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.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.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).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.4 AI Basics Every E-Learning Creator Needs To Know in 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a new term. But the buzz around it has exploded lately, thanks in large part to the popularity of content generation tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E. With their ability to quickly generate custom answers, stories, illustrations, and more by simply typing out a short description, it’s no wonder they’ve enticed so many people to play with this new wave of AI technology. And while they may have caught people’s attention as a novelty, these tools have also inspired many to consider how they might fit into the world of work as well. For those of us in tech-driven fields like e-learning, the signs are clear—AI will increasingly intersect with our world over the next few years. What’s less clear, though, are the specifics of how. If you’re new to this technology and find that ambiguity confusing or stressful, this article is here to help! You’ll explore what AI is, how e-learning professionals are using it in their work right now, and how you can guide your organization on using this technology strategically. 1. What exactly is AI? The term “artificial intelligence” dates back to at least the 1950s, and its definition is broad—the ability for machines to perform tasks we typically associate with human intelligence, like problem-solving and decision-making. Does this mean AI tools are intelligent in the same way as people? No. But they can fake it reasonably well in very specific situations. For instance, an AI-powered chess system like Deep Blue can play that one game exceptionally well. But unlike humans, it can’t apply those same problem-solving skills in other contexts. 2. How does AI work? Have you ever typed a few characters into a website search window only to have it automatically fill out the rest of the product name you were looking for? Or have you ever started working on a text and had your phone suggest logical options for the next word in your sentence? Then congratulations! You’ve interacted with AI—even if you may not have realized it! These predictive AI approaches use information from large pools of data to make educated guesses about the future. They can’t create anything new, but they can be useful in situations where patterns from the past provide good clues about choices or behavior in the future. Today’s AI buzz, though, is more focused on a different category—generative AI. This approach also analyzes massive amounts of data to look for patterns and common responses. But then it uses the connections it finds to generate new content—such as text, images, video, or code. What does this difference mean in the real world? Predictive AI approaches can auto-complete the word ”cake” after you type “chocolate” or tell an online store that people who buy chocolate cake mix are also likely to buy eggs. But generative AI can create a new chocolate cake recipe for you based on all the recipes it’s seen before. People often find generative AI intriguing because it’s easy to use and creates content fast. But it has limitations too, since it relies so heavily on large data pools and averages. Want to go even deeper into how generative AI works? Try this short explainer video. Regardless of which type of AI you’re working with, it’s important to note that while these tools may appear to comprehend information the way humans do, they actually don’t. They simply look for data patterns to determine the most probable answer to requests. For instance, if you ask ChatGPT what to serve at your kid’s birthday party and it recommends pizza and ice cream, that’s not because it knows they’re delicious—or even understands what a birthday party is. It’s just noticed the words “pizza” and “ice cream” are often associated with the words “kid’s birthday party.” This pattern recognition can do a lot, but it can still make mistakes and unknowingly share incorrect information. So it’s a good practice to always double-check AI-generated content for inaccuracies. 3. Is AI going to steal my job? Now let’s address the elephant in the room. Is AI going to steal your job? For most people in e-learning, the answer is probably not. At first glance, the speed at which today’s AI tools can generate content seems like a possible threat. But the reality is that course creators like you do much more than just produce and then distribute content. Designing effective e-learning means ensuring raw content is transformed into engaging learning experiences. That’s the kind of creative work that can only be informed by your e-learning expertise and a deep understanding of the needs of your learners and organization. That said, business partners and clients aren’t always aware of the intricacies that go into designing meaningful e-learning. So even if they understand the limitations of today’s AI technology, they may not realize how many aspects of course creation these tools can’t take on independently. This is another area where you can add value. Because you're uniquely positioned to guide your partners on what AI truly means to the world of e-learning—from identifying where it has the best potential to shining a light on all the ways human creators like you ensure the final result makes a real impact. AI may be the current hot trend that’s impacting learning and development. But advocating for the value we bring to our organizations and learners has always been crucial to what we do. This is just another chance to put your advocacy skills to work. 4. How are e-learning professionals using AI right now? Lots of people in our field have been experimenting with these tools and sharing their results. Thanks to their work, we’ve got a wealth of ideas for how the current wave of AI tools can fit into e-learning workflows, including: Idea generation: Summarizing common thoughts on a topic, providing guidance on standard content outlines and formats, suggesting possible flows of information, and even helping you past writer’s block by giving you ideas on what not to write about. Administrative tasks: Taking meeting notes and summarizing them, integrating information from multiple tools to simplify booking meetings, drafting common email responses, providing suggestions for better scheduling your time, summarizing long documents or emails, and streamlining processes for moving content from one format to another. Research and writing: Summarizing large amounts of research or content dumps, aligning your writing to a brand voice or desired tone, suggesting edits to improve grammar and readability, and building basic first drafts of content. Media editing and generation: Generating media ideas and basic course layouts, automating simple media editing tasks like removing background noises or flubs, tweaking stock images, and generating talking head videos. Supporting advanced e-learning functionality: Providing personalized feedback on freeform answers from learners, playing basic roles in interactive digital roleplays, supporting chatbot functionality, and helping to write or troubleshoot simple code for enhancing courses. Wrap-Up You’ve now got the current AI basics down pat! But as with any rapidly growing technology, it’s also helpful to keep an eye on how AI will evolve over time—both to help you make strategic choices for yourself and so you can advise your organization on doing the same. Not sure where to look for AI updates? Free webinars from L&D professionals and AI tool vendors are a handy way to stay on top of what’s new. Following AI experts on social media can give you quick industry updates, as can following e-learning experts who are playing with these tools. Regularly reading tech blogs and magazines can provide a deeper dive into where AI is going next. And industry whitepapers and ebooks are also useful sources for more in-depth information. Want even more insights on the technologies and approaches that can help you create effective e-learning? 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. And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.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.
