Learning at LARGE: Knowledge Hub Sign Up FEATURES SERVICES SHOWCASE CUSTOMERS RESOURCES LOG IN Free Demo Software Reviews: Articulate Storyline 360, Rise and Elucidat September 28, 2020 by Jess Vallance Articulate Storyline, Articulate Rise and Elucidat are three of the most popular elearning authoring tools on the market. All three let content authors create great-looking, professional online courses, but there are some differences between them. Let’s see how they compare, and which is the right choice for you. How will we compare the three authoring tools? We’ll look at how each of the three tools perform in the categories that are most useful and relevant to elearning creators: How easy is it to use? How can you brand your elearning? What quality of output can you expect? How quickly can you get your course to learners? How well does the tool perform at scale? Storyline vs Rise vs Elucidat: comparison at a glance Storyline Rise Elucidat Type of solution Authoring Suite Online authoring tool Authoring platform Output quality Medium Low High Production speed Slow Fast Fast Ease of use Medium Easy Easy Scalability Low Medium High Best suited for Users familiar with PowerPoint who want to add more complex interactive features. Users who want to build basic modules quickly and easily. Large employers looking to drive down their cost to train and produce easily and super-fast. Price $999 $999 – Included under storyline 360 subscription Contact us for pricing Elucidat review What is Elucidat? Elucidat is designed to make it easy for ambitious teams to create high-quality, business-critical training, super-fast. Let’s take a look at Elucidat’s main features. How easy is it to use? Elucidat uses a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface so authors can see exactly how their course is going to look as they create it. Page layouts can easily be customized, and the project structuring tools make it clear to see and manage the sections, topics and pages of a module. Using Elucidat’s Learning Accelerator templates, it’s even easier to create courses. Templates are recommended based on your project goals. Just follow the best practice guidelines and create something awesome. With Learning Accelerator, even novice elearning creators can create high-end courses quickly and easily. This means L&D teams can open up production and involve their subject matter experts (SMEs) in creating content without risking quality. How can you brand your elearning? Making sure your elearning matches your organization’s branding is an important part of giving it a professional feel. Elucidat lets you import key branding elements like colors and logos directly from your organization’s website by simply inputting your company URL. What kind of output can you expect? Elucidat comes with a host of features to create lively and engaging courses, including: Interactive polls and quizzes Drag and drop activities Content personalized to the individual learner “Branching” scenarios that let learners choose their own path Audio and video capability Slick visual effects like button animations, fades and pulses The Learning Accelerator puts these features together into ready-to-go templates. Course creators just need to plug in their own content to have robust, tried-and-tested learning designs ready to roll out to learners. How quickly can you get your courses to learners? With the Learning Accelerator authoring in Elucidat, reaching your learners is super-fast. With a template, you can create and publish finished courses four times faster than before. Once created, the course can be published in a variety of ways. SCORM publishing is offered as standard, but if you don’t have an LMS, simply choose the URL release option and anyone with the link can access your elearning. Alternatively, you can use Learning Launchpad to host your elearning in a self-contained, mobile-friendly learning portal. This gives instant and easy access to learners without access to your LMS. How well does it perform at scale? Elucidat is ideally placed to help content authors who need to create elearning as part of a team and roll it out to large numbers of learners. The combination of Learning Accelerator and customizable user roles and permissions means you can crowdsource expertise from across your organization without risk. Your L&D team can transition from being order takers to a center of excellence – keeping control central while opening up authoring. Collaboration is also seamless with Elucidat. With the tool hosted in the cloud, it’s ideally set up for getting your whole team involved and working together for best results. Main Pros and Cons of Elucidat authoring tool Pros Ideal for working at scale Learning Accelerator templates make production 4x faster without risking quality Customized user roles enable crowdsourcing elearning without risk Packed with features and super easy to use Cons May seem expensive if only creating limited modules. Pricing model designed primarily for users working at scale. The full range of design features can take time to master. Articulate Storyline 360 review What is Storyline? Articulate Storyline is a Windows desktop application that uses a PowerPoint-style slide-based approach to elearning creation. How easy is it to use? Creating a very basic course in the Articulate Storyline tool will be easy for many authors, particularly those already familiar with its PowerPoint foundations. Storyline’s most interesting and engaging features are more complex to create, though. The author will likely need to take time to master the software before creating really high-end training. And the learning curve is steep. It’s a very popular tool in the elearning community, so if you do run into specific questions, there’s likely to be someone out there who can offer a solution. How can you brand your elearning? Storyline offers full control over visual design so bespoke art direction can be applied to the screen templates. Branding can be included as part of this so modules can be tailored to fit the brand standards of your organization. This level of customization does take time and you’ll likely need a dedicated visual designer to be involved. What kind of output can you expect? Articulate Storyline publishes SCORM-compliant courses as standard, so you should have no problem creating courses that work with all major Learning Management Systems. In terms of the quality of the learning experience, the standard of the finished course will heavily depend on the expertise of the author. Storyline allows for the creation of flexible and potentially exciting interactions through the use of “triggers.” Different screen behaviors can be set according to which on-screen objects are clicked, tapped or rolled over. It can take time to learn your way around this development workflow, and more time for the creation of the features once the skills have been mastered. Before using Storyline, consider what kind of devices your learners will be using to access the course. Although the layout will respond to the size of the mobile device, in practice, the mobile version may not be ideal as it simply shrinks the standard layout to mobile dimensions. How quickly can you get your courses to learners? The publication of elearning is as quick as a click of a button, but creating courses is likely to require a time investment. Storyline’s design features allow a good level of flexibility. Building them into your elearning isn’t always a quick process. How well does it perform at scale? The Articulate Storyline tool creates courses based on authors’ individual desktops, which means it isn’t ideally placed for collaboration. When course creation isn’t shared and assets aren’t housed centrally, this impacts scalability since teams can’t easily work together. Storyline: Summing up Pros Good flexibility and control over design features Ability to fully customize the look and feel Very active online community Cons Not fully responsive – it just shrinks the screen Most engaging features take time to master and create Collaboration and content updates can be time-consuming Articulate Rise: In-depth review What is Rise? Articulate Rise is a web-based authoring tool that lets novice authors build basic courses using a range of pre-built “blocks.” How easy is it to use? Articulate Rise training software is one of the most straightforward elearning authoring tools on the market for creating basic courses easily. The authoring is all based around a number of block templates that authors can edit to build their training. How can you brand your elearning? You can tailor the theme colors of your Rise course, and there’s space to add your logo. The Rise authoring tool doesn’t offer much flexibility in terms of visual design. This makes creating courses that are instantly distinguishable from others quite tricky. What kind of output can you expect? Articulate Rise courses are clean, clear and simple. It offers a decent range of standard interaction including timelines, process graphics, expandable headings and multiple choice questions that will be perfectly sufficient for some basic courses. There is very little flexibility beyond these, however, and only limited scope for tailoring. How quickly can you get your courses to learners? The speed and efficiency of creating courses with Articulate Rise is its main selling point. Authors can create and publish basic courses in relatively little time. How well does it perform at scale? Articulate Rise is a cloud-based tool, so multiple content authors can work on the same course at the same time. Courses built in the Rise authoring tool can be cloned and reused, so a standard design setup can be used for multiple courses. The only drawback is that there’s no multi-SCO option, and managing alternative versions of courses and translation can be a headache. Rise: Summing up Pros Very easy to use and quick to learn Cloud-based, so good for collaboration Screencasting available Cons Limited flexibility over learning design and visuals Content can look generic No translation management options Final thoughts As always, the best option for you will depend on your team’s circumstances and priorities. Articulate Storyline is a good option for content authors who want custom interactivity and have the time to invest in creating these from scratch. If your main concern is speed and ease – and if the standard of finished learning design isn’t as important to you – Articulate Rise might be better. For big employers looking to deliver business-critical training to a wide audience and drive down their cost to train, Elucidat is likely to be the ideal solution. Picking the right tool is never easy, but it is super important. Choosing wisely can help you avoid a lot of headache in the future. To help you compare and save some time, check out some of our top comparison and review blogs and resources: Authoring tools comparison template – handy and free template that will save you a ton of time when comparing your options Best elearning authoring tools and software blog – full list of the most popular tools on the market today. Elucidat and iSpring Suite comparison and review – head-to-head review of the two authoring tools. Elucidat vs GoMo Learning: Comparison and Review – Check out which tool has the features that fit best with your needs. Explore the Elucidat authoring platform Find out how you can produce sustainable, scalable elearning with Elucidat. Book a personalized demo with one of the team, and we’ll get your free trial off on the right foot. Jess Vallance Read more articles by Jess Vallance Back to basics: What is an elearning content authoring tool? 8 brilliant responsive elearning design examples (2021 update) Search blog Browse blog categories Academy Customer spotlight Customer training Designers Cut Videos Elearning Elucidat for managers Insights Inspiration Learning in Retail Online training Product Product Updates Research The Learning at Large Podcast Uncategorised Uncategorized Join our newsletter Business Email* We're committed to your privacy. 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