“Are You Sure?” in E-Learning #555
This week I wanted to lean into the spirit of the confirmation prompt, that moment of pause, of reconsideration, and ask: what if that pause wasn't entirely on your side? The scenario: you're an internal team member who's just come back from a learning design course. You have the master learning design authoring tool. Before you're allowed near the authoring tool, the org's AI guide HARMONY needs to run a quick "Confirmation Test." Three scenarios. Shouldn't take long. HARMONY is very helpful. The "Are you sure?" mechanic does something a little different here. I'll leave it at that. 🙂 A few craft notes for anyone interested in the build: The confirmation prompt UX is deliberately asymmetric; the buttons don't behave the same way depending on which answer you're leaning toward HARMONY has two states that shift based on your choices throughout Three different endings based on your answer tally The fake "analysis" stage has a silent jury. You'll see. I have a lot of fun with Claude Design, Code and all things Claude Would love to know which ending you hit, and whether any of the scenarios felt a little too close to home. 👀 Are you a conformist or a rebel? Find out here Confirmation Test Thanks to DavidAnderson and the Articulate 360 team for the prompt; this one was a lot of fun. #ElearningChallengeAre You Sure? Turning a Confirmation Prompt Into a Checkpoint 🛑
We've all done it. You're halfway through a required course, your inbox is screaming, and you click the first answer that looks right just to keep moving. So when this week's challenge landed on confirmation prompts that little "Are you sure?" pause before you submit I knew exactly the moment I wanted to design for. But I didn't want to bolt a generic pop-up onto a quiz. I wanted the pause to actually do something. The idea id💡 I built this as a Checkpoint inside my course AI Prompts for Learning Experience Designers and here's the part I had a little too much fun with: it's a course about prompting, and the checkpoint itself models the single most important prompting habit there is. Don't fire off the first thing that comes to mind. Pause. Reread. Reconsider. Then commit. The interaction drops the learner into four real-world scenarios, one drawn from each module of the course writing intro copy under a deadline, drafting measurable objectives, iterating on a draft that's almost right, raising the ceiling on generic questions. They pick an answer. And then, before anything locks in, the pause hits. What makes the pause smart ⏸️ This is the bit I'm proudest of. Instead of the same flat "Are you sure?" for every option, the confirmation reacts to the exact answer you picked. Choose the vague prompt and it nudges you: "Three words, zero context — you'll spend the time you saved rewriting the output. Sure?" Choose the strong one and it affirms your thinking instead. It reads like a prompt coach leaning over your shoulder never giving away the answer, just helping you check your own work. Then at the end, a little tally shows what the pause actually did: how many times reconsidering rescued a wrong answer, and how many times it talked you out of a right one. Turns out the value of slowing down is surprisingly easy to measure. 😄 A couple of build notes 🗒️ Placement matters. The Checkpoint sits before the hands-on Practice Lab on purpose recognition first (spot the better prompt), then production (write your own). Nice little scaffolding ramp. All Rise 360 Code Block, and entirely transform-free the gradient hero, the twinkling tokens, the glowing progress bar, the staggered fade-ins, and the count-up score are all pure opacity, shadow, and gradient. Keeps it rock-solid inside Rise's iframe. Matched to my course palette so it feels native, not bolted on. And yes — I built this side by side with Claude as my co-creative partner. The taste and the instructional intent are mine; the AI just helped me get there faster and iterate without losing my mind. Which, fittingly, is exactly what the course is about. 🙂 The real lesson of a good confirmation prompt isn't "gotcha." It's "hey — you've got this, just take half a second to be sure." That's the kind of friction I'm always happy to design in. Would love to hear how you'd use a pause like this in your own work. 👇 AI Prompts for Learning DesignersI Asked AI to Help Me Build Team Games. I Didn't Stop at One.
Let me set the scene. I've got a team building meeting coming up. I wanted something engaging — not another "share two truths and a lie" moment that makes everyone stare at the ceiling. I wanted something that actually gets people talking, laughing, maybe even a little competitive. You want a game. 🎮 But I also had approximately zero hours to build one from scratch. Sound familiar? Here's what I did instead: I opened a conversation with AI, described what I was going for, and started building. And somewhere between "let's make it facilitator-led" and "can you add confetti when someone scores a point" I didn't end up with one game. I ended up with five. The Process Was the Whole Point I didn't sit down with a grand master plan to build a game library. I started with a simple goal: create something fun for a L&D team building session that didn't require everyone to download an app, log into a platform, or remember a join code. The constraint? It needed to live in Rise 360 as a Code Block self-contained, no dependencies, ready to run on one shared screen. What I didn't expect was how fast 🏎️ the ideation loop would move. Describe a concept, see it rendered, react to it, refine it. Across a few sessions, that loop produced five fully playable games: L&D Jeopardy: Five categories of industry-specific clues that hit a little too close to home (SME Confessions, anyone?) AI Confessional: A L&D edition where the real answers might surprise you Prompt Lab: A game that actually reinforces AI prompting skills while everyone thinks they're just playing L&D Quest: Virtual Trivia Pursuit: Because our field deserves its own trivia championship The Case of the Vanishing Keynote: A mystery game so relatable it hurts Five games. Multiple sessions. No dev team. No budget line item. What Made It Work A few things I learned along the way that made the process actually fun instead of frustrating: Start with the vibe, not the mechanics. Before I said a word about HTML or JavaScript, I described the energy I wanted: laugh-out-loud, low stakes, facilitator-led, one screen for 20 people. That framing shaped every design decision that followed. React out loud. The fastest iterations happened when I said exactly what I saw — "the modal is off to the left," "the text isn't readable," "this needs more wow factor." Specific feedback beats vague dissatisfaction every time. Let it surprise you. I came in asking for Would You Rather. I left with Jeopardy complete with a starfield background, confetti cannons, animated score bumps, and a facilitator answer key. The AI brought ideas I wouldn't have thought to ask for — and some of them were the best parts. The Real Takeaway for L&D We talk a lot about engagement in learning design. We spend weeks building branching scenarios and interactive modules trying to manufacture the thing that games create naturally: people want to play. What this experiment reminded me is that the barrier to building game-based learning experiences is lower than it's ever been — not because the craft got easier, but because the tools got smarter. You still need to know your audience. You still need to write questions that land. You still need to make judgment calls about what's too complex and what's just right. But the part where you stare at a blank HTML file at 11pm wondering how to center a div? That part you can skip now. Try It Yourself If you've got a team meeting coming up, a training session that needs a warm-up, or just a burning desire to ask your colleagues whether they'd rather deal with a hands-off SME or a micromanaging one — build the game. Describe the vibe. Pick a format. React to what you see. Iterate. You might sit down to build one game and walk away with five. Built in Rise 360 using Code Block. AI-assisted development across multiple sessions. No divs were harmed in the making of these games. 🐵 Rise 360: Team Building ActivitiesThink About It!! Quiz, with Quiz Builder
💡My take on the challenge: I looked at this from a slightly different perspective. Building a quiz is easy! so I wanted to create something useful for the entire community. I didn't just create a quiz, I built an app right inside Rise that allows users to craft, preview, and export their own high-impact, standalone quiz right inside Rise for use in their own courses. Everything in the quiz is customisable! Use it along with the native rise style and format block controls to create something amazing! 🖥️ The tech bit! The tool is a dynamic, client-side web application built using standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, and Vanilla JavaScript). It allows you to build, configure, and export self-contained, interactive quiz blocks engineered specifically for iframe integration within Rise. ⚙️The really techy bit! The system relies on a centralized State Management Pattern (const S). Every interaction, from a slider adjustment to an input keypress or color hex alteration, fires a non-blocking UI update sequence: Mutates the values directly inside the global state object. Formats strings safely using contextual HTML/JS escaping helpers (esc() / escJs()) to prevent injection or rendering errors in the exported markup. Automatically serialises the state to compile a completely isolated, valid HTML document inside a data URI stream (srcdoc). 😤Problems encountered! Because the live preview runs inside an iframe wrapper to preserve strict CSS sandboxing and style isolation, standard DOM access is blocked. To solve this, a robust cross-document messaging pipeline was implemented: The Frame: Houses an active ResizeObserver API loop monitoring its own document height. The Message: The child window securely transmits payload data (window.parent.postMessage({type:'frameHeight', ...})) upward to the host application window upon asset load. The Host: Automatically catches the event listener and dynamically resizes the frame height down to the exact pixel, eliminating double scrollbars and layout shifting entirely. 🔎LMS/Rise Compatibility & Performance The exported codebase is mathematically pure Vanilla JavaScript (ES5 standard for runtime compatibility). It relies on no external dependencies, CDNs, or UI libraries, ensuring lightning-fast load times. It also features a programmatic native browser hook that fires standard completion messages ({type: 'complete'}) across to the parent window automatically upon a user hitting the customisable passing threshold. I hope you enjoy it 😊 Think About It!! Quiz With Quiz BuilderWelcome to a Severance Style Code Block
My first time creating an interaction with code! So inspired by what everyone has created. I've learned it can take a few iterations to get what you want. I used Copilot and ChatGPT5. Feel like I could have spent more time—had to stop and call it good enough for now. Enjoy this Severance inspired interaction. As a new employee, Mr. Milchick has assigned a task for your to complete as part of your orientation. When you are complete, clock out and take the elevator to leave. See it here Cyd Find me on LinkedIn or https://mastermind180.com/Paint by Num-Birds: Songbird Identification Tool
This interaction pushes learners to get curious and creative while identifying some of the most notoriously difficult bird species to spot - warblers! The paint-by-numbers interface paired learning materials (like snapshots, anatomy diagrams, and their own field notes) introduces learners to the fundamentals of bird identification, and allows them to explore this process of visually ID'ing a bird for themselves. Review Here: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/54d099bd-477a As a team with avid birdwatchers, trying to "onboard" people to the hobby always poses a classic blocker: "How do you tell the birds apart?" Though sound, habitat, and other factors play a role, visuals are the first pillar of identification that beginners start to familiarize themselves with. Using Rise's code block, we wanted to create a tool that went beyond flip cards, checklists, and other default interactions. Leveraging HTML/CSS, we created a workshop space that: Breaks down key features to note for ID'ing through an interactive diagram Offers as much or as little support they may need in the form of the snapshots, diagrams, and facts in the "Files" Provides a challenge to apply what they've learned by identifying the "Field Notes" recordings To build this block, we used a mix of vibe-coding and human code expertise! Once we had refined our idea on our own, Gemini was enlisted to help create the basic UI and functions. The functionality was refined and adjusted many times for user ease and clarity. Finally, we looped human experts back in to polish the code, refine the diagram, and squash any stubborn bugs. It was a whirlwind learning experience! Some takeaways: Having the AI refine snippets of the code ensured overall block integrity. We made the mistake at the start of having Gemini spit out a whole new HTML file to adjust minor pieces; we found it changed things that we hadn't asked it to, and actually got "lazy", condensing body text and dressing down UI elements increasingly with each iteration Knowing when to use AI, and when to call in a human expert was our superpower. Gemini deeply, SERIOUSLY struggled trying to create an SVG of a bird. So, we took the monstrosity it outputted and edited the code ourselves to create an image we were happy with! We also enlisted our senior developer to jump in and fix some serious coding errors that had made the block totally un-playable. Not all AI's are made equal: Canva's AI was very promising for vibe-coding at first, but Gemini ultimately became our tool of choice as it provided the most accurate and useful responses. We chose this activity because as bird lovers, we know that warblers in particular have such subtle differences - a black eye ring on one bird might make it a totally different species from the next! The ability to paint and visually describe these tiny differences seemed like the perfect learning opportunity for this challenge (and get our other coworkers on board with birding)! Let us know what you think! Were you able to paint a perfect match? Created by Aamir Aman, Tal Castillo, and Ryan Young.Meet Your Learner Persona
Hello there! 👋 Here's my project: A short, playful interaction that learners could experience at the beginning of a course, but not limited to that. I used both Lovable and ChatGPT as my buddies throughout this learning journey. The interactive code is embedded directly inside the course project. Check out the project here: Meet Your Learner Persona ✨The story behind As a newcomer to vibe coding, the experience was rewarding in the best possible way. I genuinely enjoyed every part of the process and learned a lot, especially about writing effective prompts, navigating code, and making small changes. I found a lot of inspiration by exploring visual and interaction design references on platforms like Dribbble, Figma, and Godly, which helped shape the experience's look and feel. Throughout the project, I experimented with both simple and more complex interactions. In the end, I found myself drawn to the simpler ones, those that quietly support the learning journey without adding unnecessary friction or contributing to cognitive overload. Try taking it to discover your type. 💻Here's also the prompt I used: Create a self-contained, embeddable HTML/CSS/JavaScript interactive learning game designed to be placed inside a Rise course code block. Concept: “Discover Your Learner Persona” – a playful, low-pressure personality-style interaction that helps learners reflect on how they prefer to learn. Experience goals: Fun, fast, and intuitive (2 minutes max) No right or wrong answers Feels like a game, not a test Encourages self-awareness and engagement at the beginning of a course Interaction design: Display one card at a time in the center of the screen Each card contains a short first-person statement describing a learning behavior Two buttons below each card: “This is me” “Not really” When the learner clicks “This is me”, assign 1 hidden point to a specific learner persona When “Not really” is clicked, move on without scoring After all cards are answered, calculate the dominant learner persona and display the result Learner personas (4 total): The Explorer – learns by experimenting, trying things out, discovering through action The Builder – learns best with structure, steps, and logical progression The Observer – prefers watching, reading, and understanding before acting The Connector – learns through discussion, stories, and social interaction Cards (8–10 total): Write short, relatable, first-person statements such as: “I like to jump in and try things out, even if I don’t fully understand yet.” “I feel more confident when learning follows clear steps.” “I prefer seeing examples before I start.” “Talking things through with others helps me learn.” Each card should clearly map to one persona behind the scenes, but never reveal scoring or categories to the learner. Result screen: Display the learner’s persona as a friendly title (e.g. “You are: The Explorer”) Include a short, encouraging description of what this persona means Add 2–3 practical tips on how this learner can approach the course effectively Include reassuring language that most people are a mix and there is no best persona Visual & UX style: Clean, modern, friendly Card-based layout with soft rounded corners Smooth transitions between cards Large, readable text Accessible contrast Neutral, welcoming color palette (colorful, but in light colors) Card layout and behavior: Display the cards as a stacked, slightly fanned card pile, inspired by a physical deck of cards. Cards should overlap each other diagonally, forming a small pile rather than a grid Only the top card is fully readable and interactive at any time The cards underneath should be partially visible, offset slightly in position and rotation Use subtle differences in rotation (e.g. -3°, +2°, -1°) to create a natural, tactile feel Each card should have rounded corners, a soft shadow, and a solid background color Interaction behavior: When a learner answers a card, animate it smoothly off the pile (slide or fade) The next card should move into the top position of the stack The pile should visually shrink as cards are completed Technical constraints: No external libraries or frameworks All HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single file Fully responsive (works well on desktop and mobile) Safe for embedding in Rise as a code block or zip package
Crossword
I vibe coded a crossword puzzle interaction in the new Articulate Rise custom html block to support our Accounts Review training. It took about an hour of back-and-forth with Copilot to get this working. Check it out here https://rise.articulate.com/share/OHzJApuSIhFcNe4GLwmto58-5dg_-j-C#/lessons/3cT6ydJmoggnBlDSVsXmKaxp11ASrlKp Full HTML code is below the preview, feel free to adapt it and repurpose for own projects.Wizard Maze Game
I've seen some people have been successful making 8 bit games while vibe coding so I wanted to give it a go! This was a fun one to build and adjust! I really wanted a character to go through a maze and try to collect the books. After 10 books, you answer a question and it continues through 3 levels of maze over 5 questions (if you get them right). Code Build-a-thon: Maze Game Knowledge Check | Review 360 I was inspired by the Hoppy Adventures Coin Capture Hoppy Adventures: Coin Capture | Articulate - Community. Kudos to desterly1kenobi! This build was a roller coaster. First, ChatGPT said I couldn't do it. Fought me. Once I found the Hoppy Adventures, I saw that it CAN be done! So, I started a new chat with ChatGPT and within one prompt, I got a game. I kept adjusting til I got everything I wanted in place. There's some minor tweaks I want to make but, I'm pretty happy with it and it's fun! I'll have to find a project to incorporate it in.Risk Quest: Investigator Training
Code Block Experience Inspired by the old point-and-click adventure games, I wanted to build a simulation-style experience that lets learners have fun while actually practicing investigation skills. In this scenario, you step into the role of a newly assigned Risk Investigator trying to figure out why financial projections don’t match real-world returns. Projects like this usually don’t happen. Not because they aren’t valuable, but because they take time, money, and resources that most teams just don’t have. Fast builds are expected. Games are not. So instead of waiting for the perfect conditions, I used Rise Code Blocks, ChatGPT, stock images, and a lot of trial and error to build a playable proof of concept the team could realistically evaluate. The Risk Quest demo puts you directly in the investigation. You explore the environment, pick up and use objects, connect the dots, and report back what you’ve uncovered. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss things. That’s intentional. The project is broken into three parts: Risk Quest Demo Play the experience. Be the investigator. Figure out what’s going on. Risk Quest Evolution Walk through how the project evolved from v1 to the current POC. You can see what changed, what stuck, and what ideas didn’t survive contact with reality. Hidden Assets All of the graphics used in the experience and how they were stored and referenced directly in the Code Block as the look and feel evolved. And yes, this whole thing is heavily influenced by nostalgia. Did anyone else play these growing up? Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and my personal favorite, Monkey Island as Guybrush Threepwood. 😁 Take a look, share feedback, swap a memory or two, and enjoy.
