spots where you can re-download the connected package noted below. Please let me know if I didn't understand the use case properly.
At the top of the publishing page, there's a "Download Package" button.
In the Publishing drop-down, the Connected Packages option has a "Download again" link.
Hi, that’s a really useful function.
Could you please explain how it is possible that the function is still disabled in our subscription, while one of our authors has already been able to use it? THX
Hey RobertStrigl this feature is available in Labs only, so each user needs to navigate to the labs area under the account area and enable the feature. This article explains how Labs works.
We've now tested this feature extensively, and it's great. However, we're having an issue where scenarios without an avatar are displayed in the LMS. Is anyone else here experiencing this problem?
KaiZimm We pinpointed this issue and corrected it. For any Connected Package already in your LMS here are the steps to get it updated:
- Navigate to the course
- Click Publish
- Click Connected Package
- On the Publishing UI, click Update Now - That should update it.
- Then you can verify the images are now loading properly in your LMS.
You will not have to re-download the package and re-upload to your LMS.
Please let us know how it goes. 😀
Hi, I am not seeing this connected packages feature as an option. How can I get this? I think this will be a game changer for a lot of systems training that I create.
Hello JennaOsborne-74,
Thanks for reaching out! So glad to hear that this will be such an impactful feature for your training!
In order to access Connected Packages, you'll need to toggle the specific Labs Experiment on in your Account Dashboard.
- Go to manage.articulate.com after logging in to your Articulate 360 subscription.
- Click Labs on the left-hand side of the window to access our active Labs experiments.
- Find Connected Packages in the available options and toggle this feature on.
Please let us know if you're still having trouble accessing this Labs experiment. We're happy to help!
Tested this in our LMS (Workday) and it worked like a charm. Very excited for this roll out!
Great news jonicampbell! Feel free to share your thoughts within our feedback link if you haven't done so already!
Hi all, just some feedback and info for anyone who may be using the code blocks.
Connected packages change the runtime origin to packages.articulateusercontent.com (instead of the LMS). This prevents custom HTML/JS blocks from accessing LMS parent-frame context that was previously available in static SCORM exports, such as the launch URL, parent DOM context, content ID, and LMS/session metadata.This also affects custom interactions that previously relied on LMS-side context to trigger platform actions, for example learners giving feedback actions such as liking content from within a RISE course.
I am not an expert but I understand that direct access/cross scripting to parent-frame session tokens is likely restricted for security reasons. Is there a supported way to pass safe LMS/container context into connected packages, such as launch URL, content ID, learner ID, custom query parameters, SCORM variables, or a secure postMessage/API mechanism for platform actions?
Adam_P, thanks for the detailed breakdown.
You've diagnosed it correctly. Connected Packages load from packages.articulateusercontent.com, which is a different origin than your LMS. Browsers enforce strict cross-origin rules that block direct access to the parent frame, so LMS context like launch URL, learner ID, and session metadata is no longer accessible the way it was in standard SCORM exports, this is a browser-level security restriction, not something Rise-specific.
There's no supported mechanism today for passing LMS context into Connected Packages. Can you share more details about your use case so we can evaluate it in more detail?Thanks for your reply catganim. What I am doing is really just experimental with what I can and cannot do with code blocks and the LMS. So I am also still finding out what can and cannot be done. Our LMS is quite limited as far as I can see with their API so this is something I will also speak to them about in terms of what can be accessed.
What I am currently doing is obtaining the contentID from the parent LMS page using it's URL, and then reading meta data to find csrf and auth token to validate and authorise an LMS platform action, in this case - liking content. This means a learner can like the RISE content on the LMS platform from within the course itself. Hope that helps.
