4 Ways Articulate 360 Empowers Your Course Creation Process

If there’s anything that course developers, subject matter experts, and training stakeholders all agree on, it’s this: the e-learning course development process could be a whole lot simpler.

With Articulate 360, you’ve got an assortment of easy-to-use tools that will power up your process. Articulate 360 will help you source assets, author content, and collaborate effectively with everyone on your team.

Here are four ways I see Articulate 360 making course creation a whole lot better.

1. More Authoring Flexibility

When it comes to e-learning authoring, your aims aren’t the same for every project. Sometimes you might focus on getting something created quickly. In other cases you might set out to create something media-rich and interactive. The nice thing about Articulate 360 is that you have a wide array of authoring tools. Having the right kind of the tool for the job will save you so much time.

With Articulate 360, you don’t have to choose only one authoring app. You get all the content creation tools you need for e-learning:

  • Storyline 360: build custom, highly interactive e-learning and software simulations
  • Rise 360: create gorgeous, inherently responsive courses
  • Studio 360: turn a PowerPoint into a course
  • Peek 360: record quick screencasts on your Mac or PC
  • Replay 360: record a screencast with webcam 

Instead of trying to make your projects fit whatever authoring app you have, now you can let the needs of your project dictate which authoring app you use. In fact, I like to think of Articulate 360 as a personal e-learning authoring toolkit, full of everything I could ever need to get the job done!

The flexibility of Articulate 360 makes it a powerful all-in-one solution for course authoring, but how do you know which app to use and when? Don’t miss Nicole’s article, “Why You Need the Tools in Articulate 360 and When to Use Them,” which breaks down the use case for each authoring app. And watch this video to see an overview of all the authoring tools in Articulate 360.

2. Save Time with Built-Out Templates

Often when a rush project gets dropped in your lap, it ends up looking like a rush project. Whenever timelines get tight, the first thing that seems to go out the window is visual design. 

But now, with Content Library 360, you don’t need to make visual design sacrifices. That’s because Content Library 360 templates are professionally designed to be sleek and effective, all while being super easy to use. Simply pick the layout that works best for your subject matter and audience and then import the templates into your Storyline 360 or Studio 360 project. The interactions are already pre-built, so you can just drop your content into the placeholders and you’re ready to rock n’ roll! 

One more bonus: Content Library 360 designs come with helpful prompts in the text placeholder fields to give you design pointers and concrete ideas for making the most of each time-saving template.

 

Prompts.png

This practical advice will help you improve your design skills as you develop your course.

For more time-saving tips and ideas on working with Content Library 360 templates, be sure to check out this handy how-to tutorial.

3. Accelerate Your Review Process

Most e-learning review tools are clunky. They rely on your reviewers grabbing screenshots and accurately cross-referencing their feedback. Reviewers are busy people, which means that the traditional multi-step, spreadsheet-and-screenshot review process rarely results in very timely, clear, or actionable feedback. Instead, reviewers use the spreadsheet to contradict or debate with each other, leaving you in the middle trying to sort out what actually needs changing.

Thankfully, Articulate Review gets you out of the business of managing the review process (and reviewers!) and lets you focus on course development. That’s because Articulate Review gives you and your reviewers:

  • A tool built for collaboration: Sending a link to reviewers is as easy as sending them an email. And for reviewers, there are no special apps or software to download; they simply access your course in Articulate Review right from their web browser.
  • More transparency: With one view of everyone’s comments, your reviewers can hash out their conflicting feedback directly. That means you’re not in the middle and they’re not slowing down the project.
  • Clearer communication: By giving your reviewers a painless way to capture all of their feedback in context, your entire project team avoids the hassles and misunderstandings that happen when you’re juggling spreadsheets.

And publishing to Articulate Review is a cinch for authors, too. You can publish to Articulate Review directly from Storyline 360, Studio 360, Preso, Peek, and Replay 360 with just one click. That makes it super fast to publish and share your projects with reviewers.

We’re super excited about the way Articulate Review accelerates the course creation process and we know you’ll find all-new, clever ways to use it in your role. For more pointers on how to streamline your review process, check out these resources:

4. Engage Learners with Video

We all know that video is one of the most effective ways to engage learners, but the tools for capturing and editing video are surprisingly complicated and time-consuming to use. 

That’s why I really love that Articulate 360 includes two apps for creating training videos.

  • Peek 360: Peek 360 is just what you need to capture quick screencasts on your Mac or PC. It’s simple, fast screencasting at its best.
  • Replay 360: What I love about Replay 360 is that you can capture your screencast and webcam at the same time, then use simple mixes to flip between your screencast and webcam clip and add picture-in-picture effects. Replay 360 even includes basic editing tools that let you separate video clips and easily remove unwanted sounds like “ums” and “uhs.” 

And the best part is that you can use your videos independently or easily add them to courses you create with Rise 360, Storyline 360, and Studio 360.

We Hope You Love Articulate 360

We think Articulate 360 is an e-learning game changer. How do you see Articulate 360 changing your course creation process? Share your ideas and feedback with us by leaving us a comment below. And if you haven’t tried Articulate 360 yet, you can snag a free 30-day trial right here.