Tag: digital learning

Articulate Rise vs Adapt Learning

Posted on by Kat

Here at Eggu, we know every project we work on is unique, and sometimes we need to take a different approach in reaching deliverables. That’s why we like to use a range of authoring tools and software solutions to assist us in building our bespoke elearning courses.

Now with mobile responsive delivery and accessibility standards high on the agenda with any elearning project, at Eggu, we prioritise development using products such as Adapt Learning and Articulate Rise.

Both create courses that automatically adjust to different screen sizes, depending on the device the course is viewed on. This approach ensures a consistent and engaging learning experience wherever you are, and across a variety of devices and screen orientations. This eliminates the need for separate design and build for desktops, tablets, and smartphones; something that more traditional tools, such as Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline, do not offer.

With a wealth of expertise in both Adapt and Rise, we thought we’d take the opportunity to breakdown their pros and cons around some key topics.

  1. Overview.
  2. Branding and themes.
  3. Ease of use.
  4. Interactive components.
  5. Accessibility.
  6. Review functionality.
  7. LMS Compatibility.
  8. Price.

We hope this proves a helpful resource to anyone currently examining the best digital learning rapid development tools on the market.

Selection of Adapt design examples

1. Overview

Adapt Learning

Adapt is an award-winning open source authoring tool, freely allowing anyone to download and install the software for their personal use. The access to the source code allows customisation to the tool according to your specific requirements.

The open source nature of Adapt brings benefits from a vibrant and active community of developers, instructional designers, and elearning professionals. This provides valuable support through forums, documentation, and shared resources, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

Learning Pool offers a version of Adapt with their Adapt Builder, with some great additional interactions, however it is somewhat restricted in the CSS editing. This is why we would often opt for our own hosted version where we have complete control of the back end and ongoing software updates, which can have an impact on past styling.

Articulate Rise

Rise is rapid authoring development tool that’s part of the Articulate 360 suite. There’s no software to download, with all development occurring online. It’s fairly basic in its usability, with a super soft developer learning curve required.

Unlike Articulate Storyline, as a web-based resource, it can be used on Mac OS and Windows.

2. Branding and themes

Adapt Learning

Using CSS in Adapt allows you to highly customise the look and feel of courses through theming and branding. This ensures that content aligns with client’s brand guidelines, creating an engaging, highly professional learning experience, that perfectly harmonises with other digital representations of the brand. It also boosts actioning design changes course-wide, rather than manually editing individual components.

The built-in Vanilla theme allows a decent level of colour customisation throughout the course build. But, for true customisation, a decent knowledge of CSS coding is required.

Articulate Rise

Until recently, theme customisation in Rise was pretty limited; only being able to update fonts, accent colour, navigation, and course labels.

Now, you can choose from three prebuilt themes:

  1. Rise.
  2. Apex.
  3. Horizon.

In addition to choosing from eight cover page layouts, you can also customise additional theme elements, such as navigation menu type, navigation button options, and lesson headers.

The major downside however, is that CSS customisation is still restricted to editing the final published output files. So, it can be achieved, but ultimately the tool is not designed for this level of customisation.

3. Ease of use

Adapt Learning

Adapt offers a super easy-to-use interface which follows a typical WordPress backend style builder, using components, blocks and articles to efficiently construct modules rapidly.

Articulate Rise

Articulate Rise is renowned for its user-friendly and intuitive interface. The drag-and-drop functionality, along with pre-designed templates, makes it easy for both novice and experienced users to create engaging elearning content, without a steep learning curve.

Whilst the pre-built, editable lessons and templates, might save time, you will perhaps feel that all courses you produce in Rise end up looking very similar in nature.

4. Interactive components

Adapt Learning

Adapt has more interactions than any other authoring tool on the market, with a wide range of superb components already inbuilt. The open source nature of this software means that developers are continually adding to the bank of components and extensions available.

You can download and use over 100 community plugins that enhance your courses in unimaginable ways.

Ignacio Cinalli is the perfect example of an external developer that supplies helpful add-ons via GitHub.

Articulate Rise

There are forums discussing ideal new features from developers, however any creation of new tools is down to Articulate building these into the software. External plugins are not an option here. You can however embed more visual interactions created within Storyline to diversify delivery.

The inbuilt transitions of interactions are just great. They load and move beautifully.

The real downside is the customisation capabilities of these interactive features. You are limited with image placement and layout, with a few editable options only. This can make it hard to really harmonise with a brand’s other web presence.

5. Accessibility

Accessibility is a major priority for us at Eggu, and both Adapt and Rise integrate features to ensure courses are accessible to all learners. This includes support for screen readers and adherence to web accessibility standards, promoting an inclusive learning experience.

Both are built to meet the minimum WCAG 2.1 AA standards, but it’s down to the developer to ensure any alternative text is manually configured.

Clear instructions are also key before any interaction in elearning; something that is consistently provided throughout Adapt, but not in Rise.

For some helpful guidance in accessibility for digital learning, why not check out our 4-part blog?

Part 1: Top tips for writing content

Part 2: Top tips for writing link text

Part 3: Top tips for design

Part 4: Top tips for writing alt text

6. Review functionality

Adapt Learning

Learning Pool’s version of Adapt Builder does offer review functionality, but this is sadly not currently available in standard Adapt package. According to discussions on forums however, this is something that is soon to come.

Articulate Rise

Without doubt the Review360 feature is one of its highlights; allowing simple team or client collaboration when finalising a build or reviewing ongoing updates.

7. LMS Compatibility

Adapt Learning

  • SCORM 1.2
  • SCORM 2004

Articulate Rise

  • SCORM 1.2
  • SCORM 2004 (2nd / 3rd / 4th editions)
  • AICC
  • xAPI
  • cmi5

8. Price

Adapt Learning

Adapt is free software to download and install onto your own server, however you do require the capabilities to do this.

Learning Pool’s Adapt Builder is linked to buying into their learning management system solution, which varies in costs depending on the end number of users.

Alternatively, there are great companies out there like Adapt Unlimited, who solely provide affordable Adapt hosting solutions delivered through the cloud.

This allows for course development to synch across computers and be shareable with your whole team, without the need for software keys or installation.

A standard team license (hosting only) starts at £880 + VAT per annum, with additional options to provide training and support.

Articulate Rise

A personal subscription to Articulate 360 starts at £960 + VAT, per subscription, per annum, with team subscriptions starting at £1295 + VAT, per subscription, per annum.

This can be secured via the official UK sales partner, Omniplex.

Summing up

Articulate Rise is great for cranking out clean, interactive learning content at a high pace. Where clients already comfortably use this in-house, it’s simple for external designers and developers to step in and support the development of ad-hoc projects.

But is it ultimately engaging enough for end users? Without the instructional or graphic design know-how, it does have the potential to create boring, one-dimensional, page-turners.

As a digital learning design agency, one of our priorities always comes back to visual impact and creating a bespoke product in line with a client’s brand.

Therefore, our personal preference often leans towards Adapt due to its customisation capabilities.

Selection of Adapt elearning mockups

Do you have a need for support in bespoke elearning development?

Speak to Eggu about our services in creative elearning, animation and video to bring your ideas to life.

Digital learning to educate customers

Posted on by Kat

When we think about digital learning, often our instinct is to visualise internal staff training. But the reality is that so much of promotion, PR and social media these days centres around building customer skills and knowledge.

Customer education is all about supporting your clients to learn about and extract the most value from your product or service.

Whether we are instructing how to use a product, shifting ideas or simply showcasing brand expertise and building a community.

So, here are our three key drivers for the use of digital learning to educate your customers.

Eggu HEART UK mobile digital learning

1. Build brand

At Eggu, we see a fine line between the techniques used in learning and promotion. Demonstrating your expertise through tutorials is a truly effective way to build brand reputation and trust.

Equally, for organisations such as charities, where sales are not the focus; educating followers on your mission is a golden opportunity to spread key messaging, promote your brand and further expand your reach.

Eggu product demonstration

2. Improve satisfaction and loyalty

Digital learning content doesn’t need to centre wholly on your product or service. Instead, it can best a great means to demonstrate your overall values of an organisation, connect with customers and welcome them into a wider community culture.

Perhaps you’re looking to introduce customers to your ethical activities and sustainability efforts?

Maybe you’re hoping to educate followers around body inclusivity and celebrate diversity?

Or perhaps you’d like to champion improving your audience’s fitness and nutrition, with healthy step-by-step recipe guides or exercise plans, all whilst showcasing your product?

Educating your customers is always a valuable investment. It can foster true loyalty, ensuring longer engagement and retention. Trust us – by sharing such content, customers will feel validated in choosing you.

3. Streamline support

It may seem obvious, but digital learning is an effective and cost effective solution for software or technical product instruction. For customers, the provision of interactive online training can itself be a huge selling point.

Evidence shows us that tutorial videos are significantly more useful to customers than providing a lengthy readable manual. By filtering users to the exact FAQ or challenge, you can resolve their queries in an instant. The result? Happy customers all round!

You will find that without sufficient customer training, some products or services will just fall flat and potentially gain you negative reviews. Supporting your clients post purchase can be just as important to retain their custom as that initial sale.

And an added bonus – it’s an ideal solution to reduce enquiries and requests for support, ultimately saving you both time and money too.

EDITED tutorial video

Do you have a product of service you would like to educate your customers on?

Speak to Eggu about our services in creative elearning, animation and video to bring your ideas to life

Things you might not know about Moodle

Posted on by Kat

With every new release, the open-source learning management system, Moodle, continues to enhance and grow.

The days of clunky, uninspiring platforms are history, with improved visual styling and an immensely friendlier user interface, now fully responsive and consistent between devices.

Plus, you’ll now see heightened security settings and a range of gradebook enhancements too. 

There’s a reason why Moodle can vouch for 300 million users worldwide, with a thriving online community of collaborative developers, freely sharing their technical knowledge.

At Eggu, we use Moodle as an effective LMS solution for those clients brand new to digital learning, looking for that complete online package. It provides a great container to securely host and manage all your online training and track user activity; all without breaking the bank. 

We’ll custom design it to your brand and needs, host it, manage it, provide administrative support and even run a technical helpdesk for the end users. Phew – Just another weight off your shoulders.

And the fact that you can use Eggu to create all your bespoke digital learning resources too, you’re guaranteed a high quality, professional and consistent delivery throughout the user experience.

So, with a stack of LMS software to choose from on the market, why can Moodle sometimes be overlooked as a great, affordable solution? We thought we’d fill you in and highlight some of the latest developments and favourite new features we love about working with Moodle.

Themes

Although Moodle have streamlined the course page design to better conserve screen space and improve user navigation, there is always room for improvement when it comes to customising the design to reflect your brand. 

By using pre-built Moodle themes and templates, you can create the right look and feel to seamlessly harmonise with your core website. Users won’t even realise they have ventured to a different site. 

ThemeForest offers a host of affordable themes and templates to help create a modern and eye-catching website for your learning environment.

All are fully customisable, allowing you to change fonts, colours and layouts. They’re super-intuitive too, built with modular blocks to mix and match in the best way that works for you.

Plus, you’ll find them packed with lots of additional features and plugins, all of which are regularly updated with new options. 

Are faves right now are Lambda, Purity and Moove.

Course layouts

One of the key improvements in Moodle 4.0 was the addition of a new collapsible and expandable Course Index on the course page.

This revised presentation of materials offers an easier and quicker solution for students to locate activities or resources and educators to track activity completion.

But never just be restricted to the formats offered within the standard Moodle. There are plenty of plugins on the market too, which provide alternate course layouts to play around with.

The Buttons course format plugin for example, is a great, simple plugin to cleverly group activities, allowing the user to navigate sections one-by-one, without being overwhelmed with a wealth of learning content in one go. The buttons are fully customisable in terms of shape, colour and listing and allow for an alternate course layout for a touch of variety. 

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for building responsive, mobile-first front-end web development. And great news – it’s fully compatible with Moodle.

When styling pages and components in Moodle, rather than inventing things from scratch that need custom styling, it’s always helpful to re-use pre-built snippets from Bootstrap.

This gives you a great start in pulling together new layouts and components, by integrating simple code to further customise your Moodle site. 

The great news is that development has already begun on upgrading Moodle from Bootstrap 4 to Bootstrap 5, with Moodle 4.6 now planned for the full launch of the latest software.

Completion progress block

The completion progress block is a great time-management tool for students, visually representing anything the user needs to complete on the course, with colour coding for quick reference. This will collate a ‘to do’ list of anything on the course with activity completion settings. 

But for teachers, managers or site admins, you can also get a helpful overview of students’ progress so far, allowing identification of those needing further support. 

Report builder

Not well versed in SQL? Creating database reports has historically required in-depth technical knowledge and hard coding. 

But the Report Builder, originally a feature of Moodle Workplace, has now been incorporated into Moodle 4.0, allowing you to easily create custom, dynamic reports, specific to your data needs. 

Access to such data is key to measure student progress, analyse the learning impact and improve course delivery.

Need your own dedicated LMS?

At Eggu, our dedicated Moodle learning management system subscription packages are based on the estimated number of users and start from as little as £2,000 + VAT per year. Even better, the more courses and resources you add to your platform, the more cost-effective it becomes. 

Why not speak to Eggu about your own dedicated Moodle platform to host and manage your bespoke digital learning?

Blue Monday Busters

Posted on by Kat

January’s third Monday, “Blue Monday”, is thought to be the most depressing day of the year.

This might be triggered by gloomy weather, post-Christmas debt, disappointment from not keeping New Year’s resolutions or dissatisfaction about going back to work.

Spoiler alert: None of this is actually true. Obviously, the darkest day of the year would be different for every one of us. Blue Monday is really just a clever PR ploy to sell holidays!

But there is truth in seasonal variations in our mental health. Bodily changes in the winter can also impact our hormones, sleeping, eating habits and even our mood.

So, in light of this trending calendar event, the Eggu team have put together some of the things we find are great to protect our mental health, both in January, and throughout the rest of the year.

Mark flicking through vinyl in a record store
Mark flicking through vinyl in a record store

Mark – For the love of vinyl

Music has the power to evoke joy and create strong associations. Listening to a great album can trigger positive emotions and memories, releasing a dose of dopamine in the brain, which definitely helps me counteract any January blues.

As a graphic designer, I appreciate the artistic and physical aspects of vinyl, as records often come with visually appealing album artwork. Choosing a record, placing it on the turntable, and carefully dropping the needle is always a more satisfying experience compared to just pressing play on Spotify.

For me, streaming is more associated with background listening, whereas vinyl records typically require more effort and attention to play, allowing me to fully engage with the music.

Entering a record store or record fair, rummaging through crates of albums and finding a bargain or rarity evokes happy memories of my childhood which cannot be replicated by any algorithm Amazon tries to produce.

Kat surrounded by sequins
Kat surrounded by sequins

Kat – Just bloody wear it

When I put on an outfit that makes me feel good… it’s like a rush of adrenaline. It gives me armour to tackle my day with confidence and positivity.

Even during lockdown, sat on Zoom after Zoom, pregnant and uncomfortable, there wasn’t a day I did not style a look and slap on some lippy. It seems crazy, but I even insist on a spritz of perfume before every video call. It makes me feel prepared and gives the meeting as much importance to me as if it were face to face.

You might think dopamine dressing always has to be bright colours and sparkle… it often is… but sometimes what you have a craving for might be a bit of grunge, DMs and a dark smokey eye. Whatever the outfit, if it’s captured and coordinated right, it has the mentally stimulating impact I’m looking for.

I’m a confessed shopaholic and huge supporter of independent brands. So much of my wardrobe I used to hold back for those special occasions. Those times we dress up for a social occasion to really feel glam and put together. But why do we lock away these items for fleeting moments each year? We should strive to capture that enthusiasm and self love every day.

In the words of my true fashion icon Dawn O’Porter… just bloody wear it! So I’m gonna!

Luci walking the Scottish hills
Luci walking the Scottish hills

Luci – Climbing the Scottish hills

Putting one foot in front of the other and filling my lungs with fresh air is my go to.

When I feel anxious, or lonely or just a bit flat, I pull on my trainers and get out for a walk. Saying hello to people I pass and smiling gives me that little rush of endorphines. Breathing the fresh air deeply slows down my thoughts and steadies any angst.

Sometimes I get the tunes pumping, sometimes I listen to a podcast, or sometimes I just listen to the world. I always make sure to stop and look around me and take in the beauty – it makes me feel lucky to live where I do, and happy I made the choice to be here.

Amy stretching in the gym
Amy stretching in the gym

Amy – Kicking negative thinking to the curb

Mental health has been one of the most talked about things over the past couple of years and for me it has taken time to find something that can really make a positive impact to my mental health.

Then I found my kind of exercise… Body Combat! As well as really pushing myself and getting the strength and weight loss benefits, the endorphins I get afterwards has really helped boost my mood and get my days started off right with a clearer mind and more motivation.

I’m the better and happier version of me having found this way of boosting my mental health!

REMEMBER: It’s always important to distinguish between temporarily feeling down and experiencing depression or a mental health problem.

If you have concerns for your mental health and are looking to seek help and support, Mind is a great place to start.

Me, myself and AI

Posted on by Luci

Here at Eggu, we’ve been watching the developments of AI closely. Ultimately pondering, how might it affect our work? Will it replace the need for human input in the digital learning industry? Despite the fear mongering, we’ve also seen some pretty amazing creative output from AI, so we wanted to learn more. There must be some pros as well as the cons.

We attended seminars, read research, had team discussions and were still feeling uninformed and undecided. That’s when our Creative Director Mark had a genius idea – ask AI to explain itself to us! Here’s what Chat GPT had to say when we asked it to write a blog about “The Pros and Cons of AI-Generated Content in the eLearning Industry”…

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant strides in transforming various industries, and the eLearning sector is no exception. The utilisation of AI in generating content for eLearning has both proponents and critics. In this article, we will explore the pros and cons of AI-generated content in the eLearning industry to help educators and learners better understand the implications of this technology.

Pros of AI-Generated Content in eLearning

Efficiency and Speed:
AI can rapidly generate vast amounts of content, including text, images, and even videos. This efficiency can save educators considerable time in developing materials, allowing them to focus on more strategic aspects of teaching.

Cost-Effective:
AI-generated content can significantly reduce production costs as it eliminates the need for human writers, designers, and editors. This cost savings can make eLearning more accessible and affordable for a wider audience.

Customisation:
AI can analyse individual learners’ progress and adapt content accordingly. This personalisation ensures that students receive tailored materials that suit their unique learning styles and needs.

Scalability:
AI can quickly adapt to changes in enrolment numbers. Whether you have 10 or 10,000 students, AI-generated content can scale up or down to accommodate the demand, maintaining consistency in quality.

Multilingual Support:
AI can effortlessly translate content into multiple languages, making eLearning accessible to a global audience. This feature enhances inclusivity and allows educational institutions to reach learners from diverse backgrounds.

Consistency:
AI can maintain consistency in content delivery, ensuring that every learner receives the same high-quality material. This uniformity can be especially valuable in standardised testing and certification programs.

Cons of AI-Generated Content in eLearning

Lack of Creativity:
AI generates content based on patterns and data, but it may struggle with creativity and innovation. Courses produced solely by AI might lack the engagement and excitement that human-generated content can provide.

Limited Contextual Understanding:
AI may not fully comprehend the nuanced context of a subject. This can result in content that is factually accurate but lacks the depth and insight that a human educator can provide.

Risk of Plagiarism:
Without proper oversight, AI-generated content can inadvertently produce materials that contain plagiarism or copyright violations. Educators need to ensure that AI-generated content is ethically and legally sound.

Quality Control:
While AI can generate content quickly, it may require substantial human oversight to ensure accuracy, relevance, and quality. Failing to review AI-generated materials can lead to subpar learning experiences.

Dependence on Technology:
Over-reliance on AI-generated content may diminish educators’ involvement in course development. This separation could erode the valuable teacher-student relationships and the expertise educators bring to the table.

Ethical Concerns:
The use of AI in education raises ethical questions about data privacy, student surveillance, and bias in content creation. These concerns must be addressed to ensure that AI benefits all learners equitably.

Conclusion

AI-generated content has the potential to revolutionise the eLearning industry by offering efficiency, cost savings, scalability, and customisation. However, it is not without its limitations, such as creativity constraints, the potential for plagiarism, and ethical concerns. To harness the benefits of AI in eLearning while mitigating its drawbacks, a balanced approach that combines AI’s strengths with human expertise is essential. Ultimately, the successful integration of AI into the eLearning industry should prioritise the enhancement of learning experiences and outcomes for all students.

Accessibility for digital learning (3/4)

Posted on by Kat

Part 3: Top tips for design

Welcome to our four part guide on accessibility for digital learning. In this third blog we will explore key points you need to consider and helpful tools when designing accessible elearning for everyone, including those with learning, visual, physical and auditory difficulties.

1. Colour contrast

When it comes to using colours, always be aware of the contrast between the background colour and font that sits on top.

To make sure colour contrasts are accessible, we use a colour contrast checker.

This ensures that we are making it as easy as possible for users to read the text.

Visit the Colour Contrast Checker website

2. Colour meaning

If you are using colours to convey meaning in your elearning design, try to avoid using these again elsewhere as this may cause confusion.

Also, try not to use colour to solely express meaning without further clarification.

For example, when presenting feedback to a question, if green indicates correct and red indicates incorrect, always include an icon, such as a tick or a cross, or results wording, so that it is more clear to a person who is colour blind.

3. Placement of imagery

Imagery can be a great asset to enhance elearning. However, the placement of an image with the content it relates to is important.

If an image is placed before the content, information may need to be provided within the alt text to clarify its relationship to the content yet to be read.

You can check out part 4 of our series on accessibility to understand more about the role of alt text.

Part 4: Top tips for writing alt text

4. Image quality

Always ensure images are of high quality, as some users may utilise a screen magnifier. Images that are too small can appear pixelated when zoomed into.

What’s next?

In part four, we’ll look closer at the role of alt text and how to best write accessible content to describe the appearance or function of imagery used within your digital learning.

Part 4: Top tips for writing alt text