Category: Articulate 360

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3 Practical Ways to Use AI Avatars Effectively in Rise

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Many e-learning creators immediately think of AI avatars as “talking heads.” But the most effective use of avatars in Rise is not as narration replacements. Instead, they work best as instructional tools that support decision-making, reflection, and practice.

When paired with the right Rise blocks, AI avatars can help create more human, scenario-driven learning experiences without overwhelming the course.

Here are three practical ways to use AI avatars effectively in Rise, along with an example of each method!

1. Use AI Avatars to Introduce a Realistic Scenario

Why This Works

AI avatars are especially effective for creating emotional context and realism. A short avatar video can frame a workplace situation in a way that text alone often cannot.

Instead of simply describing a scenario, you can let learners experience it through a realistic conversation, challenge, or moment of tension.

This approach helps learners connect emotionally before moving into decision-making activities.

Best Practices

Keep the avatar segment:

  • Short and focused
  • Around 30–60 seconds
  • Centered on one clear situation
  • Conversational and natural sounding

After the video, transition learners directly into an activity or decision point while the context is still fresh.

Best Rise Blocks to Pair With

  • Knowledge Check: Ask learners a specific follow-up question based on what they just watched.
  • Scenario: Extend the situation with multiple decision points and consequences.
  • Continue Divider: Use a continue button to separate the scenario into manageable steps and control pacing.

View an example.

2. Use AI Avatars as a Coach Between Activities

Why This Works

Another effective use for AI avatars is as a learning coach or mentor. Instead of relying on long text transitions between sections, an avatar can reinforce key ideas, encourage reflection, and prepare learners for the next activity. This creates a more guided and conversational learning experience.

A short coaching moment can help learners pause, process what they just completed, and better understand why the next activity matters.

Best Practices

Avoid scripting avatars like formal narrators.

Instead, have them:

  • Speak directly to the learner
  • Reference the previous or upcoming activity
  • Ask reflective questions
  • Keep the tone supportive and practical

The goal is to make the learner feel guided, not lectured.

Best Rise Blocks to Pair With

  • Sorting: Use the avatar to reinforce key concepts before learners complete the sort.
  • Process: Introduce each step with a short explanation of why it matters in a real-world context.
  • Labeled Graphic: Prepare learners by highlighting what details they should pay attention to and why those details matter.

View an example.

3. Use AI Avatars to Provide Role-Based Perspectives

Why This Works

AI avatars are powerful tools for presenting different perspectives, such as:

  • Managers
  • Employees
  • Customers
  • Patients
  • Stakeholders

Showing multiple viewpoints helps abstract concepts feel more realistic while encouraging learners to practice empathy and critical thinking. This approach works especially well for leadership, communication, customer service, compliance, and workplace behavior training.

Best Practices

Use multiple short clips instead of one long monologue.

Each avatar should represent:

  • A distinct perspective
  • A specific concern or challenge
  • An important idea or decision point

After learners hear different perspectives, ask them to evaluate the situation or decide what action to take next.

Best Rise Blocks to Pair With

  • Tab: Allow learners to explore each role and viewpoint individually.
  • Scenario: Build a follow-up scenario with decisions and consequences.
  • Knowledge Check: Ask learners to evaluate the situation and choose the best path forward.

View an example.

Final Takeaway

AI avatars are most effective when they support active learning, not when they simply deliver information learners could read on their own.

The best learning experiences use avatars to:

  • Introduce realistic scenarios
  • Guide reflection
  • Present different perspectives
  • Prepare learners for meaningful interaction

When paired intentionally with Rise blocks like scenarios, sorting activities, knowledge checks, and others, AI avatars can help create learning experiences that feel more human and engaging. Give them a whirl in your next Rise project! Learn more here.

5 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Rise Courses

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Rise 360 is an awesome tool for quickly creating engaging e-learning courses. The beauty of Rise is threefold: it’s easy to use, the courses look polished and professional, and the content is fully responsive. However, at the end of the day, e-learning designers know that great e-learning is not about the tool you use, and more about the quality of the content within the course itself, and some basic mistakes can have a big impact on the learning experience. Next time you’re designing a course with Rise 360, review your content and make sure you avoid the following common mistakes:

Too much text

Ultra text-heavy content is a common offense in Rise courses. The text blocks tend to be an obvious choice, the go-to block for most people. The problem is that this often leads to courses filled with endless paragraphs. This is something you want to avoid as learners can become discouraged when there’s too much reading involved. 

Pare down the text content in your course to strictly need-to-know information. Make sure there is no redundant or duplicate verbiage. Keep paragraphs short and to-the-point, no more than 2-4 sentences each. Break things out into lists, or use accordion and tab blocks to hide text; this will help avoid overwhelming learners with too much to read at once.

Not enough visuals

Visuals can be a key part of a learning experience, so it’s important to use them consistently throughout your Rise courses. As a best practice I recommend using at least one or two image blocks per lesson; if the lesson is on the longer side, perhaps even more. Consider sprinkling them throughout your lessons as something that captures the eye, adds colour and aesthetic appeal. Images can also add value in that they can help divide content within a lesson or drive home an important point or piece of information. Consider using an Image with Text block to add visual appeal while sharing an important sentence, fact, or piece of information on top of it. 

No block variety 

Text blocks are definitely the most-used block in Rise courses. Makes sense, right? Most learning content is text? Wrong! Images, interactions, videos, audio clips, drag and drop activities… are all great ways to share information that take it beyond the boring old text block.I recommend ensuring that each lesson has no more than 50% text blocks. The other 50% needs to be a variety of blocks to keep things interesting. Add images, a scenario block, a sorting activity, flash cards, or a Storyline block. There is a large variety of block types available, so familiarize yourself with them and make a consistent effort to go beyond the text block in each lesson.

Lack of interactivity

This point ties into the previous mistakes of having too much text. You don’t want to bore learners and have them read the whole time; you want learners to interact with the content.Seek out new ways to have learners engage by making decisions about content. This can be dragging choices into a Do or Don’t pile in a sorting activity, or walking through a real-life situation and making tough choices in a scenario block. Adding interactivity and the ability to interact with the on-screen content is a very helpful way to bring the learning experience to life and engage your learners. 

Endless lessons

One of the things I love about using Rise is that I’m not restricted to slide dimensions, like I am in Storyline 360 or PowerPoint. The lessons can scroll endlessly. The problem is: the lessons can scroll endlessly. While your lessons can be endless, that’s certainly not a best practice. You want to present the learning content in small, digestible chunks. If your lessons are going 20 blocks, strongly consider how you can pare it down; perhaps one long lesson can be re-organized into 2 or 3 shorter lessons instead. 

Rise 360 is a wonderful tool for quickly creating beautiful, responsive e-learning courses. But it’s important to remember that at the end of the day: it’s all about the quality of the content within our courses. By avoiding the five mistakes listed above you’ll ensure your Rise courses are top-notch and provide a great learning experience!


What are some common mistakes you’ve seen in Rise courses? I’d love to hear opinions from other instructional designers and training specialists. Let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for more e-learning and training content.

Storyline vs. Rise: When To Use Which?

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If you build online training, you’re likely familiar with the Articulate 360 suite of e-learning tools. Articulate 360 tends to be the go-to for most training developers as it’s a robust suite that offers everything needed to create e-learning; this includes multiple authoring tools, video recording software, an image library, and a Review tool. As part of the Articulate 360 suite you get access to two authoring tools: Storyline 360 and Rise 360. One of the most common questions people ask is “When do I use Storyline vs. Rise?”. Each tool serves a unique set of needs, but when you’re new to them, it can be hard to know which to use when. Here are some best practices for when to use Storyline vs. Rise. 

Use Rise 360 for…

Super-rapid development. There’s no doubt about it: Rise is the quicker tool for e-learning development. Popping in the different types of blocks is very quick and easy to do. From there, you simply add your text, insert a few images, and you’re done. I also find development is made easier by the fact that you can have a lesson that scrolls endlessly, instead of being confined to a slide’s dimensions.

Text-based content. Rise works especially well for text-heavy content, such as job-aids, policy documents, employee handbooks, and standard operating procedures. Pretty much any business document can be converted into a Rise course, so, if you’re thinking of putting it into a PDF document, consider a Rise course instead. 

Collaborative course development. Between Storyline and Rise, Rise is the more collaborative tool of the two. It allows you to have multiple people working in a course at the same time. So, if you need to involve multiple course creators, or if you want your Subject Matter Expert or reviewers to be able to make edits directly to the content, you’ll probably want to use Rise.

Seamless mobile experience. Rise offers a better experience across devices, hands down. The main reason is that Rise is responsive and automatically adapts to different screen sizes, whereas Storyline content is restricted to it’s slide dimensions. If your content will be heavily used on mobile devices, Rise is definitely your top choice.

Use Storyline 360 for…

Customization capabilities. If you’re looking to really control the look-and-feel of every screen, the fonts, the colours, and everything about your content, then you will want to use Storyline. With Rise, you’re limited to the block types, so if you want to go beyond that in terms of on-screen activities and the look-and-feel of your course, you need to use Storyline. 

Extensive interactivity. Storyline is an extremely powerful tool for building rich interactions; it even allows you to easily add logic and conditions to your interactivity so you can really control the experience and make all kinds of cool things happen on-screen. You can add animations and do things like build custom games and activities. If you want something really feature-rich, unique, or game-like, you’ll want to go with Storyline. 

Software simulations. Software sims are an excellent way to get learners using a new application without the risk of being in the real system. If you’re looking to create software sims, you’re going to want to use the screen recording capability in Storyline. This allows you to record your process once and easily break it down into step-by-step slides that automatically include captions, hot-spots, and more.

Keep the above-mentioned tips in mind next time you’re getting ready to develop a course, and use them to consider what is the best tool for the project at hand. Remember: you can have the best of both worlds and include Storyline content within a Rise course, using the Storyline block. I have used this feature a lot myself, especially when doing product training and wanting to bring in a few software sims. Personally, I find Rise to be my go-to because of its ease-of-use and mobile responsiveness; I fall-back to Storyline when I need to do something more custom or special. 

How do you decide whether to use Rise or Storyline for a project? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Let me know in the comments, and follow me on Twitter for more e-learning and training content