2 Easy Ways To Find What You Need on E-Learning Heroes

The E-Learning Heroes community is chock-full of advice, support, and free stuff—and searching for all of it is quick and easy. Here are a few pointers for finding everything you need in a snap.

1. Get Familiar with the Menu Tabs

To make it easy to find all that you’re looking for, we created dedicated pages— which we call hubs—for different types of resources. You can access these hubs via the tabs in the menu on the E-Learning Heroes home page:

Let’s take a closer look at the kinds of resources you can find in each of these tabs.

The Learn Tab

In the Learn tab you’ll find content and examples intended to help you grow your design and development skills. There are two kinds of hubs in this tab.

General Hubs

• E-Book Hub. This is where you’ll find all our free e-books. They’re super-helpful, whether you’re just learning the ropes or want to brush up on the essentials.
• E-Learning Examples Hub. Articulate pros worldwide share their best examples right here. You’ll find inspirational slides, interactions, assessments, and more.
• E-Learning 101 Hub. If you’re just getting started, this is a great place to go to learn the e-learning basics.
• E-Learning Challenges Hub. Every week we invite E-Learning Heroes to build small projects around a theme to try new skills, find inspiration, and pump up their portfolios. Hop on over and join in the fun!
• Building Better Courses Hub. If you’re looking for instructional design tips and tricks, head on over to this hub. You’ll find resources that are sure to educate and inspire you.
• The Rapid E-Learning Blog. Here’s the blog that started it all, by our very own Tom Kuhlmann. Every week, you’ll find a new article that’s sure to get you thinking.

Product Hubs

• Articulate Tutorials and User Guides. Here’s where we archive our product tutorials and user guides, helpful resources to get you up to speed on our apps in no time.
• Articulate 360 Hub. In this hub you’ll find the latest Articulate 360–related resources.
• Storyline Hub (1, 2, 3). If you’re using an older version of Storyline, you’ll find helpful resources here.
• Studio Hub (’09 and ’13). If you’re using an older version of Studio, head over here for some helpful resources.

The Discuss Tab

The Discuss tab gives you easy access to all our discussion forums. The forums are a place where you and your fellow heroes can gather to learn from each other, ask questions, and find support. Here’s what you’ll find in each of the discussion hubs.

• Featured Discussions. In this hub, you can quickly take a look at the most recent discussions as well as those our community managers and moderators have flagged as being the most inspiring or helpful by switching between the Recent Activity and Our Picks tabs.
• Discussions about Course Building. If you’re looking for general input on how to build better courses, this is a solid resource for ideas and advice.
• Discussions about Articulate Products. Need help with Articulate apps? The product hubs are a great place to start.

The Downloads Tab

Clicking the Downloads tab takes you to my favorite spot in the E-Learning Heroes Community: the home of free stuff! The Downloads hub is your one-stop shop for time-saving templates, course assets—like icons, characters, and images—and other design resources that make your life easier. 

By default, you’ll see the featured and most recently added downloads. But if you’re looking for something specific, use the drop-down menus to narrow your search: 

With all this free stuff, you’re sure to find something you can use for your next course!

2. Use the Search Bar

Not finding what you’re looking for? Head over to the search bar—upper right-hand corner, next to your avatar—and type in your search terms.

When you’re done, hit the Enter button on your keyboard to pull up the results of your search.

From there, use the tips below to narrow down your search and hone in on what you’re looking for faster and easier. 

Try More Specific Search Terms

If you’re struggling to find what you need, you might be using search terms that are too general and thus bring up too many results. To narrow your search, try using more specific search terms. Let’s look at an example.

Instead of: Storyline video

Try: How to add a video play button in Storyline

You’ll notice that the latter pulls up far fewer search results. If that narrows down your search too far, then try removing a word or two to gradually broaden the search.

Filter Your Search by Content Type or Keyword

When you pull up your search results, you’ll notice some filters on the left-hand side. 

These allow you to narrow your search results to more easily find what you’re looking for. You can filter by:

• Type of content: If you know the type of content you need—an article, a discussion, an example, a download, or an article series—this is a great way to improve your search.
• Keyword: Another great way to narrow your search is by keyword. As we create content, we categorize it using keywords—like “instructional design” or “Storyline”—to make searching even easier. For even faster searching, filter your results by the most relevant keyword with the smallest number of results next to it (indicated by the number in parentheses). 

To remove a filter, click the X to the right of it or select Clear All Filters to remove all filters in one fell swoop.

Pro tip: You’ll notice that in addition to appearing as a filter in the search results, keyword tags are also displayed on content pages, just above the title:

These keyword tags are actually buttons that you can click on to see other articles with the same tag. For example, if you click on the E-Learning 101 tag, it’ll bring up all the other content with that same keyword tag.

Sort by Relevance or Publication Date

Another helpful way to narrow down your search results is to change the way the results are sorted. By default, results are sorted by Most Relevant. 

But if you’re looking for something you know was published recently, it might be helpful to choose the Newest to Oldest option instead. On the other hand, if it’s an older resource, try using the Oldest to Newest option.

Playing around with these different settings can be helpful if you’re not finding what you’re looking for right out of the gate.

Select Which Site to Search

Did you know that when you use the search bar on E-Learning Heroes, you’re also searching the Articulate Support knowledge base? 

If not, now you do! By default, the E-Learning Heroes tab is open. But if you’re not finding what you need there, try clicking on the Articulate Support tab to see if that helps. 

Want More Insider Info?

Now that you’re a pro at finding the content you’re looking for on E-Learning Heroes, you might be hungry for more insider tips on making the most of E-Learning Heroes. We’ve got you covered! Check out these helpful resources:

• 3 Tips for Getting Quick Answers to Your Forum Discussions
• How to Maximize Your E-Learning Heroes User Profile
• Become an E-Learning Heroes Power User with These Tips & Tricks
• Use E-Learning Heroes to Connect with Your Peers & Get Inspired
• 3 No-Fail Strategies for Building Your E-Learning Heroes Brand

Questions? Comments? Drop us a message below. And remember to follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.