Easily Recreate Articulate Courses for Immersive Learning and XR

Kyla Ball August 1, 2025

As organizations continue to invest in digital learning, awareness and demand for immersive learning experiences in employee training are at an all-time high. Traditional eLearning tools like Articulate are powerful for creating structured course content and module-based learning, but they fall short when it comes to creating the real-life, interactive learning environments that realistically replicate the locations or situations in which employees will be working, and are so vital for employee onboarding as well as CPD.

You can fill that gap with ThingLink. With its new features for AI-powered creation, you can transform your static training modules by incorporating interactive, authentic, real-world experiences. This should dramatically improve learner engagement, contextual understanding, and knowledge retention, all of which are of critical importance when building employee training.

Is it Enough to Simply Embed Immersive Training Content?

If you are already an Articulate user, you have two choices: 

1. Embed immersive ThingLink content into your existing course content for a more immersive experience. 
2. Future-proof your training by easily creating XR-ready content in ThingLink. 

Let’s compare the two possible options.

Option 1: Combine Articulate and ThingLink

Articulate is an industry favorite for corporate training, safety training, and more. It helps instructional designers create solid, structured content for online learning.

However, on its own it lacks native support for:

• 360° video and 3D models
• Easy creation processes
• Fully immersive learning environments to put virtual training into context

That’s where ThingLink comes in. As the leader in easy immersive content creation, ThingLink allows anyone to quickly and easily transform images, videos, and 360° environments into interactive learning assets, while only taking a fraction of the time to design. Whether you’re building a safety training module or a product tutorial, ThingLink enables your learners to explore, engage, and experience training content in realistic, multimedia-rich ways.

Why Add ThingLink to Your Articulate Toolkit?

You may have already invested in creating great training content using Articulate. But if you’ve hit limits in engagement, interactivity, or multilingual support, you’re not alone. Here are a few signs it’s time to evolve your learning formats:

“Our content feels flat, even though it’s well-designed”
“We need a faster way to localize training”
“Our teams need to see what it looks like on the job”
“We want to explore XR, but can’t justify a full rebuild”

ThingLink solves all of the above, by helping teams embed ThingLink rich, spatial environments, from factories and labs, to offices and field sites, into Articulate. This pairing is especially effective for product and safety training, where showing environments and procedures is far more powerful than describing them.

It’s very straightforward to embed ThingLink scenes into Articulate’s online courses using web objects, iframed links, or direct URL access, enabling seamless integration between the tools.

Together, this hybrid approach empowers learning and development teams to develop training with both depth AND interactivity, at speed.

Real-World Applications for Immersive Training Content

• Ideal for onboarding, safety tours of facilities, or exploring new products and processes
• Layer in real-world scenarios that simulate actual job tasks and answer actual training needs and challenges.
• Bring product training to life with 3D models, labels, and hotspots.

• Scenario-Based Learning: Place employees in a realistic work environment where they make decisions with real consequences.
• Interactive Virtual Tours: Guide new hires through different zones and let learners explore their new workspace, products or protocols before even stepping foot in their new location

Option 2. Make the Transition to ThingLink XR

With its unmatched integrations and interoperability, ThingLink makes it easy to use the same immersive content you create for embedding in Articulate courses as fully immersive, XR-ready learning experiences – without starting from scratch.

1. It’s Easy and Seamless – No Rebuild Required

Making the switch from Articulate to ThingLink XR doesn’t mean losing your current work. You can start by embedding ThingLink into your Rise 360 courses via iframe or URL. Then, when you’re ready, you can repurpose that same content for immersive learning in VR headsets, like Meta Quest, with minimal effort. Instructional designers can continue using familiar assets while layering in the power of spatial learning, without code or 3D design skills. Leveraging XR training has proven to lower training costs, increase knowledge retention, and improve the scalability of training programs.

2. Recreate Existing Content for XR –  Much Faster and More EasilyThan You Think

ThingLink provides tools that help you quickly convert your existing 2D training into engaging 3D and 360° experiences. The AI-powered ThingLink Scenario Builder it intuitive to use, allowing anyone to recreate real-world job situations, while templates and branching logic help streamline the development of immersive modules. For safety, product, or process training, this means you can create lifelike, context-rich learning environments faster than ever before, and in multiple languages, too.

ThingLink immersive content is not limited to VR headsets. Any ThingLink content you create can instantly be shared to any screen, including desktops, mobile devices, and even large-scale shared immersive spaces. As well as easy integrations with your organizational LMS, ThingLink content can also be shared anywhere using a straightforward URL.

3. ThingLink is Tomorrow’s Tech – Articulate is Today’s

While Articulate remains a leading tool for structured, slide-based learning, ThingLink XR is built for the next evolution of workplace learning. From immersive onboarding to hands-on safety training, learners now expect training to be visual, experiential, and available across devices, including mobile and VR. ThingLink’s XR capabilities position your learning ecosystem for the future, allowing you to meet growing demands for accessibility, engagement, and real-world simulation.

To further future-proof your training content, ThingLink is embracing cutting-edge capabilities on the latest Quest headsets like the 3 and 3s, including pass-through technology that blends real-world environments with digital overlays for immersive Augmented Reality learning experiences. Support for 3D models further extends the scope of what’s possible, enabling the integration of richly detailed, interactive objects into training scenarios. Looking ahead, planned updates for 2025, such as offline viewing and content localization, will ensure your training remains accessible, adaptable, and effective across a wide range of environments and learner needs.

Case Studies: ThingLink XR in Action

Immersive VR Training Transforms Warehouse Safety and Efficiency

Stora Enso rolled out hands-on training modules for forklift drivers and warehouse teams using ThingLink, with 3D and 360° VR simulations on Meta Quest headsets – available in 11 languages. The outcome? Greater engagement, improved knowledge retention, quicker course completions, enhanced accessibility, and major cost savings.

Mitsubishi Electric UK’s XR Training Cuts Costs, Saves Miles, and Scales Globally

Previously limited by just two UK training centers and a small trainer team, sessions often required expensive overnight stays and faced delays. Now, ThingLink-powered XR training is delivered through multi-session courses on Meta Quest 3 headsets – accessible to both new hires and external customers. The shift saves over £220,000 annually on materials and catering, and an estimated 462,600 travel miles. Training is more engaging, with 99% of participants recommending it. Plans are in place to roll it out globally for even greater efficiency and savings.

More Real-World Use Cases for ThingLink Immersive Learning

From manufacturing, healthcare, energy, logistics, to retail – here are additional ways our customers are upgrading their training content to immersive XR content:

• Emergency procedures: Interactive simulations of what to do, and where to go
• Product training: Visualizing how tools, equipment, or systems are used
• Multilingual training for global teams: Easily duplicate scenarios in multiple languages

The result? Higher engagement, faster knowledge transfer, and fewer costly mistakes.

With ThingLink you get:

• XR-ready, mobile-first content
• Branching scenario tools with AI-powered scene generation
• Immersive training without the need for coding or 3D design skills 
• Insights into learner behavior via detailed analytics
• PLUS Flexible embedding into Articulate via iframe or URL if you still need it during a transition phase

By transitioning to ThingLink XR, you’re not just enhancing your current training – you’re future-proofing your learning strategy. Organizations like Stora Enso and Mitsubishi Electric are already seeing measurable benefits: cost savings, better accessibility, and significantly improved learner outcomes. And with analytics built in, L&D teams can finally track engagement and performance across immersive modules, gaining insights that lead to better, data-informed training decisions.

Make the switch from Articulate to ThingLink XR – because it’s never been easier to lead the next generation of digital learning.

Learn More

Check out our webinar playlist on the ThingLink YouTube Channel, or check out the case study examples below to see how ThingLink is used by other organizations for creating immersive simulations in their employee training programs.

Register to watch our new webinar, Designed for Impact: A Complete Walkthrough of the ThingLink Scenario Builder live or on catch up.

Join ThingLink’s LinkedIn Community to connect with other ThingLink users and Learning and Development professionals in corporate training, K-12 and higher education.