The Essential Stack for Instructional Design and Training: An A-Z Guide - "A" is for "Articulate 360"
We all know who Batman is —the big, broody, rich genius superhero in a bat costume. What makes him so effective? Is it his skills at speaking in the most gravelly voice imaginable? No, it's his utility belt. Batman has an arsenal of gadgets and gizmos that allow him to be ready for any situation. A good tech stack is like Batman's utility belt. In this situation, I'll be your Alfred (to stay with the metaphor) and determine what tools should go in your Instructional Design and Training utility belt.
We'll be going through the A-Z of tools. Every letter will have at least one excellent tool you should check out. I'll share what that tool can be used for, the cost, and some examples.
So, without further ado, let's start with "A," and "A" is for "Articulate 360."
What is Articulate 360?
According to some reports, Articulate 360 is the name-brand of e-learning authoring tools used by about 57% of instructional designers. And according to Articulate, it is used by 100% of Forbes's top 100 businesses. That popularity makes it an almost default tool in your instructional design toolkit simply because if you're looking for jobs freelance or in corporate L&D, chances are the company you're working with will need you to work with some Articulate courses at some point. It also means that if you're looking to learn the tools in Articulate 360, you can find hundreds of videos about it on YouTube and even included courses on places like LinkedIn Learning.
Articulate Storyline
So, how does Articulate 360 work? Well, it's a suite of tools. Its flagship app, Articulate Storyline, is a super powerful slide-based custom e-learning design application. This tool lets designers create courses with no coding experience necessary. They can make interactive learning activities like drag-and-drops, quizzes, click-to-reveal, and hotspots. The advanced features allow you to insert 360 images for VR training. With some JavaScript skills, you can personalize interactions and even embed AI for real-world call-and-response interactions. It's better to show than tell here, so here are some examples of some gorgeous courses.
Examples
This Comics-Style Communication Branching Scenario by Teresa Moreno
This Escape Room By FasterCourse Templates
Storyline is a fantastic tool for extremely custom, powerful e-learning. However, it fumbles a bit regarding the learning curve and could also do better at responsiveness (meaning it could improve how mobile-friendly its courses are).
Articulate Rise
But don't fret! Articulate solves that problem with Rise, its cloud-based Storyline alternative. It's less custom (though you can still get in there, change colors and fonts, and insert your multimedia.) It is essentially the Squarespace for e-Learning. You can use several templates to get started, including pre-made interactions like flashcards and accordion blocks. It allows you to create courses in record time. They won't be the flashiest things in the world, but they'll be mobile and tablet-friendly.
Examples
Rise Showcase by WM
Spot the Bot Microlearning by Sarah Hodge
Helping you share your courses with your business partners and clients is the Review 360 application. It's a valuable tool that lets folks "drive" the course and leave comments and feedback that get straight to you. That way, you know if edits or changes are being requested.
Storyline and Rise are the juggernauts of Articulate 360, but a few additional apps add to the overall suite:
Replay 360 lets you record your screen and webcam simultaneously for screencast videos.
Peek 360 is a quick screen recording tool for in-the-moment recordings.
Studio 360 is a legacy tool that lets you make courses quickly from PowerPoint slides.
They aren't the BEST at what they do compared to some other industry leaders in their category, but if you're looking to limit the number of apps in your toolkit or save a few hundred dollars a year, they get the job done.
Articulate 360 is not a cheap investment, so check out one of the trials before you buy it. If you're looking to get into the Instructional Design industry, you could also use this time to make a few demo courses for your portfolio.
Freelancers pay $1,099 annually, and companies pay $1,399 per user for their plan. The academic plan gets a 50% discount at $549 a year. And no, there isn't a monthly pricing plan. (Why? I have yet to learn.) If you're a freelancer, this will most likely pay off after selling one course, but it's still not a cheap upfront investment!
"A" is Also for "Adapt Learning"
Instead, you could check out the bonus "A" tool: Adapt Learning. Adapt Learning is a free-to-use, fully responsive, multi-device e-learning authoring tool using HTML5.
It's great if you're starting out and tinkering with e-learning development. It's a bit of a slog getting it installed, and it takes a little bit more time to get used to the interface, but at the end of the day, it's an excellent tool.
Example:
Can Studios Demo by Can Studios
Check out this video to help you install and use it.
Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this post: the first in a series of articles going over my tech stack (and the tech stack I think all instructional designers and trainers should have.)
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