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.7 Creative Ways to Use Images in Rise 360 Courses
Have you ever finished creating a course, looked at it, and thought to yourself, Wow … that’s a lot of text! If so, you’re not alone. It’s easy for courses to end up text-heavy, because written content is the easiest way for a lot of folks to communicate. But a text-heavy course can also make learners feel overwhelmed—and that’s not what anyone wants! So what’s the best way to make your course feel lighter and more approachable? Add in some relevant imagery to break up your text content. Now, I know what you’re thinking: What if I don’t have the images I need to illustrate my content? No worries! Rise 360 is integrated with Content Library 360, so you’re never more than a click away from millions of course assets. And there are so many different ways you can use them in your course. Let’s take a closer look at a few creative ideas for adding imagery to your Rise 360 courses. 1. Replace Bullet Points with Illustrated Flashcards Instead of inserting a bullet point block, why not use a flashcard block with images on the front side? In addition to making your course feel less text-heavy, it’ll encourage learners to actively engage with your content. 2. Add a Quote with a Background Image Quotes are a great way to drive home your key messages and inspire your learners. By adding a background image to your quote, you’ll draw attention to it and break up the monotony in a lesson with a lot of text. 3. Illustrate Your Knowledge Checks and Quiz Questions Quizzes don’t have to be text-only! Add some visual interest to your knowledge check or quiz question by adding an image or illustration. 4. Make Key Points Stand Out by Adding a Background Image If you want to make sure your learners don’t overlook a key point, why not add some emphasis by pulling the message out from a paragraph and adding a background image? It’s a surefire way to catch your learner’s attention. 5. Replace Bullet Points with a Labeled Graphic If you’re looking for a more creative way to present your bullet points, try searching Content Library 360 for an image that illustrates your content, like in the example above. You can then add markers to the appropriate spots on the image so learners can click for more information. 6. Break Up Content with Full-Width Images If you have a lesson with a bunch of text blocks in a row, why not break it up with some full-width images? These images will serve not only as dividers but will make your course look nicer and feel less dense. 7. Add Images to Your Interactive Blocks If you’re using interactive blocks like processes, timelines, accordions, or tabs, for example, think about adding an image to each section to round out your content. Wrap-Up These ideas are only the tip of the iceberg! There are many other ways to incorporate visuals into your Rise 360 courses. And to help you find the images you want in Content Library 360, check out this article. Want to try out what you learned here in Rise 360, 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 directly in your inbox.Coming Soon: Articulate AI (With Video!)
Exciting news: We’re working on some AI features that’ll help amplify your creativity and accelerate course creation. Check out this short video for a quick preview of what’s in store: We hope you’re as excited as we are about these upcoming features! Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates directly in your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.3 Ways to Track & Display Learner Progress with Storyline 360
You’ve been asking for a simple way to track and display learner progress in your Storyline 360 courses, and we heard you! With the new slide numbers feature, you can easily insert progress indicators so that learners know exactly where they are in your course. One thing I love about this feature is that there are so many different options for displaying learner progress. Let’s take a closer look at a few of my favorites. Slide Numbers The most common way to let learners know where they are in your course is by showing them how many of the total number of slides they’ve completed, as shown in the screenshot below. The best part about it is that Storyline 360 calculates the slide numbers automatically, whether your course is linear or not. See for yourself in this example. Percent Complete Another way to let learners know how they’re progressing through your course is by showing them the percent of the course they’ve completed, like you see in the screenshot below. And just like the slide numbers, Storyline 360 calculates this percentage automatically. All you have to do is decide where you want it to appear in your course. It’s so easy! Check out this example to see how it works. Visual Progress Meters You don’t have to display the actual slide numbers or percent complete to make good use of this feature. You can also use it to create a custom visual progress meter, as pictured below. Thanks to the prebuilt variables available in this feature, it’s easier than ever to create a personalized progress meter. Take a peek at this example to see one way to do that. Learn More Ready to take this new feature for a spin? Here’s a tutorial that’ll teach you how to set it up, step by step. If you don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription, you’ll want to snag a free 30-day trial first. And of course, be sure to come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. Questions? Comments? Let me know in the comments section below.Switching from Storyline 3 to Storyline 360? Here’s What’s in Store
If you’re making the switch from Storyline 3 to Storyline 360, you’re probably equal parts excited and anxious. I totally get it! Change can be scary, even if it’s GOOD change. It’s hard to know what to expect. The great news is that when you crack open Storyline 360, you’ll notice it looks almost exactly like Storyline 3. At first glance, the two are pretty interchangeable—aside from the color of the interface—so you’ll feel right at home. Of course, once you dig a little deeper you’ll start to see some differences. And these differences are what make Storyline 360 so much more powerful. Let’s take a look at a few of the big ones so you know what’s in store. Access Millions of Graphic Assets From the Insert Tab When you open the insert tab you’ll see options for adding characters, photos, illustrations, icons, and videos from Content Library 360. And while you already had access to some characters before, if you click on the Characters button you’ll find that you now have access to many more! Use the Media Library To Manage All Your Assets In the view tab you’ll notice another great new feature: the media library! If you’re struggling to find a good way to manage your course assets, you are going to love this feature. The media library lets you view, edit, and replace all the assets in your project in one window—without ever leaving Storyline 360. Not only is it a one-stop shop for all your assets, there are tons of great time-saving features built in. To learn more about the media library, check out this article: 5 Reasons You’re Going To Love the New Media Library Feature in Storyline 360. Create More Immersive Interactions With 360° Images Another thing you’ll notice in Storyline 360 is that you can insert 360° images to create a more immersive learning experience. You can also add interactive elements—like markers and hotspots—to these images and even embed supporting multimedia. Using 360° images is fantastic if you’re creating a course that requires the learner to interact with their environment or if you’re creating a guided tour of a location. To learn more and see some examples, check out the links below. 7 Immersive Learning Experiences That Use 360° Images 7 Tips for Creating Immersive Learning Experiences With Interactive 360° Images 42 Interactive 360° Image Examples in E-Learning Build Interactions Faster With the Updated Trigger Panel & Multi-Action Conditional Triggers While triggers are something you’re likely used to from Storyline 3, the trigger panel in Storyline 360 kicks things up a notch. Triggers in Storyline 360 are faster and easier to create and edit. You can copy and paste multiple triggers at once, temporarily disable them, or expand and collapse them. Also, triggers are now color-coded so you can quickly identify them. And that’s not all! The all-new multi-action conditional triggers, which give you the ability to define two actions for a single trigger, are another huge time-saver. That’s because now you can create a locked tabs interaction like this one with just one trigger instead of two—speeding up your workflow significantly. Before: Two Triggers After: One Trigger (with Else condition) To learn more about these enhancements, check out the resources below: 10 Reasons Why It’s Easy To Create Interactions With Storyline 360 Storyline 360: Trigger Panel Color-Coding Cheat Sheet Storyline 360: Conditional Trigger Enhancements Speed Up Your Workflow With Professionally Designed Templates In the slides tab of Storyline 360, you now have access to gorgeous, professionally designed, fully customizable templates in addition to the standard slide layouts you had in Storyline 3! And many of these templates include prebuilt interactions, so all you have to do is pop in your content and they’re ready to go. With thousands of Content Library 360 templates at your fingertips, you can create stunning courses in minutes—without paying a graphic designer. Learn more about our templates here: Storyline 360: Using Content Library 360 Templates. Collaborate With Team Members Using Team Slides If you’re an Articulate 360 Teams subscriber, make sure you check out Team Slides, located in the slides tab. Here you can save time and share slide templates you’ve created with your team, or use ones others have saved in your library. Team Slides are great if your company has a standard format for specific slides across all e-learning courses—for example, objectives or navigation slides. To learn more about Team Slides, head over to this article: Storyline 360: Using Team Slides for Collaboration. Give Your Course an Updated Feel With the Modern Player When you open the player settings, you’ll notice the player looks a little different than the one you’re used to seeing in Storyline 3. That’s because in Storyline 360 you have access to the Modern Player. Not only is this player responsive and accessible for all learners, it makes it easier than ever to customize the look and feel to fit your brand guidelines. Want to learn more about how this new player differs from the one you’re used to? Check out this article: Storyline 360: Choosing a Player Style (Modern or Classic). Easily Gather Feedback by Publishing To Review 360 When you click on Publish you’ll notice some new options. The first one is publish to Review 360. What’s Review 360, you ask? Great question! It’s a web-based project review app that works seamlessly with Storyline 360 to publish and share courses. That way you can get courses into the hands of stakeholders faster and easily gather feedback. Because it’s fully web-based, your reviewers and stakeholders don’t need to download an app—or even create an account—to use it. You simply share the link with them and they can view and add comments to your course. All they need to do is open the Comments bar and type their feedback. It’s super easy to use and makes the whole course review process go much more smoothly. To learn more about Review 360, check out this article: 3 Ways Review 360 Is a Big Gift for Course Developers. Create a Course Teaser in Seconds by Publishing To Video Another new publishing option you’ll notice in Storyline 360 is Video. This option comes in handyif you’re creating a teaser video for your course that you want to post on, say, YouTube. Or, maybe you need to create a GIF for a different project. If so, you can use Storyline 360 to build the GIF, publish to video, and then convert and embed it wherever you want. Want to find out more about how this works? Check out this article: New in Storyline 360: Publish To Video. Wrap-Up Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the features you’ll find in Storyline 360 that you didn’t have in Storyline 3, just the big ones that are likely to stand out as you make the switch. For a side-by-side feature comparison, check out this handy list. Hopefully this article has you feeling excited and ready to jump into creating courses in Storyline 360. But if you’d like a bit more information before you get started, we’ve got you covered! Just check out the links below: How To Find and Create 360° Images for Your Storyline 360 Project Make Your Storyline 360 Courses More Accessible With These New Features 3 Ways the Latest Review 360 Updates Make Managing Content Even Easier 3 Features That Make Storyline 360 Quick and Easy To Learn Set Yourself up for Success With These 5 Storyline 360 Project Time-Savers Want to try out these new features, but don’t have Storyline 360? Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360, 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.Check Out the 102+ Articulate 360 Features We Released in 2023
Brand-new features in Articulate 360 can help you create a broader range of exciting learning experiences. And enhancements to existing features can streamline your design and development processes, making course creation even easier. But when apps evolve constantly, it’s not always easy to see just how much has changed over time. That’s why we’ve collected the 102+ new and enhanced features released in 2023 in this one handy article! Take a look at how much our apps have progressed over the past 12 months to see if there are any useful updates you might have missed. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Content Library 360 Review 360 Reach 360 Articulate 360 Desktop App Articulate 360 Teams Storyline 360 64-Bit Version of Storyline Harness the processing power in modern computers with a 64-bit version of Storyline 360. Large, media-rich courses benefit from increased stability and faster performance. Video Playback Speed Let learners explore at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed between 0.25x and 2x. Closed Captioning Boost video accessibility by including closed captions when publishing projects as MP4 video files. Adaptive Streaming Video With streaming video support, deliver video content to all learners, regardless of their internet speed. Accessible Feedback Layers Empower learners with accessible question feedback layers that meet color, contrast, and focus guidelines by default. Publish Storyline 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Storyline 360 courses directly to Reach 360—a lightweight distribution tool to deploy your e-learning content to more learners, including deskless workers, contractors, and customers. Video Transcripts Generate synchronized video transcripts from closed captions so visual content is accessible to all learners, including those who rely on screen readers, use braille displays, or prefer to read. Background Audio Create immersive experiences with continuous background audio that sets the tone and keeps learners engaged. Learners can turn off background audio if they prefer. In-App Review Comments Speed the review process and never miss crucial feedback with in-app comments. Review 360 comments appear in context as you’re working in Storyline 360, so you can act on stakeholder feedback immediately. Reply to comments and resolve them in real time as you create content. Add images from comments to training with a single click. Cloud Backup Access your Storyline 360 project files from anywhere and share them with team members by uploading your source files to Review 360. Rest easy knowing your projects are backed up, making previous versions easy to recover. Improved File AutoRecovery Fix project files that won’t open with the help of strengthened Storyline 360 recovery capabilities. Live Caption Support in Google Chrome Make use of Live Captions while taking Storyline 360 courses in Google Chrome. Updated Default Fonts Access the latest versions of several fonts that get installed with Storyline 360. Enhanced Player Properties Enjoy easier access to the modern player controls (play/pause, volume, etc.) and player tabs (menu, glossary, etc.) checkboxes now that they’re all left-aligned. Streaming Video Support for Videos in 360° Images Make use of the streaming video feature for videos in 360° images. Create Time-Based Triggers Create time-based triggers in minutes and seconds instead of having to convert values to seconds only. Feedback Master Quickly apply a feedback master to multiple question slides simultaneously. Upgraded Embedded Version of Chromium Benefit from Chromium 112.0.5615.165 in Storyline 360. Insert Web Videos Insert web videos using relative paths. High-Res Animated GIFs Give learners the best visual experience possible with high-resolution animated GIF support. Wrap Text Ensure text in data-entry fields wraps more easily using the wrap text option instead of having to increase the height to be more than 60 pixels. Optional “Lost Connectivity” Alert Let your learners know when they lose their connection with this optional alert you can turn on in the player properties. Faster Trigger Wizard Performance on Macs Enjoy better trigger wizard performance on M-series Macs. Set Your Cover Photo To Fill the Player Frame Easily set your cover photo to fill the player frame in the player properties. Screen Recording on Primary and Secondary Monitors Record your screen on primary and secondary monitors with DPI settings over 100%. Full-Screen Storyline Block Display Display Storyline blocks in Rise 360 full screen on mobile devices when player controls are turned off. Display Crisp Text and Images Display crisp text and images in embedded web objects by unchecking the scaling option. Background Audio in Video Output Include background audio in published video output. Turn Player Navigation Elements On or Off Control how learners navigate submitted quiz questions by turning player navigation elements on or off. Neural Voices Generate realistic, natural-sounding text-to-speech narration with neural voices. New Neural Voices (US English) Enjoy two new English (US) neural voices options, Danielle and Gregory, for text-to-speech conversion. Icons and Text Displayed in Player For new projects that use the modern player, navigation buttons now display both icons and text by default. You can still switch to just icons or text instead. Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Support Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use SSML to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more. Fixed Positions for Modern Player Controls Make it even easier for learners to interact with your course thanks to fixed control positions at the bottom of the player. Text Wrapping Easier Benefit from an improved user interface for text-entry fields text-wrapping options. Enhanced Button Accessibility Provide learners with a more accessible experience now that the “Back to Top” and “Skip Navigation” buttons and the volume slider meet color contrast guidelines. Control Background Audio with Triggers Control the background audio for each slide using triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist. Tooltips Available Display tooltips that are accessible to mouse, keyboard, and screen reader users automatically using the built-in player controls and navigation buttons. Fine-Tune Background Audio Customize the background audio experience even further by fine-tuning the volume with a percentage-based variable. Rise 360 Microlearning Deliver bite-size, single-objective content with the Microlearning feature. Turn Off the Cover Page Turn off the cover page when you publish for LMS to improve compatibility, streamline training, and get learners into content faster. Theme Color Contrast Use theme color contrast to instantly ensure training content meets accessible color handling requirements for learners with low vision. Turn Off Lesson Headers Turn off lesson headers to provide a more focused learning experience. Reply To and Resolve Review 360 Comments Reply to and resolve Review 360 comments from within Rise 360 and add suggested images with a single click. Block Contrast Settings Automatically adjust the contrast of text and graphics at the block level or select your own contrast with block contrast settings. Enhanced Block Settings Customize your blocks with distinctive backgrounds and easily adjust padding options with enhanced block settings. Team Folders Create shared team folders to organize your team’s content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. Enhanced Dashboard Management Organize and keep track of what’s important to you more easily with the enhanced dashboard. New Real Content Course Templates Get even more great content out to learners fast with new additions to our library of real content course templates. In 2023 we added new courses and microlearning experiences on topics like exercise, forming healthy habits, Black History Month, discussing disabilities in the workplace, and more! New Placeholder Content Course Templates Jump-start course creation with even more placeholder content course templates. New additions include course outlines on equity compensation conversations and sales order management processes. Publish Rise 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Rise 360 courses directly to Reach 360—an add-on to Articulate 360 that lets you quickly distribute training, enroll learners, and track their progress. Specify an Admin When Publishing to Reach 360 Get the right eyes on your course when publishing it to Reach 360 by selecting a specific admin to notify from a searchable drop-down menu. Quote Block Accessibility Improvements Give all your learners a better experience with accessibility improvements for quote blocks. WCAG 2.1 Conformant Process Blocks Include process blocks in your accessible courses now that they’re WCAG 2.1 conformant with improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support. Translate Labels for Screen Readers Broaden your impact and enhance accessibility by translating screen reader labels into other languages. Added Labels for Sidebar Progress Indicator Enhance localization and accessibility with labels for sidebar progress indicator tooltips. Default Text Color Improve accessibility conformance on new courses without lifting a finger by leaving the default text color, which is now true black. Skip Video Compression Add _NOPROCESS_ to a video file name to skip compression when uploading it to your course. Exported Training Destinations Quickly select a destination for your exported training with the Rise 360 dashboard publish menu. Cover Page Overlay Setting Use the Overlay setting to preserve both image clarity and text readability by choosing a light or dark translucent overlay for your cover photo that automatically maximizes text contrast. Links in Button and Button Stack Blocks Use relative links in button and button stack blocks to link to training within your subdomain. Theme Color Selector Use the Theme setting in the block element color picker to quickly select your training’s theme color. Logo Size Options Crop your logo to decrease white space and increase its size to customize your cover page branding. Quiz and Labeled Graphics No Longer Animate Protect those with motion disorders automatically now that quiz and labeled graphics items no longer animate when learners enable reduced motion settings on their devices. Rise 360 Images Marked as Decorative by Default Mark images as decorative automatically when you leave alt text for an image blank so it’s ignored by screen readers. Block Background Images Randomly Selected Enjoy a wider variety of default block background images now that they’re randomly selected on a block-by-block basis. Progression Arrows Remain Visible on Zoom Give all learners a better experience now that labeled graphic progression arrows remain visible when zoomed in or viewed on a mobile device. Split Block Design Menu Apply design settings to blocks more easily now that we’ve split the block design menu into two new menus: Style and Format. Updated Placeholder Content Templates Enjoy the new and improved placeholder content templates, a makeover where you’ll notice that the “lorem ipsum” text has been replaced with instructional and sample content. To improve accessibility, we’ve removed italicized formatting. We’ve also updated block design throughout the templates to take advantage of recent Rise 360 formatting enhancements. Linked Block Padding Add a custom value for top and bottom block padding at the same time using the linked padding option. 4k Video Support Boost course video quality with the ability to upload 4k videos to Rise 360. Content Library 360 Thousands of New Images Find the perfect photos for your online training even more easily with the addition of hundreds of thousands more high-resolution images from Pexels. New Illustrated Characters Represent a greater variety of learners with six new illustrated characters: Eduardo, Camila, Mike, Shanae, Don, and Wren. Review 360 Request Review Keep your team on track without the hassle of spreadsheets or phone calls thanks to the request review feature. 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. Team Folders Create shared team folders in 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. Comments Only Allowed on Current Versions of Courses Keep teams in sync by preventing stakeholders from accidentally adding new comments to old versions of a content item. Enhanced Dashboard Quickly and intuitively organize your Review 360 dashboard with nested folders, subfolder breadcrumbs, an action toolbar, and more project management efficiencies. You can even multi-select items and folders, then move them in bulk. Learn more about the enhanced dashboard. Review Status Labels Allow stakeholders to reset their status after completing a review for more flexibility. Send Bulk Review Requests Send a request to multiple reviewers simultaneously by copying and pasting their email addresses in bulk. Text-Formatting Toolbar in Request Review Send engaging review request messages with the new text-formatting toolbar. Content Privacy Settings Control access to your content by making your Review 360 items private while still allowing invited stakeholders to offer feedback. Reach 360 Reach 360 Launched Reach 360 launched! Reach 360 is a frictionless LMS that integrates with Articulate 360 so you can easily deliver training to more learners. Group Self-Registration Simplify learner management by generating a sign-up link that automatically adds your learners into a group. API Integrations Use the Reach 360 API to build custom integrations with your business systems, giving your team access to valuable training and data where they need it most. Connect Reach 360 and Zapier Automate your work and streamline your productivity by adding Reach 360 to your Zapier workflows (currently in beta). Custom Domain Brand your Reach 360 URL with a custom domain you own. Owner Role The purchaser of your Articulate 360 Teams subscription is now listed as the Owner in Reach 360. Improved Group Member Lists Improve performance with paginated group member lists that display 50 members per page. Bulk Delete Learners Use true “select all” to bulk delete learners, even every learner, from your Reach 360 account. Active Learner Usage Report At a glance, see how many users have logged in to your Reach 360 account with the Active Learner Usage report. Bulk Delete Members Bulk delete members, even every member, from a group with “select all.” Bulk Import Bulk import and delete group members via CSV. Connect with Slack Connect Reach 360 and Slack so you can share course previews and get in-app training notifications. Share Content with QR Code Share specific training items directly with learners via URL or QR code. Learning Path QR Code Allow users to directly access a learning path—and self-register as a new learner if necessary—with a QR code. Self-Registration QR Code Allow users to self-register as new learners or group members using a QR code. Custom Certificates Create and manage custom certificates. SSO for Learners Enable SSO for your Reach 360 learners directly from your Reach 360 settings. Manage Groups and Users with SSO Use SSO to manage learners and groups, allowing them to quickly access training using one set of log-in credentials. Users API Endpoint Delete users from training with this Users API endpoint. Reach 360 API Quiz Data Enhancement Include quiz data in the course.completed event type for Webhook Events in the Reach 360 API. Sortable Activity Report Column Quickly check completion status with a sortable column in the activity report. Separate Admins for Reach 360 Enjoy more organizational options by defining separate admins for Reach 360. Enhanced User Role Management Streamline Reach 360 user management to include learners and admins only. Reporter Access Delegate training analytics by assigning reporters who only have access to detailed reports for specific groups of learners. Custom Certificate Settings Select a custom certificate to be the default certificate for your Reach 360 training. Default Direct Sharing Direct sharing is enabled by default for all new content published to your Reach 360 library. Articulate 360 Desktop App Improved Error Reporting Resolve issues faster with updated error reporting. Articulate 360 Teams Retain Shared Content Maintain control over shared content when a member leaves the team. Wrap-Up As you can see, 2023 was a big year with lots of exciting updates to the Articulate 360 apps. You can see what’s up next by checking out our feature roadmap page. Want to try out some of these features, but don’t have Articulate 360 just yet? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.Make Over Your Rise 360 Course in 4 Easy Steps With Themes
Rise 360 has always been a fantastic tool for creating courses fast. And with the templates and other flexible options, even people without graphic design experience can feel confident that their Rise 360 projects will always look polished and professional. That’s why we’re so excited about Rise 360 themes. Themes give you even more ways to put your unique spin on the look and feel of your Rise 360 courses. And just like everything else about Rise 360, the themes feature makes creating beautifully designed courses easy—no graphic design skills needed. So let’s take a closer look at four easy steps you can follow to refresh your overall course design with a new theme, pique your learners’ interest with cover pages and lesson headers, reinforce your branding, and customize the course navigation experience. Step 1: Update the Overall Course Design With a New Theme The easiest way to give your course’s visual design a little facelift is to choose from the three prebuilt themes included in Rise 360. These themes are great for setting the overall look and feel of your project in one fell swoop. Let’s look at how to choose a theme and the available theme options, below. Choosing a Theme Start by opening any existing Rise 360 course on your Rise 360 dashboard. Select Theme in the upper right corner, and then click Change Theme. Rise 360 includes three professionally designed, ultra-stylish themes—Rise, the classic theme you’ve come to know (but with a few more customization options), plus two brand-new ones: Apex and Horizon. Following is a quick overview of each theme. Rise Our original theme, Rise, always looks modern and clean—a tried-and-true design choice that never goes out of style. Apex For a bold, contemporary, and striking design with angular finishes, choose Apex. Horizon When you want to give your course an elegant, sharp, and stylish makeover—complete with understated flourishes—Horizon is a great choice. They’re all so beautiful, right? Not sure which theme works best for your content? We’ve got you covered! Check out 3 Ways to Use Themes to Tailor Your Rise 360 Projects for some pro pointers. Once you’ve decided on a theme for your project, click to select it and you’ll see it applied to your project in the adjacent preview pane. Being able to preview your theme choice is handy because if you’re not in love with it, you can simply click another one. And if it’s love at first sight, click Save to apply it to your project. While you can use each theme as is, you also have loads of options for customizing key theme elements such as the cover page, lesson headers, and other features of the user interface, like colors, fonts, and navigation. We’ll explore some of these customization options in the next few steps. Step 2: Grab Learners’ Attention With a Custom Cover Page and Lesson Headers A cover page is your first opportunity to grab a learner’s attention, so why not customize it to fit the course topic or your company branding and really make it count? Select Cover Page from the menu and pick a stylish layout. If you’re opting to add a course image to your cover page, you can upload your own image or browse the wide selection images available in Content Library 360, which is built right into Rise 360. Pro Tip: You can also crop images directly in Rise 360. That means no hassling with a separate image editing app to tailor your course images to your project. To make your theme branded, upload your logo too. Customizing the Lesson Header option is another nice way to draw learners in and direct their attention to your content. You can choose from a variety of header designs or customize them with your own color or image. You can even adjust lesson headers to make them taller or shorter to create more or less white space, as you can see in the GIF above. Step 3: Reinforce Your Brand Identity With Custom Colors and Fonts The design choices we’ve walked through so far are quick but powerful ways to transform your course, but they’re really just the tip of the creative iceberg! You can also brand your course with custom colors and fonts to make sure it more fully aligns with your brand guidelines. Colors You can choose the Colors option to customize course accents like the menu and progress bar. Rise 360 makes picking eye-catching colors easy with curated options you can apply with a single click. But what if you need to bring in your official brand shades? No problem. Choose the Custom feature and select any color you’d like. Fonts Another easy way to brand your Rise 360 projects is to customize the fonts. Choose the Fonts option to find the perfect typeface for your project. Not sure where to start? Try the Recommended pairings—a fast way to make sure your headings and body fonts go together perfectly. For even more flexibility, click More to browse a selection of pre-installed options. And if you want to use your official brand fonts, just click Manage Custom Fonts to upload the ones you need and use them throughout your course. Step 4: Complete the Transformation With Custom Navigation and Button Styles You’ve got the cover page, lesson headers, colors and fonts fine-tuned. The final step in making over your Rise 360 course is to customize course navigation and button styles. Navigation In Rise 360, you’ve always had the option to show, hide, or disable the sidebar navigation. And now we’ve added more ways to customize course navigation so you can create the perfect experience for your learners. To start exploring your options, choose Navigation. Both Compact and Overlay navigation are great for making your content the star of the show. Choose Compact navigation to tuck your lesson menu away in a corner, where it can be quickly expanded with a click when learners need it. Another great option is Overlay navigation. When learners need to view the menu, they simply click the ☰ (hamburger) icon and the menu overlays the lesson, filling the screen. Love keeping things familiar? The always reliable Sidebar menu is a great choice with more options to choose from. Don’t want to include a navigation menu at all? No problem. You can remove it entirely—just as you’ve always been able to do in Rise 360. Buttons Want to continue customizing your course? Don’t forget about button options! Pick the button color that’s right for your course or branding. You can even refine your Previous and Next buttons by making them full width or floating—or you can remove them entirely. It’s totally up to you! Want to see how themes and custom settings can be combined for different effects? Check out the following example course. We present the same content three different ways and with minimal customizations so you can see for yourself. Explore Horizon Explore Apex Explore Rise Customizations: compact navigation, large header height Customizations: overlay navigation, small header height, custom color Customizations: sidebar navigation, medium header height, custom color Wrap-Up Not only does the themes feature give you a host of new ways to express yourself, wow your learners, and brand your Rise 360 content, it’s also streamlined the course creation process by consolidating theme settings all in one place—right at the top of the authoring environment in Rise 360. With so many options to customize your project's look and feel, you can rest assured knowing that whichever professionally designed theme you choose, your course will look fantastic on any device. And all of these thoughtful features and enhancements mean Rise 360 just keeps making it easier to create stunningly unique and stylish courses your learners will love. For more tips and inspiration on how you can start using themes in your e-learning, check out these helpful resources: Quickly Create Uniquely Stunning Courses with Rise 360 Themes 3 Ways to Use Rise 360 Themes to Tailor Your Projects How to Brand Your Rise 360 Course Want to try the new Rise 360 themes 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.128 Features That Show Our Commitment to Product Innovation
Customers often tell us how much they love starting their day with a little gift from Articulate in the form of cool new features that seem to appear like magic. Brand-new timesavers and resources can instantly make your day better. It makes our day better, too, knowing we’re giving you helpful updates to streamline your work, boost productivity, and build amazing courses for your learners. Since the start of 2023, we’ve been on a roll—adding 128 powerful new features to Articulate 360. With so much rapid innovation in such a short time, it can be hard to appreciate how much Articulate 360 has evolved. That’s why we assembled the following list of app improvements to explore. We hope it helps you see the scope of our commitment to evolving our products for you—and that you feel the e-learning love we’re pouring into every new feature. So take a look back, app by app, and marvel at how far we’ve come together. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Content Library 360 Review 360 Reach 360 Articulate 360 Teams Articulate 360 Desktop App Storyline 360 Global Notes Formatting Save time and create more cohesive courses with global notes formatting. You can choose styles like font color, size, or paragraph spacing and apply your formatting selections across all the slide notes in your project. Built-in Console for Finding JavaScript Errors Skip the step of publishing your course to test out JavaScript triggers. Instead, save time by using the built-in console to troubleshoot your projects right in Storyline 360. Emphasis Animations Grab the attention of your learners with captivating animations like pulsing and teetering to add emphasis and bring your slide objects to life. 64-Bit Version of Storyline Harness the processing power in modern computers with a 64-bit version of Storyline 360. Large, media-rich courses benefit from increased stability and faster performance. Video Playback Speed Let learners explore at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed between 0.25x and 2x. Closed Captioning Boost video accessibility by including closed captions when publishing projects as MP4 video files. Adaptive Streaming Video With streaming video support, deliver video content to all learners, regardless of their internet speed. Accessible Feedback Layers Empower learners with accessible question feedback layers that meet color, contrast, and focus guidelines by default. Publish Storyline 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Storyline 360 courses directly to Reach 360—a lightweight distribution tool to deploy your e-learning content to more learners, including deskless workers, contractors, and customers. Video Transcripts Generate synchronized video transcripts from closed captions so visual content is accessible to all learners, including those who rely on screen readers, use braille displays, or prefer to read. Background Audio Create immersive experiences with continuous background audio that sets the tone and keeps learners engaged. Learners can turn off background audio if they prefer. In-App Review Comments Speed the review process and never miss crucial feedback with in-app comments. Review 360 comments appear in context as you’re working in Storyline 360, so you can act on stakeholder feedback immediately. Reply to comments and resolve them in real time as you create content. Add images from comments to training with a single click. Cloud Backup Access your Storyline 360 project files from anywhere and share them with team members by uploading your source files to Review 360. Rest easy knowing your projects are backed up, making previous versions easy to recover. Improved File Autorecovery Fix project files that won’t open with the help of strengthened Storyline 360 recovery capabilities. Live Caption Support in Google Chrome Make use of live captions while taking Storyline 360 courses in Google Chrome. Updated Default Fonts Access the latest versions of several fonts that get installed with Storyline 360. Enhanced Player Properties Enjoy easier access to the modern player controls (play/pause, volume, etc.) and player tabs (menu, glossary, etc.) now that they’re all left-aligned. Streaming Video Support for Videos in 360° Images Make use of the streaming video feature for videos in 360° images. Create Time-Based Triggers Create time-based triggers in minutes and seconds instead of having to convert values to seconds only. Feedback Master Quickly apply a feedback master to multiple question slides simultaneously. Upgraded Embedded Version of Chromium Benefit from Chromium 112.0.5615.165 in Storyline 360. Insert Web Videos Insert web videos using relative paths. High-Res Animated GIFs Give learners the best visual experience possible with high-resolution animated GIF support. Wrap Text Ensure text in data-entry fields wraps more easily using the wrap text option instead of having to increase the height to be more than 60 pixels. Optional “Lost Connectivity” Alert Let your learners know when they lose their connection with this optional alert you can turn on in the player properties. Faster Trigger Wizard Performance on Macs Enjoy better trigger wizard performance on M-series Macs. Set Your Cover Photo To Fill the Player Frame Easily set your cover photo to fill the player frame in the player properties. Screen Recording on Primary and Secondary Monitors Record your screen on primary and secondary monitors with DPI settings over 100%. Full-Screen Storyline Block Display Display Storyline blocks in Rise 360 full screen on mobile devices when player controls are turned off. Display Crisp Text and Images Display crisp text and images in embedded web objects by unchecking the scaling option. Background Audio in Video Output Include background audio in published video output. Turn Player Navigation Elements On or Off Control how learners navigate submitted quiz questions by turning player navigation elements on or off. Neural Voices Generate realistic, natural-sounding text-to-speech narration with neural voices. New Neural Voices (US English) Enjoy two new English (US) neural voices options, Danielle and Gregory, for text-to-speech conversion. Icons and Text Displayed in Player For new projects that use the modern player, navigation buttons now display both icons and text by default. You can still switch to just icons or text instead. Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Support Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use SSML to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more. Fixed Positions for Modern Player Controls Make it even easier for learners to interact with your course thanks to fixed control positions at the bottom of the player. Text Wrapping Easier Benefit from an improved user interface for text-wrapping options in text-entry fields. Enhanced Button Accessibility Provide learners with a more accessible experience now that the Back to Top and Skip Navigation buttons and the volume slider meet color contrast guidelines. Control Background Audio With Triggers Control the background audio for each slide using triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist. Tooltips Available Display tooltips that are accessible to mouse, keyboard, and screen reader users automatically using the built-in player controls and navigation buttons. Fine-Tune Background Audio Customize the background audio experience even further by fine-tuning the volume with a percentage-based variable. Rise 360 Microlearning Deliver bite-size, single-objective content with the microlearning feature. Turn Off the Cover Page Turn off the cover page when you publish for LMS to improve compatibility, streamline training, and get learners into content faster. Theme Color Contrast Use theme color contrast to instantly ensure training content meets accessible color handling requirements for learners with low vision. Turn Off Lesson Headers Turn off lesson headers to provide a more focused learning experience. Reply To and Resolve Review 360 Comments Reply to and resolve Review 360 comments from within Rise 360 and add suggested images with a single click. Block Contrast Settings Automatically adjust the contrast of text and graphics at the block level or select your own contrast with block contrast settings. Enhanced Block Settings Customize your blocks with distinctive backgrounds and easily adjust padding options with enhanced block settings. Team Folders Create shared team folders to organize your team’s content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. Enhanced Dashboard Management Organize and keep track of what’s important to you more easily with the enhanced dashboard. New Real Content Course Templates Get even more great content out to learners fast with new additions to our library of real content course templates. In 2023 we added new courses and microlearning experiences on topics like exercise, forming healthy habits, Black History Month, discussing disabilities in the workplace, and more! New Placeholder Content Course Templates Jump-start course creation with even more placeholder content course templates. New additions include course outlines on equity compensation conversations and sales order management processes. Publish Rise 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Rise 360 courses directly to Reach 360—an add-on to Articulate 360 that lets you quickly distribute training, enroll learners, and track their progress. Specify an Admin When Publishing to Reach 360 Get the right eyes on your course when publishing it to Reach 360 by selecting a specific admin to notify from a searchable drop-down menu. Quote Block Accessibility Improvements Give all your learners a better experience with accessibility improvements for quote blocks. WCAG 2.1 Conformant Process Blocks Include process blocks in your accessible courses now that they’re WCAG 2.1 conformant with improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support. Translate Labels for Screen Readers Broaden your impact and enhance accessibility by translating screen reader labels into other languages. Added Labels for Sidebar Progress Indicator Enhance localization and accessibility with labels for sidebar progress indicator tooltips. Default Text Color Improve accessibility conformance on new courses without lifting a finger by leaving the default text color, which is now true black. Skip Video Compression Add _NOPROCESS_ to a video file name to skip compression when uploading it to your course. Exported Training Destinations Quickly select a destination for your exported training with the Rise 360 dashboard publish menu. Cover Page Overlay Setting Use the Overlay setting to preserve both image clarity and text readability by choosing a light or dark translucent overlay for your cover photo that automatically maximizes text contrast. Links in Button and Button Stack Blocks Use relative links in button and button stack blocks to link to training within your subdomain. Theme Color Selector Use the Theme setting in the block element color picker to quickly select your training’s theme color. Logo Size Options Crop your logo to decrease white space and increase its size to customize your cover page branding. Quiz and Labeled Graphics No Longer Animate Protect those with motion disorders automatically now that quiz and labeled graphics items no longer animate when learners enable reduced motion settings on their devices. Rise 360 Images Marked as Decorative by Default Mark images as decorative automatically when you leave alt text for an image blank so it’s ignored by screen readers. Block Background Images Randomly Selected Enjoy a wider variety of default block background images now that they’re randomly selected on a block-by-block basis. Progression Arrows Remain Visible on Zoom Give all learners a better experience now that labeled graphic progression arrows remain visible when zoomed in or viewed on a mobile device. Split Block Design Menu Apply design settings to blocks more easily now that we’ve split the block design menu into two new menus: Style and Format. Updated Placeholder Content Templates Enjoy the new and improved placeholder content templates, a makeover where you’ll notice that the “lorem ipsum” text has been replaced with instructional and sample content. To improve accessibility, we’ve removed italicized formatting. We’ve also updated block design throughout the templates to take advantage of recent Rise 360 formatting enhancements. Linked Block Padding Add a custom value for top and bottom block padding at the same time using the linked padding option. 4k Video Support Boost course video quality with the ability to upload 4k videos to Rise 360. Content Library 360 New Prebuilt Course on Women’s History Help your learners honor the past and help shape the future with our latest ready-to-go Rise 360 course, “Honoring Herstory During Women’s History Month.” Eight New Illustrated Characters Enhance your projects and improve representation with eight versatile illustrated characters: Eduardo, Camila, Mike, Shanae, Don, Wren, Chloe, and Theresa. Thousands of New Images Find the perfect photos for your online training even more easily with the addition of hundreds of thousands more high-resolution images from Pexels. Review 360 Request Review Keep your team on track without the hassle of spreadsheets or phone calls thanks to the request review feature. 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. Team Folders Create shared team folders in 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. Comments Only Allowed on Current Versions of Courses Keep teams in sync by preventing stakeholders from accidentally adding new comments to old versions of a content item. Enhanced Dashboard Quickly and intuitively organize your Review 360 dashboard with nested folders, subfolder breadcrumbs, an action toolbar, and more project management efficiencies. You can even multi-select items and folders, then move them in bulk. Learn more about the enhanced dashboard. Review Status Labels Allow stakeholders to reset their status after completing a review for more flexibility. Send Bulk Review Requests Send a request to multiple reviewers simultaneously by copying and pasting their email addresses in bulk. Text-Formatting Toolbar in Request Review Send engaging review request messages with the new text-formatting toolbar. Content Privacy Settings Control access to your content by making your Review 360 items private while still allowing invited stakeholders to offer feedback. Reach 360 Launch of Reach 360 Deliver training to more learners easily with Reach 360, a frictionless LMS that integrates with Articulate 360. Reach 360 Starter Plan Distribute your courses to 300 learners a year for no additional cost with the Reach 360 Starter Plan. Assign Managers Streamline your training management process by assigning managers to groups in your organization. Managers can invite and remove learners, assign training, and view reports for their assigned groups. Group Self-Registration Simplify learner management by generating a sign-up link that automatically adds your learners into a group. API Integrations Use the Reach 360 API to build custom integrations with your business systems, giving your team access to valuable training and data where they need it most. Connect Reach 360 and Zapier Automate your work and streamline your productivity by adding Reach 360 to your Zapier workflows (currently in beta). Custom Domain Brand your Reach 360 URL with a custom domain you own. Owner Role The purchaser of your Articulate 360 Teams subscription is now listed as the Owner in Reach 360. Improved Group Member Lists Improve performance with paginated group member lists that display 50 members per page. Bulk Delete Learners Use true “select all” to bulk delete learners, even every learner, from your Reach 360 account. Active Learner Usage Report At a glance, see how many users have logged in to your Reach 360 account with the active learner usage report. Bulk Delete Members Bulk delete members, even every member, from a group with “select all.” Bulk Import Bulk import and delete group members via CSV. Connect With Slack Connect Reach 360 and Slack so you can share course previews and get in-app training notifications. Share Content With QR Code Share specific training items directly with learners via URL or QR code. Learning Path QR Code Give users access to a learning path directly—and self-register as a new learner if necessary—with a QR code. Self-Registration QR Code Allow users to self-register as new learners or group members using a QR code. Custom Certificates Create and manage custom certificates. SSO for Learners Enable SSO for your Reach 360 learners directly from your Reach 360 settings. Manage Groups and Users With SSO Use SSO to manage learners and groups, allowing them to access training using one set of log-in credentials quickly. Users API Endpoint Delete users from training with this Users API endpoint. Reach 360 API Quiz Data Enhancement Include quiz data in the course completed event type for Webhook Events in the Reach 360 API. Sortable Activity Report Column Quickly check completion status with a sortable column in the activity report. Separate Admins for Reach 360 Enjoy more organizational options by defining separate admins for Reach 360. Enhanced User Role Management Streamline Reach 360 user management to include learners and admins only. Reporter Access Delegate training analytics by assigning reporters who only have access to detailed reports for specific groups of learners. Custom Certificate Settings Select a custom certificate to be the default certificate for your Reach 360 training. Default Direct Sharing Direct sharing is enabled by default for all new content published to your Reach 360 library. Articulate 360 Teams Retain Shared Content Maintain control over shared content when a member leaves the team. Articulate 360 Desktop App Improved Error Reporting Resolve issues faster with updated error reporting. Wrap-Up With loads of exciting new updates rolling out all the time, Articulate 360 apps are always evolving to meet your needs. To see what we’re working on next, check out our feature roadmap page or join the conversation in E-Learning Heroes for all the latest Articulate 360 buzz, including tips, tricks, and how-tos. Want to try out some of these features but don’t have Articulate 360 just yet? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.3 Reasons to Use Content Library 360 in Rise 360
I’m always on the lookout for tips to help me create effective courses quickly. If you’ve ever used Rise 360, then you can appreciate how easy it is to build beautiful, interactive courses fast. One of my favorite things about Rise 360 is that I have access to Content Library 360 from within the app. Content Library 360 is chock-full of assets that can save you money, speed up your workflow, and make your content relatable. Let me explain how. 1. Save Money Have you ever worked on a project with little to no images to go along with the content? It happens more often than you’d think! Often, companies just don’t have the budget or resources to create custom imagery. And in the past, if you didn’t have hours to spend scouring multiple free image stock sites, you were left with one option: paid stock photo sites. But paid stock sites can be super-expensive, especially if you need a bunch of images. That’s why I love Content Library 360. If you have an Articulate 360 subscription, you automatically have access to Content Library 360. That means—for no added cost—you can use as many images as you want from our ever-expanding library of literally millions of assets. These assets are made available through third parties, including Unsplash, Noun Project, Pexels, and Pixabay, and you can use them in your content without additional charge. However, as noted in our Terms of Service, use of these images, including any attribution requirements, is subject to these third parties’ terms. 2. Save Time Another great reason to use Content Library 360 is to speed up course creation. That’s because you can search our ever-growing, massive library of course assets and insert them into your project in just a few clicks—without ever leaving Rise 360. No more leaving the app, opening up your search engine, and navigating to an image stock site to try to find what you’re looking for. With Content Library 360, you can find the images you need right in the app—and without interrupting your workflow. And once you’ve found the perfect image for your project, you can use the Crop Image feature to save even more time! In just a few seconds, you can crop any image to fit your needs. There’s even a “Constrain to Square” option. Best of all, the cropping feature works with both Content Library 360 images and images you upload! Want to see other useful ways to use this feature? Check out this article. 3. Create More Relatable Scenarios Scenarios are a great way to engage learners and help them navigate real-life situations. However, it can be a challenge to find all the assets you need with so many possible outcomes. Crafting realistic learning experiences with the scenario block in Rise 360 makes all this possible. And with Content Library 360, you not only have access to millions of stock images, you also have thousands of combinations of photographic characters and poses to choose from so you can easily create your own branching scenarios in a snap. As you build your scenario, you can select backgrounds and characters from a variety of industries and professions to make it feel relatable. And because Content Library 360 images and characters are available right in Rise 360, it’s quick and convenient. Summary With Content Library 360 images built right into Rise 360, you save money, time, and hassle—all while creating more relatable courses. What’s not to love? For more Rise 360 and Content Library 360 tips and tricks, check out these articles: Rise 360: Adding Content Library 360 Images to a Course How to Find the Images You Want in Content Library 360 3 Ways to Use the Image-Cropping Feature in Rise 360 7 Creative Ways to Use Images in Rise 360 Courses Rise 360: How to Use Scenario Blocks 6 Rise 360 Blocks to Use Instead of Bullet Points What productivity tips do you have for creating courses in Rise 360? Please share your ideas in the comments below. I’d love to hear them! Want to save time by creating a Rise 360 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.Everything You Need to Know About Image Usage Rights
It’s tricky to find appropriate, usable images for e-learning projects. And sometimes after you’ve found the right photo, it’s unclear whether you can legally use it. Images are protected by copyright. So you can’t add any photo you find online to your e-learning project. But trying to do the right thing can raise more questions than answers: What if I just link to their website? Should I reach out to this person? Wait, I don’t see who owns this image! Usually images you’ll find on photo sites fall into one of a few categories. Here are some of the different usage terms you’ll find. Copyright Copyright law protects original works, including images. In most cases, you can’t copy or distribute a copyrighted image without permission from the person who created it. You should assume that any image you find online is protected by copyright. If possible, contact the copyright holder for permission to use their work. When you buy a stock photo, you’re buying the right to use that copyrighted image. Depending on which site you use, the image may be royalty-free or rights-managed. Royalty-free means that you’re not responsible for royalty payments. You’re usually able to use the image as you’d like. Rights-managed means there are restrictions on how you can use the image—so be sure to read your license agreement closely! Fair Use The fair use doctrine provides opportunities for using copyrighted images without permission. For instance, you can legally use a copyrighted image for personal and educational use, or for the public good. Most e-learning is commercial. As a course creator, you should assume that using copyrighted images in your work doesn’t qualify as fair use. But fair use also allows you to transform copyrighted images into something new. If you turn a copyrighted image into a completely new work, you can use that image freely. Creative Commons The Creative Commons non-profit provides free copyright licenses for creators. The copyright holder can determine several things with these licenses: Whether you need to credit them for their image Whether you can use their image for commercial purposes Whether you can modify their image What license you must use if you modify their image When using Creative Commons images, be sure to read the license carefully and use the image appropriately. Pro tip: Some photo sharing sites, such as Flickr, allow you to filter search results by specific Creative Commons licenses. Public Domain Typically an image becomes part of the public domain in one of two ways. The creator either gives up copyright willingly, or the copyright expires. These images aren’t protected by copyright, so you’re free to use them any way you’d like. Pro tip: WikiMedia Commons has a large database of images in the public domain. A Helpful Alternative Of course, the easiest way to source freely available images is by finding e-learning solutions that provide stock assets. Articulate 360 includes Content Library 360, an ever-growing library of visual assets that you can access right from within Rise and Storyline 360. These assets are made available through third parties, including Unsplash, Noun Project, Pexels, and Pixabay, and you can use them in your content without additional charge. However, as noted in our Terms of Service, the use of these images, including any attribution requirements, is subject to these third parties’ terms. See what’s available in Content Library 360 when you start a free, 30-day trial of Articulate 360. You’ll also get access to award-winning authoring apps Storyline 360 and Rise, a project review app, and access to live online training led by industry experts. New to e-learning? Sign up for our E-Learning 101 email course, a series of expertly-curated articles that'll get you up to speed with course development.
