Community Insights: Peer Guide Spotlight
Many of you have seen buzz about our AI Assistant Certification Cohort , regardless if you have participated. Our second run of the program just wrapped up, and it’s safe to say that the biggest difference between these two sessions lies in the hands of four community members. Our peer guides: MelAngiulo SusanWhalen0822 lane_jacole & TaylorSakinsky- What is a peer guide? These are community leaders who help with community programs. Right now those programs are our AI Assistant Certification Cohort and Peer Pods. These initiatives are leveling up the way we learn in ELH by creating bite sized communities of practice. This increases peer to peer connection: they’re opportunities to learn not just with each other, but from each other. As these programs continue to grow we realized they needed one major improvement: peer leadership. That’s where these four community members come in! Their journey to LD varies: from a recent M.S in Instructional Design (congrats Melissa!) to having left teaching middle school after 16 years (an incredible tenure, Jacole!). The path specifically to becoming a peer guide was more straightforward, as they all participated in the first AI cohort. All four guides shared that filling this role was anything but a re-hash of their first experience. Rather, being a peer guide meant a front row seat to the variety, creativity, and possibilities that each participant brought to the assignment. “We all had the same prompt, but it was fascinating to see how many different directions everyone took it in. There were some genuinely creative ideas and modifications that inspired me to try something new in my own work.” - Melissa “It's so fun to see everyone's take on the same task, and it shows just how truly unique we all are! The creativity was inspiring.” - Taylor “I love the different color schemes, the images generated, and the creativity applied to the activity. It truly inspired me!” - Susan “I saw some new ideas that I haven't seen before, and those submissions helped me grow as well!” - Jacole The willingness to experiment with the assignment is just the surface of successful community based learning. Being open to resources, learning from others, sharing pain points (and of course bonding over pet pictures) are all central elements to maximizing the opportunity for personal growth in a learning community. Taylor and Melissa emphasized the diversity of expertise in ELH, reminding us “lean on those around you” and that “we can all leverage and learn from one another.” Jacole pointed out that “sometimes the best learning comes from the workarounds others have found and shared for their similar frustrations.” Susuan corroborated, sharing the reward of this is discovering “shared experiences, from our love of pets to the all-too-familiar challenge of getting AI to generate exactly the image we envision.” Being intentional about openness to growth, to sharing, to learning with and from one another is a huge part of their success as peer guides. Another part is simply the joy of building up others. When asked what being a peer guide meant to them there was a resounding consensus: they wanted to help and connect with the community. “Stepping into the peer guide role gave me the opportunity to build meaningful connections with individuals across the global Articulate community.” -Susan “I wanted to be a witness to the growth and trials of my peers, celebrate the wins no matter how big or small, and commiserate over any pain points.” - Jacole “I thought it would be a great opportunity to help the next group of members navigate their experience.” - Taylor “Being a Peer Guide means sharing what I know with others, while simultaneously continuing to learn myself.” - Melissa And in the spirit of helping others by sharing what they know, each of our peer guides offered some advice: About using AI tools, make sure you check the final product. “As trained professionals, we have the expertise and responsibility to design effective courses—LLMs should be viewed as just another tool in our toolbox, not a replacement for our judgment.” -Susan What this looks like: integrating AI into your workflow means integrating a system of checks you might not have thought about before. The usual read-through for clarity, typos, and other common human errors should be joined by reviewing images, making sure quiz questions match the type of answers available, and keeping a library of prompts that are more effective than others. About ELH, explore the full extent of resources available “There are so many cool features and how-to videos that I wouldn't have known about if I didn't get an email about an "updated features walkthrough" or if I wasn't scrolling through the ELH resources.” -Melissa What this looks like: take advantage of our download library, ask for feedback on builds, and attend webinars whenever possible. Don’t hesitate to search for a keyword or interaction type- the well of knowledge here is deep. “Lean on those around you (and in the ELH community)! All of us come from varying backgrounds with different levels of experience, and none of us knows it all!” - Taylor What this looks like: reach out to your peers, pose questions about best practices, and specify if you think a certain lens will help you that you’re missing. Chances are high someone here has that perspective. About life outlook, stay in a growth mindset “There are always so many ways to grow when you are intentionally open to it.” - Jacole What this looks like: stay alert for opportunities to learn, to revisit things you once knew, and to share what you know now. 🌟Our peer guides are wonderful resources for advice, and we know there are many more in the community who just need the right chance to shine. If this is you, sound off in the comments with what you’d like to bring to the community! It can be an article, a build, or a community leadership position. 💬If you’re not ready for the spotlight, chime in below with what you believe is essential to learning in a community.Camtasia Can Do This? A Stunning Motion Graphics Template for eLearning
I’ll be honest, Camtasia continues to surprise me. Many people still think of Camtasia as a simple screen-recording tool, but when you start pushing its design and motion capabilities, it becomes much more than that. I recently built the Oblique Camtasia Template, a 24-slide corporate motion graphics template designed for eLearning, webinars, training videos, and polished business presentations. This template uses diagonal layouts, animated image treatments, lower thirds, title plates, infographics, matte effects, ease-in motion, and custom shape-based design — all built to show how far Camtasia can go when used creatively. Yes, tools like Adobe After Effects and Premiere are powerful. But Camtasia can absolutely hold its own for learning design, corporate video, and clean motion-based presentation work. The bigger point is this: don’t limit Camtasia to screen recording. Test it. Push it. Build with it. There is so much creative potential sitting inside the tool. Watch the short clip here: https://youtu.be/Cr4aVIbxfsE?si=9Am9z6XdrcfT-1xn Read the full under-the-hood blog here: https://www.craftuxd.com/post/camtasia-elearning-corporate-motion-design-template Watch the full template in action here: https://craftuxd.tech/ObliqueCamtasiaTemplate.mp4 #Camtasia #eLearning #MotionGraphics #LearningExperienceDesign #InstructionalDesign #CorporateTraining #VideoDesign #CraftUXDModule Review
Hope you all had a great weekend! I recently completed an eLearning work sample and would love some honest feedback from fellow instructional designers and eLearning professionals. As a personal challenge, I took one of Tim Slade’s design challenges and transformed it into a fully interactive eLearning module. I’m especially interested in feedback on the overall design, user experience, content flow, interactions, and any areas that could be improved. Review link: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/b444062d-8853-4a73-a108-ebdb59b78b75/review Thank you in advance for taking the time to review it. I truly appreciate any insights, suggestions, or constructive feedback you can share!📱 Mobile Learning that Actually Works – What are Your Best Practices?
Hello everyone, I’m currently preparing a project involving several Web-Based Trainings (WBTs) that will primarily be used on mobile devices. Based on the nature of the content, I will have to use Storyline most of the time. While researching, I came across a “definitive guide to multi-device e-learning”—it already offers a bunch of practical insights. However, I’d love to hear perspectives from the community as well. So I’m curious: What are your go-to principles for designing effective mobile learning? What are your biggest takeaways or lessons learned? Do you have any examples of successful mobile learning activities or formats? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, ideas, or even challenges you’ve encountered along the way. Looking forward to your insights!🔎Lost In Translation🔎
Have you ever encountered an idiom that makes no sense, a word that has no direct equivalent, or a word that comes with unexpected connotations while translating? You’re not alone! Translating takes tremendous skill, and localizing requires significant understanding of both the initial language and culture, as well as the language and culture you’re localizing for. But wait, you may be asking… 📍What’s the difference between localization and translation? Localization Translation Takes into consideration the cultural, social, and connotative aspects of language Rendering from one language into another Example: Example: Car Park (Australian/UK English) Parking Lot (United States English) Log (Record, piece of wood, mathematical abbreviation) Bûche (piece of wood, de noel cake) Common translation issues are idioms, direct translations, and proper nouns. Localization errors are more commonly about context and consistency. Localization can take place even within the same language! 🗨️What's your favorite example of localization vs translation? 🔬Haven’t had a chance to try? Check out our new localization features now! Log into Articulate to get instant access to Localization. Start an Articulate 360 trial to try Localization—no credit card required.Looking for Gamification ideas/templates/resources
Hi, I've an old assessment in Storyline where there is branching and learners have 3 avatars from which they can select, selecting each avatar takes them to an individual set of drag and drop questions which they can answer using the resources provided. Looking for some ideas to redesign this assessment using Gamification, can you also provide links to resources here I can use?AI Voices in eLearning
Hi all! I'd like to hear your thoughts about AI voices in training and educational material. As a neurodivergent, I personally find them distracting and less supportive of learning, despite increasing popularity. I've read that human voices improve learner outcomes/retention etc, yet many folks in our industry seem to love AI narration features. As someone who has both recorded voiceovers and generated them, I don't see an obvious reason to rely so heavily on the latter other than time constraints. Sure, it may save a couple hours of production time, but if learner outcomes aren't improving, shouldn't we reconsider this approach and put the audience experience first? Please share your thoughts! I'm really curious to hear more about this. Maybe I'm missing a key point here! Maybe I'm in a minority of disliking AI voices? And just to be clear, I’m not referring to screen readers or assistive text-to-speech. Those serve a completely different purpose and are essential for accessibility! I’m talking specifically about replacing full-course narration with synthetic voices.Security declaration separate to course?
My security team have asked if it is possible to have a deceleration process created that is separate to our security course. This has something to do with reporting and legislation. Has anybody created a 'declaration' activity where an employee has sign or write their full name in a section after reading a blurb of information to declare that they understand their requirements etc? Maybe something in Storyline? I would then add it as another task within the LMS under the full course that they need to complete to be deemed as completed. Any ideas welcome please.How I Built This: I Developed an Award-Winning Ethics Course
Why I Built This: When I first learned about branching scenarios, something clicked for me that I hadn’t seen other eLearning developers execute: visually compelling, philosophically rich thought experiments. I studied Moral Philosophy in my undergrad and became obsessed with ethical dilemmas. Naturally, I decided to build an ethics course about technology. Think The Trolley Problem, only I wanted to pose questions about the growing reliance on AI and its implications by employing Instructional Design strategies. An opportunity came up through my Master’s program to attend DevLearn and compete in DemoFest, so it was time to start building my concept. I designed and developed a course in Storyline called The Agency Algorithm that confronts learners with issues regarding three main topics: algorithmic warfare (The Armory), AI assisted resource allocation (The Triage Garden), and surveillance (The Mask Archive). The Experience & Design Intent: A quick walkthrough of the multi-room experience. The Agency Algorithm is a multi-room interactive learning experience that blends instructional design, game-like mechanics, and philosophical inquiry. It immerses learners in ethically complex scenarios by leveraging branching logic, and integrating experiential aesthetics with conceptual depth. My primary goal with this project was to encourage critical reflection on the role of technology on human agency and autonomous choice. The concept itself was pretty clear to me, but I wanted to push the limits of Storyline visually, so I acquired a number of 3D assets from Adobe Stock, some of which I further modified in Adobe Dimension. I wanted the visuals to anchor the learner in a unique environment that did not feel reminiscent of traditional eLearning, and rather create space to explore and feel like a participant in something unfolding. There aren’t often black and white answers to ethical questions, and branching scenarios are an excellent way to illustrate this while offering learners a safe place to experiment and think through various outcomes based on their decision making. Visual Worldbuilding/Making It Not Feel Like eLearning: Initially, I intended to hand draw assets myself to really hone in on the human vs AI dynamic, but quickly realized the time I’d have to accomplish this was dwindling. While I drafted a few loose concepts in my journal, I ultimately decided to stick with digital assets. While I landed on 3D assets largely due to time constraints, the outcome is reminiscent of an old experimental video game or some sort of immersive idea gallery. As an artist, I often approach my work from a minimalist lens so this project was a fun way to really add some artistry that corporate training often doesn’t have room for. Variables, Multi-state objects, Cue points, and other mechanics: I relied heavily on multi-state objects to create hover states, “tip” cards, text labels, and more, for example in the circuits with definition reveals. I enjoyed building the “loading” effect in the Mask Archive, although it was a bit clunky and took a lot of trial and error! I learned a lot along the way and used a cue point on an orb with a glow effect beneath the mask and used triggers to cause the effect to work. The course overall has a few hundred triggers (slide, object, and variable triggers) and somewhere around 40 variables (mostly T/F variables). What I learned: I think it is important that we don’t hand-hold learners through every learning experience. I want users to think through complex challenges and autonomously choose and feel like a true agent in the process of acquiring knowledge. A lot of eLearning makes it too easy for the learner and we lose engagement when we undermine the intelligence of our audience. I learned SO much about how to leverage Storyline in new ways. I am still a relatively new user to the tool, so this project allowed me to freely explore and be guided by curiosity. Link to my portfolio: https://www.abigailvettese.com/RISE- Automatic Certificate Creation
I've been playing around with how to create a custom certificate in a Rise course and I've finally found a workaround using an embedded form that creates and delivers a PDF. Check it out: https://share.articulate.com/IcrVo3X-PV5k7x9CMMFkx I've been struggling with this for a long time and I know a handful of you have been too. Hope it helps! ps. I used the AI Assistant to create this mini course based off of the video I recorded outlining the steps, which I also included as content within the course to follow along.
