Process

Labels in Articulate Rise 360

March 1, 2019 By Sarah Mercier Leave a Comment

Let’s say you are creating a course in Articulate Rise 360 and want to modify the labels. You will probably go to the “Settings,” then “Labels,” and make your changes. Seems easy enough, right?

Guess what? You just changed the labels for every module you currently have in Rise, unless you are using the “Custom Course Labels” feature.

The labels in Rise are saved to these custom tags, not the specific module you happen to be creating at the time. So, if you don’t create a custom tag for each course (or collection of courses) with unique labels, you will change settings globally for everything using the English default (or other language default). This means that the next time you go into any of your other modules and republish, you will end up with the same updated labels from whenever you last changed these global settings.

To avoid this, create a Custom Course Label tag for each unique set of labels using the following steps:

1. Go to Settings.

Edit course page with Settings link highlighted

2. Go to Labels and select “Create New” in the Custom Course Labels section.

Settings screen, labels section, with Create New button highlighted

3. Type in a name for your custom label set and select OK.

Pop-up box for entering custom label set name

4. Make sure that you have selected the label from the Custom Course Labels drop down for any course that you want to have these settings.

Label settings screen with Custom Course Labels drop-down highlighted

5. Check your course to ensure that the label settings have been applied correctly.

Course menu page example of the custom label change to say "in this module" instead of "details"

Prototyping in Elearning

May 26, 2016 By Sean Putman Leave a Comment

Prototyping is a vital step in the design process in many other industries. So, why don’t we use prototypes when we develop new content? Is it a lack of time? Is it that we are just converting existing material and we think we do not need it? Maybe, in some cases, we think we already know what the learner needs. Even if all that were true, we should follow other industry best practices and create prototypes for our content.

What is a prototype?

Prototypes can be created in many different ways. Create physical prototypes (also called paper prototypes) with simple office supplies to show the end user an approximate facsimile of the interface. The user interacts with the interface and the designer/developer is able to watch the interactions. The paper prototype gives feedback about mouse movement and the general layout. Since it is early in the design process, this feedback comes when you can easily change layout and element placement.

A second type of prototype is the digital prototype. Build digital prototypes with tools like Balsamiq or Moqups, tools web designers use to create wireframes. eLearning rapid development tools such as Captivate or Storyline could also be used to setup the digital prototype, though it’s often faster to prototype in standard presentation tools like PowerPoint or Keynote. Use the digital prototype in conjunction with the physical prototype as an added layer of fidelity. The physical prototype is somewhat abstract in that you are just trying to get the placement of elements down. Start to add real content to the digital prototype to achieve a more refined edition. A benefit of the digital prototype is the ability to share it with a wider audience since it does not require users to be in the same physical location.

Why are prototypes so important?

The primary goal of prototyping is feedback. When we receive feedback early in the design process, we can change things more easily and rapidly. It takes only a few minutes to alter the entire layout of a physical prototype. Prototyping also allows you to quickly test ideas with your audience rather than spending extra hours in the development phase. Once the physical prototype is set, create a digital prototype and refine it as you go forward. Then, when development starts , you have a clear path forward with the design. Use prototypes to get sign-off from stakeholders throughout the design process to reduce conflict and surprises when development begins.

Take the time to create prototypes during your design process. It will save you valuable time during the development process. Web design and app design have showed us that these methodologies are worth the effort.

Happy prototyping!

Learning from the Web World: Paper Prototyping

Workshops

What’s in a QA?

August 22, 2015 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

Do you do quality assurance (QA) testing for your elearning courses?

If so, what do you do?

Depending on the number of interactions and how much conditional feedback is involved – and the user conditions you need to emulate for testing – I’d say it takes on the order of 2 to 4 hours for a thorough QA of a 30-minute module. I tend to assume 6 to 12 hours per module, knowing that most modules will need to undergo more than one comprehensive QA in a typical development cycle.

Things we look for in a QA person:

Detail-oriented
Familiar with elearning and/or web development (perhaps some coding knowledge, but primarily a solid understanding of basic web concepts like browser caching, relative links, etc.)
Familiar with project management and issue-tracking/ticketing tools
Background that includes technical writing
Works independently/requires minimal supervision
Clearly articulates their observations in a way that’s actionable and developer-oriented
Manages their time, prioritizes projects and escalates issues efficiently and effectively

We’d love your thoughts on this topic, so please comment below!