Free Webinar: How Leaders Improve Training and Get Results
Learn how to scale your remote training efforts on August 6th at 11 a.m. ET in the latest edition of our exclusive webinar series, Learning Luminaries. Join this month’s guest, Jarrod Hogan of Intermountain Health, as he reveals how changing the way he shared training helped him reach learners faster and at a lower cost. Learning Luminaries: August 6th, 11 a.m. ET What you can expect from Learning Luminaries webinars: Hear from L&D experts at the forefront of workplace learning as they share their experiences and lessons learned. Get practical, actionable tips to create engaging learning no matter your budget or audience size. Discover new techniques and applications for old methods, creative use cases, and innovative ways to use industry tools to reach learners. Register NowFree Webinar: How Tamr Used Articulate 360 To Hit Training Goals
Step into the world of scalable, distributed training with us on June 4th at 11 a.m. ET for our exclusive webinar series, Learning Luminaries. Join Sara Russell, Tamr’s Head of Customer Support and Education, as she reveals how moving to an e-learning-first strategy with Articulate 360 drove increased product adoption and customer value. She’ll disclose how Tamr decreased admin efforts by 50 percent while increasing flexibility for customers to achieve unparalleled results. Learning Luminaries: June 4th, 11 a.m. ET In this webinar, you’ll learn: How Articulate 360 helped Tamr offer flexible, on-demand product training for customers. Why Tamr chose Rise 360 to create an interactive, e-learning first learning path and Reach 360 for effortless, trackable distribution. How Tamr dramatically reduced instructor training hours and cut admin efforts by 50 percent. Register NowFree Webinar: How the Irish Rugby Football Union Hits Training Goals
Step into the world of high-performance training with us on May 7th at 11 a.m. ET for our exclusive webinar series, Learning Luminaries. Join Colin Moran, National Training and Education Manager of the Irish Rugby Football Union, as he divulges the game-changing strategies powering their training success. Gain invaluable insights into how they harness the power of Articulate 360 to overcome diverse training challenges and achieve unparalleled results. Learning Luminaries: May 7th, 11 a.m. ET In this webinar, you’ll learn: How Articulate 360 helped the Irish Rugby Football Union meet training compliance standards. Why the Irish Rugby Football Union loves Articulate 360’s template library for fast training creation. How Articulate 360 makes it easy for the Irish Rugby Football Union to share critical regulatory updates with fans and players alike. While this live webinar has already taken place, you can access a recording of it here.128 Features That Show Our Commitment to Product Innovation
Customers often tell us how much they love starting their day with a little gift from Articulate in the form of cool new features that seem to appear like magic. Brand-new timesavers and resources can instantly make your day better. It makes our day better, too, knowing we’re giving you helpful updates to streamline your work, boost productivity, and build amazing courses for your learners. Since the start of 2023, we’ve been on a roll—adding 128 powerful new features to Articulate 360. With so much rapid innovation in such a short time, it can be hard to appreciate how much Articulate 360 has evolved. That’s why we assembled the following list of app improvements to explore. We hope it helps you see the scope of our commitment to evolving our products for you—and that you feel the e-learning love we’re pouring into every new feature. So take a look back, app by app, and marvel at how far we’ve come together. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Content Library 360 Review 360 Reach 360 Articulate 360 Teams Articulate 360 Desktop App Storyline 360 Global Notes Formatting Save time and create more cohesive courses with global notes formatting. You can choose styles like font color, size, or paragraph spacing and apply your formatting selections across all the slide notes in your project. Built-in Console for Finding JavaScript Errors Skip the step of publishing your course to test out JavaScript triggers. Instead, save time by using the built-in console to troubleshoot your projects right in Storyline 360. Emphasis Animations Grab the attention of your learners with captivating animations like pulsing and teetering to add emphasis and bring your slide objects to life. 64-Bit Version of Storyline Harness the processing power in modern computers with a 64-bit version of Storyline 360. Large, media-rich courses benefit from increased stability and faster performance. Video Playback Speed Let learners explore at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed between 0.25x and 2x. Closed Captioning Boost video accessibility by including closed captions when publishing projects as MP4 video files. Adaptive Streaming Video With streaming video support, deliver video content to all learners, regardless of their internet speed. Accessible Feedback Layers Empower learners with accessible question feedback layers that meet color, contrast, and focus guidelines by default. Publish Storyline 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Storyline 360 courses directly to Reach 360—a lightweight distribution tool to deploy your e-learning content to more learners, including deskless workers, contractors, and customers. Video Transcripts Generate synchronized video transcripts from closed captions so visual content is accessible to all learners, including those who rely on screen readers, use braille displays, or prefer to read. Background Audio Create immersive experiences with continuous background audio that sets the tone and keeps learners engaged. Learners can turn off background audio if they prefer. In-App Review Comments Speed the review process and never miss crucial feedback with in-app comments. Review 360 comments appear in context as you’re working in Storyline 360, so you can act on stakeholder feedback immediately. Reply to comments and resolve them in real time as you create content. Add images from comments to training with a single click. Cloud Backup Access your Storyline 360 project files from anywhere and share them with team members by uploading your source files to Review 360. Rest easy knowing your projects are backed up, making previous versions easy to recover. Improved File Autorecovery Fix project files that won’t open with the help of strengthened Storyline 360 recovery capabilities. Live Caption Support in Google Chrome Make use of live captions while taking Storyline 360 courses in Google Chrome. Updated Default Fonts Access the latest versions of several fonts that get installed with Storyline 360. Enhanced Player Properties Enjoy easier access to the modern player controls (play/pause, volume, etc.) and player tabs (menu, glossary, etc.) now that they’re all left-aligned. Streaming Video Support for Videos in 360° Images Make use of the streaming video feature for videos in 360° images. Create Time-Based Triggers Create time-based triggers in minutes and seconds instead of having to convert values to seconds only. Feedback Master Quickly apply a feedback master to multiple question slides simultaneously. Upgraded Embedded Version of Chromium Benefit from Chromium 112.0.5615.165 in Storyline 360. Insert Web Videos Insert web videos using relative paths. High-Res Animated GIFs Give learners the best visual experience possible with high-resolution animated GIF support. Wrap Text Ensure text in data-entry fields wraps more easily using the wrap text option instead of having to increase the height to be more than 60 pixels. Optional “Lost Connectivity” Alert Let your learners know when they lose their connection with this optional alert you can turn on in the player properties. Faster Trigger Wizard Performance on Macs Enjoy better trigger wizard performance on M-series Macs. Set Your Cover Photo To Fill the Player Frame Easily set your cover photo to fill the player frame in the player properties. Screen Recording on Primary and Secondary Monitors Record your screen on primary and secondary monitors with DPI settings over 100%. Full-Screen Storyline Block Display Display Storyline blocks in Rise 360 full screen on mobile devices when player controls are turned off. Display Crisp Text and Images Display crisp text and images in embedded web objects by unchecking the scaling option. Background Audio in Video Output Include background audio in published video output. Turn Player Navigation Elements On or Off Control how learners navigate submitted quiz questions by turning player navigation elements on or off. Neural Voices Generate realistic, natural-sounding text-to-speech narration with neural voices. New Neural Voices (US English) Enjoy two new English (US) neural voices options, Danielle and Gregory, for text-to-speech conversion. Icons and Text Displayed in Player For new projects that use the modern player, navigation buttons now display both icons and text by default. You can still switch to just icons or text instead. Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Support Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use SSML to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more. Fixed Positions for Modern Player Controls Make it even easier for learners to interact with your course thanks to fixed control positions at the bottom of the player. Text Wrapping Easier Benefit from an improved user interface for text-wrapping options in text-entry fields. Enhanced Button Accessibility Provide learners with a more accessible experience now that the Back to Top and Skip Navigation buttons and the volume slider meet color contrast guidelines. Control Background Audio With Triggers Control the background audio for each slide using triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist. Tooltips Available Display tooltips that are accessible to mouse, keyboard, and screen reader users automatically using the built-in player controls and navigation buttons. Fine-Tune Background Audio Customize the background audio experience even further by fine-tuning the volume with a percentage-based variable. Rise 360 Microlearning Deliver bite-size, single-objective content with the microlearning feature. Turn Off the Cover Page Turn off the cover page when you publish for LMS to improve compatibility, streamline training, and get learners into content faster. Theme Color Contrast Use theme color contrast to instantly ensure training content meets accessible color handling requirements for learners with low vision. Turn Off Lesson Headers Turn off lesson headers to provide a more focused learning experience. Reply To and Resolve Review 360 Comments Reply to and resolve Review 360 comments from within Rise 360 and add suggested images with a single click. Block Contrast Settings Automatically adjust the contrast of text and graphics at the block level or select your own contrast with block contrast settings. Enhanced Block Settings Customize your blocks with distinctive backgrounds and easily adjust padding options with enhanced block settings. Team Folders Create shared team folders to organize your team’s content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. Enhanced Dashboard Management Organize and keep track of what’s important to you more easily with the enhanced dashboard. New Real Content Course Templates Get even more great content out to learners fast with new additions to our library of real content course templates. In 2023 we added new courses and microlearning experiences on topics like exercise, forming healthy habits, Black History Month, discussing disabilities in the workplace, and more! New Placeholder Content Course Templates Jump-start course creation with even more placeholder content course templates. New additions include course outlines on equity compensation conversations and sales order management processes. Publish Rise 360 Courses to Reach 360 Publish Rise 360 courses directly to Reach 360—an add-on to Articulate 360 that lets you quickly distribute training, enroll learners, and track their progress. Specify an Admin When Publishing to Reach 360 Get the right eyes on your course when publishing it to Reach 360 by selecting a specific admin to notify from a searchable drop-down menu. Quote Block Accessibility Improvements Give all your learners a better experience with accessibility improvements for quote blocks. WCAG 2.1 Conformant Process Blocks Include process blocks in your accessible courses now that they’re WCAG 2.1 conformant with improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support. Translate Labels for Screen Readers Broaden your impact and enhance accessibility by translating screen reader labels into other languages. Added Labels for Sidebar Progress Indicator Enhance localization and accessibility with labels for sidebar progress indicator tooltips. Default Text Color Improve accessibility conformance on new courses without lifting a finger by leaving the default text color, which is now true black. Skip Video Compression Add _NOPROCESS_ to a video file name to skip compression when uploading it to your course. Exported Training Destinations Quickly select a destination for your exported training with the Rise 360 dashboard publish menu. Cover Page Overlay Setting Use the Overlay setting to preserve both image clarity and text readability by choosing a light or dark translucent overlay for your cover photo that automatically maximizes text contrast. Links in Button and Button Stack Blocks Use relative links in button and button stack blocks to link to training within your subdomain. Theme Color Selector Use the Theme setting in the block element color picker to quickly select your training’s theme color. Logo Size Options Crop your logo to decrease white space and increase its size to customize your cover page branding. Quiz and Labeled Graphics No Longer Animate Protect those with motion disorders automatically now that quiz and labeled graphics items no longer animate when learners enable reduced motion settings on their devices. Rise 360 Images Marked as Decorative by Default Mark images as decorative automatically when you leave alt text for an image blank so it’s ignored by screen readers. Block Background Images Randomly Selected Enjoy a wider variety of default block background images now that they’re randomly selected on a block-by-block basis. Progression Arrows Remain Visible on Zoom Give all learners a better experience now that labeled graphic progression arrows remain visible when zoomed in or viewed on a mobile device. Split Block Design Menu Apply design settings to blocks more easily now that we’ve split the block design menu into two new menus: Style and Format. Updated Placeholder Content Templates Enjoy the new and improved placeholder content templates, a makeover where you’ll notice that the “lorem ipsum” text has been replaced with instructional and sample content. To improve accessibility, we’ve removed italicized formatting. We’ve also updated block design throughout the templates to take advantage of recent Rise 360 formatting enhancements. Linked Block Padding Add a custom value for top and bottom block padding at the same time using the linked padding option. 4k Video Support Boost course video quality with the ability to upload 4k videos to Rise 360. Content Library 360 New Prebuilt Course on Women’s History Help your learners honor the past and help shape the future with our latest ready-to-go Rise 360 course, “Honoring Herstory During Women’s History Month.” Eight New Illustrated Characters Enhance your projects and improve representation with eight versatile illustrated characters: Eduardo, Camila, Mike, Shanae, Don, Wren, Chloe, and Theresa. Thousands of New Images Find the perfect photos for your online training even more easily with the addition of hundreds of thousands more high-resolution images from Pexels. Review 360 Request Review Keep your team on track without the hassle of spreadsheets or phone calls thanks to the request review feature. Send and track requests for specific stakeholders to review a content item right from Review 360. With email notifications, due dates, visible statuses, and completion buttons, you’ll never miss another deadline. Team Folders Create shared team folders in Review 360 to organize your content, assign permissions, and invite collaborators. You can even allow multiple authors to publish new versions of a course to the same Review 360 project. Comments Only Allowed on Current Versions of Courses Keep teams in sync by preventing stakeholders from accidentally adding new comments to old versions of a content item. Enhanced Dashboard Quickly and intuitively organize your Review 360 dashboard with nested folders, subfolder breadcrumbs, an action toolbar, and more project management efficiencies. You can even multi-select items and folders, then move them in bulk. Learn more about the enhanced dashboard. Review Status Labels Allow stakeholders to reset their status after completing a review for more flexibility. Send Bulk Review Requests Send a request to multiple reviewers simultaneously by copying and pasting their email addresses in bulk. Text-Formatting Toolbar in Request Review Send engaging review request messages with the new text-formatting toolbar. Content Privacy Settings Control access to your content by making your Review 360 items private while still allowing invited stakeholders to offer feedback. Reach 360 Launch of Reach 360 Deliver training to more learners easily with Reach 360, a frictionless LMS that integrates with Articulate 360. Reach 360 Starter Plan Distribute your courses to 300 learners a year for no additional cost with the Reach 360 Starter Plan. Assign Managers Streamline your training management process by assigning managers to groups in your organization. Managers can invite and remove learners, assign training, and view reports for their assigned groups. Group Self-Registration Simplify learner management by generating a sign-up link that automatically adds your learners into a group. API Integrations Use the Reach 360 API to build custom integrations with your business systems, giving your team access to valuable training and data where they need it most. Connect Reach 360 and Zapier Automate your work and streamline your productivity by adding Reach 360 to your Zapier workflows (currently in beta). Custom Domain Brand your Reach 360 URL with a custom domain you own. Owner Role The purchaser of your Articulate 360 Teams subscription is now listed as the Owner in Reach 360. Improved Group Member Lists Improve performance with paginated group member lists that display 50 members per page. Bulk Delete Learners Use true “select all” to bulk delete learners, even every learner, from your Reach 360 account. Active Learner Usage Report At a glance, see how many users have logged in to your Reach 360 account with the active learner usage report. Bulk Delete Members Bulk delete members, even every member, from a group with “select all.” Bulk Import Bulk import and delete group members via CSV. Connect With Slack Connect Reach 360 and Slack so you can share course previews and get in-app training notifications. Share Content With QR Code Share specific training items directly with learners via URL or QR code. Learning Path QR Code Give users access to a learning path directly—and self-register as a new learner if necessary—with a QR code. Self-Registration QR Code Allow users to self-register as new learners or group members using a QR code. Custom Certificates Create and manage custom certificates. SSO for Learners Enable SSO for your Reach 360 learners directly from your Reach 360 settings. Manage Groups and Users With SSO Use SSO to manage learners and groups, allowing them to access training using one set of log-in credentials quickly. Users API Endpoint Delete users from training with this Users API endpoint. Reach 360 API Quiz Data Enhancement Include quiz data in the course completed event type for Webhook Events in the Reach 360 API. Sortable Activity Report Column Quickly check completion status with a sortable column in the activity report. Separate Admins for Reach 360 Enjoy more organizational options by defining separate admins for Reach 360. Enhanced User Role Management Streamline Reach 360 user management to include learners and admins only. Reporter Access Delegate training analytics by assigning reporters who only have access to detailed reports for specific groups of learners. Custom Certificate Settings Select a custom certificate to be the default certificate for your Reach 360 training. Default Direct Sharing Direct sharing is enabled by default for all new content published to your Reach 360 library. Articulate 360 Teams Retain Shared Content Maintain control over shared content when a member leaves the team. Articulate 360 Desktop App Improved Error Reporting Resolve issues faster with updated error reporting. Wrap-Up With loads of exciting new updates rolling out all the time, Articulate 360 apps are always evolving to meet your needs. To see what we’re working on next, check out our feature roadmap page or join the conversation in E-Learning Heroes for all the latest Articulate 360 buzz, including tips, tricks, and how-tos. Want to try out some of these features but don’t have Articulate 360 just yet? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.Check Out What’s New With Articulate at These Spring 2024 Events
Looking for a fast way to boost your e-learning skills and recharge your creative batteries? Try visiting a learning and development conference. They’re filled with informative sessions and opportunities to connect with others in your field. And they’re also a fantastic way to find out what’s happening with your favorite apps and tools. At Articulate, we love these events, too. They give us a chance to chat with customers like you, discuss the challenges you face in your work, and share all the newest Articulate 360 features and tips that can help. This spring, we’re delighted to be at not just one but three big events. So if you want to know more about what we’re up to—and pick up some fun Articulate swag in the process—there are lots of opportunities to do that. Take a peek at the events we’ll be at in the upcoming months and all the ways you can learn more about our apps while you’re there. Learning Technologies UK 2024 April 17 - 18, 2024 London, United Kingdom What’s this event about and why should you attend? Learning Technologies—the biggest e-learning show in Europe—focuses on the strategies, tools, and approaches that support learning at work. It’s best known for its huge expo hall, which features a wide range of learning products and services, as well as free L&D seminars. If you’re looking for even deeper dives into these topics, consider the conference side of this event. This curated program features over 30 in-depth sessions from industry experts. For the second year in a row, Learning Technologies is co-located with the HR Technologies conference. This partnership gives you easy access to a broader selection of HR seminars, tools, and services. Registering for the free Visitor Pass gives you access to all the learning technology suppliers and a selection of free seminars and live demonstrations. If you want to explore the in-depth conference sessions, though, be sure to register for the full conference pass here. Where can you find us in the Expo Hall? Booth #G20 How else can you learn about Articulate apps at this event? Attend one of our three Exhibition Seminars. These sessions give you insights into what’s new with our apps and how you can use them to create e-learning experiences that make an impact. Topic Date and Time Presenter What’s New and What’s Next in Articulate 360 April 17, 12:30 - 1:00 PM Madison McCartney WOAH! You Blew My Mind: A Look Back at E-Learning's Most Creative Ideas April 18, 10:15 - 10:45 AM David Anderson AI + U: How To Embrace Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence With Articulate AI April 18, 12:30 - 1:00 PM Melissa Trimble Catch a quick session at the Bitesize Learning Zone. Only have a few minutes? We’re sharing quick Articulate 360 tips in a fast-paced talk. Topic Date and Time Presenter Distribute Training Faster Than Ever with Reach 360 April 17, 10:15 - 10:30 AM Madison McCartney Learning & HR Tech Solutions Conference 2024 April 23 - 25, 2024 Orlando, USA What’s this event about and why should you attend? If you’re looking for a tech-focused event that explores the intersection of learning and HR, give this conference a try. Formerly known as Learning Solutions, the Learning & HR Tech Solutions Conference features best practices, emerging tech trends, and industry insights that will help you stay ahead. This event has always focused on practical solutions you can use right away, and its new broadened scope gives you even more avenues to explore for ideas. And if you’re working on HRIP, SHRM, or HRCI recertification, you’ll be happy to know this event will provide credits toward that process. The free Expo+ Pass gives you access to the Expo Hall, stage sessions, and SolutionFest. If you want to see all that, as well as the keynotes and extensive concurrent sessions, be sure to register for the full conference pass here instead. Where can you find us in the Expo Hall? Booth #502 How else can you learn about Articulate apps and more at this event? Get quick tips at our stage sessions. Explore helpful ideas for using our apps and a peek at new features. And if you can’t make it to Orlando this year, you’re in luck—both these sessions will be live-streamed from the conference for free! We’ll update this list with the live stream links as soon as they’re available. Topic Date and Time Presenter What’s New and What’s Next in Articulate 360 April 23, 12:15 - 12:45 PM Madison McCartney How To Embrace Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence With Articulate AI April 24, 10:10 - 10:40 AM Melissa Trimble Deepen your skills with a concurrent session. Gain design and development insights that can help you no matter what apps you use in this 60-minute session from our team. Topic Date and Time Presenter What Video Games Can Teach L&D About Crafting Effective Scenarios & Sims April 25, 8:30 - 9:30 AM Bianca Woods Explore e-learning projects from your peers at SolutionFest. Want to know more about all the different ways people solve work challenges with e-learning? Then check out this work-out-loud event where community members share hands-on demos of the courses and initiatives they’ve created. It’s the perfect place to look for inspiration! Do a deeper dive into our apps at The Learning Guild’s Storyline 360 Certificate Program. This comprehensive two-day workshop from our training partners at Yukon Learning will help you get started with building highly interactive e-learning modules. Examine the potential for artificial intelligence at the AI Symposium. This one-day pre-conference event gives you strategic insights on using this technology to enhance the work of L&D and HR. Articulate is delighted to be the sponsor for this year’s symposium. ATD International Expo & Conference 2024 May 19 - 22, 2023 New Orleans, USA What’s this event about and why should you attend? Because the Association for Talent Development (ATD) covers all aspects of developing talent in the workplace, their yearly conference covers a broad spectrum of learning and development, talent, and HR topics. From an L&D perspective, you’ll find sessions that explore instructional design, learning strategies, in-person and online facilitation, and development tools. And attending sessions can help you earn continuing education credits for the ATD Certification Institute, HRCI, and SHRM. Beyond sessions, this event features an extensive Expo Hall full of products and services that can support your work. You can register for either the budget-friendly expo-only pass or the full conference pass here. And if you can’t attend in person, not to worry—there’s also a virtual option available this year that you can register for at that same link. Where can you find us in the Expo Hall? Booth #3119 How else can you learn about Articulate apps and more at this event? Get quick tips at our Learning Stage Sessions. Our talks on the expo floor are an excellent way to quickly find out more about what’s happening with our apps and get a preview of what’s to come. Topic Date and Time Presenter What’s New in Articulate 360 May 20, 11:15 - 11:45 AM Madison McCartney AI + U: How To Embrace Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence With Articulate AI May 21, 12:15 - 12:45 PM Melissa Trimble Go deeper with our Solutions Sessions. These longer, 60-minute sessions give you even more time to pick up tips and techniques. Topic Date and Time Presenter 3 Ingredients to Launch E-Learning Successfully May 19, 1:30 - 2:30 PM Elizabeth Truemper Build Your Visual Design Skills by Fixing Bad Examples May 21, 4:30 - 5:30 PM Bianca Woods Strategies for Building a Thriving Learning Community May 22, 10:30 - 11:30 AM Ginger Swart Invest in your skills with a pre-conference workshop. Have some additional time to spend on professional development? ATD offers a two-day Articulate Storyline Certificate program this year to help you boost your course development skills. Wrap-Up Each of these spring events has something unique to offer. So we hope you’ll check them out and see which could be the best fit for how you want to build your skills and nurture your career. And if you end up at any of these conferences, be sure to pop by the Articulate booth to say hi! Want to see what other conferences we’re attending in the future? Then bookmark our Upcoming E-Learning Heroes Events article. We regularly update it with our conference plans for the coming months!Engineering Journal: Demystifying 64-Bit Storyline
I’m Jesse Taber, engineering manager for Storyline 360, here with the first Engineering Product Highlight. My plan is to regularly cover a new or upcoming Storyline enhancement from an engineering perspective to provide technical insights you won’t find in release notes or product documentation. This first highlight is all about 64-bit. In November 2023, we released a 64-bit version of Storyline 360 to public beta that appears in the Articulate 360 desktop app as “Storyline 360 x64.” Since then, we’ve heard a lot of excitement about this new version of Storyline 360—but also some confusion. To address this feedback, I wanted to offer an FAQ that goes beyond the basics covered in the support article about 64-bit Storyline 360. What is Storyline 360 x64, and how does it differ from the version of Storyline 360 I’ve been using? Storyline has traditionally been a 32-bit application. The primary difference between 32-bit and 64-bit applications is the amount of system memory they can use. In Windows, 32-bit applications can access, at most, ~4GB of memory, while 64-bit applications can access far more memory than any modern consumer-grade PC can accommodate. Put simply, the 64-bit version of Storyline 360 can take advantage of the relatively large amounts of memory available on most modern PCs. Does Storyline 360 x64 provide performance improvements? The primary benefit of targeting 64-bit processor architecture is the ability to use more system memory. When Storyline 360 opens a project file, it loads it all into memory. Very large projects, particularly those with many rich media assets, can experience issues opening, saving, and publishing in the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. Projects like this should be much more stable in Storyline 360 x64. Aside from memory usage, most authors will likely see performance on par with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. While performance improvements were not a primary driver for creating Storyline 360 x64, we plan to invest more directly in performance improvements going forward. Is Storyline 360 x64 a full rewrite of Storyline? No. Storyline 360 x64 comes from the same source code as the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. The difference is that it’s compiled to support 64-bit processors and operating systems. What functionality differs between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Storyline 360? Because both versions of Storyline 360 share the same source code, their functionality should be identical. However, certain third-party components Storyline 360 uses don’t work with a 64-bit processor architecture. We’re currently working on removing, updating, or replacing those features. For example, the screen recording feature was not available in early builds of Storyline 360 x64 because a third-party component it relies on did not support 64-bit. As of Update 85, however, the screen recording functionality is available in the 64-bit version. The support article about 64-bit Storyline 360 lists the features we plan to remove (deprecate). Storyline 360 x64 is in public beta. Is it okay to use for my day-to-day work? We feel confident that Storyline 360 x64 is stable and suitable for production work. We have been using it internally for months without issue. We have also gotten positive feedback about its stability from several Storyline 360 users who have been using it regularly since it was in private beta. We plan to move Storyline 360 x64 out of public beta and into general availability in the second half of 2024. Most of the remaining work centers around providing a seamless experience for all customers to migrate from the 32-bit version. Because it shares source code with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360 there are no compatibility issues. That means that if you run into problems with Storyline 360 x64, you can always close your project and reopen it with 32-bit Storyline 360. Why did it take Articulate so long to deliver a 64-bit version of Storyline 360? Articulate released Storyline 1 in 2012. At that time, 64-bit processors and operating systems were becoming more popular in consumer-grade PCs, but 32-bit software was still prevalent. In the years that followed, memory got cheaper, which meant more PCs with memory greater than 4GB hit the market. Larger amounts of memory drove the need for 64-bit processors and software that supported them. We opted not to update Storyline 360 to support 64-bit until 2023, which we now realize was a mistake. When we consider the changes we want to make to Storyline 360, we have to weigh the impact that each change will have and the effort required to implement it. We must also consider the opportunity cost of choosing certain changes over others. We believed the effort to make Storyline 360 support 64-bit processor architecture was far higher than the impact it would have on our customers since it wouldn’t bring dramatic performance improvements. The Storyline codebase is over a decade old, and to say it is large and complex would be a gross understatement. Ensuring this code and the various third-party components would work properly in a 64-bit environment was daunting. Customers were also asking for many other features that would need to be put on hold if we committed to the 64-bit work. The team discussed 64-bit support many times in the 10 years that I’ve worked here. Each time, we reached the conclusion that it didn’t make sense. So what changed? Why now? Over the past several years, some of the third-party components that were roadblocks to 64-bit support have been updated or removed through the normal course of expanding and improving Storyline 360. More importantly, some intrepid software engineers on the Storyline team spent their Hackathon—a quarterly event where engineers can work on self-directed projects—proving that getting Storyline to support 64-bit processor architecture was more feasible than previously thought. When Kerry Munz came on board as our CTO, she brought a fresh perspective. She correctly surmised that our customers interpreted the lack of 64-bit support as a signal that we were not investing in Storyline 360. She directed us to prioritize this work as the first of several projects to modernize Storyline 360 and cement our commitment to its future. Will there always be both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Storyline 360 available? The number of 32-bit processors and operating systems actively in use today is extremely low. Eventually, we will only build and ship Storyline 360 in a 64-bit configuration. We’re currently working on a plan to make this transition as seamless as possible for our customers. We’ll share more details when they’re available. Wrap-Up I hope this product highlight has clarified the “what, how, and why” of Storyline 360 x64. If you haven’t already, I recommend trying out the public beta, particularly if you need to work with large or media-heavy projects. And remember to use the “Report a Bug” option at the top right corner of the application window to share any feedback directly with the engineering team. Stay tuned for future engineering journal entries! And please leave a comment below if there are specific topics you’d like me to cover.Engineering Journal: Storyline Quality Update Q1 2024
Published on March 8, 2024 Hi E-Learning Heroes community members! I’m Jesse Taber, engineering manager for Storyline 360, here to give you an update on the quality work Articulate CTO Kerry Munz kicked off in April 2023 after hearing from users that Storyline 360 quality wasn’t up to par. The initial plan (outlined in this discussion: Storyline Under a Microscope: An Update From the CTO) was to have the engineering team pause work on other projects and focus solely on quality and stability for six months. During that time, I shared monthly updates on our progress in that discussion thread. In my final monthly update, I promised we would continue to focus on quality and stability in Storyline 360, even as we restarted work on enhancing and extending the product. I also committed to providing regular updates in a quarterly engineering journal. So here I am, making good on that promise. Each quarter, I’ll share an update on the quality metrics we’ve been working to improve along with any insights we’ve learned along the way. Application Error Rate The application error rate measures how often Storyline 360 displays the “Articulate Storyline Error Report” dialog. We track this data for both Storyline 360 sessions—each session is a unique instance of opening and then later closing Storyline 360—and users. In the third quarter of 2023, approximately 1.5% of Storyline 360 sessions encountered an error. That number dipped below 1.5% and started approaching our goal of less than 1% in the fourth quarter. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s application error rate per session for updates 78 through 84. We track the percentage of Storyline 360 users who encounter one or more errors in each release. Back in September 2023, I reported that about 15% of Storyline 360 users had encountered an error when using Update 79. Unfortunately, that number ticked up to 20% as more users upgraded. Since then our efforts have this metric trending in the right direction, as the chart below shows. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s application error rate per user for updates 78 through 84. Progress on the application error rate has slowed as the team has devoted resources to other areas, but we’re pleased with improvements so far and will continue working in this area. Downgrades This metric tracks how often a Storyline 360 user updates to a new version of the application—only to downgrade later to an earlier version. We interpret downgrades as an indication that authors encountered issues in a new version that prevented them from completing their work. Last year, we saw this metric dip below 1% at the end of the second quarter and remain there through the middle of the third quarter. Since then, it has climbed and seesawed between 1% and 1.6%, with Update 84 dipping under 1%. While we’re happy to have reduced this number from the 2% we saw last year, we want to understand better why our customers downgrade. We’ll be working to clarify this in the coming months. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s downgrade percentage for updates 78 through 84. Defect Rate This metric tracks the percentage of open support cases associated with an unfixed bug. An increase in this number is a signal that our support team is spending time fielding bug reports instead of helping customers get the most out of our products, so our goal is to keep this value below 10%. We achieved that goal in the latter half of 2023 and continued into 2024. We’re also committed to addressing sudden spikes in this metric, even if they don’t exceed our 10% threshold. For example, this value reached approximately 8% in August, then again in December and January. If a Storyline 360 release introduces a new bug, we often see a spike in this metric as customers open support cases. Any bug introduced in the past four releases is designated a “recent regression.” We are constantly evaluating our test processes to prevent regressions like this, but when they occur we prioritize fixing them quickly to minimize the impact they can have on our customers. We rely on support cases to direct our bug-fixing efforts, so I encourage you to contact our support team if you’re experiencing issues with Storyline 360. In addition, customers who participate in our private beta program can report issues they find directly to the Storyline engineering team and see new features before general public release. If you’re interested in participating, contact us at [email protected]. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s defect rate for July 2023 through February 2024. Publishing Failures I shared this metric for the first time in my final monthly update last September. We initially saw that nearly 6% of publishing operations were failing. We reduced that number to 2% in June (not shown in the graph below), but it later climbed to about 5.5%. Since then, it’s settled just north of 4%. We recently updated how we track publishing failures to provide more insight and help reach our goal of less than 1%. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s publishing failure percentage for updates 73 through 79. Incomplete Sessions This metric tracks how often Storyline 360 quits unexpectedly due to an error. The last time I shared this metric, it hovered around 6%, but we suspected that Storyline 360 might sometimes fail to correctly record an event for the end of a session, creating false positives in the data that were inflating the number. In Update 80, we rolled out a change aimed at improving the accuracy of this data and found that closer to 4% of sessions experience this issue. Our goal is to drive this metric below 1%, because having Storyline quit unexpectedly is extremely frustrating for you and unacceptable for us. Fixing issues that lead to incomplete sessions can be difficult because the data we collect for unexpected errors sometimes can’t be captured before Storyline 360 shuts down. We are considering ways to improve our understanding of how and why this happens. In the meantime, opening a support case for instances of Storyline 360 quitting unexpectedly could help us get to the root cause of these issues. Line chart showing Storyline 360’s incomplete session percentage for updates 78 through 84. Wrap-Up I hope you’ve found this inside look at how the engineering team is working to improve quality in Storyline 360 insightful. If you enjoyed it, be sure to check out my deep dive into 64-Bit Storyline for more behind-the-scenes information from engineering. Stay tuned for next quarter’s quality update! And please email me at [email protected] if there are specific topics you’d like me to cover.13 New and Enhanced Features That Will Help You Get the Most From Articulate 360
There’s so much we’ve been working on lately that we’re thrilled to share with you. If you want to expand the e-learning experiences you can create, streamline your development processes, and get great training out fast, check out these new and upcoming features that will help you do all that and more. Create exciting and engaging e-learning Rise 360: Linked Padding Speed up your Rise 360 layout formatting with this new option to link the padding on the top and bottom of a block together. When this feature is on, you can quickly change their values at the same time. Need to adjust the top and bottom padding independently? Simply click the Unlink Padding icon. To learn more about all your block padding options, check out this post. Rise 360: Random Block Images Automatically liven up your Rise 360 designs with this enhancement. Instead of seeing the exact same photo every time you insert a block with a background image, Rise 360 now randomly selects background images on a block-by-block basis. Rise 360: Team Folders Enhancements Now working with large numbers of Rise 360 courses is even easier thanks to this set of new Team Folders features. You can quickly view just the courses you created with the Owned by Me filter. Accessing courses that have been shared with you is faster too, as they’re now automatically added to the Shared with Me folder. And if you want to fully reorganize your folders, Move Dialog allows you to move both source files and shortcuts in a jiffy. Want to know more? Check out this post. Rise 360: Women’s History Month Course Celebrate the broad spectrum of ways women have contributed to history, society, and culture with this Rise 360 real-content template. This fully built course covers the history of women’s rights in America and strategies for continuing to move gender equity and equality forward. Share it with learners right away or customize it as much as you like! For more information about this course, give this post a read Storyline 360: Emphasis Animations Grab your learners’ attention with this new selection of Storyline 360 emphasis animations. You can now add effects like pulsing, shaking, and teetering to shapes, images, buttons, characters, markers, textboxes, videos, and more. Learn more in this post. Storyline 360: Global Notes Formatting Adjusting the font color, size, style, or paragraph spacing in the Storyline 360 Notes panel is easier than ever! With this feature, you can now customize the Notes panel formatting across the entire project in one fell swoop. What a timesaver! If you’re excited to know more, check out this post. Storyline 360: Player Tooltips Help learners get to know the modern player controls in Storyline 360 with these accessible tooltips. If someone isn’t sure what a particular player button or control does, all they have to do is mouse or tab over to it to display a bite-size pop-up with more information. Find out more here. Storyline 360: Background Audio Volume Variable Fine-tune your course’s audio with this new Storyline 360 variable. With it, you can raise or drop a slide’s background audio by whatever percentage you choose—adding more precision and customization to an already helpful feature. Collaborate with team members and stakeholders Review 360: Manage Integrated Comments Seeing Review 360 comments directly in Storyline 360 and Rise 360 is a real timesaver. But what about when you need to have separate, independent reviews of the same course? Thanks to this new feature, that’s easy! With it, you’re able to see the comments for multiple Review 360 items in your authoring app workflow. That means you can create multiple copies of your course in Review 360—one for each reviewer segment—but still see everyone’s comments in your original Rise 360 or Storyline 360 file. Curious to know more? Check out our feature posts for both Storyline 360 and Rise 360. Distribute courses to all your learners Reach 360: Starter Plan If you have an Articulate 360 Teams subscription, distributing and tracking training just got easier. That’s because you can now use Reach 360 Starter to share courses with up to 300 learners per year at no additional cost. This new Reach 360 Starter access makes it easy for everyone to try out all the features of our fast, flexible, and frictionless LMS. Check out the details here. Reach 360: Manager Role Give people just the Reach 360 access they need with the new Manager role, which can invite and remove learners, assign training, and view reports for any group assigned to them. It’s perfect for when someone needs more administrative powers than with the Reporter role—but just for one or more specific groups. Need help determining which Reach 360 role is right for a particular user? This article compares the permissions for each role, making it easy to narrow down the option that best meets your needs. Wrap-Up There’s a lot here to be excited about! And since all of these new features are available right now, trying them out is as simple as opening up your Articulate 360 apps. Not only that, but there are lots more exciting features coming this year—including AI capabilities. So keep an eye on our roadmap and E-Learning Heroes to stay in the loop about all the other cool functionality we’ll be adding soon. Feeling left out because you don’t currently have an Articulate 360 subscription? Not to worry—just start a 30-day free trial to try out all these helpful features and more. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.All 12 Quick Tips & Tricks Webinars From 2023
Our monthly Quick Tips & Tricks webinars provide answers to your questions, practical tips to further your skills, and creative tricks to help speed up your course development. Whether you’re brand new to e-learning or a seasoned professional, our quick tips sessions offer something for everyone. We record each month’s session since we know that you’re busy, and it’s not always easy to attend a live webinar. For your viewing pleasure, we’ve compiled this year’s Quick Tips & Tricks into one on-demand video. If you’re ever looking for help with your own projects—technical, creative, or want to try out some new ideas—just post your question in the community where helpful folks are always willing to help. And who knows? Your question might get featured in the next Quick Tips & Tricks. Here's an outline of the featured tips and tricks we shared over the past year. January 2023 Creating Graphics in Google Slides Working with Combined Hover and Selected States Storyline 360 Workflow Updates Using a Simple Text Effect to Increase Readability February 2023 Working with Audio in Markers in Storyline 360 Using the Embed Block in Rise 360 Working with Conditional Navigation in Accordions Audio for Sound Effects March 2023 Using Subtle Backgrounds in E-Learning Creating Dividers for Use in Rise 360 Creating Smoother Mouseover Interactions with Characters April 2023 Unrestricting Access in Storyline 360 if You're Using a Pre-Assessment Test Working with a Click and Hold Timer in Storyline 360 Recent New Features and Updates to Storyline 360 May 2023 New Features in Review 360 Tips for Working with Drag-and-Drop Interactions Trimming a Long Audio Track into Smaller Track Using Studio 360 June 2023 Working with a Zoom Region in Storyline 360 New Features in Rise 360 Resetting Only the Incorrect Drag and Drop Choices in Storyline 360 July 2023 Skipping Animations in Storyline 360 Creating a GIF from a Peek 360 Video New Review and Collaboration Features in Articulate 360 August 2023 Creating GIFs Using PowerPoint Creating a Magnifying Slider Effect Adding Numbers to Markers in Storyline 360 September 2023 Additional Ways to Create Scenarios in Rise 360 Using the Morph Transition in PowerPoint to Make GIFs Tips for Working with Audio in Storyline 360 October 2023 Ways to Work with a Drag and Drop Out Animation Using a Checklist in Storyline 360 and Rise 360 Using Sliders to Measure and Align Objects November 2023 Ways to Have a Consistent Character Size Background Playlists and the New Trigger to Control Audio in Storyline 360 Finding an Image's Size and Resizing Images Without Stretching Them December 2023 Animation Effect Example Optional Content in Rise 360 Share Link Permission in Review 360 Common Questions from Recent Webinars
Video Highlights of Our Favorite New Articulate 360 Features
We’ve added so many useful features to Articulate 360 in the past quarter. But there are a few we’ve been especially excited to share with you! In this video, check out some of the biggest game-changers that came out in the past few months. Want to do a deeper dive into a feature you saw in the video, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.
