And Why It Matters for Your Portfolio
At GimmeCredit, we believe the best way to show your value as a future Instructional Designer is to demonstrate real, hands-on skills. That’s why we focus on industry-standard tools like Articulate Rise.
If you’ve been scanning job postings, you’ve noticed Rise shows up everywhere. It’s become the go-to tool for creating responsive online courses, which means employers expect you to know it.
Rise can feel intimidating when you’re just starting out. The interface looks clean and simple, but when you actually sit down to create something, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the options.
Where do you even begin?
We’ve created a new video walking you through the basics of Articulate Rise 360, one of the most widely used authoring tools in Learning & Development.
Why We Created This Tutorial
The official documentation from Articulate is comprehensive, but it’s a lot to digest when you just want to build something that shows you can use the tool.
So we created a straightforward walkthrough that gets you comfortable with Rise basics – the core functionality that lets you create a solid portfolio piece.
Our focus is to help you build something that demonstrates instructional design thinking; clear content structure, appropriate interactions, and engaging learner flow. These fundamentals are what make your portfolio stand out, and they’re the first thing an employer looks for when evaluating whether you are ready to contribute on day one.
What You’ll Learn
This isn’t a comprehensive masterclass, it’s a practical introduction that gets you creating immediately:
Getting oriented: What to focus on (and what to ignore). Rise has lots of bells and whistles, but you only need to focus on a few key areas to get started.
Block-based thinking: How Rise courses are actually built by stacking content blocks together. Once you understand this concept, everything else clicks into place.
Essential blocks: Text, images, and interactive elements – the building blocks you’ll use in most courses.
Real workflow: From clicking “create new course” to having a functional lesson with content that actually works.
Learning from examples: We walk through completed courses so you can see what’s possible and get ideas for your own projects.
Why This Matters for Your Portfolio
The reality is employers aren’t looking for Rise experts. They want to know you can use industry-standard tools to create learning experiences.
This tutorial gives you enough proficiency to:
- Build a course section that showcases your instructional design thinking
- Demonstrate you understand modern e-learning development
- Show comfort with authoring tools (a skill that transfers to other platforms)
- Create an asset for your portfolio instead of just talking about what you’d build
The goal is to experiment, to build, and to show potential employers that you can turn instructional design concepts into actual learning experiences.
Getting Started
Don’t worry about making it perfect, get comfortable with the interface and build something simple.
Your first Rise project doesn’t need to be groundbreaking. It needs to demonstrate that you can:
- Organize content logically
- Use appropriate media and interactions
- Create a learner experience that achieves specific objectives
The portfolio elements that matter.
What’s Next From Us?
This tutorial is part of our broader approach to helping our Participants build a portfolio that gets noticed. Rise proficiency is just one piece, but it’s one employers expect to see.
Our approach is simple: learn the essential blocks first, skip the AI features for now, and focus on building something you can actually show to employers. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, you can explore advanced features, experiment with more complex interactions, and develop your own style.
Walk away with a new skill and a portfolio piece you can be proud of.
Check out the program to see more!
If you’re ready to explore our program, check out our latest updates and see how we can support a successful career transition!