How I used rise to boost my job hunt

Aug 17, 2017

Short Version: I used Rise to create my resume/portfolio as an eLearning Module, and the feedback has been great.

It's here -->  www.portfolio.cameronstewart.com/eCam/

The longer version

I've long held the personal belief that the technology available to the L&D world is at least ten years behind the current workforce. The tools have always been the limiting factor to what I think online learning can be. But, I have to admit that Rise is taking the needs of eLearning on, head-first and if this is just the beginning, it's going to be great. 

*No affiliation, btw

So to get to know the new tool I decided to create my resume/portfolio using rise on the 30-day demo. I'll be honest with you, I had my presentation done the same night that I started the demo and to me, that's a true testament to the power of this tool and what the future of eLearning holds. I'll also caution that the ease of use could displace some of the current eLearning workforces but for those that can create in other mediums like video, motion graphics, audio production, and 3D... this tool will allow you to spend your time in those areas and save you time when it comes to compiling that work into a truly responsive/mobile first platform, and exporting for the LMS. 

Most of my portfolio is based on my newer production workflow of documentary style video production, motion graphics, and interactivity.

You can find examples here if you want to see what that looks like.

But, what I found when I started looking for a new job was that much of the need was still in the "traditional training" realm of slide based, media enriched, click training. I really thought I was going to be disappointed with Rise. But I also felt like I needed to see what this new set of tools could do for the traditional training needs of Corporate America. So, I decided the best resume would be a resume built in the latest and greatest tool in the eLearning industry - Articulate 360. I'm happy to report that the response has been wonderful! I've had more traffic on my portfolio site and more calls for interviews. 

So, I decided the best resume would be a resume built in the latest and greatest tool in the eLearning industry - Articulate 360. I'm happy to report that the response has been wonderful! I've had more traffic on my portfolio site and more calls for interviews. But, even more importantly, the product is really good. There's a lot of room for improvement still, and a lot of features that need to be added. But, I have a hunch these are being worked on as we speak. 

  • Advanced quiz building tools
  • Timeline driven animation (like the desktop apps)
  • More customization options for basic user flow logic

 There's also an opportunity to create a marketplace that would allow integration with vetted 3rd party tools.

  • Gamification (not leaderboards and  badges) But intrinsic learning loops by intelligent real-time analysys
  • Further customized themes
  • Machine Learning for in-line quizzing
  • Real-time collaboration with other developers

But I think the likely overlooked and most powerful feature of Rise is that it opens the field to a larger group of creators. 

  • My SMEs can (mostly) use Rise well enough to create a storyboard of their ideas for me and share that with me. 
  • Together with a SME, I can rapidly create a Minimum Viable Product that can easily be viewed by a stakeholder and reviewed online.
  • I can see how the module look on any device, in real-time, as I work. 

Needless to say, I'm excited and if any of you have a roadmap for what Rise and the entire 360 package will be, I'd love to see it. Also, if you've created a course in Rise I'd love to see how others are using it, as well. 

Lastly, here are a few of my notes from using Rise. Apologies for any spelling and grammar errors, I wasn't looking to share these when I took them.

I learned quickly not to use the duplicate option with quiz questions. There appears to be a bug that changes the all instances of the original.

Above: I learned quickly not to use the duplicate option with quiz questions. There appears to be a bug that changes all instances of the original. In this test, I was creating a name-that-tune-game and had to go back and delete all duplicated content and recreate it. 

In the same test/game, I learned that you can leave a screen while media is uploading, but you'll loose the media altogether. If you're uploading a lot of media, it can really slow the flow. But, I'm sure they'll enforce the wait in the next round of UI/UX.

One of the easy upgrades to the limited quizzing options would be to allow audio assignments to each piece of the quiz. I might want to give different audio based on the answers correct or incorrect answers. 

While this doesn't form Rise (it's from Googles online learning) I wish that I could offer a link back to the portion of the training that has the correct answers information. So that a learner could quickly brush-up on an area they missed. As I mentioned before, machine learning could also be useful here. 

Cam

6 Replies
Crystal Horn

Hi Cam!  Thanks for sharing your Rise resumé...so cool.  I'm so happy that you're finding success using Rise.  That's the goal:  building responsive content using intuitive features without a learning curve.

When we can, we share targeted release dates for new features.  Our What's New page is a glimpse at features that are newly released or are coming soon.  The forums are a great place to catch the latest Rise news, too!  Articulate 360 is constantly developing new and cool features, so you'll get all the best as soon as it's available.

Since you put the call out for some cool Rise examples, have a look at this round-up of creative ways to use Rise.

I also wanted to address some roadblocks you mentioned:

  1. Duplicating quizzes:  Tell me more about your process.  I was able to create a duplicate quiz lesson and edit both the original and the copy without the changes also applying to the other.  I'm hoping to try and reproduce what you saw.
  2. Abandoning an upload in progress:  In my testing, I was able to navigate away from the block lesson, and even away from that tab in my browser, without interrupting the upload process.  I made a Peek so that you could see how I tested this with an audio block.  Let me know what you're doing differently.
  3. Audio in quizzes and feedback:  Are you thinking of audio that automatically plays, either in the question or in the feedback?  By design, audio in Rise is learner-initiated.
  4. Linking to content in quiz feedback:  This idea is pretty cool.  Where do you host your content?  If hosting on the web, you could grab the URL of a specific lesson and include that in hyperlinked text in your quiz answer feedback.  Then just make sure you re-upload that output with the same file paths.

    Here's an example where I linked text in the first quiz question back to the previous lesson.

Thanks for all of your thoughts, Cam.  Have fun with Rise!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Ann,

Rise is designed to scroll from the top of a lesson to the bottom, and then from one lesson to the next with the Next lesson button you'll find at the bottom. This is set up similar to other mobile environments where learners would scroll through something on their phone or tablet. 

If you're looking to design slide based training and set up some more custom interactions take a look at Storyline 360 (a part of the Articulate 360 suite of tools). Choosing when to use Storyline vs. Rise can be a tough choice, but take a look at how the pros are deciding between the two (and using them together!). 

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