How To Make the Business Case for E-Learning Software
Being a part of the sales team here at Articulate, I’m on the front lines answering customer questions (and yes, indeed, we get them all). In a single day, we might hear, “What is e-learning exactly?” “What is the cost of a license?” and everything in between. The most frustrating comment we encounter, however, is “Now I just need to convince my boss to pay for it.” You know how great our software is, but what’s the best strategy to convince the “higher-ups” to go for it? Here are some helpful hints. Share a Demo The first rule of sales is “show . . . don’t tell.” We are happy to offer a free, fully functional 30-day trial of Articulate 360 so you can experience how easy it is to use, and so your boss can see how much this robust software platform can do. To someone not fully versed in e-learning, words like triggers, variables, blocks, microlearning, and highly immersive courses don’t mean a lot. Those people need to see the difference. Identify the Cost Benefit Another piece of advice is to make it make sense—and cents! How much time would Articulate 360 save you compared to all of the tools and resources you currently use? And if you decide to include our AI Assistant in your subscription, your time saved will go up even more! This can be a powerful message, especially if your workload is at capacity. You should also find ways to show how much money e-learning saves your organization. Many people find they can quickly and easily justify the expense when they consider how much this small outlay will save them in the long run. Demonstrate the Ease of Use Articulate differentiates itself by providing outstanding customer support, free training webinars, tutorials, and a helpful, friendly user community. This is key for your manager to know, because you can get up and running quickly with minimal downtime—without lengthy expensive training—and if there’s a problem or something you can’t figure out, our fabulous support team and community are here to help. Fulfill Future Needs Software that meets a current need is good, but software that also has future benefits for your organization is even better. So, think about your organization’s current needs, and how they will evolve. Then, have a good explanation ready for how Articulate 360 will help your organization fill an anticipated need. For example, perhaps mobile access isn’t a huge deal to your company now but might become so in the future. With Articulate 360, you’ll have a ton of robust features to call on as your needs change, and we’re constantly adding and improving those features with monthly software updates that are included in your subscription. Wrap-Up Convincing upper management isn’t always easy, but if you prepare for the meeting and present your case logically, you might find it is easier than you think! Here are some additional resources to help get you started: Get Up to Speed on Articulate 360: What’s Included? Making the Business Case for E-Learning Build Compelling Courses Up to 9x Faster with Articulate’s AI Assistant AI Assistant Released: Pricing Details and Resources Available Don’t forget that you can 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.Upcoming Articulate 360 Training Webinars in 2025
Stay ahead of the curve with our free Articulate 360 Training webinars. These weekly sessions are designed to help busy course creators like you enhance your e-learning skills without investing too much time. As an Articulate 360 subscriber, you can grow your expertise through targeted training on the latest techniques and best practices – all at no additional cost. And if you want to view some on-demand training to view at your own time, visit the Articulate 360 training site to see what's available. Check out our upcoming webinars and level up your e-learning game. If you can't attend, that's OK. We record all of the sessions, so just sign up and you'll get a recording emailed to you. Date Title January 21, 2025 How to Build a Progress Bar in Storyline 360 January 21, 2025 Overview of AI Assistant in Rise January 21, 2025 Beginner’s Guide to NVDA and Storyline for Accessibility Testing January 21, 2025 Typography Basics for E-Learning January 28, 2025 How to Build Onboarding Training in Rise 360 January 28, 2025 Production Tips for Working in Rise 360 January 28, 2025 Creating Images, Narration, and Sound with AI Assistant January 28, 2025 How to Build Tabs Interactions in Storyline 360 January 30, 2025 Quick Tips & Tricks Episode #110 February 4, 2025 Storyline 360: Creating Social Personality Quizzes February 4, 2025 Overview of AI Assistant in Rise February 4, 2025 Using Dials to Create Menu Navigation in Storyline 360 February 4, 2025 Graphic Design Essentials for E-Learning February 11, 2025 How to Build Timeline Interactions in Storyline 360 February 11, 2025 Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline February 11, 2025 How to Build Compliance Training in Rise 360 February 11, 2025 How to Create a Style Guide for E-Learning Not yet an Articulate 360 subscriber? Sign up for a 30-day free trial and check out as many as you’d like. And if the live webinar time doesn’t work for you, no worries! Simply sign up anyway and you’ll receive the recording in your inbox so you can watch it whenever you have time. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming webinars!Reach 360: A Quick and Easy Way to Deliver Training
Do you need a way to train contractors, partners, franchises, or other learners who can’t access your LMS? Or maybe your LMS doesn’t work well on mobile devices, and the people you need to train don’t have access to computers. Whatever the reason for needing another way to reach learners, Reach 360 can help. What is Reach 360, you ask? It’s our fast, flexible, frictionless LMS that allows you to: Publish and share your Storyline 360, Rise 360, or third-party training with learners in minutes. Track and analyze learner activity with easy-to-read, exportable reports. Manage variable training needs with flexible pricing based on the number of active learners. Watch this video to learn more: Want to dig even deeper? Check out these articles: How to Share & Track E-Learning with Reach 360 4 Times to Share Your Course with Reach 360 4 Reasons Your Learners Will Love Taking Training Hosted on Reach 360 7 Ways to Enroll Learners in Online Training with Reach 360 If you’re already an Articulate 360 subscriber and want to try Reach 360 for yourself, ask your account admin to activate it for you. And if you’re new to both Articulate 360 and Reach 360 and are looking for an easy way to create and deliver training, start a free trial.Get More Insight Into How Articulate 360 Apps Meet Accessibility Standards
When you want to ensure your e-learning works well for every learner, accessibility standards give you benchmarks to aim for. That said, it’s not always easy to know how these general guidelines map to actual app features and settings. That’s where the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) comes in. Companies use this document to share how their apps meet specific accessibility standards. And the practical insights in VPATs can help you explore the capabilities of the apps you use now and those you’re considering using in the future. VPATs have been available for Storyline 360, Rise 360, and Reach 360 for some time. Our recent updates, though, have made these documents even more useful for you! Here’s a peek at what’s new: EU guidelines: We originally developed our VPATs with US accessibility standards in mind. But to meet the needs of more customers outside the US, we’ve expanded these reports so they also align with EN 301 549 guidelines—the European standard for digital accessibility. WCAG AAA criteria: This is the highest level of accessibility conformance in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In a previous update, we added the AAA criteria to the Storyline 360 VPAT. And we’re now delighted to include this information in the Rise 360 and Reach 360 VPATs too. WCAG 2.2 criteria: A recent update to the WCAG standards added exciting new success criteria. As a result, we've updated our Rise 360, Storyline 360, and Reach 360 VPATs with this information as well. That way, it's easier for you to understand how to use our apps to address these accessibility expanded recommendations. VPAT accessibility: We’ve also enhanced the accessibility of the VPATs themselves by shifting to more readable font sizes and colors. Whether you’re aiming to meet US or EU accessibility guidelines or are just looking for more insights into how our apps can help you craft truly accessible e-learning, these updates have a wealth of information to offer. Want to create accessible e-learning 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.New in Articulate 360: Share and Track Courses With the Reach 360 Starter Plan
You’ve likely heard a lot about Reach 360—our fast, flexible, frictionless LMS—since we launched it in 2023. But did you know there’s a way to use it at no additional cost? Our new Reach 360 Starter plan is now included in every Articulate 360 Teams subscription. And that means your subscription doesn’t just give you great apps for creating engaging e-learning experiences. It also ensures you have a simple and cost-effective way to share them with learners. If you don’t know much about Reach 360 or haven’t tried it since it launched, this is the perfect time to explore its newest features. Reach 360 takes the hassle out of the typical LMS experience thanks to simple processes for publishing and sharing courses, a friendly interface learners can access on any device, intuitive reporting, and budget-friendly active learner pricing. And since the Reach 360 Starter plan allows you to share courses with up to 300 learners a year, it’s perfect for running a test pilot or even fully supporting training for small groups of learners. Ready to get started? If you have an active Reach 360 subscription, we’ve already added these free monthly active learners to your purchased total. Have an Articulate 360 subscription but aren’t currently using Reach 360? Click here to activate it today! Ready to add more learners to your account? Contact one of our specialists to upgrade to a Reach 360 Pro plan that best meets your learning needs: sales@articulate.com. Want to try out Reach 360 but don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription? Click here to start a free 30-day trial of all the fantastic apps included in this platform. If you have any additional questions about Reach 360, be sure to check out our helpful FAQs. And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox.How To Share & Track E-Learning With Reach 360
If you’re looking for a faster and easier way to share your e-learning courses with learners, look no further! With Reach 360—our frictionless LMS—you can share your online training courses with a wider audience in minutes, no matter which apps you’ve created them with. Let’s look at how easy it is to deliver content to learners and analyze the impact of your training using Reach 360. 1. Activate Reach 360 If you have an Articulate 360 subscription but haven’t tried Reach 360, start by asking your account admin to activate it for you. If you already have access, you can skip this step. 2. Submit Courses for Admin Approval As a course author, once you’ve finished building your course and want to share it with learners, you’ll submit it to Reach 360. To submit a course created in an Articulate app—Storyline 360 or Rise 360—open the project, select Publish, and choose Reach 360. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Choose the completion parameters and other settings—such as enabling a course completion certificate for learners to download. Storyline 360 Rise 360 Once you’re done making your selections, click Submit to complete the submission process. If you have admin access, you can review and publish it in Reach 360. If you don’t, your Articulate 360 Teams admin will take care of that. Either way, the native integration makes publishing courses easy and stress-free. If you have a course that wasn’t created in Articulate 360 apps—such as purchased content or legacy courses built with other platforms—no problem! Your admin can easily import third-party training into Reach 360 by following these easy steps. 3. Enroll Learners After the admin publishes the course, they can enroll learners individually, using groups, importing a CSV file, or by creating a sign-up link for individuals or for groups so learners can enroll themselves. Once a learner is enrolled, they’ll receive an email notification. If they’re logged into Reach 360, they can access the course via the link in their email or from the Learn dashboard wherever and whenever they need it. Email Learn Dashboard 4. Track Learner Activity Once learners start taking the course, admins can review and analyze their activity to see the impact of the training. They can view reports at the learner, group, and content level. And for even deeper analytics or to share the information with others, admins can easily export Reach 360 data. Wrap-Up Reach 360 makes it faster and easier to deliver e-learning courses to more learners and effortlessly track and analyze the impact of your training. Want to learn more about Reach 360? Check out these articles: Announcing Reach 360: A Quick & Easy Way to Deliver Training 4 Times to Share Your Course with Reach 360 4 Reasons Your Learners Will Love Taking Training Hosted on Reach 360 7 Ways to Enroll Learners in Online Training with Reach 360 Looking for an easy way to create and deliver training, but Reach 360 isn’t activated on your Articulate 360 subscription? Reach out to your admin and ask them to turn it on. And if you don’t have Articulate 360 or Reach 360, start a free 30-day trial. And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox.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.
