Your Guide to the Teams Admin Console in Articulate 360
With Articulate 360 Teams, your entire team gets access to Articulate 360 with exclusive features that’ll help them collaborate. Plus, you’ll get simple account management and priority support. Watch this video to see how you can easily manage your Articulate 360 Teams account. You’ll see how to invite users, manage permissions, and more. Take a look: To get started, log in to your Articulate 360 Teams console.15 Ways to Collaborate on Projects and Manage Your Team with Articulate 360 Teams
If you have a team of e-learning developers, you probably have two basic goals: to create beautiful, effective courses and to manage your team as efficiently as possible. And we want to help you do just that! That’s why we’re always adding new features to Articulate 360 Teams. Check out the following 15 features that’ll have you collaborating on projects and managing your team with ease, no matter how big your team grows. Collaboration Features Collaborative Authoring in Rise 360 Work together on Rise 360 courses with members of any Articulate 360 team. Create and edit different lessons simultaneously or take turns fine-tuning the same one. Changes happen in real time, so everyone always works on the most recent version. You can even give collaborators different levels of access by making them authors or admins. Learn more about collaborative authoring. Question Banks in Rise 360 Create repositories of questions that can be used in any course you create. Share them with your team so everyone can quickly create quizzes with consistent questions, answers, feedback, and media. Knowledge checks and quizzes draw from these banks rather than displaying the same static questions whenever a learner takes the course. When you share a question bank, team members can use your questions and, with the proper permissions, modify them or add their own. Learn more about question banks. Shared Block Templates in Rise 360 Build Rise 360 courses faster by saving existing blocks and their content as templates. Share those templates with your team, then everyone can reuse them in other Rise 360 courses. Learn more about block templates. Shared Team Slides in Storyline 360 Easily collaborate on Storyline 360 projects with a library of shared team slides. Team members upload and download slides, scenes, and entire projects right within Storyline 360. It’s perfect for sharing project templates, slides that need to be in every course, and reusable slide content, such as interactions and quiz questions. Learn more about team slides. Shared Team Folders in Rise 360 and Review 360 Create shared team folders in Rise 360 and Review 360 to organize your content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. You can even allow multiple authors to publish new versions of a course to the same Review 360 project. Project Reviews in Review 360 Speed up project reviews. Publish e-learning projects from Storyline 360 , Rise 360, and your other Articulate 360 apps to Review 360 to gather feedback from stakeholders. Collect in-context feedback, follow threaded discussions, and resolve comments in one easy-to-use web app. Learn more about Review 360. Request Reviews in Review 360 Keep your team on track without the hassle of spreadsheets or phone calls. Send and track requests for specific stakeholders to review a content item right from Review 360. With email notifications, due dates, visible statuses, and completion buttons, you’ll never miss another deadline. Learn more about requesting reviews. Integrated Comments in Rise 360 and Storyline 360 Streamline review processes even further. Get Review 360 comments in context as you work in Rise 360 and Storyline 360, eliminating back-and-forth toggling between apps. Browse through feedback from various stakeholders, see comments for multiple Review 360 items, reply to and resolve comments, and add suggested images in real time—all in one place. Cloud Backup in Storyline 360 and Review 360 Work with confidence, knowing your files are safe and easy to access anywhere, anytime. Access your Storyline 360 project files from anywhere and share them with team members by uploading your source files to Review 360. Learn more about cloud backup. Admin Features Consolidated Billing Management Articulate 360 Teams makes billing management simple. You get one annual bill that covers all your team creator licenses. You have the flexibility to pay via credit card or purchase order. And as your team grows, you can add more licenses using your account management console. Learn more about account management. Easy User Management Easily add and remove users as your team evolves. For example, when users leave the company or their roles change, remove them from your team and assign the creator licenses to new users. You can even upload all your users at once using a simple CSV file. And you can add as many 360 admins as you’d like to manage your team. Learn more about managing your team. Group Managers Manage your team with ease. Organize users in groups, such as departments or locations, and assign group managers to manage each group. Watch this video for a brief overview and check out this article for details on managing users, groups, and managers. Manage Team Slides and Block Templates Admins who have creator licenses can rename and delete all Storyline 360 team slides and Rise 360 shared block templates. This is helpful when the original content owners aren’t available to make changes. Transfer Content Maintain control of your content and intellectual property. When someone leaves your team, keep shared content within the subscription and choose what happens to their personal content. Content includes Rise 360 courses, microlearning, label sets, and block templates; Review 360 items and request reviews; and Storyline 360 team slides. Single Sign-On Don’t worry about remembering (or forgetting!) another password. Control authentication for your Articulate 360 team using your own identity provider and our single sign-on (SSO) solution. Start a Free Trial Experience these Articulate 360 Teams features for yourself! Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Articulate 360. You can invite up to 10 users to join your team during the trial period. You’ll get the exclusive collaboration and admin features described above, as well as award-winning authoring apps, 22+ million course assets, as well as live and on-demand online training. See these FAQs to learn more about free trials and let us know if you need help!Introducing the Articulate Beta Program
We’re committed to delivering you more value, more often—which is why we’re excited to introduce Articulate’s new beta program! Here’s what you need to know. What Is It? The beta program gives you—our customers—the chance to explore and offer feedback on experimental features across Articulate 360 apps. That way, you can help shape and enhance these features to truly fit your needs. How Do I Participate? If you have an Articulate 360 account, you’re automatically included in this new program! We’ll add beta features to our apps during updates and mark them with a Beta badge. From there, simply try them out and give us feedback via in-app surveys or in our E-Learning Heroes community. If you’ve been paying close attention, you might have noticed that we already have a few beta features: Team Folders in Review 360—lets multiple authors publish a course to the same Review 360 link, so you never lose track of your comments. Request Review—allows users to request and track reviews all within Review 360. Integrated comments—lets reviewers browse, reply, and resolve feedback directly in Storyline 360 and Rise 360. Note that since features in beta are still evolving, they’re subject to changes in scope, pricing, and packaging, or discontinuation. Wrap-Up With incremental value, delivered more frequently—and with your helpful feedback—we hope to build products that meet your needs. Want to see how your voice can make a difference? Check out this update we’re releasing based on customer feedback: 11 New Articulate 360 Features To Celebrate. And if you’re not an Articulate 360 subscriber, you can start a free 30-day trial for access to the beta program.Honor AAPI Heritage Month With These Free Resources
Research shows that a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion helps organizations adapt better to challenges–and makes them more likely to innovate. With more change than ever happening in and around the workplace, diversity-focused training can help boost outcomes, improve agility, and make your organization a better place to work. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, making it a great opportunity to affirm your commitment to diversity. This spring, we’re bringing you content that you can use to grow your team’s cultural awareness, collaborative skills, and ability to innovate. We hope this content will spark curiosity and encourage larger conversations that lead to more emotional and creative intelligence among your employees. 1. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (full-length course) Use this course to educate your team and expand their cultural knowledge, opening up more avenues for collaboration and creativity. Teams will get a simple introduction to AAPI history, meet leaders in art, food, science, and other major industries, and explore accessible ways they can honor AAPI Heritage Month. 2. 9 Ways To Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month (microlearning course) Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to diversity and bring your team together for a good cause. This microlearning summarizes nine easy ways you can celebrate as a team–and encourages employees to grow their own knowledge individually, too. 3. From Draves to Kim: A Celebration of AAPI Athletes (microlearning course) Want a quick, engaging way to inspire and motivate your team? Set them up for success with this simple, accessible microlearning. Employees will meet snowboarder Chloe Kim, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Vicki Draves, the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal and the first woman to ever sweep the diving events. Wrap-Up Packed with timely, engaging content, these resources can help improve your team culture, leading to even better collaboration and innovation. Add them to your e-learning strategy and watch as your team grows stronger and more agile. Remember, with an Articulate 360 subscription you can also tailor this content to best fit your audience and your organization–consider, for example, adding quotes and stories from AAPI figures in your field. To share and customize these resources, go to your Rise 360 dashboard, click +Create New, and select the course you want to use. Need other courses for your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? There are plenty of other options to choose from in the Content Library, including: Power and Pride: The Origins of Pride Month What Is Black History Month? Diversity Basics: Taking Action Honoring Herstory During Women’s History Month Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.Snag Two Free Courses to Honor Women’s History Month in Your Org
Did you know that gender-diverse organizations perform better than less diverse orgs? Or that there’s a direct link between a company’s gender equity and its financial success? As a learning and development professional, you can drive success and greater inclusion by offering your employees engaging, diverse learning opportunities. And since March is Women’s History Month in the United States, there’s no better time to share content honoring women. If that sounds like a whole lot of work you can’t get done in time, don’t fret! Articulate has you covered with two all-new professionally written and designed Women’s History Month courses. They will help employees recognize women in culture and history, reflect on gender inequality, and work to build a better, more equitable tomorrow—and they’re ready for you to use right now, free of charge. If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer, you can even customize the courses for your organization. Just choose the content from our Rise 360 real-content templates and adapt it to your needs. Here’s what you can expect. 1. How to Honor and Celebrate Women’s History Month (microlearning course) Share strategies for honoring Women’s History Month with this bite-size overview encouraging learners to acknowledge the past, celebrate achievement and excellence, and advance women’s rights. 2. Honoring Herstory During Women’s History Month (full-length course) Want to help your learners unravel the complex story behind women’s rights in the United States? This full-length course is split into three core sections: Introduction. Learners will first understand the origins of Women’s History Month. Then they’ll learn why it’s significant—but can also sometimes miss the mark. How did we get here? Learners will follow the history of Women’s Rights in the United States, exploring the events that revolutionized women’s rights. Where do we go next? Acknowledging the work that remains, the course shows learners how women are sometimes still excluded—and what learners can do to advance gender equity and equality. Wrap-Up Women’s History Month allows us to reflect on where we’ve been, boost the stories of women who’ve gone unrecognized, and strive for a better future. Sharing these courses with learners demonstrates organizational commitment to gender equity. Interested in sharing one of the supportive resources with your team? You can use the Women’s History Month courses as they are or—if you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer—you can easily adapt them to fit your needs. Just go to your Rise 360 dashboard, click +Create New, and select the course you want to use. Want to customize these but don’t have a subscription yet? Start a free 30-day trial. And if you need other ready-to-go courses for your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, there are plenty of other options to choose from, including: Power and Pride: The Origins of Pride Month Beyond Pride: Year-Round Action What Is Black History Month? 11 Ways to Honor Black History Month in 2024 Black History Month Diversity Basics: Foundations Diversity Basics: Taking Action Once again, these are all available directly in Rise 360. Simply follow the instructions above to view and use them. And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). If you have questions, please share them in the comments.3 Ways to Create Drag-and-Drops with Storyline 360
Are you looking for a way to make e-learning courses more dynamic and engaging? Look no further than drag-and-drop interactions. Drag-and-drop interactions give your learners the opportunity to make decisions and engage with course content, and can be an excellent learning tool when used appropriately. That begs the question, when should drag-and-drops be used? In my experience, they can really come in handy when you want your learners to: Sort correct and incorrect items (view an example) Order the steps in a process (view an example) Match items (view an example) Place items or objects (view an example) Storyline 360 offers a variety of ways to create drag-and-drop interactions. Let’s have a closer look at three easy techniques. Graded Quiz Slides Storyline 360 offers 11 graded question types, two of which are prebuilt drag-and-drop interactions. The nice thing about Storyline’s graded question slides is that they’re superquick and easy to set up since you don’t have to create a single trigger. All you have to do is select the type of drag-and-drop question you want—matching or sequence?—and insert your content. View a Storyline 360 Matching Drag-and-Drop Quiz Slide View a Storyline 360 Sequence Drag-and-Drop Quiz Slide Matching activities are great when you want learners to make a connection between several items, for example an event and the date it occurred. Sequence is great for having learners identify the order of a process or task. Freeform Freeform slides let you convert any regular slide into a graded drag-and-drop quiz slide in a few clicks. Freeform slides are a really powerful tool because they allow you to completely customize every single aspect of your slide and drag-and-drop interaction. Freeform is perfect when you want to create a drag-and-drop that is not a matching or sequence activity, for example, to sort incorrect and correct items or to match non-text items such as shapes or images. Here are some examples of customized drag-and-drop interactions created using Freeform slides: View a Freeform Gamified Drag-and-Drop View a Freeform Placing Drag-and-Drop Activity To create a freeform drag-and-drop interaction, insert a new slide and click the “Convert to Freeform” button on the “Insert” tab of the Storyline 360 ribbon. Select the drag-and-drop option, then click Insert. Storyline will automatically create a graded drag-and-drop quiz slide, and will even add the “Submit” button and the feedback layers. You will be presented with “Form View,” where you can assign your drag items and your drop targets. Storyline 360’s Drag-and-Drop Freeform Form View When you’re in Form View, you’ll notice that there are options available to you in the ribbon. Options available in Drag-and-Drop Freeform Form View A few things you can do here: shuffle the answers, assign a results slide, and assign the number of attempts learners have. Above all, the one key feature you need to know about is the “Drag & Drop Options” button. Drag & Drop Options Knowing about these options can save you a ton of time and headaches. These options give you flexibility when you’re tweaking your drag-and-drop interaction to work just the way you want it. Need your drag items revealed one at a time? No problem! Do you want to allow multiple items onto one drop target? Just check the box. These options will let you customize your drag-and-drop interaction to behave just the way you want. Triggers There’s one more, little-known, way to create a very simple, ungraded drag-and-drop interaction by using a single trigger. You’ll need at least two objects on your slide to make this work. The “When” drop-down menu in the Trigger Wizard offers two options: These Drag Drop Events are available in the Trigger Wizard By using either of these options in a trigger with two objects from your slide, you can create a very simple drag-and-drop interaction. However, you can’t customize that interaction in any way and it can’t be graded. For that reason, it’s typically recommended to use the freeform drag-and-drop interaction, which is superpowerful, graded, and offers many options for customization. In Sum Creating drag-and-drop interactions with Storyline 360 is intuitive and easy, no matter which method you choose. Go ahead, build your own drag-and-drop interaction so you can see for yourself how quick and easy it is. Let me know how it turns out in the comments below! Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.How to Number Randomized Question Bank Slides in Storyline 360
In the past, numbering slides in a randomized Storyline 360 question bank was doable but required quite a bit of manual setup. This is because the process included creating variables and setting up triggers for each and every question slide. That process has gotten a whole lot quicker and easier with the Insert Slide Number feature available in Storyline 360. This feature allows you to pop in the slide number in one click, no triggers or variables needed. Have a look at how it works in this example: View Example | Get Download Let’s have a look at how quick and easy it is to accomplish this. Step 1: Create Your Question Slides The first step is to create the question slide you want to include in your question bank. Be sure to add an area on the slide where you can reference the question number. As you can see in the example below, I’ve included text that says “Question /5”. The actual slide number will appear before the “/5,” as in slide 1 out of 5 or slide 2 out of 5. Remember: the slide number will be different every time the learner goes through the course, because these slides will be pulled in randomly from a question bank. I need the slide number to be pulled in dynamically, and this is where I’ll use the Insert Slide Number feature. I’ll start by placing my cursor inside the text field where I want the slide number to appear. Next you’re going to head to the Insert tab on the Storyline ribbon and click on the Slide Number drop-down arrow. From the drop-down menu, you’ll select the More... option, which will open up the Insert Slide Number window. In this window, you want to select Project Order, and then Slide Number in Scene from the Insert drop-down, as indicated above. When you’ve inserted the slide number, your slide will look like this: Now you can duplicate this question slide and update the question text and answers to create all the question slides you want to include in your question bank. Step 2: Create Your Question Bank Once you’ve created the question slides, you can create a new question bank and copy the existing question slides into the bank. You can also adjust your Attempts and Points for each question slide here in the Question Bank view. Step 3: Insert Slide Draw The last step is to insert your Slide Draw into your project. The Slide Draw is what will pull questions from the question bank. It’s important to note that the Slide Draw should be the first slide in the scene, because the questions in the bank use the Slide Number in Scene option. Once you’ve got it set up, you can preview your project to test out the question bank and see your slide numbering in action. There you have it! That’s how easy it is to set up automatic slide numbering for random question slides with the awesome Insert Slide Number feature in Storyline 360. Have you used the Insert Slide Number feature in your Storyline 360 projects? If yes, let me know how and why in the comments below! Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.17 Storyline 360 Features That’ll Help You Design Accessible E-Learning
For many organizations, creating accessible e-learning is both a mission-critical business goal and a legal requirement. The good news is that Storyline 360 has the features you need to create e-learning that meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In this article, we’ll walk you through how these key Storyline 360 features help you create accessible courses. 1. Accessible Player When you think about accessibility, screen reader compatibility is likely one of the first things that comes to mind. Luckily, the Storyline 360 modern player has built-in accessibility features that make it possible for learners with a variety of screen readers to interact with the course controls without any manual tweaking on your part. It also meets and exceeds WCAG Level AA guidelines for visual contrast and color. Interested in learning more about the built-in accessibility features in the Storyline 360 player? Check out these articles: The Accessible Player Makes Navigation Easier Modern Player Accessible Contrast 2. Accessibility Controls As a course author, one of the easiest ways to make your courses more accessible is by providing learners with options to customize their learning experience. After all, who better than your learners themselves to know what they need to be successful? That’s why we added accessibility controls to the course player. These controls allow learners to change the zoom mode*, turn accessible text on or off, toggle keyboard shortcuts, and turn background audio on or off. All you have to do is turn these controls on and let your learners choose the options that work best for them. Learn more in this article: Adjustable Accessibility Settings. 3. Full-Screen Toggle Another way you can give learners more power over the learning experience is by turning on the full-screen toggle option in the course player. Full-screen mode can help learners fully focus on the course by hiding other open tabs or windows. And then, when they want to switch to another task, they can simply toggle it off again. To learn more about this feature, check out this article: Full-Screen Toggle. 4. Course Playback Speed Control Learners with language barriers or cognitive disabilities sometimes want to slow content down so it’s easier to follow. And learners who want to quickly review content they’ve seen before often want to speed it up to save time. With this awesome feature, you can let learners choose a playback speed that’s comfortable for them—from 0.25x to 2x—for an improved learning experience. Find out more about how it works here: Course Playback Speed Control. 5. Accessible Text Learners with low vision often use custom style sheets or browser extensions to adjust the size and style of text on websites so it’s easier to read. Thanks to the accessible text feature, they can do that with text in your Storyline 360 courses as well. Learn more about how that works in these helpful resources: Storyline 360: Accessible Text Accessible Text Features in Storyline 360 6. Accessible Text Styles When learners access content using a screen reader, information hierarchy is important because it helps them understand how the content is laid out as well as the relationships between different elements. Accessible text styles allow authors to give screen reader learners this additional context by marking text object headings, hyperlinks, quotes, etc. For more information, head over here: Using Text Styles Accessible Text Features in Storyline 360 7. Text Autofit When it comes to making sure all your learners can access your content, another important consideration is text size. After all, if your copy is too small, learners might have trouble reading it. With the text autofit feature, you can set textboxes to a fixed size without shrinking the text if it overflows—so you know your learners will be able to read it easily. Learn more about this feature here: Text Autofit Improvements. 8. Course Player Font Size Because using different fonts impacts the perceived size of text, Storyline 360 allows you to customize the size of your course player labels to ensure they’re easy to read. Learn how to do that here: Choosing a Font for Your Course Player 9. Alternative (Alt) Text Alt text is important for learners who can’t see the images, graphics, or videos on the screen. It provides a description of the multimedia objects for screen readers to read aloud. You should add alt text to all slide objects that convey meaning or context to the learner. Thankfully, adding alt text is supereasy in Storyline 360. Here’s an article that’ll walk you through the steps for images within your course: Adding Alternative Text for Screen Readers. And here’s another one for adding alt text to a logo that’s embedded in the course player: Adding Alt Text to Your Logo. 10. Closed Captions Closed captions aren’t just for learners with hearing impairments. They’re also great for people taking your course in a language they’re still learning, in a noisy environment, or with cognitive disabilities, for example. That’s why it’s important to include closed captions for any audio or video content you choose to include in your course. Learn how to do that in these helpful resources: Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos Creating and Editing Closed Captions With the Built-in Editor 11. Closed Captions Formatting Make sure your closed captions are easy to read, and don’t block other content by customizing their look in the course player. In player settings, you can select your font and size, text and background color, and the placement location. 12. Video Transcripts Adding transcripts to videos is a great way to support learners who rely on screen readers, use braille displays, or prefer to read the audio content at their own pace. And with Storyline 360, it’s supereasy to add transcripts to your videos. Simply add closed captions and turn on the accessible video controls and Storyline will generate them for you automatically. It’s that simple! For more details about this feature, head over here: Video Transcripts. 13. Dialog Layers Dialog layers—also known as modal dialogs—are pop-up windows that prevent users from clicking anything outside of them. They improve learners’ navigation experience by making it easier to understand how to move forward. Learners who can see will notice that the rest of the course dims when the dialog layer appears, signaling they can no longer access content outside the layer. Learners using a screen reader will understand they can’t select anything else because the keyboard focus will stay on the layer. Learn more about this feature here: Dialog Layers. And here’s a time-saving tip! Thanks to feedback master defaults, you can set every slide layer in your project to display as a dialog layer by default. Check out this article for more details: Feedback Master Defaults. 14. Accessible Feedback Layers Quizzes are a fundamental component of most e-learning courses. Providing your learners with feedback that explains what’s right and wrong—and why—is essential. Given their importance, quizzes need to work for all learners. When you use the accessible feedback layers in Storyline 360, you can rest easy knowing that they meet WCAG guidelines for visual contrast, color, and focus—right out of the gate. Head over here to learn more: Accessible Feedback Layers. 15. Accessible Quiz Results And, of course, no quiz would be complete without a result slide, so those should be accessible as well. That’s why Storyline 360 includes accessible quiz result slide templates. Their sleek designs meet WCAG guidelines for visual color, contrast, and focus—guaranteeing that all your learners can digest the content of your result slides. View this article for details: Accessible Quiz Results. 16. Custom Focus Order Focus order is the order in which screen readers announce on-screen objects. It’s superimportant that the focus order be logical, or it’ll make for a confusing experience for your screen reader users. (Head over here for a more detailed explanation about why focus order matters: 4 Things To Know About Storyline 360 Courses and Screen Readers.) Luckily, that’s something you can easily customize as the course author. Here’s a tutorial that walks you through how to use this feature step by step: Customizing the Focus Order of Slide Objects. 17. Two-Color Focus Indicator When learners navigate using a keyboard, an outline—called a focus indicator—highlights the object they’re currently selecting. Without focus indicators, these learners won’t know where they are on the page—so it’s pretty essential. In Storyline 360, you can choose not just one focus color but two! This helps learners clearly see the focus indicators on dark and light backgrounds. To learn more about this super-helpful feature, head over to this article: Two-Color Focus Indicator. Wrap-Up As you can see, Storyline 360 has a ton of accessibility features to help you create courses that work for all your learners. And we’re always hard at work to bring you even more! Stay tuned to our feature roadmap to see what’s on the horizon. And if you’re looking for more accessibility-related resources, check out the links below: All About Accessibility Articulate 360 FAQs: Accessibility Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course Storyline 3: How to Design an Accessible Course Want to try using these features to create an accessible course but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments. * The accessibility settings work in both the modern and classic player; the zoom-to-fit control, however, only appears in the modern player.5 Ways to Use Animated GIFs in Your E-Learning
Animated GIFs—or image files that act like a short video that loops endlessly—are everywhere these days, on social media, in blogs, and even in e-learning courses! That’s right, instructional designers are using these eye-catching multimedia assets to grab their learners’ attention—and you can too. Check out these ideas to get inspiration on how to incorporate animated GIFs in your courses. 1. As Course Header Images If your learners have a ton of courses in their dashboard and you want yours to stand out, try using an animated GIF in the course header, like in this example: Mars Curiosity Rover. It’s a surefire way to get your course noticed. 2. As Attention Getters GIFs are eye-catching. Have you noticed how hard it is to look away even when you’ve already seen the same animation loop 10 times over? That’s what’s so great about them. Their movement naturally draws your learners in and incites them to pay attention. Not convinced? Take a look at this Rise 360 course: Space Travel–Themed Interactive Infographic See how the GIFs draw you in and make you want to click on the interactive parts? I thought so. 3. To Illustrate Key Messages But GIFs can do more than just catch your learners’ eye. They can actually help learners better understand the concepts you’re teaching them. Check out the GIFs in this course, for example: An American’s Guide to Driving in France. See how the GIFs support the key messages? 4. To Lay Out the Steps in a Process If you’re creating a how-to course, you might be tempted to make a video. And that’s definitely one way of doing it! But if people need to replicate the steps one by one, they might need to rewind each step and watch it over and over again. What a pain! Instead of creating a lengthy video or screencast, why not create a GIF of each step, making it easy for people to rewatch the steps as needed, like in this article on how to make coffee? 5. For Comic Relief If the topic of your course is particularly dry, it might be a good idea to work in some humor to make sure your learners don’t fall asleep. GIFs are a great way to do that! However, be careful to not overdo it. A humorous GIF here and there is one thing; peppering every section of your course with them is another. Here's an example that uses humorous GIFs effectively. Another thing to keep in mind with humor is that it’s subjective. Test your course out on a trusted coworker or two and make sure they find the GIFs to be both work-appropriate and funny. The Bottom Line As with anything, it’s important to keep in mind that too much of a good thing is bad. When using animated GIFs, make sure they’re helping and not hindering the learning process. After all, the goal is to get your learners to focus on the content and retain the key messages. If you’re sold on using animated GIFs in your courses but aren’t sure how to go about creating your own, check out this tutorial. Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).
