En nuestro quinto episodio, abordamos los siguientes temas:

1- Historias destacadas de la semana

a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) ya está disponible. Primeras impresiones: descargas rápidas de aplicaciones, instalación sin problemas y versión para PC/Mac.

b- Post: “The New Articulate Storyline iPad App and mLearning” Artículo, demo y 2 videos.

2- La Comunidad de Articulate: la importancia de la asistencia y la colaboración.

3- Articulate Storyline: funcionalidades destacadas (gráficas de personajes, objetos interactivos, capas de diapositivas, estados, grabación de pantalla, adaptación de la presentación de contenidos, posibilidad de crear y traducir proyectos en distintos idiomas, etc) y algunas limitaciones.

4- Articulate Storyline vs. Adobe Captivate.

5- La historia para el aprendizaje móvil que propone Articulate Storyline y desafíos para el futuro (SCORM, seguridad, etc)

Welcome episode #5 of our new podcast entitled “This Week in mLearning.” In case you missed previous episodes, you can find them HERE.

Great news, our Podcast is now live on iTunes and you can subscribe HERE. Please let us know your comments by leaving a comment here and thank you in advance for listening and for helping us spread the word about this Podcast on Mobile Learning.

Below is a summary of topics we discussed this week.

1- Highlights of the week

a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) went live. First impressions: fast downloads, seamless installation and PC/Mac version.

b- RIM´s BlackBerry World 2012: Public preview of BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion,  an enterprise mobility solution and RIM’s entry into the multi-platform Mobile Device Management (MDM) marketplace. Among the management capabilities BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will provide, security is one of the highlights.

c- Big companies start to think about their mobile strategy: The Financial Times moves away from its native app over HTML5, Facebook doesn’t know what to do with mobile users and LinkedIn makes use of a hybrid app.

d- Google+ iPhone app

e- Great excitement about mLearning at ASTD 2012 International Conference & Exposition

f- The eLearning Guild Research: “Mobile Learning: The Time is Now” by Clark Quinn

g- Book release and blog book tour: “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education” by Karl Kapp

h- Pebble: an example of the power of crowdsourcing. Pebble is a customizable e-paper watch, promoted by Kickstarter, a funding platform.

2- Articulate Storyline: killer features and performance limitations.
3- Articulate Community
4- Articulate Storyline´s mobile story and challenges for the future (SCORM support, security, etc)
5- Articulate Storyline compared with Adobe Captivate.
6- Apps of the week: Wolfenstein 3D (free game) and Zite (personalized magazine).

Mayra Aixa Villar:

As Instructional Designers, every day, we look for that spark of inspiration that can help us design our next eLearning project. We strongly believe in simple but still engaging designs, and for that reason, we’re always trying to find creative ideas to present learning content in order to get our message across. By reading about different techniques, trying different tools and exploring mobile apps, it’s amazing how much new insight one can gain. Our main goal is to transform any piece of information into an endearing, meaningful learning experience.

This is why I agree with Kasper Spiro as he makes a case for finding a new metaphor for eLearning:

I’m convinced that we have to find a new metaphor for e-Learning in order to bring e-Learning to the next level. The old book-metaphor with chapters and pages is well suited for linear courses, but it doesn’t work for more flexible individual approaches of e-Learning.

via A new methaphor for e-Learning – Challenge to learn.

In my opinion, the need to look for new metaphors for learning becomes even more crucial if we seek to make a successful transition from eLearning to mobile learning (mLearning).

Because of that constant pursuit of new ideas, metaphors and new tools, what started as a simple project in order to try out the shiny new Articulate Storyline product, ended up being an interesting demo that includes plenty in the way of interactivity. Easy-to-use triggers, powerful interactive objects as well as slide layers allowed me to create an interactive infographic with a software application that as Tom Kuhlmann describes it, democratizes eLearning.

Rapid elearning played a role in the evolution of elearning mostly because it took course creation out of the hands of a few programmers and placed it into the hands of anyone who wanted to create a course.

I see this as the democratization of elearning. And it runs parallel to how digital media’s empowered people all over the world to create and deliver content using a host of online tools and social media applications.

via The Next Generation of E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog.

RJ Jacquez:

I continue to be very impressed with the new Articulate Storyline product. I’m especially impressed with how straightforward it is to publish any project for consumption on the iPad using the new Articulate Mobile Player iPad app. During my last year at Adobe, one of the questions I heard over and over, was how could eLearning developers enable learners to consume learning content on their iPads. I believe Articulate has been able to address this need with the launch of Storyline and their iPad app. Obviously mobile means much more than the iPad, and much work needs to be done beyond an iPad app, but I think having an iPad strategy is an excellent start and I expect that Articulate will continue to strengthen their mobile learning story in future versions of Storyline and Studio.

The other challenge we have as we continue to embrace mobile learning is thinking outside the eLearning box. I have written before that it’s human nature to bring existing principals we feel comfortable with, as we face new paradigm shifts. In eLearning and mLearning terms, this means that as we transition to mLearning, it might seem obvious to try and apply what has traditionally worked in eLearning into the smaller screen, but I would advice against that. Instead we need to figure out new ways of engaging the next generation of mobile learners. This is why I liked the interactive infographic project that Mayra shared with me because it shows that she’s starting to think outside the eLearning box, as she looks for new ways to present content. I also found it very interesting just how much one can do using very few slides in Storyline. I have been looking for an opportunity to do a screencast on some of the features I really like about Storyline and also demo the ease with which one can publish a project for consumption on the iPad using the Articulate Mobile Player app.

Below are two screencasts I recorded using this infographic project. The first is an overview of Articulate Storyline based on my experience with Adobe Captivate, and the second is a demo of how to publish for iPad and, what it’s like to interact with the content using the app.

In closing, if you have an iPad and want to try this infographic project yourself click the button below using your iPad’s mobile safari browser. I recommend you watch the videos first in order to better understand the entire process:

Please check them out and let us know what you think.

En Nuestro cuarto episodio, abordamos los siguientes temas:

1- Historias destacadas de la semana

a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) y Adobe Creative Cloud. Un lanzamiento exitoso, nuevas características, la importancia de estas características así como también la importancia de la nube para el aprendizaje móvil y algunas desventajas. Puedes encontrar más información en este post: “The New Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) is a Sign of the Mobile Times” (RJ Jacquez).

También, algunas aplicaciones como Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Proto, Adobe Collage, Adobe Kuler y comentarios acerca de la ausencia de Adobe Captivate de la Adobe Creative Suite.

b- Google Drive: un servicio de almacenamiento en la nube y sincronización de archivos que puede utilizarse a través de distintos dispositivos.

2- La revolución del video: algunas estadísticas
3- Mejores prácticas y el uso actual de videos en el aprendizaje móvil
4- SceneChat: videos más interactivos. Puedes encontrar un ejemplo de la implementación de esta tecnología aquí: #eLearnChat 44
5- Khan Academy, el aula al revés (the Flipped classroom) y las lecciones de TED-ed: educación basada en videos
6- Aplicaciones de la Semana: iA Writer.

First, let me start by congratulating everyone who works for Articulate for the launch of Storyline. Undertaking a monumental job such as writing an application like Storyline from the ground up is no easy feat. However if there’s a company that can do it, that is certainly Articulate.

I have been a fan of Articulate for a long time even as I worked for Adobe on the Captivate and eLearning Suite products.

The day after leaving Adobe, I had my first meeting with Arlyn Asch, Articulate CTO, who spent time with me going over Storyline and after an hour of talking to Arlyn and seeing what they were working on, it was a enough for me to believe that sure enough Storyline was going to be a game-changer. Since then, I have had the opportunity to speak with many more great folks who work at Articulate, including Adam Schwartz, founder and CEO, and every time I do, I realize that they are passionate about what they do and everyone shares the same interest, namely to create great products and delight their customers. No wonder they have thousands of superfans, who rave about their products and who recommend them to their peers via Social Media Networks.

Before I share my thoughts on why I believe the new Articulate Storyline changes things for all of us in eLearning and makes a big splash in mLearning, I’d like to preface by saying that the reasons I mention below are based on my experience working intimately on Adobe Captivate for over 13 years, dating all the way back to its early days at eHelp (when we called it RoboDemo), later becoming a Macromedia product and more recently working 6 years at Adobe as the Senior Product Evangelist for Adobe Captivate and the eLearning Suite.

So here it goes, these are the things that have impressed me about Storyline, some are features but I also consider the intangibles, such as Articulate’s community, to be important factors too, which is why I put the Articulate Community at the top of the list.

1. The Articulate Community. I don’t really know if Articulate will put this as a feature on the box, but they probably should. This is one of those intangibles that I believe deserve more credit and thus I have started off my list by praising the amazing community that people like Tom Kuhlmann, David Anderson, Jeanette Brooks and so many others have passionately worked on for a very long time. In a blog post entitled 5 Reasons why you should join the Articulate Community if you are in eLearning I wrote that in reviewing Articulate’s apps, I would have to say the community would have to be the killer feature because it was unmatched in the eLearning Industry. I also said in this article that for me, one of the most frustrating things about working at Adobe on the Captivate team was the poor support and customer care Adobe provided to our customers, because it negated all the great things we all did as Evangelists. Bad support and customer care is something you will not find when you become part of the Articulate community, I guarantee you, so this alone is enough to recommend the new Storyline vs. Adobe Captivate. But of course, there’s a lot more.

2. User Interface and User Experience. If there’s one thing we have learned from the mobile App revolution is that a great user experience is critical these days, apps have to delight customers and ultimately the user interface is the app. I always measure the success of an app by whether it keeps me coming back to it or I simply use it once and then put it back in the virtual shelf. Articulate in my experience builds software that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also intuitive and easy to use. I remember the first time I installed Articulate Engage, I thought this is how software should be built, it’s beautiful and engaging. It was almost like using a beautifully designed iPad app. It kept me coming back for more and that’s how I feel about the new Storyline.

3. Virtually No Learning Curve. If there’s one thing Articulate knows is helping customers design eLearning and it shows in the way they developed Storyline. Storyline is a standalone application that isn’t built on top of PowerPoint, however if you know how to use PowerPoint you are going to feel comfortable using Storyline. One thing I used to hear quite a bit from brand new users of Adobe Captivate was that it was fairly difficult to get started and many times I heard that once they started their first project, staring at the blank slide canvas was intimidating. Articulate made sure this wouldn’t happen with Storyline. For example, even if you are new at developing eLearning, whenever you insert a new slide into your project, you will be presented with ready-made slide template such as highly interactive scenarios that you can easily customize, as illustrated below. And that’s just the beginning, there’s a link in this dialog box that takes you to the Articulate Community, where you will be able to download more free templates as they become available. This is impressive not only for new users but also for seasoned ones.

4. One-stop shop for eLearning Assets. One of the challenging things about building eLearning is getting all the right images in place in order to build life-like scenarios, we often have to resort to various sites in order to secure the right images for the project at hand and frankly this can be costly and time consuming. Articulate knows this and I like the way they approached solving this problem in Storyline. Storyline not only includes many illustrated and photographic characters out of the box (more will be available for purchase) but they also include variations of each character, which they are calling poses and these include thinking, surprised, waiting, excited, etc. So it’s easy to find the right image for any project and this is another reason to recommend Storyline.

5. Interactions without a single line of code. One of the secrets to making eLearning effective is to include just the right amount of interactions in order to keep the learner engaged, and Storyline makes build interactions, even complex ones a breeze. When Captivate introduced Advanced Actions, I wasn’t all that thrilled because in my opinion not many eLearning Professionals want to bother writing code in order to build powerful interactions, instead I would have prefered to have gone the route that Articulate went, and made it simple to include interactivity without typing code. Storyline introduces the concept of Triggers, Slide Layers, States and Variables in order to build even the most complex interactions. Another reason to like Storyline in my opinion.

6. Next Generation of Screen Recording. This is one of my favorite features in Articulate Storyline. Storyline approaches making software simulations in a whole new ways as compared to Adobe Captivate. For one thing there’s a feature for zooming and panning, similar to Camtasia, and something Captivate users have asked for a long time. But that’s just the beginning. Unlike Captivate where you have to select whether you want a demo, assessment, training or full motion out of a screen recording session and then you end up with multiple projects if you choose multiple types of screen recording, Storyline takes a completely new approach. In Storyline, when you record the screen you end up with a high resolution video that you can use as is to show your learners a particular process along with zoom and pan features. However, from that video you can also go back and insert a step-by-step show-me version, as well as a try-it and test-me versions, all without the same project and all from a single screen recording session. But wait, there’s more. Storyline also comes with a feature called Action Fine-tuning, which allows you to go back and make fine adjustment to your software simulations. I will be posting a video on this in the coming days.

7. HTML5, Flash and Mobile Learning. Last but certainly not least is what Articulate is introducing in Storyline as it pertains to something I’m very passionate about, namely HTML5 and Mobile Learning. I really like what Articulate has done regarding publishing to HTML5 and enabling learners to use their iPad to consume courses created in Storyline. I have been testing Articulates new iPad app for a while now and I’m happy to say that taking a course is right on the iPad is a very pleasant experience. I would like to see Articulate gradually expand beyond the iPad and into other mobile devices over time.

Conclusion

There’s so much to like about the new Articulate Storyline and I could easily keep this list going but I believe all of these reasons are compelling enough for new users to embrace Storyline, as well as for existing Articulate Studio users to want to add Storyline to their tool set and I also envision loads of Adobe Captivate users wanting to switch over to Articulate Storyline.

Post translated into other Languages

A couple of days after this post went live, I received a direct message on Twitter from Amir Elion, who asked if he could translate the review into Hebrew and add something I missed, namely the Right-to-Left language support in Articulate Storyline, to which I replied, of course. A day later, this is what he tweeted:

@rjacquez here’s the Hebrew version of your post on #Articulate #Storyline, with a small addition on Hebrew and RTL: amir.kineo.co.il/?p=402

— Amir Elion (@amirelion) May 5, 2012

I would like to thank Amir for his kindness, and I would like to extend an invitation to any one else who would like to translate this post and others, into other languages. Thank you in advance.

What do you think of the new Articulate Storyline? Please share your thoughts below.