Forum Discussion
From Tolerating Rise to Being Obsessed With It — A Code Block Story
Okay, I owe Rise 360 an apology. A public one. Right here.
For a long time, I was that person. The one muttering under their breath about how Rise was "too rigid" and "not flexible enough" and "why can't I just make it do the thing." I used it because I had to. I tolerated it the way you tolerate a coworker who microwaves fish in the break room. 🐟
And then… Code Blocks happened. 🤔
Suddenly I could drop custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly into Rise and build whatever I wanted. Interactive tabs. Scenario cards with reveal animations. A full permissions comparison table with filter toggles. A side-by-side AI Avatar video wrapper with bullet points that sync to the video as it plays — like, ACTUALLY sync, using JavaScript timeupdate listeners.
Rise went from "I guess this works" to "wait, I can do THAT?" faster than I'd like to admit.
My latest project is a 9-lesson Rise 360 course for Learning Experience Designers on Team Folders. The whole thing is built with Code Blocks and Articulate AI Avatars — branded with a full custom color system, video intros on every lesson, and enough JavaScript to make past-me very confused and present-me very smug.
A few things I never thought I'd say about Rise:
- I built a custom play button overlay because Rise iframes block autoplay — and it looks amazing
- I embedded video directly into HTML as base64 so it's fully self-contained — one file, no dependencies
- I applied an entire brand palette via CSS custom properties and it just… worked
- I actually looked forward to opening Rise every morning. I know. I'm as surprised as you are. 😵
If you've ever felt like Rise had a ceiling — I'm here to tell you the ceiling is a Code Block and you can build whatever you want on top of it. What's the most "wait, Rise can DO that?!" thing you've ever built? Drop it below. I need to know I'm not alone. 👇
4 Replies
Totally empathise SMcNicol I wasn't quite huffing/puffing, but wondered how we could incorporate external media and resources, which inevitably meant going external with buttons, links or embedding where possible
Which in turn meant the learner/user is sent out of the experience (and most probably the LMS), now code just...well, you've seen the magic it's creating
With vibe coding becoming a far more viable option for small asset packets, it feels like a proper confluence event for us. Now we can get super creative on how we want to convey information into tangible experiences that will support retention of knowledge.
I've also started to vibe open source elements to help others and the teams I work with to have editable assets rather than having to go back to vibe coding (example in the...examples🙃)YES to all of this! The "sent out of the experience" struggle was so real — nothing breaks immersion quite like a learner clicking a button and suddenly they're in a browser tab wondering how they got there. 😅
Code Blocks genuinely changed the game for that exact reason. External resources, media, interactions — all of it lives inside the experience now. No escape hatches. 😁
And you nailed it with the confluence event framing. Vibe coding + Code Blocks + AI tools hitting at the same time feels like the moment everything clicked into place for what's actually possible in Rise. We went from "I guess I'll add a button link" to "I'm building custom JavaScript interactions with a full brand system" practically overnight.
The open source editable assets idea is 🔥 — that's such a generous move for your team. Reusable components that don't require someone to start from scratch every time is exactly what teams need!
Well, I just couldn't help myself, could I 😁
I'll leave this here...have a fab weekend when it starts...wanted to do more but Gemini has now introduced 5-hour generation windows too
The Zip is a working production file, the index, delete .txt extension to see what I've tinkered with
SMcNicol thanks so much for working out loud and authentically (being open about Rise's previous constraints). I enjoyed the flow, consistent look and feel, and the strategic use of Rise's new features.
