Articulate Storyline - Simple and Powerful
October 13, 2015
Articulate Storyline - Simple and Powerful
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
v1.5, v 2.0
Overall Satisfaction with Articulate Storyline
I have used Articulate Storyline with many clients. At one client, we decided to move all of our elearning from another (competing) elearning tool to standardize on Storyline. The reasons for this were twofold. First, the support for the product was vastly superior to it's competitors. The second reason was that the team of 7 could become much more productive in Storyline in a few months than after 3 years with the competing product.
As an elearning tool it is very capable and offers highly valued features. It exports to Word for creating documentation for SME reviews and/or print alternates to online learning. For learning departments using Powerpoint, it has a very good import utility, but it should be clear that the use of Powerpoint is not required for the tool. For high-level developers or programmers, the tool allows custom Javascript to be written to extend the tool's functionality to the ideas and capabilities of the user. It publishes to all major standards, including the emerging xAPI standard.
As an elearning tool it is very capable and offers highly valued features. It exports to Word for creating documentation for SME reviews and/or print alternates to online learning. For learning departments using Powerpoint, it has a very good import utility, but it should be clear that the use of Powerpoint is not required for the tool. For high-level developers or programmers, the tool allows custom Javascript to be written to extend the tool's functionality to the ideas and capabilities of the user. It publishes to all major standards, including the emerging xAPI standard.
- Simplicity and functionality- the tool is powerful, but the differentiator for the product isn't the power itself, but the fact that users come up to speed and get so productive in the tool in a short time. The learning curve is very low.
- Superb support- All software will encounter a problem at some point, so support is key. Articulate support is second-to-none.
- Community- beyond support is a large community that offers templates and tutorials that enhance your experience with the tool.
- Responsive- this is a matter of perspective. On one hand, responsive sites are becoming the norm, and sites are arranging themselves to better fit on a device's available space and orientation. On the other, if a designer creates a software simulation or a presentation design ("slide") for a specific presentation, rearranging those assets is not following the designer's intent (this is why Articulate scales, but doesn't have true responsiveness). I see both sides, but may want to see some options to set breakpoints to arrange items for different sizes or orientations in future versions.
- Articulate is an early adopter of xAPI, and pretty standard features are reporting in xAPI streams, but seeing expansion of xAPI options in triggers would be an amazing feature set to expand
- Wish I had more to say, but those are the only things I could think of after building over 100 courses in the tool.
- Tremendous ROI- a team of 7 redeveloped a suite of 60 courses in under 6 months with Storyline for very highly regulated environment. The prior tool that we used did not see that level of production after 5 years of use.
- Enhanced analytics- the level of data we were able to get out of this tool was superior than our prior tool, which allowed us to better analyze elearning outcomes and improve programs.
- Speed to competency- the team came up to speed on the tool in a very fast period of time, and they used Articulate Community resources to leverage templates that allowed them to create elearning interactions that they would not be able to develop from scratch, so the shared assets actually increased capability
- Adobe Captivate and lectora
When you look at Storyline's most common direct competitors, they are all very comparable in terms of features. Certainly, each tool has a capability or two that is different from it's peers, but truly, these products are extremely comparable when evaluating features- especially the features that are most used by developers and designers.
However, I worked in a department of 7. We tried Lectora. Only two of us could truly get competent in the tool. The majority just couldn't "get it". Despite having great features, the users couldn't leverage the features. The team also used Captivate for years. 4 of the team would be considered competent or productive in the tool (but only 2 at advanced levels). When Storyline came in, 6 became competent at a high level within 3 months (or sooner).
However, I worked in a department of 7. We tried Lectora. Only two of us could truly get competent in the tool. The majority just couldn't "get it". Despite having great features, the users couldn't leverage the features. The team also used Captivate for years. 4 of the team would be considered competent or productive in the tool (but only 2 at advanced levels). When Storyline came in, 6 became competent at a high level within 3 months (or sooner).