Both Evolve Authoring and Articulate Rise are responsive authoring tools and are ideal for creating e-learning courses that are intended to be used on different devices. Learners can access the courses on a smartphone, desktop PC, or tablet - the format adjusts automatically to the screen. Both tools can be used to create engaging and interactive e-learning courses that provide learners with an impeccable user experience. However, there are some differences that we want to take a closer look at in this blog post.
Customization Options
Evolve Authoring offers significantly more customization options than Articulate Rise when it comes to the design of courses. Companies can better visually align their courses with their corporate identity by defining different colors, integrating several fonts and font sizes, and logos with Evolve. For different types of text, such as instructional text, specific formatting can be set across courses.
With Rise, customization options are limited, as you can only select an accent color and choose from prefabricated header and menu layouts.
Consistency
Both tools offer the ability to create course or block templates that can be reused. This can provide authors with support and ensure greater consistency in the structure of individual courses. The significant advantage that Evolve offers is the so-called Themes. These determine the design of a course. One can create a wide variety of themes, and an existing theme can be used for multiple courses. This ensures an easy way to achieve visual consistency between courses, even if they are created by different users. In Articulate Rise, a separate theme must be created for each course.
Interactivity
Evolve Authoring offers a wider range of interactions and possibilities with over 50 components than Articulate Rise, which currently provides around 30 components. Triggers and variables can be used to make courses in Evolve even more varied. For example, course logic can be adapted, and different content can be displayed or hidden depending on responses or interactions.
In addition, Evolve has some built-in gamification features, such as collecting points, stars, or badges, which are not yet available in Articulate Rise.
Rise is continually evolving and currently offers a lower number of prefabricated components. However, many topics can still be well covered with the available components. Especially for learners with little e-learning experience, courses with simple interactions are easier to use and do not overwhelm them.
User Interface and Usability (for Authors)
The significant advantage of Articulate Rise is its simple and intuitive user interface. Rise is therefore particularly suitable for beginners in e-learning creation, as you can quickly start designing courses with little training time. The fact that there are fewer features and settings in Articulate Rise than in Evolve also means that you can hardly do anything wrong or "break" the courses.
Due to the variety of settings, Evolve Authoring requires some practice, and the theme must be designed before starting course creation. However, once you have found your way around the user interface and understood the functionality, you can also easily create simple courses here.
What are the Authoring Tools suitable for?
Both authoring tools are ideal for learning content that is intended to be accessed on different devices such as desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. Rise as well as Evolve offer a responsive design, which means that the content adapts to the screens.
Articulate Rise is particularly suitable for creating simple topics and for a target group that has little experience with e-learning courses. It is also suitable for situations that require quick content delivery and do not require a high degree of interactivity. Companies that already use Articulate Storyline 360 also have Rise included in their subscription. If you want to use a responsive authoring tool in addition to Storyline, Rise is a good choice in this case as it avoids additional purchase costs.
Evolve Authoring covers a wide range of topics - from short and simple learning nuggets to complex subjects and software training. It is also suitable for people who want to engage more deeply with the authoring tool - with Evolve, you can get the most out of your learning content and offer learners an exciting learning experience. The licensing costs for Evolve are also lower than for the Articulate 360 Suite.
Highlights
Evolve Authoring offers some special highlights that are not available in Articulate Rise, including interactive infographics, interactive videos, and simulations.
Articulate Rise, on the other hand, offers the ability to easily create interactive scenarios that are not available in Evolve Authoring in this way. Additionally, authors can create diagrams directly in the tool.
Conclusion
Both authoring tools have different strengths and are suitable for different applications. As an agency, we work with both tools - depending on the requirements of our clients. Before deciding to purchase an authoring tool, you should carefully consider the requirements of your e-learning courses and the needs of your learners and authors.
