Building eLearnings in Articulate Rise 360
I use Articulate Rise 360 for rapid, iterative authoring. I love that Rise empowers modern, dynamic eLearnings that work for any device. Rise also works well when using the Successive Approximation Model (SAM) because I can develop content rapidly; I can prototype, review and test almost right away. Rise solves (or reduces) the problem of asking SMEs and stakeholders to imagine what an end product will look like and how it will behave by providing functional releases earlier in the design and development phases.
On this page I’ve included excerpts from trainings with notes about how I used a particular tool or concept. To view a complete course that I wrote and designed, click here.
Even when adding outside elements, like documents, links, and tables, Rise 360 makes it easy to organize and manipulate content quickly. This course for front-line representatives included a linked job-aid.
To reduce cognitive load on a learner’s visual working memory, I try to use audio and visuals combined when possible and section content into bite-sized pieces, like with this Vyond video paired with a set of tabs the learner can click through to identify each step of our Upstanders in Action anti-discrimination course.
GIFs aren’t just for cats; I make them for eLearnings too! When I want a quick animation to auto-play, I use GIFs in image blocks. Using short GIFs means there’s no need to ask the learner to click a Play button, and I can show animated content right away. Here’s how this one looked embedded into a course.
It’s helpful to use interactive elements and multimedia, like this labeled graphic with hotspots for interaction I used to train our front-line associates on a website element.
This course about basic marketing and communications techniques helped our front-line representatives understand how—and why—our company used targeted messages in customer communications. Before examining our financial messaging, I started with the broad strokes of communications and more general concepts.
Tip: image blocks meaningfully alter the page design and are sometimes counterproductive to quick, easy-to-read text blocks. However, emojis play really nicely with Rise and can add color and imagery right in the paragraph.
Checkbox lists don't always have to trigger an action. I sometimes require learners to complete checkbox lists before moving on (using the Continue button plus Complete Block Directly Above), but in this case, checking the boxes was purely interactive and did not trigger an action.
These excerpts are from courses for new managers. One focused on specific management styles like embracing failure, finding (and using) the communication styles your direct reports prefer, and focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. I researched proven techniques for turning failure into learning opportunities, communication styles, and studies about focusing on strengths.
The other reinforced the company’s hiring processes; I peppered knowledge check questions throughout the course before the assessment to keep the learner engaged.
Excerpts from my course for sales and customer service employees, most of whom were unfamiliar with the prototyping tool InVision. We needed to quickly help them navigate around our InVision prototype while our website was in development.
Rise assessment options are fairly comprehensive, with multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and matching options. I map the questions to learning objectives and try to vary the question styles. What we teach should be linked to real performance, so I think about what the learner is going to be able to do with the skills and information in the course and write assessment questions based on action. In the courses above, I’ve mapped the assessments to an action the employee will take in their role, like using appropriate tools and answering common customer questions.
Scenarios allow learners to practice the what they’re learning right away. Below, I used an interaction to prompt service representatives with common customer questions. This eLearning was followed by a live workshop where representatives answered mock customer questions to reinforce their knowledge and confidence before being deployed into our call center.
