*ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED* GIVEAWAY: DevLearn is coming — want to join us? 🎉
DevLearn is almost here (Nov 12–14)! Whether you’re already going or hoping to, we want to celebrate with the learning community. To share the excitement, we're giving away TWO DevLearn 3-Day Conference passes valued at $2,395 (travel and accommodations not included, U.S. residents only). 👉 To enter: Comment below and tell us: 💬 Why you want to go and/or what you hope to learn! That’s it! We’ll randomly select two winners from the comments. ⏰ Enter by: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 8:00 AM PT 🏆 Winners announced: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 by 5:00 PM PT Already have your ticket? Drop a “👋 I’ll be there!” so we know who to connect with in Vegas! UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who shared their stories! We’ve loved reading your entries and seeing so many opportunities to collaborate and learn from this amazing community. 🎉 Congratulations to our winners: Kaitlyn-Skyline and larryvanwave-ff We’re so excited for you and hope to do more fun giveaways like this in the future. Thanks again to everyone who participated!Peer Pod Coming Soon: “New to Instructional Design” — Who’s Joining Us?
We’re kicking off a brand-new Peer Pod for anyone who’s new to instructional design and you’re invited! 🎉 Peer Pods are 4-week learning groups where community members explore a topic together through weekly prompts, curated resources, and shared discussion. Whether you’re a few days or several months into your role, this is your chance to connect with peers, reflect on key topics, and build confidence together. Here’s what we’ll explore: ✨ What to focus on as you get started 📦 Intro to Articulate 360 + course design best practices 🤝 Tips for working with SMEs 💻 Best practices for incorporating AI By the end, you’ll walk away with a stronger foundation and a group of peers cheering you on. 🗓 Start Date: Monday, January 12, 2026 Participants will be added to the private Peer Pod group about a week before we begin. 👉 Want to join? Fill out the registration form. 💬 Your turn: What Peer Pod topics do you want to see next? If you could join a focused 4-week learning group, what topic would you choose? Drop your ideas below so we can build pods around what you want most. 🙌Worried about AI taking your job?
Most people use AI the way they use a search bar. Type something vague, take what comes back. That's how poor course content gets made. This course is about using it deliberately. You'll practise briefing an AI properly, interrogating what it gives you, and deciding what your own expertise still has to supply. The AI Shift Tools used: Canva, Gemini and Rise CanvasLess Is More Is Not Just About Content, but About Learning Experience
After working in instructional design for many years, I've come to realize that "less is more" is often misunderstood. It is usually associated with simplifying content, such as making courses shorter, reducing information, or avoiding overload. But in my experience, it goes beyond that. Even when we have correctly identified what learners need to know, do, or change in order to meet business goals, there is still another important question: How should we design the learning experience itself? The goal should be to help learners learn with the least unnecessary effort. Not by removing depth or rigor, but by removing friction that does not contribute to learning. Over the years, I've seen many different approaches to learning design. Some learning experiences feel under-designed, where the lack of structure or intention makes it difficult for learners to stay engaged or understand the purpose of the content. I've also seen cases where, in an effort to avoid being "too simple" or "boring," additional layers of interaction, visual elements, or gamification are introduced. Many of us have probably spent hours building advanced interactions in Storyline or carefully structuring a Rise course because we wanted the learning experience to feel more engaging. There is nothing wrong with using these features. The question is whether they genuinely support learning. Sometimes these additions are driven more by what the tool allows us to build than by what learners actually need. As a result, learners may end up spending more time completing interactions than understanding, retaining, or applying the knowledge that really matters. This is especially important in corporate learning. Learners are often balancing training with their daily responsibilities. Time is limited, and attention is limited. That is why I believe we should be intentional about where we add complexity. Interaction is not the problem. In fact, meaningful interaction is essential for learning. The key word is meaningful. The most valuable learning experiences are those that help learners understand concepts more deeply, retain what they have learned, and apply that knowledge in real work situations. This is where I choose to focus my design effort. Not on adding interaction for its own sake, but on identifying the moments in learning that truly matter. Instead of asking, "What cool Storyline feature can I use here?", I think we should be asking, "How does this interaction help learners understand, retain, or apply what they need to learn?" When we design with that intention, learning can often become simpler while also becoming more effective. That's the kind of learning experience I continue to strive for. I'd love to hear how you decide when an interaction is truly worth adding.Welcome to Week 1 of the E-Learning Heroes Passport Challenge!
🌍 Welcome to the Passport Challenge Hub! Your one-stop spot for all things E-Learning Heroes Passport Challenge. Each week, we’ll share a new update celebrating badge earners, Globetrotter progress, and community highlights. Check out the Passport Challenge post to learn how to join, earn badges, and see all the rewards you can unlock! ✈️ Getting Started Here’s how to start filling your passport this week: Post a new discussion or comment on a post that caught your eye. Jump into the Welcome Center and greet a new member. Like a few posts that inspired you. 💡 Weekly Pro Tip You can earn two badges in one! Complete the Weekly Challenge to earn your Challenger stamp, then post your project (with details!) in the Share Examples Hub to unlock your Showcase stamp. 💬 Join the Conversation How are you hoping to grow, learn, or stretch your skills during the Passport Challenge? Drop your goals in the comments — we’d love to cheer you on!ID Toolbox
Practical tools for e-learning developers… Over the past several months I've built a set of browser tools for the bits of Storyline and Rise that used to cost me hours. Eleven of them, all completely free, no signup, no accounts, nothing to install. They run entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, which for me was the whole point, I wasn't keen on posting client content to a website just to check something… ID ToolboxDesigning Immersive Phone Conversations in Storyline
Ever have two characters talk in a training module, but it still feels flat; even with speech bubbles, audio, and triggers? This (FREE) Storyline phone conversation template changes that. Whether you're designing for sales, compliance, healthcare, or support, it creates real, layered convos that feel like you're eavesdropping on a call. Animated phone effects Realistic voiceover dialogue Transparent APNG waveforms (way better than GIFs!) Custom triggers for pick-up/end call Clean, modern layout with animated text Watch how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMpUcYJRNnE Preview the demo: https://www.redesignedminds.com/Discuss/story.html Download it free: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19AvmE7q3PAUbXoNKIViQtPNqCwUoFDQW/view?usp=sharing If your training includes a conversation, this is how you bring it to life.How are you approaching learning creation in your organization beyond “traditional” L&D use cases?
Hey ELH community 👋, We know that learning creation doesn’t live solely within L&D or instructional design teams. In large organizations especially, managers, training, enablement teams, and other departments are increasingly creating their own learning to meet team and business needs. We’re curious how that’s playing out in your organization. If you’re in L&D, what’s holding you back from bringing on more teams create courses in Articulate? Are there particular challenges—technical, process-related, or cultural—that make it harder to open things up? And if you have scaled and democratized course creation with Articulate beyond L&D, what’s helped it work well? We’d love to learn from your experiences; what’s working, what’s not, and what would make it easier. ~ The Articulate Research TeamCongrats to our Build-a-thon Winners!
That’s a wrap on our first-ever Build-a-thon 🎉 Huge shout-out to all of our participants. 👏 The creativity, experimentation, and problem-solving on display were incredible. If you participated, you should’ve received a badge on your profile — well deserved! It was a very close race for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, but I’m excited to officially announce our winners, based on community votes. ✨Build-a-thon Winners✨ 🥇 First Place: “Meet Your Learner Persona” by ClaudiaNadol891 This project is a masterclass in thoughtful prompt design and clean UX. The stacked-card interaction feels polished and intuitive, and it’s a great example of how you can create something playful inside a Rise Code Block without overwhelming the learner. If you’re curious how to blend AI + intentional design, this is one to study. 🥈 Second Place: Accessibility Reality Checker by SheriLee This build shows the power of turning content into a decision. Instead of explaining accessibility, it puts you in the driver’s seat and makes the tradeoffs visible. It’s a strong example of how short, focused interactions can create real impact. 🥉 Third Place: Paint by Num-Birds by ArthaLearning03 (Aamir Aman, Tal Castillo, and Ryan Young) This team pushed the creative boundaries of the Code Block. The layered, paint-by-numbers approach turns a complex skill into a hands-on challenge. It’s a great example of how you can move beyond default interactions and build something immersive and unexpected. We loved seeing how much thought and creativity went into these builds! If you didn’t participate this time, I hope you’ll explore the entries and see just how far you can push the Rise Code Block. If you haven’t already, join the Rise Code Block Group to keep the conversation going. And if you decide to try something yourself, post in Share Examples — we’d love to see it and cheer you on! What should our next Build-a-thon challenge be? Drop your ideas below 👇How Rise Canvas was created
I’ve had several requests to detail how I created Rise Canvas Rather than trying to respond to everyone via DM, LinkedIn etc, I thought I’d detail everything here in one post. I’m a web/app designer in addition to being an ID (and some other side hustles that pay the bills!) so this has been a bit of a background passion project initially started for my own work… This will be a long read, so I’ll write it in several parts… This will be fairly non-technical as this isn’t really the place to discuss technical detail.. Part 1 coming next…
