I Built a Course on Responsive Custom Blocks. Here's Where It Broke. đ
Long post ahead, read at your own risk đ (in my defense, there's an AI Avatar and a seating chart of coworkers with fake excuses involved, so it's at least a fun kind of long.) Also, quick disclaimer up front: if I'm just missing something about how this feature actually works, feel free to disregard this entire post (I did have Claude fact check for me). 𤣠Genuinely open to being told I'm wrong here. When I saw this week's challenge, I got a little too excited. A new responsive feature in Labs? đ I've been building with Custom Blocks for a while now, so I figured, why not build an entire course just about the feature itself? Enter Fitz: my Pixar-style AI Avatar host. He opens the course with a warning, actually. He tells you straight up that he was expecting a glow up from this feature and got "something" instead and that he's going to show you the whole thing warts and all because that's more useful than pretending it went perfectly. Bold choice for an intro video, but stick with me, because he's not wrong. After that, Fitz introduces you to six coworkers (Marcus, Priya, Dave, Sam, Elena, and Jordan) who are all, without exception, late. Click their flip cards and you get their excuse. Some are believable. Some are not. Dave's is a lot. The plan was simple: use this cast of chronically late coworkers as a seating chart, dropped into a responsive custom block, so learners could watch the whole thing reflow beautifully across devices. Desktop View: I pictured all six of them spread out comfortably, each one with their own space and an armrest to spare, main character energy. Table View: Same group tightening up a little, like everyone just got called in for picture day. Mobile View: I wanted them squeezed into a single-file line, like they're all waiting for the one bathroom on the floor. Drama, humor, a satisfying "ooh, it resized itself" moment. That was the pitch, before Fitz talked me down to reality. Here's where it fell apart đ I built the fixed version first, and predictably, it didn't hold up. Here's the thing about a fixed custom block (this is my understanding): it doesn't actually change layout across devices, it just scales the same image down. So tablet portrait, tablet landscape, mobile portrait, mobile landscape, same six coworkers, same arrangement, every single time, just shrinking a little more with each device until it's borderline unreadable on mobile. Not a great learner experience, but exactly the kind of "before" screenshot I wanted for this. Then I rebuilt it as a responsive block, genuinely excited to see six people rearrange themselves gracefully across every screen size. They did not, not really. What I got instead was almost the same view, on every device, every orientation. Tablet portrait: 2 columns. Tablet landscape: 2 columns. Mobile portrait: 1 column. Mobile landscape: 2 columns. And that's when it hit me: the fixed version and the responsive version were both doing the same basic thing, showing me one layout at every size. One was scaling it down. The other was (technically) resizing containers. But side by side, they read almost identically. It responds, technically. It just doesn't behave the way I expected "responsive" to behave. Here's why: Direction only gives you two options, row or column, and it applies to the whole container. There's no wrap, no grid-template-columns, nothing that lets a container say "3 across on desktop, 2 on tablet, 1 on mobile" on its own. If you want that graduated effect, you're manually nesting containers per breakpoint and hand-managing each one. Which is exactly the kind of manual positioning I thought this feature was supposed to get me away from. That's the part that gave me pause. For anything grid-shaped, like my seating chart of six increasingly unreliable coworkers, I was still very much positioning. Just with new vocabulary. So how would I make it better? đĄ To be clear, none of this exists in the tool today. This is my wish list, the stuff I actually pitched to the Articulate team over in Product Ideas, not a preview of anything coming down the pipeline. Wrap support, or something like it, so a container can hold its shape and let items wrap into a new row or column at each breakpoint instead of needing a separate manually-built container per device. Even just a "columns: 1 to 4" style setting per breakpoint would get most of the way there. Right now getting a true grid means rebuilding the layout by hand for every screen size, which is a lot of manual work for a feature whose whole promise is not doing manual work. I'd also love a small library of interactive objects (something like a flip card, an accordion, a simple toggle) that live natively in a block, plus a lightweight trigger system so objects could show, hide, or react to each other without needing a Code Block for it. Storyline already has a version of this with its states and triggers, so there's a real model to borrow from, not a totally new invention. I sketched out a concept mockup of what this could look like across five screens (wrap-enabled containers, a resize preview per breakpoint, an object library panel, and a trigger builder), just to make the idea concrete for the pitch. It's a mockup, not a sneak peek. If you want the full breakdown and the mockup images, that's all in the Product Ideas post. Maybe I'm missing something. If there's a way to get true wrap or grid behavior out of the current tool, genuinely, please tell me, because I would love to be wrong here. But as it stands, I don't think the fixed and responsive versions of my seating chart are different enough to justify calling one of them "responsive." Yes, I'm Finally Done đ All that said, I had a lot of fun building this. Fitz turned out great, Dave's excuse still makes me laugh every time I open the file, and I'd take this feature over not having it. I just don't think it's finished yet. Even Fitz would tell you that, and he's the one who has to stand there being upbeat about it. Course link here, if you want to meet Dave and the gang for yourself: Rise 360 Custom Block200+ Features for Better E-Learning
The e-learning industry never stands stillâand neither do we. Our customers are constantly learning, experimenting, and raising the bar for effective training. Their commitment to helping people learn better inspires us to design smarter solutions that save time and simplify content creation. In 2025, we added more than 200 new and enhanced features to Articulate 360. Just as skilled instructional designers create learning experiences tailored to specific objectives and audiences, weâve built these features to help teams deliver engaging workplace training at the scale and speed they need to succeed. Explore the video and list below to see the improvements weâve made across each app. Together, weâll continue turning todayâs challenges into tomorrowâs learning opportunities. Storyline 360 Accessibility Checker: Improve the accessibility of your content. Get actionable feedback based on key WCAG guidelines to instantly identify barriers like missing closed captions and disabled course playback speed. Math Equations: Build math equations using LaTeX syntax and revise them by adding color and alt text, all within Storyline 360. Voice Library: Discover the right voice for your content with thousands of ultrarealistic, AI-generated voices that can be filtered by age, gender, and use case. Morph Transitions: Engage learners with fluid transitions that seamlessly animate objects, shapes, and other content between slides. Advanced JavaScript API: Wow learners with powerful interactivity. Precisely edit object properties and create advanced animations like parallax using a JavaScript API. AI-Generated Alt Text: Insert AI-generated alt text for slide objects to improve accessibility. AI-Generated Captions: Instantly generate high-quality captions for your audio and video content to boost accessibility. Adjust Corner Radius: Keep your course design consistent by defining precise values for rounded corners. Merge Shapes: Unleash your creativityâuse merge options to combine basic shapes into custom, powerful designs. AI Chat: Chat with AI Assistant to easily create content like audio, images, JavaScript entrance animations, and more. AI JavaScript Entrance Animations: Create engaging entrance animations without coding. Describe your idea and let AI Assistant build the JavaScript trigger for you. Modern Player Sizing: Enjoy more sizing options for the modern player. Lock the player size or let it adjust to learners' browsers. Set-Focus Trigger: Optimize accessibility with a set-focus trigger that lets you control when course elements receive focus. Multiple Glossaries: Articulate Localization users can tailor translations for different regions or business areas using multiple glossaries within a subscription to fine-tune terms and organizational language. AI Text-to-Speech Translation: Easily translate text-to-speech audio and AI-generated narrations with Articulate Localization to make your content more inclusive. CC Icon Labels on Stage: Text-to-speech narration, sound effects, and audio with closed captions now display a CC label in their audio icons on the slide stage for quick identification. Clearer Upgrade Project Text Messaging: The description in the Upgrade Project Text window is clearer, indicating that upgrading project text uses text autofit improvements. Updated Embedded Chromium Engine: We upgraded the embedded version of Chromium to 130.0.6723.117 in Storyline 360. CC Icon Labels on Timeline: Text-to-speech narration, sound effects, audio, and video content with closed captions now display a CC label in their audio icons on the timeline for quick identification. Quick Access to Closed Captions Editor: Open the closed captions editor right from the context menu to add or edit captions for media content. Automatic Captions for Text-to-Speech: Closed captions are generated by default when converting text to speech. Media Library Image Sorting: Quickly sort images in the media library by their pixel dimensions. Accessible Icon Defaults: New icons now display as individual icons to accessibility tools by default. You no longer need to hide each shape component of the icon separately. New Singaporean English Voice: We added a new Singaporean English neural voice, Jasmine, for text-to-speech conversion. Clearer Apply to All Labeling: We clarified the function of the Apply to all button for adding alt text in the media library and Size and Position window. Tabbed Media Library Panels: The media library now has separate tabs for alt text, captions, and internal notes. Reusable Zoom Regions: Keep your zoom regions consistent by copying and pasting them across slides. Text Entry Character Limits: Guide learners toward focused responses by defining character limits on text-enasztry fields. Drag-and-Drop Media Import: Easily drag assets from your computer and drop them directly into the media library. Esc Key Window Close Shortcut: Use the Esc key to close any window in Storyline 360. Renamed Player Background Option: We renamed the âplayer background colorâ option to âcustom background colorâ to clarify its purpose. Mac Delete Key Support: Use the Delete key on a Mac keyboard to remove an object. Consistent Closed Captions Editor Controls: The options in the Closed Captions Editor window are now consistent with other feature windows. Expanded Icon Library: The icon library for buttons and markers now includes the X social media logo. New Korean Voice: We added a new Korean neural voice, Jihye, for text-to-speech conversion. New Emphasis Animations: Enchant learners with seven more playful emphasis animation options, including tilt, bounce, rotate, float, and more. Accessible Course Starter Template: Create inclusive content from the start with a template that meets accessibility standards. AI Caption Error Messaging: AI Assistant displays specific error messages when caption generation fails, making troubleshooting easier. Custom Player Background Color: Customize the page background color behind your content if you scale the modern player to fill the browser and turn off the menus and controls. Custom Sidebar Landmark Label: We improved the screen reader experience by adding a customizable player text label for the sidebar menu landmark. Adaptive Corner Radius Controls: Corner radius controls automatically hide on smaller objects to prevent accidental selection when trying to move shapes. Expanded Localization Language Support: Localization added support for 9 new languagesâKhmer, Lao, Luxembourgish, Maori, Nepali, Nyanja, Samoan, Tetum, and Tigrinya. These languages are now available to everyone as text label options. Scene Thumbnails in Accessibility Checker: The accessibility checker now displays scene thumbnails, making it quicker to identify and fix scene-title issues. AI Caption Generation Status Alerts: AI Assistant displays a status notification when the caption generation process completes. Localized Audio Asset Insertion: Articulate Localization users can easily insert localized audio assetsâno triggers needed. Accessibility Checker Performance Boost: We boosted the accessibility checker's performance to keep even the largest projects running smoothly and added sort order options for easier navigation. Windows Narrator and Magnifier Support: Windows Narrator and Magnifier are now officially supported in published courses, giving learners more ways to engage with content. Richer Screen Reader Context: Screen readers provide richer context for multiple choice and drop-down questions, math equations, and the player seekbar, ensuring learners can navigate and track progress more intuitively. High-Zoom Player Accessibility: Player controls, resources, and glossary terms remain fully accessible when resizing the browser or zooming up to 400%, giving all learners a smoother experience. Improved Image Generation Model: Get the image results you want with our latest image generation model that offers better prompt adherence and accurate text rendering. (This enhancement was enabled on October 23, 2025.) Automatic Captioning on Media Import: Streamline your captioning process with AI Assistant. Generate captions automatically when you import media with flexible settings to fit your workflow. Caption Text Shadow Control: Improve caption readability on any background by turning text shadow on or off. v3 AI Voice Model: Experience v3âthe latest voice model for AI text-to-speech, delivering rich emotional expression and contextual awareness in over 70 languages. Legacy Voice Labels: Legacy voices are now clearly labeled to indicate that they won't be updated when AI models improve. Post-Recording Caption Generation: Maximize efficiency while ensuring accessibility by generating captions after recording audio in Storyline 360. Automatic Captioning on Project Import: Save time and boost accessibility by automatically generating AI captions for uncaptioned audio and video files when you import a Storyline 360 project. One-Step Caption Generation: Quickly improve accessibility by generating captions for course audio and video content in one step. WebM Video Support and Transcoding: Improve browser security for your videos. Storyline 360 now lets you add WebM videos and transcodes imported MP4s into both MP4 and WebM formats. Cover Photo Alt Text: You can now add alt text to your cover photos to improve accessibility. Optional MP4 Transcoding: Thanks to your feedback, Storyline 360 no longer transcodes MP4s into both MP4 and WebM formats. You can still add WebM videos. Bulk AI Alt Text Generation: Automatically generate alt text for your assets all at once, then edit or finalize each description right from the accessibility checker. AI Chat Text-to-Speech Generation: You can now chat with AI Assistant to generate text-to-speech narration from your slide notes in addition to your slide content or script. Rise 360 AI Course Drafts: Partner with AI Assistant to brainstorm, draft a full course, and iterateâquickly turning your ideas and source material into compelling content. Manage Blocks: Copy, move, and delete multiple blocks at once with manage blocks. Custom Block: Custom blocks give you new ways to engage learners by modifying pre-populated templates or creating your own custom block layout. Code Block: Ramp up interactivity by coding your own interactive blocks using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. New Real Content Templates: Get a jump start on your internal AI training with these AI Policy and AI Best Practices content templates. Math Equations: Build math equations using LaTeX syntax and revise them by adding color and alt text. Quick Share: Use Quick Share to easily deliver everyday training to anyone via a shareable link that tracks learner views and guestbook entries. AI Text-to-Speech Translations: Easily translate AI-generated narrations with AI Assistant and Articulate Localization to make your content more inclusive. AI-Generated Captions: Boost your video's accessibility with AI-generated captions you can easily fine-tune using an intuitive built-in editor. Enhanced Matching Knowledge Checks: Matching knowledge check blocks have been upgraded with intuitive navigation, full keyboard support, and comprehensive screen reader integration. AI-Generated Text-to-Speech: Generate text-to-speech audio and transcripts with AI Assistant. Audio Transcription Interface: Add audio transcription for recordings and uploads with the updated audio interface. Audio Expansion: Insert audio in text, statement, image, list, carousel, flashcard, tabs, and accordion blocks. New Technical Training Course Template: Our latest course template gives you to the tools to provide next-level technical instruction with software demonstrations and engaging animation. Windows Assistive Technology Support: Windows Narrator and Magnifier are now officially supported in published courses, giving learners more ways to engage with content. Articulate 360 Tutorials Real Content Templates: Explore what can be done with and improve your authoring skills in Rise 360 with the Articulate 360 Tutorials real content template category. Multiple Glossaries: Articulate Localization users can tailor translations for different regions or business areas using multiple glossaries within a subscription to fine-tune terms and organizational language. Custom Block Focus Order Panel: Use the custom block focus order panel to set keyboard and screen reader order independently of object order. Expanded Localization Language Support: 9 new languages have been added to Articulate Localization. Custom Blocks Real Content Template: Explore how custom blocks can enhance your training with our latest custom built template. Content Tile Status Badges: Content tile badges let you see at a glance if content on your dashboard has been published to Reach 360 and if it's live or offline. Technical Training Tutorial: Get inspired by our latest technical tutorial that offers creative ways to combine blocks when creating technical training. Lines and Arrows in Custom Blocks: Create lines and arrows in custom blocks. LMS Export Usage Analytics: Training published to LMS export now sends Articulate non-identifiable usage data to help us improve our products. (Please note, this feature is rolling out incrementally to the entire community over the next 3 business days. If you don't see the LMS Export option, it hasn't been enabled for your account yet and data is not yet being collected for your exported training). Unlimited Matching Entry Characters: Eliminated character limits for matching knowledge check block entries. Updated Lato Font: The Lato font has been upgraded to V2 to support additional languages. This affects content published after this date only. Flexible Process Blocks: Enjoy more flexibility with process blocks. Turn off the step label to present non-sequential interactions. Improved Authoring Font Rendering: We've updated the font in our authoring experience to work better across platforms. The change only affects how things look while you're editingânot what learners see. Preserve Image File Quality: When uploading image files, select Preserve file quality to bypass optimization for the web. Button Block Customization: Customize button blocks with alignment, corner radius, and width options. Expanded Font Size Range: Font size now ranges from 1 to 800 pixels. Manually enter or access additional sizes from the font size menu in the text formatting toolbar. Scenario Block Visual Controls: Customize scenario blocks by turning off the background blur and hiding the characters. Global Audio Controls for Learners: Learners can adjust the volume and mute audio wherever it appears in training. Dynamic Browser Tab Titles: While authoring, your browser tab updates to show the current lesson title for better context and accessibility. Redesigned Matching Knowledge Check Blocks: Matching knowledge check blocks have been reworked to better reflect their original design while retaining full keyboard support and comprehensive screen reader integration. Restart Numbering for Divider Blocks: You can select a number at which to restart sequential numbering for numbered divider blocks. Accessible Audio Player Transcripts: Audio player transcripts are now keyboard and screen-reader accessible. Layout Color Swatch Selection: Unify your custom block design by selecting a color swatch from your current layout. Improved Multi-Object Guides: Improved the behavior of guides when multiple related objects are selected and moved in a custom block layout. Preview-to-Edit Context Preservation: When previewing a course from the course outline, clicking Edit opens the editor in the lesson you're previewing. Accessible Chart Blocks: Chart blocks are now keyboard and desktop screen reader accessible. List Block Color Overrides: Use the color picker in the list block formatting menu to override theme settings. Auto-Collapsing Navigation Sections: Automatically collapse sections in sidebar and compact navigation. Continue Block Styling Controls: Adjust the corner radius, color, and width for continue blocks. Code Snippet Copy Button: Use the copy button to easily copy the content of code snippet blocks. Superscript and Subscript Formatting: Add superscript and subscript formatting to text in custom blocks. Audio Transcripts in Custom Blocks: Add audio transcripts to audio objects in custom blocks. Private Block Templates: Block templates are no longer shared with your team by default. Hide LMS Interface Toggle: Select the Hide LMS Interface toggle when you export training for LMS to eliminate duplicate toolbar controls. Custom Block Alt Text Controls: In custom block, add alt text to objects, object groups, and the canvas. New AI Course Drafts Content Template: Learn how to create a first draft using AI Assistant with our latest real content template. Code Block Completion Parameters: Add completion parameters to your code block so that it works with continue blocks. Bullet and Number Styling Controls: Use the Bullet Style options in the text formatting toolbar to modify the size and color of bullets and numbers in lists. Unlimited Scenario Field Characters: Scenario block fields no longer have character limits. Web Export Without Cover Page: Remove the cover page when exporting training for the web. Default Language for Quick Share: Set the default language when sharing via Quick Share (requires Articulate Localization). Enhanced xAPI Export Reporting: When exporting training using the xAPI standard, you can set a reporting option. We've also made changes to xAPI exports to normalize file structure across all LMS export types. Multiple LMS Launch Instances: Launch additional instances of content exported for LMS outside of your training environment, as needed. AI Assistant Voice Library: Discover the right voice for your Storyline 360 content with thousands of ultrarealistic, AI-generated voices that can be filtered by age, gender, and use case. AI-Generated Alt Text: Insert AI-generated alt text for slide objects in Storyline 360 to improve accessibility. AI-Generated Captions in Storyline: Instantly generate high-quality captions for your audio and video content in Storyline 360 to boost accessibility. AI-Generated Text-to-Speech: Bring narration to life with AI-generated voices that are highly realistic and customizable. Add your script, define voice settings, and let AI Assistant in Rise 360 do the rest. AI Chat in Storyline: Chat with AI Assistant in Storyline 360 to easily create content like audio, images, JavaScript entrance animations, and more. AI JavaScript Entrance Animations: Create engaging entrance animations without coding. Describe your idea and let AI Assistant in Storyline 360 build the JavaScript trigger for you. AI-Generated Captions in Rise: Boost your video's accessibility with AI-generated captions you can easily fine-tune using an intuitive built-in editor. AI Course Drafts: Partner with AI Assistant in Rise 360 to brainstorm, draft a full course, and iterateâquickly turning your ideas and source material into compelling content. Context-Aware AI Writing: AI Assistant in Rise 360 is now aware of lesson material surrounding the current block and source documents, allowing you to generate relevant and cohesive content when writing and editing inline. CC Icon Labels on Stage: Text-to-speech narration, sound effects, and audio with closed captions in Storyline 360 now display a CC label in their audio icons on the slide stage for quick identification. AI Question Type Selection: AI Assistant in Rise 360 now lets you choose the question type upfront when generating knowledge checks and quiz questions. Weâve also improved the question preview for better readability. AI Statement Block Conversion: All text blocks can now be converted into a statement block with AI Assistant in Rise 360. Faster AI Voice Processing: We upgraded one of our AI text-to-speech voice models from Turbo v2.5 to Flash v2.5 in Storyline 360âboosting processing speed by 73%. CC Status Labels for AI Audio: Instantly determine if your AI-generated audio in Storyline 360 has closed captions with a CC label that appears next to each output in the Generate AI Audio window. CC Icon Labels on Timeline: In Storyline 360, AI text-to-speech narration and sound effects with closed captions now display a CC label in their audio icons on the timeline for quick identification. Expanded AI Source Documents: Repurpose your audio, video, and Storyline files as source documents for AI Assistant in Rise 360. Larger Source Document Uploads: Weâve increased the file size limit for source documents in Rise 360 from 100 MB to 1 GB. AI-Generated Knowledge Check Blocks: Instantly convert blocks into interactive, AI-generated knowledge checks that boost learner retention. PowerPoint Notes Extraction: AI Assistant in Rise 360 can now extract text from the notes section of a PowerPoint source document. AI-Generated Timeline Blocks: Turn sequential information into an interactive, AI-generated timeline block in Rise 360 that encourages learners to explore. AI-Generated Table Blocks: Transform raw data in source documents into a structured, AI-generated table block with just a few clicks. AI-Generated Quiz Interactions: Boost interactivity and reinforce learning with AI-generated fill-in-the-blank and matching questions for quizzes and knowledge checks in Rise 360. Source Upload Status Notifications: AI Assistant in Rise 360 now informs you when uploading source content takes longer than expected. AI Caption Generation Status Alerts: AI Assistant in Storyline 360 displays a status notification when the caption generation process completes. AI Content Feedback Controls: Help improve AI Assistant for everyone by providing quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down feedback on generated content in Rise 360. Public URL Source Support: Broaden the scope of your AI-generated output in Rise 360 using text-based content from publicly accessible URLs as source material. AI Caption Error Messaging: AI Assistant in Storyline 360 displays specific error messages when caption generation fails, making troubleshooting easier. Expanded Voice Favorites Limit: Add as many favorites as youâd like from the voice libraryâweâve increased the limit from 10 to 10,000. EU Data Residency Compliance: AI Assistant now works better for EU data center users. AI requests made in the EU stay within the EU from start to finish to comply with regional data residency and processing requirements. v3 AI Voice Model for Rise 360: Experience v3âthe latest voice model for AI text-to-speech in Rise 360, delivering rich emotional expression and contextual awareness in over 70 languages. Improved Image Generation for Rise 360: Get the image results you want in Rise 360 with our latest image generation model that offers better prompt adherence and accurate text rendering. Automatic AI Cover Images: AI Assistant now automatically adds a relevant cover image to your generated course draft in Rise 360. Improved Image Generation for Storyline 360: Get the image results you want in Storyline 360 with our latest image generation model that offers better prompt adherence and accurate text rendering. (This enhancement was enabled on October 23, 2025.) Automatic Captioning on Media Import: Streamline your captioning process in Storyline 360 with AI Assistant. Generate captions automatically when you import media with flexible settings to fit your workflow. v3 AI Voice Model for Storyline 360: Experience v3âthe latest voice model for AI text-to-speech in Storyline 360, delivering rich emotional expression and contextual awareness in over 70 languages. Legacy Voice Labels: Legacy voices are now clearly labeled to indicate that they wonât be updated when AI models improve. Post-Recording Caption Generation: Maximize efficiency while ensuring accessibility by generating captions after recording audio in Storyline 360. Automatic Captioning on Project Import: Save time and boost accessibility by automatically generating AI captions for uncaptioned audio and video files when you import a Storyline 360 project. One-Step Caption Generation: Quickly improve accessibility by generating captions for your Storyline course audio and video content in one step. Bulk AI Alt Text Generation: Automatically generate alt text for your assets all at once, then edit or finalize each description right from the accessibility checker in Storyline 360. AI Chat Text-to-Speech Generation: You can now chat with AI Assistant in Storyline 360 to generate text-to-speech narration from your slide notes in addition to your slide content or script. AI-Generated Animations: Easily add built-in entrance, emphasis, and exit animations by chatting with AI Assistant in Storyline 360. Review 360 Annotated Screenshots: Make your feedback more precise by adding screenshots annotated with text, drawings, and shapes to comments. Course Updates in Review: Articulate Localization now includes a workflow for focusing on updated content. Validators can easily view and validate only modified text segments Review Request Status Button: We moved the Request Review button to the top bar so it's easily visible. The button label is dynamic, so you can see the item's request status at a glance. Improved Authoring Font Rendering: We've updated the font in our authoring experience to work better across platforms. The change only affects how things look while you're editingânot what learners see. Recent Reviewers Dropdown: Save time and effort when requesting reviews with a dropdown list that shows your most recent reviewers. Reviewer-Controlled Version Refresh: Reviewers now have control over when to refresh to a new version of a Review 360 item while viewing it. When a new version is published, a message with a Refresh button appears in the lower-left corner, and comments and validation suggestions for the outdated version are disabled. Restart Review Request: Restart your request review with a few clicks. No need to manually re-add reviewers or delete and create a new request. Nested Folder Depth Limit: Weâve limited nested folder depth to six levels to maintain accessibility and system performance. Custom Screenshot Annotation Styling: Customize individual screenshot annotations with specific colors, opacity levels, and stroke widths. Reach 360 Manual Course Completion: Manage course completion your way by entering quiz scores and completion dates for enrolled learners from course and learner reports. Custom Email Domains: Reach 360 accounts that use a custom domain can now send notifications from a custom email domain. Additional Learner Interface Languages: Additional learner profile languages added: Danish, Dutch, English (UK), Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Rise Access from Reach Courses Tab: Reach admins who are also Articulate 360 seatholders can now switch to Rise from the courses tab via the Add Courses button. In-Place User Role Management: Modify a userâs role from learner to reporter, manager, or admin, and vice versa without leaving the users tab. Group Self-Registration Links: Existing users can now add themselves to groups using self-registration links. Enrollment Details in Reports: On course, learning path, and learner reports, see when a learner enrolled and if they enrolled themselves. Rise Dashboard Links: Quickly switch to Rise 360 with a handy dashboard link. Updated User Interface Font: We've updated our user interface font for a more consistent experience across platforms. The change only affects the user interface and doesn't impact learner content. Additional Learner Interface Languages: Learner profile languages now include Chinese (Simplified), Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Polish. Localization Articulate Localization: Articulate Localization launched! Train a global workforce within Articulate 360. Instantly translate Rise 360 and Storyline 360 courses into 70+ languages with fully integrated AI translation. Verify the accuracy of localized content with language validation in Review 360. Validators can preview their changes in context, and authors can import them directly back into the source project. Manage all your translations as one item, and publish them all at once to Reach 360 or your LMS. Multiple Glossaries: Tailor translations for different regions or business areas using multiple glossaries within your subscription to fine-tune terms and organizational language. AI Text-to-Speech Translations: Combine AI Assistant and Articulate Localization to easily translate text-to-speech audio in Storyline 360 and AI-generated narrations in Rise 360, making your content more inclusive. Course Updates in Review: Review 360 now includes a workflow for focusing on updated content. Validators can easily view and validate only modified text segments. Localization Usage CSV Logs: Keep track of Localization usage with a downloadable CSV log that shows admins every translation run by individual and group in account management. Audio Text Segment Identification: Quickly identify text segments for closed captions, audio transcripts, and text-to-speech scripts in Review 360, making audio validation more efficient. Publish your multi-language projects with the latest versions of Rise 360 and Storyline 360. Next-Generation DeepL Translation Engine: We've upgraded to DeepL's next-generation Large Language Model (LLM) to deliver better translation quality. Simplified Multilingual Publishing Options: We've simplified multilingual course publishing by moving package type options to the publishing window. Paragraph-Level Animation Support: We added support for animation by paragraph in multi-language projects. Rise 360 Localization Snapshots: Save and restore any version of your multi-language Rise 360 content with snapshots. Centralized Validation Toolbar: Quickly find all validation tools in a single, centralized toolbar in Review 360. Localized Audio Asset Insertion: Easily insert localized audio assetsâno triggers needed. Refined Layout Issue Detection: To improve efficiency, the layout issue finder no longer identifies translated text with more or fewer lines. Language Search Filtering: Find your target language faster when translating projectsâsimply type the first few letters to filter the options in the dropdown list. Latin American Spanish Support: Added new Latin American Spanish language option. Expanded Language Support: Added support for 9 new languagesâKhmer, Lao, Luxembourgish, Maori, Nepali, Nyanja, Samoan, Tetum, and Tigrinya. Improved Translation Accuracy for Headings: Improved accuracy when translating headings and formatted text in our top languages. Bulk Text Segment Updates: Reduce validation time by updating all identical text segments at once in Review 360. Default Language for Quick Share: Set the default language when sharing via Quick Share in Rise 360. Language Selection Reporting: Track which languages learners are selecting in Rise 360 courses using Localization data now included in xAPI and cmi5 statements. Caption Validation Sync: Validation suggestions for Storyline 360 closed captions are now reflected in the Review 360 course preview. Faster Review 360 Publishing: Publishing to Review 360 is now significantly faster. Articulate 360 Teams New Manage Teams Experience: Manage users, set permissions, and control access to Articulate products all in one place. Expanded User CSV Export: To provide a comprehensive view of both active and pending team members, weâve included invited users and added Last Login and Status columns to the CSV export. Creator Permission Transfer: Members with 360 admin and group manager permissions can now transfer creator permissions to themselves, giving more flexibility when transitioning team members.Think About It!! Quiz, with Quiz Builder
đĄMy 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! đĽď¸ The tech bit! The tool is a dynamic, client-side web application built using HTML, CSS, and Vanilla JavaScript. It allows you to build, configure, and export self-contained, interactive quiz blocks engineered specifically for code block iframe integration within Rise. đLMS/Rise Compatibility & Performance The exported codebase is mathematically pure Vanilla JavaScript (ES5 standard for runtime compatibility). I hope you enjoy it đ Think About It!! Quiz With Quiz BuilderBusiness Maths Essentials
Hello everyone... For this weekâs challenge, I decided to experiment with a simple combination of Articulate Rise, ChatGPT and PowerPoint. What started as a small idea quickly developed into a complete, scenario-based learning activity. I created Business Maths Essentials for new starters, using Sam, a newly appointed accountant at BrightStart, to guide learners through key financial terms, classification activities, profit-and-loss calculations and a final decision-making task. The learner supports Sam, a new accountant at BrightStart, as he works through four practical tasks: understanding key financial terms, classifying business figures, calculating profit or loss, and interpreting the wider financial position. The activities were created as responsive HTML, CSS and JavaScript components that can be placed inside Articulate Rise Code Blocks. The design uses clear instructions, immediate feedback, running totals, simple calculations and accessible keyboard controls. Consistent TS4 branding, restrained 44 px emojis and visual status cues help learners navigate the content without distracting from the learning objective. The modular structure also allows each activity to be used separately or combined into a complete learner journey. For the course banner, I adapted a template created by Tom and used PowerPointâs Morph transition to produce a simple animated GIF, which I placed in different locations. Attached is the Rise Banner Template I used - Source : E-learning Heroes View the course: Business Maths Essentials Enjoy Dr NadiaCommunity Insights: Preparing and Planning your visual design for Articulate Rise
The beauty of Articulate Rise is that when it comes to development, you donât always have to plan everything. You can jump into the blank canvas, easily add and delete blocks, play with interactions and figure out what works as you go. The ease in which you can chop and change things is often what draws people to rapid authoring tools. Being able to bring your ideas to life in the click of a button, without any complex programming or coding. Whilst this method of âfiguring things outâ as you go can often work well for building out ideas, when it comes to visual design, sometimes a little bit of planning can go a long way! The blank canvas that Rise brings can offer scope to be as creative as you wish with the visual identity of your course, but naturally this can also feel just a tad overwhelming. This sometimes then leads to two outcomes. We have those who love the freedom of a blank canvas but try to shoehorn in too many styles at once. Or those who just donât know where to start, so play it safe and end up with a boring, blocky, black and white build. The good news is with proper planning you can avoid both those eventualities and craft a beautiful, accessible build without needing to be a graphic designer! Consistency is key So, what is the point in planning your visual design before jumping into development? Well, itâs not about creating something overly complex, or spending hours crafting a character that youâll only use once in the course. No. Itâs about ensuring consistency. Consistency plays a big role in how our learners are going to perceive the eLearning. Good design will go unnoticed, but bad design sticks out like a sore thumb! Even something as simple as having different icon styles or suddenly switching from using photography to illustrations, can be jarring to a learner. This results in the focus being drawn away from the content and can actually have a negative impact on a learnerâs perception of the quality of the content too. Think about it, have you ever visited a website and been immediately put off because of the way it looks? Did you buy the product or access that service? Probably not. Quality of design and consistency of design can have a significant impact on perceived quality and cognitive load. We want our design choices to enhance and support the user experience, not detract from it. Making design decisions before jumping into your authoring tool can help support consistency and leave you with a Rise build that feels polished and professional! So how do you start planning and what do you need to include or consider? Letâs take a look! Create a blank moodboard space. This can be in whichever tool you prefer using. I like PowerPoint or Miro as I can quickly copy and paste things into the slide space. The key thing is that you can access this moodboard easily and have enough page or slide space to jot down your ideas. This will become a bit of working document that you can add to during the initial scoping of your project. Add in any existing brand assets. If youâre working within an organization or with a client, it is likely they will already have some brand guidelines for you to work with. This could include font choices, colour schemes and even suggestions for photography styles. Often these come in very large PDF documents, so take half an hour to read through and pull out any information that could be useful for you. Within your mood board add a title for âfontsâ and make a note of the chosen font for both your body text and headers. Sometimes I even add a little paragraph of dummy text so I can see how the font will look. At this stage you can also decide on font sizing too and make a note of this. Next, begin to pull together your colour scheme from the brand guidelines. I like to create a few rectangles within my moodboard and fill them with my chosen colours. Next to each swatch I add the HEX or RGB code so that I can easily copy this over when I get to development. Itâs also a good idea to label your colour swatches with their intended use, for example header text, body text and accent colours (colours used for icons, graphs etc.). Sometimes brand guidelines will contain multiple different colour palettes for different uses. This is where it may be worth a chat with your Stakeholders to ask them to decide on just four or five colours. Too many can become overly busy and distracting! Check for accessibility Now that you have fonts and a colour scheme decided, itâs important to check for accessibility. I like to have at least two accessible colour pairings within my colour palette. This means that the contrast between the two colours is great enough to pass accessibility standards. There are lots of helpful websites out there that can allow you to check the contrast of two colours and will let you know if it passes accessibility standards. On your moodboard create a separate section that says âaccessible colour pairingsâ and include swatches of the pairings that can be used. This is particularly important for text and background colour pairings. Itâs important to consider the accessibility of fonts too. It can be tempting to go for an elaborate or decorative curly font. As a header with font size 44pt, this may be absolutely fine. But as 16pt body text, could be completely unreadable. Standard fonts such as Poppins, Arial and Open Sans tend to work really well for body text and offer bold / black alternatives for headings too. Decide on an illustration, photo and icon style It may seem pedantic, but sudden changes in icon style can be really noticeable. So next up on your moodboard add the title âiconsâ and provide a couple of icon examples in a consistent style. Sites like Flaticon are fantastic for sourcing icons of a particular look and feel. Consider whether you want icons coloured or just an outline and how detailed you wish them to be. Play around with a few different styles until you find something that you like. I sometimes find it useful to visit my clientâs website and get inspiration from the icons used there. Once you have decided on a style and the colours in which your icons should be, add your examples to your moodboard. If you want to go one step further, why not create a folder in your documents called âiconsâ and quickly gather a bank of icons that you feel youâre likely to use in your course. When you start the development, you can just grab and go! Make sure you donât forget to jot down where you sourced your icons from too. This will make it much quicker to find others in the same style at a later date. When it comes to photography and illustrations, the likelihood is your client / Stakeholders may already have guidance on what is appropriate to use. Whether you go down the route of characters, or stock imagery, itâs important to keep this consistent throughout. Head over to a royalty free site and search for a range of images based on the content or subject matter of your eLearning. In the case of photography, search for consistencies in backgrounds, shot type (close up versus wide screen), colours and poses. As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid overly staged imagery where the person is staring directly into the camera. More subtle stagings where people appear to be interacting more naturally with each other can feel a bit more pleasant and less uncanny valley! Look for diversity in your images too, try to ensure a range of ethnicities, races and genders. Once again, add the title âimageryâ to your moodboard and provide a handful of examples you can refer back to later. When using characters or illustrations it can be slightly more tricky to ensure consistency in the style. However, royalty free sites such as Storyset allow you to search through a bank of illustrations all created in the same look and feel. You can even recolour them on the website without needing any graphic design software too! Gather inspiration for layouts and interactivity Did you know website designs can offer a great source of inspiration for Rise? Due to the continuous, one-page, nature of Rise it functions in a similar way to a website. Whilst you may not be able to replicate the functionality or interactivity of a website, you can translate some of the design choices! Head over to Google or Pinterest and type in âUI website design inspirationâ. Here you will be able to find flatlay images of websites. Consider how the text is segmented, how colour and shape is used, and how images are presented. It can help spark ideas for dividers, background styles and more! Gather your reference images and drop them into your moodboard with the title 'layout inspiration'. Check everything fits together Great, youâve finished gathering the pieces for your visual design puzzle. But now the most important step, looking at everything together and making sure it fits nicely. So, what do I mean by this? Essentially it means looking at everything as a whole and considering if it is conveying the message you want. For example, moodboard containing a colour palette with sunshine yellow and bright orange and photography of people smiling, may be a rogue choice for a fraud eLearning. This can also include looking for any contradictory elements to your moodboard too, for example a bubbly, rounded font but imagery that is serious and corporate. đ All elements need to feel cohesive and intentional. Consider if you can explain the decision making behind your choices, if youâre finding you canât really express why youâve chosen a particular font, or colour, or image style, itâs probably not the right fit! And youâre done! You have your completed moodboard now ready to present to your client, share with colleagues, or to use as your reference to begin developing your Rise build. Remember, this doesnât need to be a polished document, it should support you in maintaining consistency throughout your build and provide a point of inspiration to help you create Rise courses that break free from being boring and blocky. Once finished, why not share an example of a moodboard youâve created? Share the tool you used and where you sourced any assets. đĄ Keep Learning Explore more member spotlight articles to discover how other learning designers are building their skillsâand shaping the future of learning. Community Insights: Peer Guide Spotlight | E-Learning Heroes Community Insights: How Support Takes You Far | E-Learning HeroesCybersecurity Awareness - Spot the Phish
Hola....Here's an interactive cybersecurity awareness course designed to help learners recognise common cyber threats and adopt safer digital behaviours. The course uses a learner-friendly approach to introduce essential cybersecurity concepts, including phishing attacks, password security, social engineering, malware, and safe online practices. CLICK TO VIEW8 Business Use Cases for Microlearning
Are you excited to try out microlearning, but unsure when to use it? Below, we outline eight common workplace situations that benefit from a short-form course. Each situation includes a sample microlearning. At the end, learn how you can customize these templates for your own company and training needs. 1. Create Organizational Alignment To hit a business target, everyone needs to be moving in the same direction. Creating that alignment starts with clear, frequent communication of the shared mission, vision, and values. Microlearning can help. The following editable template shows how you can align employees through regular executive âmicroâ updates: Executive Update 2. Highlight HR Information, Notices, or Reminders Educating employees about annual events like open enrollment, tax season, and compliance training is a critical function of HR teams. The problem? Important announcements often get missed when theyâre embedded in long paragraphs or endless emails. Grab the following templates to see how microlearning makes HR communications more digestible and engaging: A Quick Guide To Open Enrollment Internal Company Newsletter 3. Strengthen Company Culture and DEI Initiatives Fostering an inclusive company culture is a continuous processânot a one-time effort. A series of microlearnings can support your larger culture-building and DEI efforts. Check out the following examples for ideas on how to get started: Are You an Ally? Try Taking on These 5 Roles How To Identify and Stop Using Ableist Language Gossip-Proof Your Workplace 4. Streamline Business Processes You can also use microlearning to document and streamline business processes or workflowsâsuch as employee onboarding or performance management. Notice how the following examples make it easy for employees to work through the steps of a process independently: New Hire Pre-Hire Checklist Performance Review and Feedback 5. Increase Security Awareness Most successful data breaches, phishing attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents are caused by human error. Adding refresher microlearnings throughout the year can fortify your defenses. See an example for safeguarding against phishing attacks below: Spot the Phish 6. Enhance Employee Wellness A successful business needs thriving employees. But employee wellness training often ends up buried under competing priorities. Microlearning makes it easy for employees to fit in short breaks for self-care throughout the workday. Check out these two wellness-related microlearning examples: 3 Desk Stretches to Instantly Improve Your Day 5 Tips for Better Naps 7. Provide Quick-Reference Guides Microlearning is the perfect resource for one-off training questions: Employees can quickly find the answers they needâwhen they need them. Below, weâve created templates for product and software training. But you could easily create quick-reference guides for sales, customer service, and other teams. Get To Know [Name of Product] Software Training 8. Reinforce and Assess Key Takeaways Finally, who says you have to choose between a more sizable course and microlearning? Repetition aids retention. Consider following up longer training sessions with a microlearning quiz, scenario, or summary. The examples listed below demonstrate how you might do this: Can You Recover From a Workplace Mistake? Training Refresher Wrap-Up Thereâs no shortage of creative ways you can use microlearning to achieve your business training objectives. The examples above are just a starter list. You might also check out submissions to one of our weekly community challenges, 40+ Microlearning Examples Created in Rise 360 #407. Interested in customizing one of these examples for your team? If youâre an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer, you can edit all of the examples linked throughout this post by choosing the course from our Rise 360 microlearning content templates. Hereâs a short video showing how to do that: Whatâs the latest microlearning course youâve created? Tell us about it in the commentsâand feel free to ask any questions you might have! Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
