Articulate 360 vs. Kumulos

I am not a fully trained instructional designer, but I found the user experience to be enjoyable. I have crafted my own revision of a course using Articulate 360 and while the process was lengthy, I found edits and changes to be relatively easy to implement. I also had a great deal of fun making tweaks, organizing and adding imagery. I think with regard to creating online courses/products for students to utilize, this is a great program and serves several levels of instructional design well (from me being brand new to this, to my supervisor who is newly certified, up to a longtime LD). I don't know that this is wholly relevant to courses that are live, be they in-person or virtual (Zoom webinars for example). Most of the material created in Articulate 360 tends to sit on the side of an on-demand, at-your-own-pace as far as coursework is concerned. A live course with an instructor, while it could be utilized in a live setting, the way it would be used I am unsure would be as dynamic or worthwhile as other more traditional options.

We have promotions that we want to tell our members or a specific subset of them like they have a chance of winning a raffle. We use Kumulos to fire off the message and notification. Our members get it in their app and we can tell how many of them received it. We can also use the messages to direct them to specific web pages if we want to give them more information. We also use Kumulos to send announcements about things that are happening around the resort. Since we are located near the airport, when heads of state arrive, there are times that the roads are closed to allow them to pass. We use Kumulos to fire off notifications early enough that they know to avoid the area at a particular time. Where it doesn't do as well is when you need the notifications to be received immediately. Since the notifications pass through the Google/Apple network, it may take time to arrive. Sometimes you get it quick, sometimes you don't. So if timeliness is critical, it won't work as well. Also if you're sending to a lot of people, the rollout of the messages may take longer.

Incentivized

• Rise is clean and professional. It looks polished to users and is easy for learners to follow.
• They have outstanding support.
• Storyline allows you to create some very engaging intricate interactive learning.
• Generally, their products are user friendly.
• They are considered the Gold standard in elearning authoring.
• Their courses can be read on phones, tablets computers. etc.
• They also have a powerpoint add in for making really nice slides.
• Their review tool, allows you to easily send the courses to reviewers who can update in course.

Incentivized

• Very, very easy to use - yet equally powerful
• Personalization of messages
• Data back feeds
• Running mobile and web campaigns in one place
• Awesome support

• I'd like to see more variety in the types of interactions available. The ones that exist now (hot spot, drag n' drop, flip cards, etc.) are useful, but it would be nice to have more options without having to build something custom in Storyline to pull over. For example, I'd like a more elaborate sorting activity, customizable drag and drop activity, game options such as crosswords, options that allow user response, and more variety in the quizzing and assessment.
• The built-in branching scenario feature requires a bit of trial and error. I'd like to see a snapshot, at-a-glance view of the scenario so it easier to see where the branching is, or where its missing.
• The built-in assessment features are pretty limited - the Knowledge Check block has only multiple choice, multiple response, fill in the blank and basic matching. There is the option to pull in a test bank which is great, but it would be great to have more options built-in without having to develop something more elaborate in Storyline.

Incentivized

• The UI could use a lot of improvement. It's not very intuitive.
• Canceling of sent in-app messages can't be done through the dashboard. You have to contact support for them to do it.
• To send the same message again, you have to recreate the whole thing instead of just resending it.

Incentivized

Articulate 360 is an essential tool in our organisation's workflow. The money that we make through its use, far outweighs the cost of renewing our licenses. Articulate 360 has exposed us to new clients that we may not have otherwise encountered if we did not subscribe to the Articulate services.

Kumulos is doing everything we need and more. The cost is also very reasonable. It has cut down our need for SMS and has lowered our OPEX because of this. We also love the analytics that it provides and it gives us insight into the usage and engagement of our app.

Incentivized

I rate the overall usability of Articulate 360 ​​with an 8, because of the many possibilities the software offers me. The software ensures that almost anyone without knowledge of coding can develop an interactive online course in a fairly simple and pleasant way.

It took forever to get someone to respond--either by email or by phone--directly to a pricing and licensing question. It is unfortunate that a company that has such potential as a streamlined course building/authoring tool not only missed the boat with service but also proves itself to be all fluff and no substance.

Incentivized

It is pretty straight forward and easy to implement is you are already creating eLearning. If you have old courses created in other versions of Articulate I recommend you update them to the new version even though it is not necessary (especially From Storyline3 to 360) but if you don't you may find difficulty opening and keeping things straight

Incentivized

Adobe Captivate has a ton of incredible functionality. You're able to fully customize user experiences through interactive elements, buttons, transitions, hiding and activating various elements, and so on. But overall Captivate is insanely difficult for someone new to the tool to learn. Most of what I learned about Captivate, I had to do by trial and error or by watching Paul Wilson's YouTube videos. I find Articulate 360 to be far more intuitive

Incentivized

Kumulos is just much easier to install, configure, and set up. Ongoing running costs are much much lower, especially because we don't need the constant support of a developer to complete day-to-day tasks. Other systems required a lot of technical support, not just in the setup but also in the ongoing operation.

• I am an independent user so far so no ROI; however it has clearly made a positive impact on my course as my students love the clear navigation interface and know exactly where to find content.
• On point to consider is that it has no forum option on its lesson option so this hinders some asynchronous users from interacting with others on the course.
• Users have expressed many positive feedback from using Articulate 360 which increases productivity and engagement.

Incentivized

• 81% increase in customer retention
• 27% increase in daily active users
• Cost of the system is very low compared to tangible financial benefits it as delivered