Comment sections in Rise

May 03, 2019

Hi

I'm a long time user of Storyline and have recently decided to give Rise a go. So I'm producing a 12 step demo course that will top and tail  some of my Storyline content.  So far I'm impressed - crisp, fresh and simple to follow.

However I have a real need to have a comments section for each of the steps. Now if I publish my Rise file to an LMS I'm guessing it'll sit on a single step in that and therefore will have a single area for comment on the LMS.

Therefore I need a comment section that will sit in Rise, on each individual step, and allow users to share good practice and thoughts etc. Padlet wont be any good as it needs to stay within the site.

Is there a way I could add a block of coding to create this? I've created comment boxes in Storyline before that send all info to the LMS - would that sort of thing be an option.

I think there is a real need for this sort of capability in Rise moving forward.

 

Thanks

Simon

 

4 Replies
Eric Chamberlin

Hello,

I went on a search to find solid alternatives to embed into a Rise course. 

Here is what I found...Copied from my article on LinkedIn

I absolutely love the ease of use and stunning responsive design when you author a course within Articulate Rise. Recently, I ran into an issue where I wanted to include some discussion groups or conversations within my Rise course. The original course was built in Schoology LMS which has a discussion board included.

Since this functionality is not built into Rise, I went searching for alternatives.

First, I went to the Articulate Discussion Boards to see how others have solved this issue. The only discussions I could find revolved around using the embed feature to bring in a 3rd party app such as Padlet. I am quite familiar with Padlet and easily set up a conversation board that followed a simulation activity built in Storyline. I added a screenshot below, and you can view the video set up here.

Padlet has several types of boards so this tool could be leveraged in many ways to bring in user input embedded within Rise.

While this solution works well, I wanted to explore other alternatives. I was looking for 3rd party apps that allowed for user input that would fully embed within Rise allowing the learner to stay engaged in the app.

TYPEFORM

The next app I explored was TypeForm. The setup was quick and the discussion prompts embed nicely into the Rise page. The downside is that the responses are not public and do not allow for groups to see each other's responses.

DISCUSSION BOARDS

There are numerous discussion boards available on the internet to create your own community/conversations. I tried several and could not find any that would embed natively into the Rise page. The result, as you can see below, was simply a link to jump to the 3rd party app. While this is not the end of the world, it is not solving the issue in the fashion I was hoping for.

SYNTH

While I was searching for solutions, I watched a tutorial by Greg Kulowiec about using a free podcast app named Synth to create class discussions. I happily found that the app has an embed feature and tried to add this into my Rise course.

Again, it fits nicely into the course and allows you to listen to the discussion prompt, but the user would have to click on the View Podcast link to go and participate. The ease with which you can have a discussion within the app is certainly appealing.

FLIPGRID

Lastly, I turned to a tried and true tool for discussions and conversations - Flipgrid. I have extensive experience with this app and know that it can be a useful tool to achieve the goal of conversation. My only hesitation with it is the fact that it is video-based and I know many learners are less comfortable with sharing their thoughts publicly on video. While it is possible to moderate and/or keep it private, this is not in line with the goals of creating conversation and discussion.

CONCLUSION

In my search to include conversation and discussion within a Rise course, I did find some possible solutions. Padlet seems to fit the situation the best and is the most versatile. The other tools explored did offer some functionality, none really worked as well as Padlet. What tools and solutions have you found? Let me know if I missed a tool that will bring conversations and discussions embedded into Articulate Rise.

Jonny Kowal

I'm also looking for alternatives to Padlet and have searched hella lot! Looked at Commento.io (who never replied to query), Disqus and others. No solution as of yet. Has anyone else found other options out there that operate natively in situ? ...so no pop out, nor log in within iframe to engage.