Articulate 360 Reviews

Pros

Storyline is easy to use. It enables you to make interactive learning fast. Interface that resembles Powerpoint will help new users feel welcome.

Cons

Small/medium sized businesses that have less frequent needs for e-learning may not have the budget for an on-going subscription. I'd like it if the price point was lower.

Pros

Articulate 360 comes with a full and powerful suite of software that is easy to learn and easy to use, including Storyline 360. My team consists of a mixture of veteran and novice instructional designers and facilitators. Presenter 360 is especially useful for my novice designers and facilitators as it is so easy to use and mirrors the PowerPoint software they are already familiar with, while giving them the power of a Storyline project. The training and community support available are unmatched with any other software I have used to date.

Cons

Templates can be built and reused easily for Storyline, but not as easily for Rise. There have been a few issues with certain fonts not being supported, but the help desk reached back out to me (almost 8 months later) when the issue was resolved. The content library is immense and included, but will not load more than ~20 pictures at a time.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate and Litmos

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

We chose to go with Articulate 360 as it had the shortest learning curve and the easiest onboarding. The support and training are unparalleled.

Pros

Not much

Cons

It is not much of an authoring platform with most features available in the most basic LMS.

Pros

Storyline is very easy to use and to get up to speed on. Software runs very quickly and is very reliable. Also love the connection to Rise and Review. Makes building a course simple and even fun!

Cons

Only con is that building a template works a little wonky. Works best to build a Storyline course and import that course when starting new eLearning.

Pros

It's very easy to use, almost intuitive. Basically, if you understand how to use powerpoint, you'll be very comfortable with this software. It has a lot of built-in functionality, as compared to Captivate. You can publish nice courses with little effort. Put some effort to learn it's advanced features, and you can craft stunning courses. I've used this since version 1, and Studio before that. It gets better and better.
They have a great, useful user forum, and attentive support.

Cons

I've had a couple instances where upgrades broke our lessons, the most recent being with Update 6. It was crashing the lessons if there was a quiz or survey. It was a SCORM issue. Our LMS toes the line, hard, on SCORM and the incompatibility caused me misery. I had to revert. Previous to that, upgrading courses from version 2 to version 3 caused the LMS to stop tracking and send warnings. The solution ended up being not to upgrade, but import the content in a new course. Not totally Articulate's fault, but rather a compatibility issue.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

Cost and Functionality. When we first transitioned to eLearning we used Articulate Online. We liked the fact that the software and LMS worked together. The pricing for both was pretty attractive. That said, we started with Articulate Studio, so it made sense to stay with Articulate. Storyline was still more attractive - both price and functionality than the competition.

Pros

Easy to use. Advanced actions in highly interactive courses are so easy to design and build. I have some previous experience as a developer in flash, so I can be quite creative in my ambitions - as of yet, I'm yet to find anything that can not be built using triggers and variables. Having been a long time user of Adobe Captivate, I often had to add code to achieve similar functionality in my course builds.

Cons

There are times that a course file just corrupts and cannot be saved. This is very infrequent - it has happened to me a few times. Often, you can save it by ensuring you save a new version of the course. However, I have found when working intensively overnight on a course build,. the file corrupted and I had to start the build almost from scratch. It wouldnt discourage me from using this software over any alternatives.

Pros

My favorite feature of storyline is the fact that it only been around 6-8 years. All of the examples, just-in-time support and troubleshooting you search for online are applicable to the current version (360) and can be implemented. Their online community is best in class.

Cons

As a freelancer, when work is light in for my elearning business (I also work FT and do webdev work) - the subscription price Of Storyline 360 is too much. I wish I could pay for a month only.

Pros

This subscription makes it so easy to develop amazing eLearning courses. From quick cloud based courses in Rise, to more elaborate course development in Storyline. It does not get easier.

Cons

As always, the subscription cost could be lower not thankfully it is not outrageous. I wish they would get rid of Quizmaker already.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

We purchased both but Articulate is so much better and more stable!

Pros

I like that there are regular updates and support with the subscription model. The multi state object interface is so much better than captivate’s.

Cons

It is very pricey for a freelancer and the publishing options can be confusing for packaging your course correctly for Captivate Prime LMS

Pros

Very active user community to get ideas and solve issues. Built in photos, icons are so useful.

Cons

The expense is higher than other elearning authoring tools.

Alternatives Considered

Camtasia and Adobe Learning Manager

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

The integration of Review 360 is a motivating factor because reviewers without an account can make comments on content.

Pros

What I really like is how the suite of programs in 360 supports varying levels of user expertise and needs. In particular, I love the new platform Rise for it's extremely intuitive interface and clean design. This is a great tool for non instructional designers or for those just getting into ID. Additionally, I appreciate the infinite flexibility and complexity that is offered by Storyline. For someone with years of expertise, Storyline can help you design just about any type of learning you are trying to implement.

Cons

While I like some of the newer tools like Replay and Peek I have found them to be a bit buggy.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

Articulate had more product offerings in it's suite and a more intuitive UI.

Pros

It's easy to jump in and start creating content since much of the layout is similar to Powerpoint. I love that you have a lot of control on how the user interacts with the program. And there is always more to learn and do. Additionally, the help and community forums run by Articulate are unmatched in the field. There is always help when you get stuck.

Cons

This is a complex program and it will take time to learn all of the little nuances. You have to invest a lot of time troubleshoot errors in complex files, there isn't anything that finds issues for you.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Learning Manager

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

The features in Articulate seemed to be a better match for my intended process and outcome.

Pros

Once you get used to/comfortable with Articulate 360, the process to create an e-course becomes simple. Very easy to upload and use PowerPoint as the template for e-courses.

Cons

It's not an easy software to learn. I attended several training courses with experts to learn how to use 360.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft PowerPoint

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

A few years ago, 360 was at the top of e-course development tool, while PowerPoint was simply used for presentations. However, Microsoft is starting to catch up and contain many tools within 360 at a fraction of the cost.

Pros

Really user friendly. It took me about an hour to understand most of it. It definitely makes it easy to create content and allows you to preview it quite well.

Cons

My main concern is in Rise Articulate. It was indeed quite simple to use, but that is the problem. For those experienced with LMS and Design, it feels limited after a bit. We still need more options to improve the quality of the content. We need options to upload audio directly linked to a word instead of having a full section per audio. Flashcards should have a shuffle option and an option to also upload audio. These are just some examples, and I hope there are more features over time.

Pros

Articulate 360 is a suite of eLearning programs allowing you to developing engaging online learning content in numerous ways and for different levels of users. Need and easy-to-use tool to create dynamic content that is responsive design without a lot of effort, Rise is just one simple tool that is also quite powerful (i.e. you can embed Storyline content into Rise). Want to give your PowerPoint a lift, Articulate Studio 360 to the rescue. Articulate 360 includes an online Review program allowing others to provide feedback. Articulate has an extensive Content Library 360 available of characters, poses, illustrations, photos so you may not have to spend a ton licensing content for your eLearning. Articulate also provides tools for capturing and recording your screen. But the piece de la resistance is Articulate Storyline 360. This is the anchor of Articulate and like so many robust tools there is a learning curve. The good news is there is a strong online Articulate Community and you can find answers and solutions from others who have no doubt been down the road ahead of you. The webinars that they do are outstanding in quality and I attend as many as I can.

Cons

The continual updates came to bite Articulate, and me as a user. One day after updating, which I do routinely I found my ability to Preview content in Articulate Storyline 360 to not work properly. The ability to Preview content and see the timing of elements on a slide is critical. The good news is I was able to uninstall the update and work in an earlier version. However, while Articulate continued to release updates and add features, I was unable to take advantage of them. The coordination of information by their Technical Support on this critical issue was sub par. I was more apt to figure out when a solution was available through trial and error. Although this earlier issue has been mostly resolved, it still has some lingering problems. Again, the Articulate Community far exceeds the copy/paste responses you can get from Technical Support.

Pros

Articulate Rise is currently my favorite tool for simple web based training development. Very easy to build beautiful and responsive courses that flow well and are easy to navigate. Great interactive elements that work well on any device, and overall a very nice tool for simple elearning courses.

Cons

Support and frequency of updates are just horrible. I've never worked with a product that was so poorly supported and so painfully slow to receive product updates and new features. Manny very basic feature requests that have been submitted on multiple tools within the 360 suite by hundreds of users have been "in development" for over 4 years. In the 3 years I've used the toolset, bug fixes and feature updates have been so infrequent, they're almost non-existent.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate

Pros

This is so much easier to use than anything else our team has tried. We can easily create a PowerPoint presentation and then convert it to and Articulate Storyline file. This means that a lot of the legwork is done before we even begin working in Articulate

Cons

Things start getting a little difficult when we are creating tests/quizzes in Articulate. There are a lot of options and we have to be extremely thorough and detail oriented when it comes to creating pre/post exams for the relevant courses.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Captivate

Reasons for Switching to Articulate 360

Ease of use.

Pros

This is a great instructional design product that allows for seamless communication throughout the iterative process with all involved. The product makes designing online learning easy and opens up tons of possibilities for the creatively minded.

Cons

While there are many options and flexibility when it comes to adding in Java scripting, I have found that the support in this area is lacking. Also some simple and useful feature requests have been ignored across various versions despite long lists in the discussion forums requesting such logical feature upgrades. Other issues that I have with the product are really issues with SCORM which has its own limitations and issues.

Pros

Articulate 360 offers so many options for creating training material to fit any audience or format. My favorite Articulate programs to use for our company LMS are RISE and Storyline. This software allows your creations to really engage your audience, producing better quality associates.

Cons

Its really hard to find a negative. The only thing I found difficult was learning to put coding into Storyline to create a 'simulation' of our company systems. Once you learn how to do it, its easy after that! And be able to recreate your systems into a simulated environment gave the best hands-on experience we could possible give our new hire associates.

Pros

Articulate 360 feels like PowerPoint in its user interface and is very intuitive and easy to use. You can put together very smart-looking eLearning very quickly. There is a lot of common functionality built in so you don't have to build from the ground up every time like you do with Adobe Captivate. There's also a very large library of imaging which helps when you need to build quickly. The online support community for Articulate can't be beat. They are there to not only help when you have a problem, but they encourage you to grow as a designer.

Cons

I feel like there are hot keys missing. I wish there was a hotkey to add a text entry field or a hot spot. I also want to be able to move items around the screen one pixel at a time with my mouse rather than having to use CNTRL and SHIFT. The interface feels a lot like PowerPoint to me so while it's easy to use, it's not really very interesting visually, which can matter when you are trying to explain to an executive or stakeholder that building eLearning is a lot more complicated than just building in PowerPoint. The triggers are also a little confusing.

Pros

The free templates are amazing. I love their community site that is up-to-date on LD trends and challenges. Everyone that has taken one of my courses on SL2 likes how fun and engaging they can be. I can add all types of file formats, different types of quizzes, interaction, and multimedia.

Cons

I never seem to feel like an expert as some of the functions/interactions are hard to create. I went to a two day training on SL2 and it didn't teach me enough as I am still trying to figure out variables and how they work. Sometimes the E-Learning Heroes take days to get back to me if I have an issue and don't always explain in detail how to correct the issue.

Pros

Content Library, triggers (they're awesome and don't require a ton of Action Script to make them work), controls (have you seen Markers, the Dial and the Slider??), diverse character libraries and simple, effective publishing options that make moving the course to an LMS a breeze.

Cons

I wish it had an inline photo editor - then I could REALLY kick Adobe to the curb.

Pros

Easy to Use: Articulate has done a great job with this product's UX/UI.
Convenient: with 360, you have solid design tools, review tool, asset bank, and more.
Saves Time: The content development tools' UI allows you to quickly create contents. Moreover, you can publish courses/review/preview with the click of a button.

Cons

First and foremost, the pic/video embedding feature have limited resolution, so your courses are not in HD. I understand that helps us save hard disk space, but it does affect the resolution a bit.
Secondly, Articulate Rise has only a few feature options to support multimedia/multi-sensory needs. For instance, it doesn't allow background audio. Of course, you can always resort to Articulate Storyline for that.

Pros

Storyline 360, Rise

Cons

slow publish

Pros

I am storyline developer and working on Storyline 3 and 360. Articulate 360 give us lots of Templates, characters, photos, videos, icons. Articulate 360 is a Powerful tool for creating e-learning courses. We can Manage all the assets for our project in one place with the media library. we can create any kind of interactive courses or video based course quickly.

Cons

If our files too large then some time its automatically closed without saving it we loss lots of time and effort.
When we reopen the files then recovered feature is also not working properly.