How to Copy Blocks from One Lesson to Another in Rise 360
Have you ever built a course in Rise 360 and realized, later on, that some of the content in one lesson would work great in a different lesson? Or maybe you want to reuse the same content structure? I’ve been there! Luckily, it’s super easy to copy blocks from one Rise lesson to another, thanks to the blocks template feature. Here’s how it works. 1. Open the Blocks Library The first thing you’ll want to do is navigate to the lesson that contains the block you want to copy and open up the block library. You can do that either by clicking the plus sign (+) between two blocks … … or by clicking All Blocks in the blocks shortcut bar. 2. Create a New Template Next, select the templates tab in the block library and click the New Template button. 3. Select the Blocks to Copy Then, select the block or blocks you want to copy by clicking the checkmark for each one. 4. Save Your Template Next, click Save, name your template, and click Save once again. 5. Insert Your Template Finally, navigate to the lesson where you’d like your copied block to go, open up the blocks library, and select your template. Wrap-Up Et voilà! It’s that easy. With blocks templates, you can copy blocks from one lesson to another within the same course and copy blocks to lessons in other courses; you can even share your blocks with members of your team if you have an Articulate 360 Teams subscription. It’s super handy! Want to try block templates out, but don’t have Rise 360? Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360. And 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).Make Working with SMEs a Breeze with These 3 Downloads
One of my favorite things about being an e-learning designer is creating courses on a wide variety of topics. I’ve learned so much over the years! When I look back on it, it’s almost like I had to become an expert in every subject in order to create the most effective learning experience. And while some of my knowledge came from my own research, more often than not it was gleaned from the content provided by my project’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Subject Matter Experts play a critical role in course design. They have the knowledge, experience, and insight to help you create the most impactful training. Despite their importance to your projects, working with SMEs can also be challenging. From different perspectives around how content should be presented to old-fashioned beliefs around how people learn, many e-learning pros find themselves in a battle of wills with their SMEs when all they really want is a productive partnership. This problem can be especially vexing when creating custom e-learning in a powerful app like Storyline 360. With so many creative possibilities, there are countless ways to present content. So how do you help your SMEs visualize different treatments and bridge gaps in understanding, all while building positive relationships with your SMEs? Here are three documents I’ve found essential for communicating clearly and aligning expectations from the start. Document 1: Project Kickoff Questions Before meeting with your project’s SMEs, it pays to do a little prep work. If you already have some source content pulled together, study it to get a basic understanding of the material. And if you don’t have content, research the topic or the company to make the most of your time with your SMEs. As you study, prepare a list of questions to help guide the conversation and show the SME how much you value their time. Need to kick-start your thinking? Download and customize this Project Kickoff Questionnaire for your needs. Download With all of your prep work done, you’re ready to set up a meeting with your SME to discuss the project. Make sure to bring your list of questions, and then listen actively and take notes. This is your time to build trust with your SMEs and identify knowledge and performance gaps to determine the right solution. Document 2: Project Plan After you determine the right solution, it’s time to put the details in writing so you’re all on the same page. A project plan can be a great way to align expectations. In the project plan, you can include the project background, course information, deliverables, timelines, and any other important details. Once you’re done preparing the project plan, have the SME review it and confirm its accuracy before moving forward with design. Need help creating a project plan? I’ve got you covered! Download this free project plan template. Download Document 3: Storyboard Now that you and the SME are on the same page, it’s time to start designing the project. If you’re using a slide-based authoring app like Storyline 360, the best way to make sure you have a solid foundation for development is to create a storyboard. A storyboard is the blueprint for a course that outlines the content screen by screen. Storyboards help your SMEs visualize how the content will flow and allows them to make edits before you start development in your authoring app. Note: If you’re using a web-based authoring app like Rise 360, you can skip the storyboarding phase and go straight to development since it’s easy to use and quick to make changes. Need help getting started? Then download and customize this storyboard template with your content. Download What Next? After the storyboard is finalized, you can feel confident knowing you have a solid foundation to start building your course. Taking the time to develop project kickoff questions, create a clear project plan, and storyboard the content before you start developing it in your authoring app will set you, the SME, and the learners up for success. For more ideas on working with SMEs, check out this series on Everything You Need to Know About Working with SMEs. Follow us on Twitter 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.Your Handy E-Learning Course Review Checklist
Remember taking tests back in elementary school when your teacher told you to always check your answers before turning it in? Same for an e-learning course. Before you deliver a course to learners, you want to look over your course to make sure it’s the very best it can be. But when you’re reviewing your course, what should you look out for? Every e-learning project is different, so no one checklist will work for everyone; however, here are some of the main things you’ll want to watch out for in your review. Review the Course Content No surprise here. The content is the most important part of your course, so you want to make sure you’re hitting the mark. If you’re not a subject matter expert, you should find one to help you with this part. Here are some questions to ask as you look through your course: Are the learning objectives measurable? Does all the content support the learning objectives? Is there any content that could be taken out? Is there any content missing? Have all the facts been checked and referenced appropriately? Does the course follow a logical order? Do the images accurately represent the course material? Do the examples and/or scenarios accurately portray the real-life context? Will the learners find the characters relatable? Does the quiz focus on the course objectives? Are the quiz questions clearly stated? Are all the quiz options believable (even the wrong answers)? Do you clearly state what learners need to do to pass the course? Here are some additional resources to help you fine-tune your content: How to Write Good E-Learning Objectives for Your Online Course The Dos and Don’ts of Separating Need-to-Know from Nice-to-Know What to Do When Your Course Has Too Much Content How to Create a Successful E-Learning Knowledge Check Copyedit the Text If your course is like most, text is a key part of the learning experience. Grammar and spelling errors are not only distracting, they actually skew your key messages. Here are some things to keep in mind to make sure you’re getting your point across: Are there any grammatical or spelling errors? Are you using punctuation and capitalization appropriately? Are there any run-on sentences that you could split up into shorter, more concise sentences? Are you using the active voice? Are you using the same voice throughout (for example, “I” or “you”?) Can you replace any adverbs (for example, running rapidly) with more precise verbs (for example, sprinting)? Are there any superlatives like "high-quality" or "excellence" that you could take out? Is there any jargon you should take out or explain? Is the voice-over script written in a conversational tone? Does the voice-over script provide notes to the voice talent on pronunciation? If writing isn’t your strong suit, check out these articles for more tips: Top Writing Tips for E-Learning 5 Tips to Improve Your Technical Writing Skills More Than a Dozen Tips for Writing Awesome Audio Narration Scripts Listen Closely to the Audio If your course has any voice-over audio, make sure to listen to it with these questions in mind: Is the audio used meaningfully? Or is the narrator just reading the on-screen text to learners? Does the voice-over follow the script word for word? If not, do any of the slight changes make a difference? If not, edit the script to match the audio. If there are changes that affect the meaning, ask the person to re-record that section. Are there any distracting background noises that need to be taken out? Is the audio volume at a good level (not too loud, nor too soft)? Is the volume and quality consistent throughout the course? Does the tone and inflection sound natural? Never worked with audio before? This article will help you get started: Audio Basics for Online Course Design. Assess the Design While people say not to judge a book by its cover, the reality is that we all do it. The course design is the first thing your learners will notice. If you want them to pay attention, it’s important their first impression be a good one. Here are some questions to ask yourself to make sure you’re on the right track: Does the design respect the brand guidelines (if applicable)? Does the design complement the subject matter? Is the design cohesive throughout the course? Are the objects aligned as they should be? Are all the images of similar style and quality? Are images and illustrations meaningful? Or are they merely decorative? Are fonts used consistently throughout (type and size)? Are all screenshots free of personal information? Do all buttons and hyperlinks look and behave the same (for example, if one button has a hover state, do they all?) so learners understand they’re clickable? If your design skills need a little work, check out these helpful resources: Visual Design How-Tos for E-Learning Developers User Interface Design: 3 Things E-Learning Designers Need to Know Test the Functionality Building a course from scratch using a tool like Storyline that allows you to personalize everything (the player, menu, navigation, quiz options, etc.) lets you create your course exactly how you imagine it. But with all this freedom comes responsibility: it’s your job to make sure everything is working the way you intended. Here are some items to add to your review checklist: Buttons and Hyperlinks If you’ve personalized the navigation of your course in any way (by adding buttons, changing the branching options, etc), check and make sure everything’s working as expected. Here are the steps I recommend going through: Make sure there’s no Previous button on the first slide. Go through the course from start to finish, click on all the Next buttons. Make sure there’s no Next button on the last slide. Go backward through the course, clicking on all the Previous buttons. Now go through the course again, starting from the beginning. Click on any other buttons (that open a layer, for example) or hyperlinks and make sure they’re working as expected. Menu Can you access all the sections of your course from the menu? Are all the titles correct? Is everything in the right order? Player Is there a seekbar on all slides with audio or video? Does the seekbar end at the end of the audio or video? Or does it extend far beyond it? If your course has audio, did you include an audio button so learners can turn the audio off or adjust the volume? Animations Are the animations synchronized with the audio (if applicable)? Do all the animations appear and disappear as expected? Videos Does the video play all the way through? Is the audio high quality? Quiz Questions Go through the quiz, making sure to select the correct answers and review the feedback. Make sure the score correctly shows you’ve gotten 100% at the end and that the correct amount of points is shown (if applicable). Go through the quiz again, this time selecting the incorrect answers and reviewing the feedback. Make sure the score correctly shows you’ve gotten 0% at the end and that the correct amount of points is shown (if applicable). Go through the quiz a third time. Alternate right and wrong answers. Check the score again and make sure it’s correct. Go through the quiz a final time, alternating right and wrong answers again but in the opposite order as the time before. Make sure the score is reporting correctly. Note that if you’re using a tool like Rise, you can skip this part of the review since all the functionality is prebuilt and it works perfectly every time. Check for User-Friendliness Once you’ve tested your course and you’re sure the content, design, and functionality are as expected, ask a potential learner to test it. They’ll be able to give you some great feedback about the course content and usability that you, as the course creator, are too close to the project to see. Here are some questions you should ask them when they’re done viewing the course: Content Was the course helpful and relevant to your job? What are the three most relevant things you learned? How confident are you that you can apply the new skill(s) you learned on the job? Is there anything you didn’t understand? Do you think the quiz accurately assessed your understanding of the course materials? Were the questions too easy, too hard, or just right? Was the feedback too detailed, not detailed enough, or just right? Usability Were the navigational instructions provided explicit enough? Did you always know where to click, or did you sometimes feel lost and unsure where to click? Armed with this checklist, you can deliver your course to learners knowing you did everything you could to make sure it fits their needs, works properly, and looks professional. Remember: if it’s not perfect (and no course ever is) you can always go back and make changes later on, after you get learner feedback. And while we’re on the topic of course review, here are some other great resources you should check out: Why We Love Articulate Review (and You Will, Too) Speed Collaboration with Articulate Review 3 Ways Articulate Review Is a Big Gift for Course Developers 5 Steps to an Easier E-Learning Course Review Process Follow These 3 Tips to Put the “Pro” Back In Your Review Process Rise Example: A Course for Stakeholders on the Review Process What do you think of this checklist? Is there anything on your review checklist that I missed? If so, please share in the comments section below! 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).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).5 Steps to an Easier E-Learning Course Review Process
The review process is undoubtedly one of the most time-consuming and stress-inducing parts of the e-learning course creation process. It’s the part of the project where you collect feedback from all the stakeholders including project sponsor, subject matter experts (SMEs), and a control group of learners. The more people involved, the more complex it can be. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Here are a few tips to make review cycles easier on everyone involved. 1. Explain The Course Creation Workflow If your course reviewers have never participated in the creation of an e-learning course before, set aside time to explain the course creation workflow to them, pointing out when they’ll need to be involved. Having a bird’s eye view of how the course comes together will help them understand where the review process fits into that process. Check out this article to walk through a typical course creation workflow step by step. 2. Define The Number and Nature of Each Review Cycle One of the most frustrating things about the review process is that it can feel like it’s never-ending. That can actually happen if you don’t set some ground rules at the beginning of your project. When you get to the review part of the process, outline the number of review cycles, who will participate in each review, and the type of feedback you’re expecting. The number of review cycles can vary widely from project to project, but let’s take a look at an example of a typical review cycle. Review Cycle 1: Storyboard Deliverable: A fully functional storyboard built in the authoring tool. All the content and navigational elements are there, but the graphic design components are missing. Reviewers: The project sponsor (person who initiated the project), the SME(s), and an “average” learner, if possible. Feedback Type: Focused on the content and flow of the course. Does the content fit with the course objectives? If not, what should be taken out? What should be added? Does the course follow a logical order? Navigation? Do learners know where to click and how to get around? Pro Tip: It’s super important to take your time during this phase and make sure you’re focusing in on the content and how it relates to the learners’ needs. Any content changes made in subsequent review cycles will be more time-consuming and could result in a much longer course development process. Review Cycle 2: Prototype Deliverable: A fully functional and designed course that’s been updated based on the feedback received in Cycle 1. Reviewers: The project sponsor, the SME(s), and a content editor/usability tester. Feedback Type: Focused on user friendliness, design elements, and mistakes (typos, buttons that don’t work, etc.). Pro Tip: At this stage, it’s still possible make small changes to the content if needed, but all of the big changes to the content and course flow should have been taken care of in Cycle 1. Review Cycle 3: Beta Deliverable: A fully functional and designed course that’s been updated based on the feedback received in Cycle 2. Reviewers: A control group of learners. Feedback Type: Focused on ease of use and the relevance of the course to their training needs. This is your chance to see how learners actually perceive your course. Pro Tip: If you decide to do a review cycle with a pilot group, be prepared for the possibility that their feedback may reveal some larger issues in the way you’ve built your course. If that’s the case, you’ll have to decide whether or not to go back and make substantial changes or just make some minimal changes to improve the usability of the course. When making that decision, make sure to think back to your learning objectives. If you leave the course as-is, are those objectives still going to be met? If not, then it’s worth it to go back and make those changes. Review Cycle 4: Final Draft Deliverable: A fully functional and designed course that’s been updated based on the feedback received in Cycle 3. Reviewers: The project sponsor, your SME(s) if the content itself has changed, and a content editor/usability tester. Feedback Type: Focused on mistakes. For example: typos, buttons that don’t work or don’t go to the correct slide. Pro Tip: At this stage, there should be no “game-changing” or substantive feedback. This is the final review before the course will be delivered to learners, so the goal is to make any final fixes or tweaks—not rethink the decisions you made in the beginning! 3. Explain How To Give Feedback While this may seem self-evident, anyone that’s ever been through a review cycle will tell you that it’s not. Inexperienced reviewers often leave stream-of-consciousness-style feedback, without thinking about how you’ll interpret and apply it. You can avoid this issue by explaining to your reviewers how to formulate their feedback in a way that’s specific and actionable. You can use these two examples to illustrate the difference between specific and unspecific feedback. Unspecific Feedback: I don’t like the colors. Please change. Specific Feedback: I feel like the shade of orange used in the header text is a little too bright. Could you please change it to a lighter shade? In the first example, all you know is that they don’t like it. But you don’t know why, and you don’t know how they want you to change it. This kind of nonspecific feedback leads to more back and forth conversations, and therefore, more wasted time for everyone involved. 4. Walk Them Through The First Review Cycle When it’s time for the first review cycle, schedule an in-person or web conference meeting with your reviewers so you can walk them through the process and help them get familiarized with the documents or tools they’ll be using. I like to use Review 360, which is part of Articulate 360, so I’ll use that app in my example walk-through. If you haven't started using Review 360 yet, this video is a great walk-through of how it works. This is what I’d tell my reviewers during a walk-through of Review 360: 1. Comments are slide-specific. The comment will be attached to whichever slide and slide layer is open when they leave the comment. You’ll see exactly what your reviewers saw when they make a comment. 2. They can reply to other comments. This is especially important for review cycles with multiple reviewers since you’ll need them to come to a consensus on any contradicting feedback before you can make any changes. It’s also a great way for you to ask questions about any feedback that’s unclear. 3. They can view all comments at once in the Feedback tab. This is a great way to get an overview of all the feedback. And to make sure all the necessary context is there, a screenshot of the slide is shown so everyone knows where the comment was made. 4. If the course has multiple versions, they can always go back and view an older version and the comments associated with it. This is great if they want to make sure all the feedback from a previous version was applied. And that’s all they’d need to know to get started! While Review 360 is super easy, doing a walk-through like this, no matter what tool you’re using, will help make sure reviewers are on the same page about how and where to provide feedback. 5. Set A Due Date For Their Feedback The last thing to do is agree upon a deadline for each review cycle. Without a set due date, you could be waiting for your reviewers feedback for the foreseeable future! The reality is that your reviewers have many other things on their plate, and reviewing an e-learning course is probably not their top priority. But if they know they only have a small window of time to give their input, it encourages them to prioritize it. When you’re setting the deadline, it’s important to talk to your reviewers about it and choose a date that is realistic, so you can plan to work on their course again once that date comes around. If you’re too optimistic, they won’t be able to make the deadline you’ll end up having to change your schedule and extend the overall project timeline. The Bottom Line The more you guide your reviewers through the review process, the smoother it will go. When you lay out the processes and their role within them, they won’t feel lost along the way, and will know exactly what you expect of them each step of the way. To make it even easier for you to get your reviewers up to speed, I created this course you can send to them as-is, or adapt based on your internal workflow. Using a tool like Review 360 to streamline the process allows you and your reviewers to save time and avoid some of the headaches associated with review cycles. If you’d like to see for yourself how Review 360 can facilitate your review cycles, click here to download the 30-day free trial of Articulate 360, which has everything you need for every aspect of course development, including Review 360. For more tips on how to optimize your project review process, check out this great article. What’s your secret for making the review process run more smoothly? Share your best practices with the community in the comments section below. And don’t forget to come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly to stay up to date on the latest tips and tricks. This article is part of our E-Learning 101 e-mail course, a series of expertly curated articles that’ll help you get started with e-learning—delivered right to your inbox. You’re only a click away from becoming an e-learning pro! Sign up here to enroll.How to Do an E-Learning Needs Analysis
According to the ATD, U.S. organizations spent over $100 billion on employee learning and development programs in 2010. That’s a lot of training! And a lot of resources spent. To make training worth the investment, you need to make sure your training program actually meets the needs of your audience. That’s why the first step for any effective online training program is an e-learning needs analysis. An e-learning needs analysis answers this important question: is training the right solution for the problem at hand? If it’s not, you’ll want to know that before you start your e-learning project, not after you finish it. Taking the time now to plan your project with a needs analysis will ensure you’re creating something useful. So let’s take a closer look at how to create your own needs analysis. To Train or Not to Train? Whether you call it an e-learning needs analysis, a training needs analysis, or a training needs assessment, the objective is the same: to identify whether training needs exist, and what they are. The exercise examines a business deficiency and identifies all solutions, training and otherwise, that will solve the problem. Why look at both training and non-training solutions? Because sometimes you may find that a non-training solution is more effective than a training course. Other times, you may learn that the cost of living with the problem is far less than the cost of initiating training. Let’s look at a training vs. non-training scenario: Bob, the sales manager at XYZ company, wants to improve the call handling time for his telephone sales team. Currently, employees take an average of 7 minutes per call; Bob thinks they can be done in 5. So Bob tells you to design some e-learning that will improve his team’s average call time. You dive into a needs assessment and observe the sales team in action. You see they’re doing the process just right, completing calls within the ideal time window. However, at the end of the process, the system is so slow that the sales team can’t complete the job until nearly the 7-minute mark. Would training help here? No, because this example is a computer systems problem, not a “trainable human” problem. That’s why it’s important to start with an e-learning needs assessment—to tease out exactly the problem and the potential ways you can solve it—before you design and deliver an online training program. Creating Your E-Learning Needs Analysis Needs assessments come in many shapes and sizes, but they all start with data gathering. A good, basic framework to get the data you need comes from five very familiar prompts: why, who, how, what, and when. Let’s delve deeper into each of these, to illustrate the kind of information you should look for as you investigate. Why Why do you think you need to create training? Dig into the details of the problem or deficiency, and look for evidence within the organization, in performance metrics, process breakdowns, customer feedback, employee observations, and the like. You should also look for upcoming changes. You won’t find evidence, of course, but you’ll know that if a new policy, process, or technology are in the works, people are going to need training. Who Take a look at the people or departments involved in the problem or deficiency. Then look for other audiences that might benefit from the training, particularly if there are pending changes. These groups will comprise your target audience. Get to know them, their organizational functions, and how they do their jobs. How Brainstorm ways to correct the problem or fill the gap. Can training help, or are there better ways to address the issues? Consider creative options, especially those that make use of resources in place or are less disruptive to ongoing work. Think broadly—this is the time to look at all the different ways to resolve the problem. What For this you should look at what employees do in their jobs. What’s the best way for them to do their job or tasks? Do employees have the knowledge or skills to perform to the standard? Are there critical hazards employees need to avoid in their jobs? Take a look at policies and standard operating procedures, and find out how employees implement these in their jobs. Feedback from the front lines can help you identify discrepancies and gaps. When Training needs to be timed to maximize the number of people who benefit from it and minimize the burden on the organization’s business operations. How you deliver training—whether via online modules employees can complete on their own time, in-classroom training that requires them to gather at a certain time and place, or some other means—will play a role in determining when. For example, if training means pulling people off a production line and into a classroom, perhaps there’s a time during the day when production is slowest; people could do their training then. Get a sense of when employees are going to need the training relative to upcoming business operations, as well as when to deliver the training during their day-to-day work. Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to analyze it. Approach this assessment with an open mind and look where the gaps and problems are, and how you might solve them. Understand employees’ current performance relative to requirements or standards they need to meet, and when they should meet them. Rely on your data to point you toward solutions to the problem. This is where you’ll see whether the problem is training-related or needs other solutions. If you can’t find a performance gap after all, it may indicate that the desire for training is more of a want than a need. The key is to know that before you create an e-learning program, not afterward. The outcome of a thoughtful e-learning needs analysis is a clear picture of the problem, solutions, and whether training will help. If it will, the evidence you discover in your investigation can help justify the cost of training to your organization, and serve as a launching point for your e-learning training course. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any comments, please share them below.E-Learning Heroes Community Guidelines
Did you know that Articulate, creator of the industry-leading Articulate 360 platform, is also the founder of E-Learning Heroes, the world’s largest community for course creators? We built E-Learning Heroes to be a friendly, welcoming space for all e-learning professionals—customers and non-customers—because everyone deserves opportunities to learn and grow. One of the things e-learning professionals appreciate most about E-Learning Heroes is the supportive, respectful environment. To maintain this environment, we ask that you follow these simple guidelines along with our Terms of Use to make sure the community stays a safe place for everyone. Be transparent E-Learning Heroes is your go-to spot for developing your professional network. Follow these guidelines to participate in the community: Set up your community profile with your real name (not a pseudonym) Don't use any company logo, name, or product name in your profile name or photo (including Articulate's). Use one of the default avatars, a real photo of yourself, or another image that belongs to you as your profile photo. Avoid creating multiple profiles. Don’t share someone else’s work or content as your own. That’s plagiarism—and it’s not okay. Don’t use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to generate discussions or replies. Be respectful The E-Learning Heroes community welcomes people from all walks of life and we want everyone to feel safe sharing their perspectives. To do your part in creating this sense of safety, express your opinions and ideas in a way that’s kind, considerate, and professional: Never use explicit, offensive, or rude language. Avoid making accusations or insults directed at other community members or Articulate employees. Don’t repeatedly send messages to community members or Articulate employees about the same topic or continue to reach out after they’ve asked you to stop. Don’t use the community to hack or encourage others to disrupt or disable Articulate products or services. Before you post or send anything, think about how others could perceive it. With the real-time web, there is no “Undo” button. If something makes you even slightly uncomfortable, figure out what needs to be changed, fix it, then post. Remember: you’re legally responsible for any content you post and may be liable if your posts are found defamatory, harassing, or in violation of any applicable law or our Terms of Use. Be helpful The best communities are full of genuine people giving advice, support, and inspiration to one another out of the kindness of their hearts. Help us keep E-Learning Heroes the friendly, helpful space it’s always been. To do that, please don’t post or send messages that are: Duplicative. Unrelated to the discussion topic. Blatantly promotional or spammy. Keep it safe We want E-Learning Heroes to remain a trustworthy space for sharing. E-Learning Heroes members must be at least 18 years old and should never link to inappropriate, discriminatory, violent, or illegal content, viruses, or malware. Don’t share confidential or proprietary information The community is open to the public, so anyone with internet access can view anything you share. With this in mind: Don’t share contact information—whether yours or someone else’s—such as your phone number or address. Don’t share courses or files containing proprietary content you don’t have permission to share publicly. Articulate isn’t responsible for the security, confidentiality, or use of content you share on E-Learning Heroes. The Bottom Line To ensure our community continues to thrive, we reserve the right to delete content or close the E-Learning Heroes account of any member who doesn’t respect these guidelines. If you notice anything inappropriate, please click on the Ellipsis button next to the reply or the Gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of the post and choose “Report” from the drop-down list to flag it for review by Articulate staff. Here’s what those areas look like: If you have questions or notice anything inappropriate, reach out to support@articulate.com. Please visit our E-Learning Heroes (ELH) FAQs page for more community-specific information.7 Pro Tips for Working with Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360
Animations can be a powerful way to explain a concept, tell a story, or make your content memorable. Storyline 360 has a variety of animation options—including entrance, exit, and motion paths. With motion path animations, you can control how your objects move and bring your ideas to life. Here are some time-saving tips to help propel you forward when working with motion path animations. 1. Rename Motion Paths When you add a motion path animation to an object in Storyline 360, a name is automatically assigned. If you plan on adding multiple motion paths, it’s a good idea to rename each one. This will make it easier to identify which motion path you’re working on when editing triggers. 2. Copy Animations If you plan on using the same motion path animation on several objects, save time by copying the animation from one object to another using the Animation Painter. By double-clicking the Animation Painter, you can apply the same animation to multiple objects one after the other without having to click the Animation Painter over and over again. To turn it off, click it one last time or press the ESC key on your keyboard. Did you know? When you copy and paste an object, any animations you’ve added to the object are also copied over. So if you’re using the same object multiple times, add any animations you want to include before you copy it to save time. 3. Sync Using Cue Points As you build content, you might change your mind about when you want your motion path animation to start. Syncing your motion path to a cue point gives you the flexibility to change the motion path timing without having to edit the trigger each time. All you have to do is drag the cue point along the timeline until the timing feels right, and the motion path will start at the new time. 4. Select the Object Path to Edit To edit a motion path, you can select the start or end point individually using your mouse and drag the point to the desired location. If you have multiple start or end points overlapping each other, you can easily select and edit them without having to hide objects from your timeline. Simply select the line of the object path you want to edit. It will turn bright blue while the other objects and their paths will fade. Then, move the start or end point as needed. Did you know? Another way to fine-tune a motion path is to select the start or end point of one or all of the objects and edit the X and Y coordinates. This is great for times when you need to be super-precise. 5. Change the Easing Option By default, Storyline 360 automatically assigns an ease-in and ease-out effect to your motion paths. This controls the acceleration and deceleration of an animation. If your animation needs to move at the same pace across the screen, then you’ll want to edit the easing direction to none. 6. Orient Shape to Path There might be times when you need to include an object that faces a certain direction as it follows a path—for example, a car making a right turn. By selecting Orient Shape to Path, the object will always face the direction it’s moving, even when it travels on a nonlinear path. 7. Use a Relative Start Point Perhaps you want to create an interaction where the object can move multiple times depending on the learner’s choice. For example, let’s say you created a racetrack and want the learner’s car to move forward whenever they answer a question correctly. Instead of duplicating the object and creating motion paths for each possible outcome, you can select Relative Start Point to move the object along the motion path starting from its current position. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this tutorial. Did you know? You can add more than one motion path to the same object and have each begin at the new location of the object based on previous movements. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this free Storyline 360 download by Samuel Apata. Motion path animations give you the flexibility to quickly create content that’ll move your learners. What tips do you have for working with motion paths? Share your ideas 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.5 Common Questions About How Storyline 360 Courses Work with Screen Readers
Raise your hand if the first time you used a screen reader was when you wanted to test an accessible course you created with Storyline 360. Ok, now raise your hand if you ran into some trouble navigating but were unsure whether it was a problem with the course itself, with the screen reader, or simply user error. If you’re still reading this article, I’m going to guess you raised your hand for both of those statements. Know this: you’re not alone! We get questions about how Storyline 360 content should work on screen readers all the time. And it makes sense! If you’ve never used a screen reader before, how are you supposed to know what’s normal and what isn’t? In this article, we’ll give you the answers to the top 5 most frequently asked questions we get from Storyline 360 users about how content should work on screen readers. Let’s take a look! 1. Why doesn’t my screen reader read slide content automatically? With most websites, screen readers start reading visual content as soon as it appears on screen. However, Storyline 360 courses are handled a little differently. That’s because e-learning courses often contain audio or video that autoplays when you arrive on a slide. This means that if the screen reader starts reading on-screen text immediately, the screen reader audio competes with the course audio—making it impossible for the learner to hear and understand either one. When your learner arrives on a slide, if they’re using a screen reader it will read the slide title and wait for the learner to explore the rest of the content. You can learn more about why and how this works in our article Screen Readers Don’t Auto-Read Content. 2. Why does the screen reader say things that aren’t written on the screen, like “heading” and “navigation”? Since most people using screen readers have visual impairments, screen readers try to provide them with as much context as possible to help them understand what’s going on. For this reason, you’ll notice that the screen reader will say things like “heading” before reading a title, or “navigation” before reading the names of the buttons. Some screen readers read punctuation out loud (“dash,” “comma,” etc.) by default, and others don’t. Screen readers control the way this works, not Storyline 360 course settings. You might be able to customize some of these options directly in your screen reader, but there’s no way to ensure that every learner’s settings are the same. 3. Why does the screen reader sometimes stop reading the on-screen text before the end? Some screen readers (like NVDA and JAWS) stop reading after a certain number of characters (for example, 100 or 150). If you’d like it to continue, you can customize this setting or use the down arrow to continue reading. To find out how to do this, refer to your screen reader’s user guide. 4. How does the screen reader decide the order in which to read my slide content? By default, objects are read from left to right, starting at the top of the slide. However, thanks to the focus order feature in Storyline 360, you can personalize the order to fit your needs. Here’s a tutorial that walks you through how to do that, step by step: Customizing the Focus Order of Slide Objects. 5. Why doesn’t keyboard navigation work the same for screen reader users and keyboard-only users? Both types of users use their keyboards to navigate the course, but not for the same reason. So we tailored the navigation to their specific needs. Here’s a table that lays out the differences: Who are the learners? What are their needs? How does keyboard navigation work? How does the navigation fit their needs? Screen Reader Users Primarily people with visual impairments—like partial sight, low vision, color blindness, legal blindness, and total blindness. These users can’t rely on their vision to interact with content, so they need the content to be read aloud to them or displayed in braille on a refreshable braille display. Learners move through all the objects on the slide (static and interactive) using the screen reader navigation keys, listening to (or reading via their refreshable braille display) the descriptions as they go. If they want to skip over static content, they can press Shift and Tab at the same time. Learners can decide whether they want to move through every item on the screen or only the interactive items. That way, they can access the full course content if they’d like, or skip over to quickly access the interactive parts if they’re reviewing content they’ve already consumed, for example. Keyboard-Only Users People who can see, but can’t or prefer not to use a mouse, often because of pain or a physical disability. These users can see the course content, so they don’t need it read aloud to them. They just need to be able to navigate using their keyboard instead of their mouse. Learners move through interactive objects only (skipping static objects like text and images) by pressing on Tab and Shift+Tab. It allows learners to navigate the course quickly, skipping over static objects, since they can see them for themselves. Find out more about how navigation differs for these two types of users here: Navigation Is Easier. More Resources Hopefully you found the answers to these questions helpful! What other questions do you have about how Storyline 360 courses work with screen readers? Drop them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer them! Want to learn more about creating accessible e-learning? Check out these helpful resources: All About Accessibility 6 Best Practices for Designing Accessible E-Learning Articulate 360 FAQs: Accessibility Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course How to Test Your Storyline 360 Course with a Screen Reader A Checklist for QA Testing Courses with a Screen Reader Want to try building an accessible e-learning course in Storyline 360, 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.
