Dicusson: Articulate announces update where users can no longer share courses or lessons via links.
Jan 29, 2020
Now users will have to publish courses a different way as opposed to easy sharing and access via links from Articualte's servers. This feature allows for me to keep costs and time down for sharing with clients, my website, etc. and it is also easier for my clients to access content this way. I am very disappointed to see this feature be removed and want to know if anyone else would like also wants to see this feature remain.
The rationale Articulate has given is "This isn’t the best way to share content because malicious users could potentially impersonate Rise 360 content." This is the risk of sharing content via links online in general. Websites and servers are always susceptible to malicious users wanting to hack them and manipulate content, which is why IT security exists to prevent it. Does this mean Articulate is concerned of being hacked, having their user's data compromised, and then being potentially liable for the consequences? I know rise.com - a similar but different tool than rise 360 - is about to launch and can't help feel the two are connected, as rise.com is a LMS positioned at sharing courses easily with a workforce with better metrics and management than what can be gained via - say - just sharing a simple link.
I really like the share link feature, and feel like the community does as well. I would like to see it remain and Articulate to consider investing more in keeping us customers safe from malicious attacks, to allow more users to take advantage of this feature and not force us customers to look for more expensive alternatives.
11 Replies
Hi Daniel!
To be clear, we are keeping the Share URL to allow you to invite people to preview your course via email or even through a direct link on your site! The change we're making in April will prevent you from embedding your course using the Share URL in an iframe on another website.
While we haven’t received reports of Rise 360 content being compromised, data protection is as important to us as it is to you. We work hard to maintain your trust, so we’re making this change to ensure you feel secure using our software.
And thanks for mentioning Rise.com! It's an all-in-one online training system that gives you one place to create, track, manage, and analyze your training.
Rise.com includes all the authoring functionality from Rise 360, plus a library of pre-built lessons on common business topics. You can also start creating your Rise.com course from one of many sample courses or templates rather than starting from scratch.
If you have questions about Rise.com, you can start a conversation with the Rise team by clicking the button on the lower right corner of this page!
Hi thanks for your reply Crystal. It made me realize I don't think I know enough of the difference between the two, so I did some research on what iframes are and how they're different. I feel better now. Sounds to me like my work will still be available to people past April 6 because I have been doing it via the share URL to have a link generated and then either (1) copy/pasted that to someone to check out, or (2) used it to embed a link on my website so people can click on it and it will take them to my course. So in those instances, it sounds like I am OK, correct? Follow up question, I sometimes share links to direct lessons within a course. I notice you can get those if you start the course, then navigate to - say lesson 2 - then share that URL instead of the overall course URL. Will that still be possible? Seems like it will be. Thanks.
Sure thing, Daniel!
You're ok with how you're using the Share link! You can point directly to a lesson by grabbing the URL while viewing the lesson using the Share link or if you have the course hosted on your own website (after exporting for web).
Let me know if I can help further!
Great thank you Crystal. I see a workaround here as having to export as web only, then unpacking the file, hosting it on your own site, then getting the links that way. The links would be different. They wouldnt be https://rise.articulate.com/share/... they would now be https://mywebsite.com/[url i choose]. That would work as well, wouldn't it - for sharing courses and lessons to people via links? I know that's a few more steps, but I know a lot of people are using things like AWS to house their completed projects, and I am looking into that option as well, so just want to know if I am understanding it properly. Thanks!
Does this affect Storyline content imported into Rise courses using the Interactive Storyline Blocks? We export our rise courses to SCORM packages and upload those to our LMS, I'm just curious if the Storyline content is included in the SCORM package, or if it is embedded like an iframe.
Hi Steve,
No, Storyline Blocks inside Rise courses are not affected.
Some people are using Share links to permanently embed Rise 360 courses on their websites inside iframes. This will no longer work after April 6th due to a security enhancement that prevents courses from being embedded in iframes. Instead of using the Share link, they'll want to publish the course for Web, then host the output on a web server.
Then, they can use the web server URL to embed the course in an iframe.
Let me know if that makes sense!
Exactly right, Daniel.
Can you clarify the following...
EX: <p><a href="https://rise.articulate.com/share/12345" target="_blank">Learner Onboarding Guide</a></p>
Thanks for clarifying, I want to be sure I narrate a clear set of actions for output req's across design teams.
Cheers!
Hi Phoenix! No problem...
Let me know if you have other questions!
Thank you for the clarification, much appreciated.
We're all set!
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