Import Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and Other Multimedia Content to Your Course

If you want to use Captivate, Storyline, or iSpring files in Thinkific's Multimedia lesson, follow these instructions for how to properly export these file types so that they can be hosted on Thinkific. Multimedia files must be exported for the web (HTML5).

About Using Multimedia Content in Thinkific

If you want to include content created in a third-party content authoring tool (such as Rise 360, Storyline, or Adobe Captivate) as a SCORM-compliant course, you can do it on Thinkific Plus! With Thinkific Plus, you can create engaging, interactive learning experiences with games, choose-your-own-adventure paths, and simulations through SCORM courses, while seamlessly integrating your learning content onto Thinkific!

Learn more about SCORM and how to create SCORM-compliant courses here: Create SCORM-Compliant Courses.

This article provides instructions on how to export content created in third-party authoring tools and import them in Thinkific without SCORM reporting. You might be able to use Thinkific-built reporting to track certain actions. Learn more in the section below.

Export Content from Articulate Storyline

Learn how to export content from Articulate Storyline here.

While the above article is specific to Storyline 1, the same instructions should work for later versions of Storyline, including Storyline 360 (included in the Articulate 360 suite.)
Regardless of which version of Storyline you are using, make sure to select the Web tab option in the Publish popup window, instead of the LMS option. This is explained in the 'Optional' set of instructions in the above article.
Make sure to select publish as HTML5-only output. This is the recommended publishing format to ensure compatibility with all major browsers on desktop and mobile devices.
Ensure that you've set the files to be published for web distribution.

Export Content from Adobe Captivate

Learn how to export content from Adobe Captivate here.

Make sure that you uncheck the Enable Reporting option for your project when exporting. Visit Setting up Preference in Adobe Captivate for details on where to find that setting.
Compress the components into a .zip file to be uploaded to Thinkific.

Export Content from iSpring

Learn about export options in iSpring here.

To export iSpring Files for Thinkific, open your iSpring project and follow iSpring's Help Center article on Publishing to My Computer.
Make sure you select HTML5 as your format of choice under Output Options.

Note: Internet Explorer 8 does not support HTML5.

Add Your Content to Your Thinkific Course

Once you have exported your file for web, it can be added to Thinkific in 2 ways:

Upload the file to an external hosting service and then add the URL of the hosted content to a Multimedia Lesson. This is available on all plans.

If your content is hosted on Articulate Rise 360, they no longer support iframing through their Rise share link. This means you must use our upload content option, listed below, in order to host your Rise content on Thinkific servers. Click here for more information.
Upload the file directly onto Thinkific. On our Start plan and higher, we can host your files for you, so you can simply upload the .zip file directly to a Multimedia Lesson.

Multimedia Content and Reporting

If you convert your content to HTML5 and host it in Thinkific, you will be able to use our built-in reporting. Our reporting is focused on progress through the course, which includes overall lesson views and completion.

You will not be able to report on specific activity within a single lesson, e.g. when a student clicks interactive HTML5 content. However, we have many reporting options measuring engagement at the overall lesson and course level! You can learn more about our reporting options here:

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my file not working?

Sometimes, individual browser securities may cause older versions of published Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline files to not work within Thinkific. If you have access to the original file, we recommend re-exporting the file with an updated version of your publishing program.

For Articulate, you can use their Articulate Updater to scan and update published files, or update your Storyline Software then republish after.
For Adobe Captivate, you can learn more about their available system updates through their Help Center.

If you are experiencing a zip file error or white screen, make sure to check out our Multimedia troubleshooting guide here.

Do you recommend using Rise or Storyline content?

Both Articulate Rise and Storyline can be included in Thinkific.

This is an example of Storyline content in a Thinkific course:

Rise can also be used, however, the default settings can create a double navigation menu due to our built-in Course Player sidebar, which can cause some confusion for students when navigating through lessons.

To prevent this, we recommend using Rise's Sidebar Visibility feature to remove the sidebar from the course. This is an example of how Rise will look when the sidebar is not removed:

Is there a recommended frame size when exporting multimedia content?

The recommended frame size for web-hosted content is 16:9, as most computer monitors follow this ratio. That being said, the ideal frame size may depend on your content and the program you are exporting it from.

Why do students see a Complete & Continue button on Multimedia Lessons, even if they haven't clicked through all of the lesson content?

With Multimedia Lessons, the Complete button is always displayed. This is because the Rise, Storyline and any other multimedia content does not 'talk' to The Thinkific Course Player to let it know when lesson content has been completed by the student. For this reason, the Complete button is shown so that students are able to advance to the next lesson after finishing any multimedia content. If you are looking for a solution that allows you to import multimedia content without the Complete & Continue button, check out Create SCORM-Compliant Courses.

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