In September, participants started seeing a brand-new step type: polls. On the authoring side, Sparkwise Architect can now produce a much richer set of resources, and authors can rehearse a module end to end and leave feedback exactly where it applies. Authors can also bring in an existing e-learning course as a starting point, and review Archie's plan before any drafting begins. Client admins got post-session email scheduling and larger dynamic-group sessions. Here are the details:
⚙️ For client admins
Client admins can now schedule custom emails to be sent after a session ends. Combined with last month's change that sends post-session emails only to participants who attended, this makes it easy to follow up with a recap, a survey, or next steps at just the right moment.
We've also raised the ceiling on dynamic-group sessions. Admins can now schedule dynamic-group sessions — including self-registration sessions — with up to 250 participants per timeslot, and we'll continue to automatically match participants into small groups as they arrive.
✨ For session participants
Participants will start seeing a new type of step: polls. Polls support a range of question formats — single-choice and multiple-choice, questions with a correct answer and questions without one, and questions with or without a detailed explanation. After submitting their own response, participants can see how other attendees responded, which makes polls a natural starting point for group discussion.
We've also made microphone troubleshooting clearer. If another application takes over a participant's microphone mid-session, they'll now see a message explaining what happened and what to do next.
🏛️ For module authors
Last month we made Architect's early phases more forgiving and its later phases more transparent. This month we focused on what authors can build, and on how easily they can review it.
Check the plan before the draft. In Phase 3, authors can now review, refine, or replan Archie's plan before it drafts the module outline. That means the overall shape of a module gets agreed on first, before any detailed drafting begins.
A wider range of resources. Archie can now draft and turn a script into a presenter video, render styled rich-text cards as PDF resources, and build drag-and-drop whiteboards that mix locked components with ones participants can move and edit. Authors can also build poll steps using a variety of question types (more on polls below). Generated image and PDF resources now match the vertical or horizontal orientation of the step that contains them.
Better previews, easier edits. Every step resource now gets a high-resolution preview image, styled differently by resource type so it's easy to tell at a glance what's what. And authors can now ask Archie to change a resource right from the resource itself, then keep or revert the change with one click.
Start from what you've already built. Authors can now import a SCORM, xAPI, or cmi5 course package as a Material. Archie can then use how that course was built as the starting point for a new module — useful for teams moving existing e-learning content into live, collaborative sessions.
Chatbots that say hello, and steps that share the mic. Authors can now write a chatbot's opening message, preview it, and have it greet participants in the live session. Auto-drafted Builds can also include read-aloud steps that automatically rotate through named participants, so everyone in the group gets a turn.
Conciseness, measured. When drafted step content is evaluated for conciseness, it's now judged on real reading load — and Archie shows the counts, so authors can see exactly where a step runs long.
Rehearse, then leave notes. Editors can now preview a module from Build and rehearse it as participants will experience it. While rehearsing, they can leave a note on a step, its instructions, or one of its resources, and that note lands as a comment on the matching part of the step's Build card.
Architect is currently available to clients working with us on custom module builds. Reach out if you'd like to see it in action.
That's the update for this month!
Interested to see what we've released in past months? Highlights from our changelog can be found in our Product Release Notes.
