New Articulate MVP: James Kingsley

Though it seems like just yesterday, it’s been 3 years and 8 months since we launched the Articulate Community Forums. In that time, forum membership has grown exponentially, and members have created more than 12,400 threads and more than 56,400 posts. So in the 1,338 days since we publicly launched the forums, that’s an average of 42 new posts per day — and a wealth of searchable knowledge that expands daily.

All members are key to the success of the community, but every so often an individual will stand out from the crowd, enthusiastically sharing all kinds of tips and tricks that benefit Articulate customers around the world.

That’s what the Articulate MVPs are all about: A team of customer experts who go above and beyond, consistently contributing quality information and reliably sharing their experience with with the world.

Today I’m pleased to announce the addition of our newest Articulate MVP, James Kingsley, also known as this.onEnterFrame in our forums; on Twitter as @onenterframe; and on Screenr as onenterframe.

Highlights of James’ Articulate Expertise

Here are some examples of James’ excellent contributions to the Articulate community:

James’ Frame; Entered Blog

• Free Community Articulate Skin
• Making Forklift eLearning Interesting w/Examples

Screenr Tutorials

• Full-screen Articulate via new menu item
• Remove Articulate publishing from your Flash debug cycle

Community Forums

• Course progress indicators
• Printing Quiz Results with a Kiosk
• Always resume
• Labeled Graphic limits

James to Flash Developers: “You should hug Articulate”

I asked James to share some feedback about why he uses Articulate and participates in the user community. Here’s what he had to say:

Flash developers have been leery of products like Articulate.

Just when it looked like the eLearning field was declining due to all the technical  difficulties, costs and time associated with it, a few products entered the market that brought eLearning to the masses. Articulate quickly moved into the lead because of its insanely easy learning curve. Know how to use PowerPoint? Well then, you know how to use Articulate!

For me as a Flash developer this was a boon. I could have my SMEs or instructors quickly create most of the course content and structure. Then I could focus my Flash programing on the areas of the course that really needed it. I feel this approach is in line with most modern training development theories, and it creates a quality product in less time. Before Articulate, I would need to write a lot of code to accomplish what it does in a few minutes. Articulate does my Flash grunt work, enabling me to get creative with the parts that need it.

The addition of Engage and Quizmaker allows people to make pretty cool interactions and quizzes that help keep students involved in the learning. Of course, folks always want more complex interactions so they turn to the Flash programer once again. The Articulate Presenter SDK enables me to plug my Flash piece into the main course, passing information and events back and forth.  Now with the Articulate Community Interactions I can package all of Flash stuff into a single file. That makes my Flash reusable and shareable, again reducing time and cost for eLearning development.

If I ever feel a bit lost I can always turn to the ever-growing and willing community that surounds Articulate. They are happy to help and because there are so many someone can usually point me in the right direction, if not give me an immediate solution. The community is the kind of place where you enjoy sharing your knowledge and seeking others. Many of the members have started creating Screenr screencasts of their tips and tricks, quickly producing short tutorials.

Flash developers: You should hug Articulate.

Thanks for sharing your story, James, and congrats on this honor! I look forward to your ongoing contributions to the community.