Merge Articulate Studio Into Storyline

By: Justin Ferriman • February 29, 2016
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tips-imageIf you have been around the elearning industry for more than 30 minutes then you have probably heard of Articulate. For years they have been battling with Adobe Captivate as the “go-to” rapid elearning creation software.

At some point in every instructional designer’s career they will come into contact with Articulate. Be it in their lively forums or by actually using one of their flagship products: Storyline and Studio.

For those of us who have “grown-up” with Articulate, we remember the days when there was only the Studio offering (which includes Presenter, Engage, Quizmaker, and Replay).

But as they evolved as a company so did their product line with the introduction of Articulate Stroyline.

Now I won’t go into the differences between each of these options as Articulate already has created a comparison chart for reference.

What may become pretty apparent though is that these two pieces of software share a lot of the same functionality.

Which begs the question: why have two separate offerings?

It’s Not About Price

At first you would probably be inclined to think that price would be the primary decision factor when selecting between the two. But alas, they cost the same so we can rule that out.

Articulate Studio puts more of an emphasis on Microsoft PowerPoint as it is more or less a PowerPoint add-on. Which is in my opinion the primary reason Articulate continues to separate these two packages.

That, and Articulate Studio had a bigger brand name at the time Storyline was introduced (I say “had” because I hear people talk about Storyline considerably more often now). It would make sense to continue the two products as Storyline was brought into the mix.

Studio relies heavily upon PowerPoint, and as such the development cycle is dependent on Microsoft to some extent. Storyline is its own standalone solution which gives Articulate (the company) more control.

If I were to make a prediction (something I’ve been known to do) then I really believe the Articulate Studio offering is on its way out.

The last major update was in 2013. I could realistically see one more (maybe Articulate Studio ’17) as the curtain call. Heck, it’s even possible that the 2013 edition is the last one. Time will tell.

The features that exist in Studio could be developed into Articulate Storyline 3, no question about that. This would allow the development team at Articulate to be more focused (and possibility quicker) with their development of Storyline going forward.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter