We use Articulate Storyline 360. We like it. It is great and works for all of elearning development requirements and the majority of our clients are using it. There are multiple development tools available so its not just as simple as saying we like it.
In 2010 we were looking for a development tool after using HTML5 for several years. At the moment we’ve read several posts suggesting to use HTML5 for elearning development. We did for years and it didn’t work for us or for our clients (it might for you!). We spent months developing content management systems, course builders, update systems and more. The entire process was slow, inefficient and difficult for the client. I’m sure for a very specific custom client it might be great but we are developing a course library and courses for clients, often with tight budgets and timelines. Storyline works for us and our clients, it allows for efficient and reliable development that we can share.
We initially looked at Articulate Studio but quickly moved over to Articulate Storyline developing in versions 1,2,3 and eventually working in 360. We are now working extensively in 360 and the majority of our clients are working in 360.
When we meet clients for the first time the majority of the them are already working in Articulate 360, specifically Storyline and this was another reason we moved to Storyline. We wanted to support the clients who were developing projects using Articulate Storyline.
After 10 years working in Articulate Storyline we have now become experts in the tool, developing complex solutions in multiple languages and we have won over 20 awards in the last 24 months. Our development team have really pushed all elements of the tool to get the most out of storyline, developing what the experts would call ‘next/click’ courses to complex innovative branching courses.
Storyline allows us to quickly develop course content and also to continue innovate. The programming functions provides a platform for the development and interactive teams to meet the requirements of our clients and our internal who come to us with ideas. Storyline comes with a number of in-build players, assets and themes but for the advanced developers you can work from scratch – ideal for the projects that we are working with.
During our software review, we wanted a software company that would support us if we came across a problem. Articulate not only has an excellent user community that provides ideas and support but a support team that are on hand to help. Recently the Articulate team collaborated with our development team when we needed to build a custom navigation menu, providing their insight to help us to complete the menu and this was free. This type of value is often overlooked when you are looking which software company to use.
We developed a procurement funnel looking at all of the requirements that we needed, including those of clients and Articulate Storyline was coming through top each top. Some of the factors we included were well-established company, large development community, an excellent user community, quick response times to queries, regular software updates and robust software.
Articulate has allowed our courses to develop and grow and we’ve pushed our content and interactive beyond the boundaries of what we thought Storyline might be actually be possible! Like any tool there are boundaries and we will receive requirements that might be difficult to accommodate, but within the development tool we can often come up with a workaround or an alternative.
Increasingly we’ve found that our clients are using Storyline and they have found it easier to update courses and upload it to their LMS, we’ve become experts and it is easy for us to help them with their elearning journey. It could be helping them with courses that they are developing or after we’ve handed over courses. Storyline allows you to get up and running with no software training and develop complex courses if you want to understand it in more detail.
Storyline has its critics like and software tool and we’ve been waiting for some software updates over the last ten years, but it’s a robust and stable piece of software. They are open with the development roadmap and you can actually speak to them at conferences and exhibitions – the real people that you chat with in the forum!
We now use storyline to develop our custom elearning and also to support our off the shelf elearning courses. These courses are developed in English and Latin American Spanish and we have no problems developing 15 courses a week. Our graphic and interactive team find the software easy to understand and have been able to design compelling and visually stunning graphics for our projects. Storyline has been designed in a manner that allows the designers to understand which buttons, states and shapes that they need to provide and this has been a massive help to our workflow.
Get in touch with us to discuss your Articulate Storyline project we’ll be happy to help.
