Articulate: Stop Chasing AI for a Moment and Fix the Learners Question Experience in Rise
Now, Articulate has done a somewhat impressive job integrating AI across its products, and those capabilities undoubtedly have value. Love the AI image editing. But there comes a point where new features begin to overshadow the VERY long-standing usability issues that instructional designers have been raising for years. I'm begging you... please revisit Rise's question and assessment experience. Knowledge Checks and Quiz Lessons still feel visually dated! They've barely changed since Rise launched nearly a decade ago. Huge padding. Heavy shadows. Massive blocks. They consume excessive screen space and offer almost no meaningful control over layout or presentation. And then there's the KCs... they remain fundamentally disconnected from LMS analytics! The most frustrating aspect isn't simply the visual design and which is outdated, boring and barely customisable but the missed opportunity. Knowledge Checks are where learners naturally demonstrate understanding throughout a course, yet none of that information is reported to the LMS. In a SCORM 2004 environment such as CSOD, only Quiz Lesson questions generate reportable interaction data. The crazy thing is the data is already there. Rise knows the question, knows what I clicked and knows whether I got it right... it just doesn't send any of it to the LMS. If I have use your awful layout at least pass the SCORM data! So not only do they look outdated with oversized cards, padding and shadows, every embedded Knowledge Check effectively disappears once the learner moves on. Organisations are forced to choose between good instructional design and meaningful analytics. We should not have to make that trade-off in 2026. At a minimum, there should be an option allowing authors to designate selected Knowledge Checks as reportable SCORM interactions while retaining their in-line presentation and immediate feedback. In many ways, Articulate has built one of the most approachable authoring tools on the market, but it's time to revisit the foundations rather than continually expanding the AI feature set. Refresh the quiz templates. Modernise the interaction design. Give authors meaningful control over assessment presentation. Most importantly, provide the option for Knowledge Checks to submit question-level interaction data to LMSs that support SCORM 2004. Those changes would have a far greater impact on the quality of digital learning than yet another AI button added to the toolbar. Rant over. Sorry... well, not really.JavaScript Placement issues
I'm trying to recreate a course in Storyline that was originally done in Adobe Animate. The original had this animation where a flowchart would start big, shrink, move to the left, an outline box appear, and then an enlarged "selection" fade while growing into the middle of the screen. I was able to do this using the JavaScript feature and was thrilled with the final effect, it looked really good. Then I previewed it on a different monitor and nothing was lining up. I realized that this is due to relevant placement of the elements and that the screen size and resolutions were causing these issues. My original monitor is at 1920 x 1200 and the second one is 1920 x 1080. Additionally, I found that window sizing woudld also affects these placements. Is there anything I can do to make sure these elements always line up? Any help is appreciated.Imported NaturalReader Audio Changes in Storyline
Hi: I am experiencing an issue when importing audio files created in NaturalReader into Storyline 360. The original audio plays correctly before import, but the pronunciation changes after it is added to Storyline. For example, NaturalReader correctly pronounces "CA" as the abbreviation for Columbia Association. After the file is imported into Storyline, it sounds like "caw." Has anyone encountered this issue? Is Storyline processing or altering imported audio, and is there a recommended file format or export setting that prevents it? I am exporting the audio file as a WAV and this has never happened before. I am using the most updated version of Storyline. Thanks for any help, LesleyLess Is More Is Not Just About Content, but About Learning Experience
After working in instructional design for many years, I've come to realize that "less is more" is often misunderstood. It is usually associated with simplifying content, such as making courses shorter, reducing information, or avoiding overload. But in my experience, it goes beyond that. Even when we have correctly identified what learners need to know, do, or change in order to meet business goals, there is still another important question: How should we design the learning experience itself? The goal should be to help learners learn with the least unnecessary effort. Not by removing depth or rigor, but by removing friction that does not contribute to learning. Over the years, I've seen many different approaches to learning design. Some learning experiences feel under-designed, where the lack of structure or intention makes it difficult for learners to stay engaged or understand the purpose of the content. I've also seen cases where, in an effort to avoid being "too simple" or "boring," additional layers of interaction, visual elements, or gamification are introduced. Many of us have probably spent hours building advanced interactions in Storyline or carefully structuring a Rise course because we wanted the learning experience to feel more engaging. There is nothing wrong with using these features. The question is whether they genuinely support learning. Sometimes these additions are driven more by what the tool allows us to build than by what learners actually need. As a result, learners may end up spending more time completing interactions than understanding, retaining, or applying the knowledge that really matters. This is especially important in corporate learning. Learners are often balancing training with their daily responsibilities. Time is limited, and attention is limited. That is why I believe we should be intentional about where we add complexity. Interaction is not the problem. In fact, meaningful interaction is essential for learning. The key word is meaningful. The most valuable learning experiences are those that help learners understand concepts more deeply, retain what they have learned, and apply that knowledge in real work situations. This is where I choose to focus my design effort. Not on adding interaction for its own sake, but on identifying the moments in learning that truly matter. Instead of asking, "What cool Storyline feature can I use here?", I think we should be asking, "How does this interaction help learners understand, retain, or apply what they need to learn?" When we design with that intention, learning can often become simpler while also becoming more effective. That's the kind of learning experience I continue to strive for. I'd love to hear how you decide when an interaction is truly worth adding.How are you handling certificate delivery?
Certificate delivery keeps coming up, so I wanted to share the approach I settled on after trying a few and hear how others are doing it. The recurring problem: a learner finishes a course, and you want them to get a certificate that (a) looks exactly like the slide you designed, (b) lands in their inbox automatically, and (c) is recorded somewhere you can look up later. Native print-to-PDF and LMS certificates got me part of the way, but not all three. What I ended up building: On the certificate slide, the Send button runs an Execute JavaScript trigger that posts the slide to a small backend endpoint. The backend renders that actual slide, so the PDF is pixel-perfect; no rebuilding the layout server-side and hoping the fonts match. It emails the PDF to the learner over SMTP, and logs every issue to a database with a simple admin dashboard (search, re-send, download). It runs on ordinary cPanel hosting - no monthly third-party service and no per-certificate fees - and one backend serves multiple courses. How's everyone else handling this native download, LMS-issued certs, Google Sheets/Zapier, a paid service? Curious what's working for you. I do this kind of Storyline-to-backend integration, so happy to go deeper on any of it if it's useful.Sound Issues Upon Publishing
Hello, I have run into an issue with voiceovers not playing after a course has been published to our LMS. It works fine in the file and in review, but upon publishing it, we have gotten feedback that some slides have no sound. Weirder still is that it is inconsistent on which slides play with sound and which don't. Some users have no problems, while others have issues with multiple slides. (And because there is no sound playing, it also doesn't show CC on the slide.) I have tried: Having the sound linked to a trigger (play when slide begins) Delaying the sound by two seconds on each slide to give it a chance to load correctly Updating and republishing the course I am unclear as to whether this is an issue with Storyline, people's internet connections, or if it is our LMS causing problems, but any suggestions are appreciated!Rise courses across US & EU: Why are we still unable to transfer courses between data centers?
Articulate users working with clients in different regions (US + EU), did you know that you may hit a serious limitation in Rise? You can’t transfer Rise courses between data centers. Here’s the situation Articulate introduced the EU data center. Good move. But in practice, this split European users into two groups: Long-time users → most likely still on the US data center (unless they explicitly switched) Newer users → most likely on the EU data center (the new default for Europe) The problem? Rise courses cannot be shared across data centers. And Articulate’s solution? There isn’t one. Yes, you can switch from the US to the EU data center, but then you’re stuck: No migration path No export-import for Rise courses Switching data centers = rebuilding everything from scratch (!!!) What this means in real life For anyone working across multiple clients, this creates a real headache: Established European clients often stay on the US data center. Not by choice, but because rebuilding everything isn’t realistic. Newer European clients are most likely on the EU data center. Freelancers and agencies working across both end up stuck in between. Articulate’s “solution”? Ask your client to pay for an extra seat so you can work in their environment. Pay for two licenses yourself (US + EU). I think both are unacceptable. For a tool so widely used across Europe, the inability to move content between data centers is a significant gap. And I genuinely don’t understand why Articulate doesn’t prioritise finding a solution (a real solution!) to this issue. What I’d like to hear from European users Are you staying on the US data center because switching isn’t realistic? Has anyone actually switched to the EU data center? How are you dealing with this in client projects where you are on different data centers? And how do you feel about how Articulate is handling this?Embedded Videos and Locked Navigation
Hello Heroes, I'm working on a medical course for clinical staff and have been asked to embed a YouTube video that is less than 3 minutes in the course. Further, they want to ensure the learner has watched the video before moving forward in the course, which is pretty common. My first challenge was getting the embed code to work properly with the requested start/stop point. I was able to fine tune that embed code from YouTube using Copilot and it works great in Storyline. Here's where I'm stuck. I embedded the video on a slide by itself. On the previous slide, I have a notice that coming up next is a video with audio, etc. Then, when they click "NEXT" it goes to the embedded video and starts playing. To prevent the learner from moving forward in the course until ensuring they have viewed the video, I thought I could disable the next button and set a trigger to go to the next slide when the timeline ends. However, because it's an embedded video, the timeline is 2-3 seconds, basically whatever I make it and it ends up advancing to the next slide before the video starts. I could adjust the timeline so that it runs for the 2:50 and have a layer pop up at the end with a button to move forward? What would you recommend me doing to accomplish this? The course includes another video that I'll have to configure as well, so I would really like to learn how to do this so that it works reliably with little complications. And yes, I have tested the embed code in our LMS and it starts/stops exactly where I want. Appreciate your insights and assistance learning how to make this happen.
