Articulate Studio is a PowerPoint plugin used to develop elearning course content. It includes assessment, on-screen recording, and interactions integrations.
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BizLibrary
Score 7.7 out of 10
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BizLibrary is a corporate-focused learning management software solution. The vendor provides a searchable library of prebuilt courses and materials that are mobile-accessible and include assessment and gamification capabilities.
Articulate Studio is constantly surprising in terms of what it can do. It is like a "Swiss Army Knife" of functionality. I've used it to build portfolios, whole interactive websites, authoring videos and I often discover novel ways to make it useful on a pretty regular basis. What would be a situation where you would not want to use Articulate Studio? Well, even though you can use it to author video and to publish websites, it's not a replacement for a video editing package or a web platform like WordPress, but there are times when it will do certain things in an astoundingly simple way superior to other tools.
Since I only use BizLibrary as a source for content, I cannot speak to the program's suitability as an LMS, but it is an excellent solution for obtaining content that can be used in your own LMS. They offer a wide range of topics, the courses are just the right length, and the files never give me any issues exporting, loading into our LMS, and users rarely have trouble viewing the files. If you are looking for content to be added to your own LMS, BizLibrary is the way to go. What I know of it as an LMS, it seems like there would be content overload for a student. With so much content, it might be hard for a student to narrow down what they would like to take.
They made it very easy to understand how to add new content to the courses, including images, videos or audio, of course, you are still able to do text-based content as well.
Creating quizzes has never been easier. The ability to add controls to each question and what actions each answer creates, whether an additional question or passing to the next section. Customizing these actions are very easy to learn and add to your course.
Being able to use your own scoring mechanism is awesome! I like SCORM but there are many options to use including a custom one of your own. This ability allows you to pass your students over to a proprietary system that enrolls them in the next course, or use the built-in utilities to provide the next course or quiz, the choice is yours!
The audio editor is awful. Sometimes when you cut a section, it actually takes a different section that you selected. Especially when in zoom mode. You have to then undo the action, and re-do. Also, scrubbing through the audio is difficult. If you're exporting audio, it can glitch during the process. I avoid using the audio editor whenever I can.
After all these years, it's still a buggy program. You can be doing your recordings, and a sudden message appears saying that something went wrong and needs to close. I've done re-installs, contacted support, and I constantly clear the temp folder. Still happens. Also, it's a good idea to export your audio, and there have been times the program freezes up on me, and the audio file (in the .ppta file) gets corrupted and all audio is permanently lost.
The program can get slow when publishing, previewing or opening the audio editor.
The included Engage program is pretty good, but it needs more customization options. And I think they can add more modules that provide a little more engagement.
The reporting options changed when the program was updated. You have to go through more steps to find the data to download. I would like more canned reports.
Adding a new learner is easy, but it takes more time to get them into the right group. We segment learners by company and role to make assigning topics easier for us.
This is very useable software even for novice eLearning authoring users. People with some PowerPoint experience should be fine with this software and even Excel!
I've never really had any major issues with the product (Other than the registration loop error)and my ten out of ten rating is based on the assistance I got when we initially set up the extension in Power Point. I found the support folks to be professional, helpful and friendly
When reaching out for support, BL is quick to respond. Even if they do not have a solution - such as when lessons were retired without a replacement - they are always thoughtful and informed.
It was so easy, the tech that worked with me and my client success rep were beyond helpful. If I had questions they responded immediately and were very instrumental in our success.
Articulate Studio is very much a leader in the e-learning space. It stacks up well against other tools designed to quickly and easily build and update CBTs by managers and super-users versus needing to invest time and effort in dedicated e-learning developers. Process improvement initiatives and cross-functional departments are empowered to develop their trainings themselves and identify areas for future development.
We selected BizLibrary because it had the most robust system that pertained to our employee base. We have found that that has resulted in users engaging in several areas in addition to those required. The price was better that some and worse that some, but we felt that it provided the best value and that has proven to be the case.
I only see positive impact since it is a very easy to use tool for rapid learning. The only point is to know what is possible to develop using this tool to avoid any kind of frustration afterwards.
Another positive impact is that we don't need a diversified development team. There is no need of technical professionals, and a creative instructional designer is enough to develop effective learning content using Studio.
The third positive impact is that Studio makes possible to realize short-term projects, mainly when there's already a PowerPoint presentation.
Employee engagement feedback related to the need for learning & development has already seen an uptick. Many express alot of gratitude/appreciation for the JIT learning opportunity.
1st year ROI achieved with first half-dozen employees who participated in courses which were otherwise budgeted to be taken as one-day, offsite sessions from other (classroom) vendors.
Broad-based management support was at first a struggle, to be candid, but as employees have completed courses and then we've followed up, managers are now providing positive feedback from their perspective.
