Articulate Storyline 360 has everything you need for the entire course authoring process to build highly interactive eLearning courses. Check this blog to learn more!

F.A.S.T Rescue builds highly engaging and interactive online and mobile courses with Storyline 360. These innovative courses can be delivered through any LMS (Learning Management System) or website. Storyline 360 is simple enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for experts.

Why Articulate Storyline 360?

Articulate Storyline 360:

• Quickly creates effective and engaging courses which include voice overs, video, animation, scenarios simulations and dynamic user interactions
• Provides an easy to use, familiar PowerPoint-style interface to manage the authoring tool
• Provides a user friendly visual development environment
• Offers guidance on designing, building, and publishing your own rapid eLearning programs
• Offers compatibility for developers, instructional designers (ID) and subject matter experts (SME) Most importantly, you don’t need to be an expert to work with Storyline 360!

The need for interactivity in eLearning modules

Today’s learners are very different than students of the past. Their expectations and learning styles are more complex. Continuous audio narration in a slide or a lot of text on the screen will result in losing the student’s attention.

What engages today’s learners? Short text, quick audio and situations that make learners interact with the module are key to the present day learning process.

This interactivity engages present day learners and real learning happens. The success of your module depends on the interactive components offered in your module.

Storyline 360 makes your module more interactive easily!

Interestingly enough, today’s learners are not enticed by simple clicks on tabs or images. They expect more complexity and innovation in the interactive components within the module. This is where Storyline 360 plays its role by making the exercise simpler.

You can build any kind of interactivity just by adding the right trigger to the object. There is absolutely no need to code to assign triggers in Storyline 360. By managing the menu provided, you can combine triggers and create your desired interactivity.

If you want to go to the next level of interactivity, you have variables available for the task. Variables are an option that help you track learner actions and create dynamic activities. Using Storyline 360, you can create scenarios, games, simulations, quizzes and much more.

Let us see how best you can make your eLearning modules highly interactive with Storyline 360!

1. Build scenarios and simulations

Scenarios and simulations help the learners understand and experience the situation, just as it is in real life. They give you a hands-on experience. Scenarios give learners an opportunity to enhance their decision making by letting them experience the situation in a life-like setting.

Simulations, on the other hand, help learners build actual skills by imitating the hands-on experience. You can plan simulations as part of scenarios. While building scenarios and simulations, use appropriate and realistic images and engaging sounds to provide a good learning experience.

Storyline 360 offers you templated characters with various poses and facial expressions which you can use throughout your scenarios. With these characters, you can build multiple situations that best represent the content.

2. Create games that fascinate your learners

Gamification is a widely acclaimed interactivity and is very popular in eLearning courses. These games can be planned as fun activities, while making the module informative. You can use leader boards, points, badges, levels in the games to make them more interesting and interactive.

• Choose your gamified theme. The primary purpose of creating a gamified theme is to align it with the rest of the module.
• Create a new Storyline project.
• Build your gaming elements and ensure that all the gaming elements used are in sync with the module.
• Add questions to the game, if required.
• Design feedback slides.

3. Build interactive, scenario-based assessment questions

Assessment questions are another key interactive component. These questions help learners understand through reinstating the knowledge accumulated so far.

Instead of creating simple and straight forward assessment questions, make the questions interactive by weaving them around a scenario so that learners find them engaging. This interactive component also helps the concept to be imprinted on the mind.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Storyline 360?

A part of Articulate 360, Storyline 360 is a rapid eLearning authoring tool which enables you to create interactive eLearning courses for a variety of devices such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smart phones.

Can Storyline 360 be installed on the same computer with previous versions of Storyline?

Absolutely! Storyline 360 can be installed along with Storyline 1, Storyline 2 and Storyline 3 in the same computer.

What are the different levels of interactivity that we use in eLearning courses?

There are three levels of interactivities that are commonly used in eLearning courses:

• Basic/Level 1: This level includes only clicking interactivities which either load the content or allow the user to navigate through the course.
• Medium/Level 2: This level typically includes clicks, simple drag-and-drop, and simple text inputs.
• Advanced/Level 3: This level involves clicks, text input, drag-and-drop, character illustrations, animations, simulations, and gamification.

What is the difference between Articulate Storyline 360 and Storyline 360?

The primary difference between Articulate Studio 360 and Storyline 360 is that Articulate 360 is a cloud-based software which is offered as a service (SaaS) and is sold on an annual subscription basis. Storyline 360 on the other hand, is a stand-alone software sold for a one-time fee.

What are some eLearning interactive ideas we can implement?

Here are some examples of eLearning interactive ideas:

• Scenarios
• Branching scenarios
• Gamification
• Adaptive assessments
• Quizzes and question pools

F.A.S.T Rescue helps you train your employees in their native language, by using translation and localization services. We use one of the best authoring tools, Articulate Storyline, for this purpose. Learn how here or Book a FREE Consultation with an expert!

Why use FAST Rescue’s translation and localization services?

Here are some interesting facts. Did you know that only 26% of all internet users use English as their medium of communication, or that there are almost 200 languages spoken in Canada? 15% of all Canadians speak a language at home other than English or French and 23% of all Canadians have a mother tongue that is not English or French.

As a training organization for over 20 years, we understand that learning is most effective when the student is comfortable. How better to make a student comfortable than to reach them in the language they are most comfortable speaking?

The effectiveness of the training programs and eLearning solutions you provide in your workplace is significantly enhanced when provided to your people in the language of their choice. For global companies or for companies expanding into other countries, it is common sense to provide the people in these other geographies with training in their own language.

This is where our translation and localization services can help. We will recreate and transform your eLearning content to make it available, accessible, and comfortable for all your people.

Translation and localization needs that FAST Rescue can fulfil

From eLearning content to micro learning based video material, we will translate and localize these learning solutions:

Translation and localization using Articulate Storyline

There are many good authoring tools that provide translation and localization services. Articulate Storyline has features however, that make it unique. Let’s have a look at them:

1. Simplified translation and localization process

Storyline 360 excels in duplicating the original course into multiple languages, allowing you to build any number of language-specific versions.

After the original course is completed, the text of the course can be exported as a .doc or .xml file. This file is given to the LSP (language service provider) for translation. The translated file is then uploaded to the duplicate version of the course.

Once this primary task is completed, other localization modifications can be done on the user-friendly platform. The other tasks of voice-over and graphics replacements can be done by exporting and importing specific files. The easy user interface of Articulate Storyline 360 helps the team handle localization and translation tasks with ease and accuracy.

2. Unique formats to support all scripts and languages

Articulate Storyline supports all major scripts and languages, including the languages written from right to left such as Hebrew, Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi and Urdu. Storyline also supports double-byte character languages, where all graphic characters are encoded in two bytes, such as Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean.

3. Easy font replacement for efficient translation

As we are aware, not all the language scripts are the same. Some take more while others take less space. Sometimes, the font we use may fix the space issue. You can easily replace the existing fonts with other suitable fonts by using the drop-down feature in the Storyline ribbon.

4. Effective ‘text to speech’ conversion

You can speed up the process of localization by using the feature, ‘text to speech’ conversion. You can quickly narrate a course to localize narration to many other languages. From one drop-down box, you can select any world language and from the other drop-down box, you can select the voice (male / female) of your choice. Using this feature, your voice over will be ready for use very quickly.

With FAST Rescue, your content can address more than 100 languages:

As an eLearning translation and localization service provider, we create multilingual eLearning content in more than 100 languages around the world, including Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog. We can also translate and localize content into Canadian Indigenous languages, such as Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway.

If you train your employees, it is time to check out the benefits of digital learning solutions!

Technological advancements in the learning and training domain have come a long way in helping students learn effectively. Digital learning services enhance the learning outcomes for our clients and are an effective support to the existing and established traditional classroom training methods.

What is Digital Learning?

Digital learning is learning facilitated by digital technology. This mode of learning gives control to the learner over time, place, mode, and pace of learning.

• Time: As people will be learning online, there will be flexibility around the training schedule. They can learn at their own convenience.
• Place: The learner can go through the digital content using the internet and can work on any device, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smart phones.
• Mode of training: Digital learning helps learners choose their preferred mode of study. The digital content can be narrative, interactive, scenario-based, video-based and Q&A based learning.
• Pace: This is the most important aspect of digital learning. The learners can go through the content multiple times until they understand it completely – and at their own pace.

Understanding digital learning solutions

Digital learning solutions are made possible with a combination of technology, digital content, and instruction:

• The digital content is the quality material delivered through technology where technology serves as a facilitation to deliver the content.
• Instruction is the guidance to the learners to help them understand the digital content.

Digital learning solutions have a wider spectrum of applications over the Internet, yet they are often considered as synonymous to eLearning solutions.

How FAST Rescue’s digital learning solutions can help you

With more than a decade of digital learning experience, FAST Rescue has provided diversified digital learning solutions, catering to the needs of many organizations. Today, we are an expert digital learning company, offering the preferred eLearning solutions to clients based in Canada and in the rest of the world.

FAST Rescue offers a range of digital learning solutions which cater to the diversified learning needs of our clients. Here is the list of digital learning services we offer:

• Custom digital learning content: Our custom eLearning digital content solutions are quite popular due to our cutting edge instructional and visual design methods. Our custom eLearning content includes animations, scenarios, stories, gamification, and various themes.
• Blended learning solutions: Experience is the best teacher. Many clients prefer the digital learning solutions blended with the instructor-led classroom training.
• Rapid digital learning content: In this fast-moving world, everything is rapid, including our learning. Our progressive clients are pleased with our rapid digital learning solutions as FAST Rescue’s teams can handle multiple rapid authoring tools and provide rapid learning solutions.
• Gamification: For many effective digital learning solutions, gamification is integral to the program. Customers who prefer their learning content to be engaging and fun, prefer gamification to be included in the courses. We combine gamified elements into the course, providing engaging, immersive, and game-based content.
• Mobile Learning: A mobile device such as a laptop, tablet or smart phone has become the true platform for digital learning solutions. We are one of the leading digital learning companies in Canada to offer the best M-Learning solutions.
• Translation and Localization: Today, the translation and localization feature of digital learning solutions is helping organizations reach out to a wider audience to deliver the digital content in the language and culture they understand best. FAST Rescue can offer translation and localization services in more than 100 languages.
• Legacy Digital Content Conversion: Since Flash Player is no longer being supported by browsers, legacy courses built in Flash cannot be played or modified. Hence, for multiple organizations, FAST Rescue provides the legacy content conversion services through our Flash to HTML5 conversion.
• PowerPoint to eLearning Conversion: Various organizations now prefer to convert their PowerPoint presentations into full-fledged eLearning courses. These PowerPoint presentations were previously used for instructor-led classroom training purposes. FAST Rescue converts PowerPoint presentations to eLearning, offering various benefits such as interactivity, effective use of media elements and SCORM compliance.

FAST Rescue’s digital learning solutions – A snapshot!

We expand our digital learning solutions according to the needs of our clients, which include many Fortune 500 companies. We offer a diversified range of digital learning solutions to various clients across the world.

Here is a snapshot of our best digital learning services in Canada:

• Custom eLearning development
• Rapid eLearning content
• Blended learning solutions
• Mobile learning
• Gamification
• Translation and localization
• Legacy content conversion
• PowerPoint conversion
• eLearning quizzes
• Interactive learning tutorials
• Self-learning videos
• How-to-guides
• Distance learning courses

Related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We do not want our training to go completely digital. We want to provide instructor-led, classroom training services to our employees. How can you help us with your digital e-learning solutions in a case like this?

Consider blended learning, which is an effective combination of technology-enabled digital e-learning solutions, which supports traditional instructor-led classroom training.

In blended learning solutions, both these services work in tandem to give learners an integrated and comprehensive learning experience.

There are various digital e-learning solutions that FAST Rescue offers which cater to all your blended learning needs:

• Interactive eLearning modules
• Activity-based, feedback-rich classroom events
• Webinars
• Coaching
• Instructor guides, participant guides and presentation materials
• Assessments
• Job aids
• App-based tools

Blended Learning helps organizations and employees meet their training and learning requirements. If conducted properly, this method of learning can be extremely effective. To create a good blended learning session, it is important to move systematically from Instructor-led Training (ILT) to the Blended Learning models of training. Let us closely examine the required process in this post.

What is Blended Learning?

As the name indicates, blended learning is a training model that combines the traditional instructor-led classroom training and the technically enabled, self-paced online learning. The idea behind the emergence of this mode is to ensure that organizations and learners can best utilize the features of both these methods.

Why Blended Learning?

It is important to note that Instructor-Led Training will not become defunct. For many people and for different learning choices, ILT is a preferred mode of learning. There is, however, a clear advantage to digitization as many people prefer online learning as compared to traditional ILT sessions.

The concept of blended learning is especially beneficial in workplaces with a multi-generational workforce. In these workplaces, multiple options of learning are beneficial.

In blended learning:

• Some portion of the learning happens online where the learners can access the online courses on multiple devices – anywhere and anytime.
• Some portion of the learning happens in the instructor-led classroom
• Both the methods of learning mutually fulfil one another, giving learners an integrated and comprehensive learning experience.

Adopting Blended Learning – A positive note for businesses

Why is blended learning beneficial to organizations? Blended learning provides:

• Scalability: Organizations can increase the scalability of the training program by reaching out to multiple geographical regions of the world. This way, blended learning helps organizations to reach out to a larger number of people.
• Less learning time: Blended learning takes less learning time. A full day instructor-led training session for example, can be developed into a 3 hour online learning course.
• Reduced costs: The cost of providing blended learning is significantly less than the costs of traditional classroom training.
• Consistent approach: In instructor-led training, the effectiveness of the training depends on the instructor. In the blended learning mode however, the systematic approach of the online components ensure that the training is consistent for all the learners.

The Benefits of Blended Learning for the Learner

Learners receive many benefits from blended learning, such as:

• Flexibility of learning: Learners have varied options of learning, which improves their learning ability. Blended learning is an optimal mode of training for today’s learner, with the flexibility of learning modes and the ability to learn from preferred devices.
• Available 24X7: Blended learning gives students the ability to learn anytime. Apart from their regular online learning resources, they can also access the previous instructor-led classes online.
• Self-paced learning: As the pace of learning varies from learner to learner, a combination of the two methods provides students with a good learning experience. The learners can understand the concepts during the ILT session, and they have the additional capability to access theoretical information and quizzes through the online resources.

Blended Learning – How best to design the training

As blended learning is a planned activity, which utilizes different learning models, the design of the program is important as two contradictory approaches will be used – instructor-led training and self-paced online training.

Blended learning should be designed by learning experts, after going through the training content to determine the parts of the content that should go into the instructor-led and the online modes. The blended learning for a training program is planned after considering the content and using the appropriate instructional approaches and principles.

At FAST Rescue, we incorporate several types of blended learning methods, and customize them based on your training content.

Some of the blended learning models we use are listed here:

• Instructor-led training sessions: This method of providing face-to-face traditional, classroom sessions supplement the online sessions with additional conceptual explanations. This model includes activities of clarifying questions, providing feedback, mentoring, role play and hands-on practice.
• Rotation: In this learning model, learners move from one learning activity to another. This can either be structured by the training co-ordinator or it can be self-scheduled by the student.
  For example, before attending an instructor-led classroom session, the students can complete the related online session to grasp the theoretical part of the training. When they proceed to the instructor-led portion of the session, the instructor can clarify any further questions they may have.
• Personalized learning: Also known as Flex, this model helps learners proceed at their own pace. By accessing the LMS, the learners can choose what they want to learn. The instructor will be available to address their questions.
• Online lab: This method offers an online location. This activity takes place after the initial theoretical online or classroom training. Learners can access this online content through their computers, laptops, or mobile phones.
• Self-blended learning: This blended-learning model provides supplemental content, primarily in the form of video tutorials, webinars, blogs, white papers, etc. This model works very well for self-motivated learners who can delve into the subject matter on their own. In this scenario, the LMS should be able to combine diverse content sources to promote the inquisitive nature of the students.
• Online Driver: In this blended learning model, learners continue their learning by engaging with the instructor through chat, email, or message board. The LMS should monitor the learners while allowing them access to the knowledge base.

Conclusion

We hope this post has provided you with a detailed description of what blended learning is and how you can design it for your organization.