Making Rise Modules More Interactive Through Storyline Blocks
Articulate Rise 360 is a fantastic authoring tool for creating eLearning quickly. It’s cloud based, easy to collaborate within, and it has many templated options that make creating eLearning a breeze. But anyone who has created eLearning, especially within a more robust tool like Storyline360, knows that Rise has some limitations when it comes to flexibility, creativity, and customization.
Thankfully, using Storyline blocks within Rise allows for more interactivity, additional creative options, and solves some of the common Rise challenges that eLearning developers face. Here are some examples of ways that using Storyline blocks in Rise have saved the day here at Endurance Learning.
Drag and Drop Built in Storyline
When creating eLearning, it can be nice to use matching or drag and drop interactions to allow learners to categorize content. Unfortunately, the one and only matching template within Rise is pretty limited. The visuals are not editable and the character count is limited to 80 characters.
Storyline block to the rescue!
In this case, we needed each card in the sort interaction to have more text than the character count in Rise allowed for so we created the interaction in Storyline instead.
Reflection Activity for Rise
Rise does not have a template that enables a learner to freely reflect without being scored “correct” or “incorrect.” Sometimes, it’s nice to have an option for learners to work through their thinking and process their logic in an eLearning experience without the pressure that comes with being “right” or “wrong”. You could use a reflection when the training is focused on comparing your answer to a template, logging notes that the learner may need to return to later, or completing a worksheet in real time.
Storyline block to the rescue!
In this example, learners entered their thoughts in the text boxes on screen and then had an option to email their answers to themselves allowing for post-training reflection and future use opportunities.
Multi-Player Dialogue Scenarios
Rise has a built-in scenario block that is great for showing a character working through a branched scenario. However, the built-in scenario block only allows you to have one character on screen, so if you need to show an interaction between two or more characters, the scenario block doesn’t work.
Storyline block to the rescue!
In this example, learners reviewed a conversation and worked to identify the inconsistent behaviors in speech. The custom storyline block allowed learners to see both sides of the conversation, to select one or more components of the conversation, and to receive feedback on their choices.
Adding More Creativity to Rise
Sometimes, the blocks offered in Rise can feel somewhat repetitive for a learner, or fall short of the design scope for what you need to design. When there is too much text for someone to scroll through in Rise, the learner may begin to feel like they’re mindlessly scrolling through a website and it becomes easy for their minds to wander.
Storyline block to the rescue!
In this example which focuses on role clarity for people on a project, instead of simply having the learner scroll through a long block of text or even having them use a traditional sorting activity within Rise, learners are shown various documents and have to choose if they have the authority to approve or not. The learner selects the “No Authority” or “Authority” stamper to stamp the document and then gets feedback.
Supporting More Text Than Rise Allows
Rise is great for text-heavy content, but many of the blocks have character count limits, so if you have long text that can’t be edited down, you may become quickly frustrated with Rise’s limitations.
Storyline block to the rescue!
In this example, the text was broken down into tabs represented by choices in a scenario. The learner chooses one of the choices and then gets feedback on their choice.
Storyline’s Kryptonite
As with any eLearning tool, there are some disadvantages to consider when adding Storyline Blocks within Rise. Storyline blocks are more time consuming to create than the built-in Rise functionality, and become harder and more time consuming to edit when changes are needed.
From a pure instructional design standpoint, it can also be a little tricky to navigate storyboarding as it can be challenging to distinguish interactions that need to be created in Rise versus those that need to be created in Storyline.
Additionally, Storyline blocks within Rise require tailored buttons and other custom features to ensure that text sizing, layout, and design match the Rise course formatting.
All that said, our team has found that the advantages and the improved learning experience that come with a well-timed Storyline Block integrated into Rise far outweigh the disadvantages. Would you like to see any of these interactions in more detail? Leave us a comment and let us know which one you would like to know more about so we can share.
