Is iSpring the next StoryLine?

Microlearning is on the tip of a lot of people’s tongues at the moment and many groups are developing eLearning with a mobile focus. As we approach training with the lens of microlearning, should we use continue to use the same tools?

Our team challenged ourselves with this question recently. I have worked with authoring tools that come close to Articulate StoryLine but I’ve always felt like they don’t have all of the functionality needed to really build an eLearning course the way StoryLine does. It turns out that StoryLine has a few minor limitations when it comes to mobile-friendliness and our team decided to evaluate a tool with which I wasn’t very familiar.

What is iSpring

iSpring is a plug-in for PowerPoint that turns slideshows into interactive eLearning. I’ll be honest, I was a little put off by this description at first until I considered that is basically how many people use StoryLine. When approaching single objective courses primarily to be delivered over mobile with quick interactions, this was all we really need.

iSpring has a free version which our team evaluated and find easy to use and can create courses with a similar look and feel of a StoryLine course. Development is much easier, especially if you are comfortable in PowerPoint, and it exports well SCORM or HTML5. Upon purchasing the full license, we found even more functionality to build very professional looking and engaging courses.

JavaScript and Complex Interactions

There are situations where eLearning courses need to be more complicated than basic interaction and StoryLine or even HTML5 development may be necessary. As far as I can tell, iSpring isn’t a great solution for these situations. This is why I don’t think StoryLine will ever be replaced, but eLearning teams need to remain nimble and up to date on all tools available. You don’t need to replace a tool just because you are learning another. iSpring met the needs for a recent project of ours, and it is really easy to use. I will continue to use it and look for more tools to add to our box.

My biggest take away is to not limit the way you approach training. There are amazing new tools being developed every day. We become comfortable in one and feel it is the only approach or are afraid to change because of learning curves. This is a risk and stifles potential. Why risk the world passing you by?

Heather Barry

editor

Heather Barry is a passionate learning and development professional with a strong background in project management and e-learning design. Always driven by an appetite to find the best ways to absorb new information, her career began on a computer helpdesk where she discovered a passion for training.
After spending eight years as an informal trainer, she began her role as an e-learning designer at The Nature Conservancy in 2013. In this role, she developed training for over 5,000 participants in more than 30 countries and personally delivered several instructor-led training sessions throughout Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
Heather was a Project Manager at Endurance Learning where she led the instructional design and development of major projects, including dozens of projects for Michelin North America.

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