UIC’s Biomedical Visualization Program Builds Careers With Articulate 360

The Challenge

A field that never stops changing, and tools that couldn’t keep up

Biomedical visualization sits at the intersection of several fast-moving fields: science, medicine, visual design, and technology. For over a century, BVIS has evolved alongside each of them. 

“As those fields continue to change, so does our curriculum,” says Leah Lebowicz, BVIS Program Director.

Today that means training students to be fluent in both the science itself and the communication skills needed to make it understandable to a non-specialist audience. That training happens in two directions: Students encounter e-learning constantly in their own coursework (anatomy, biochemistry, pathophysiology) and across the university in onboarding and professional development, and they also build e-learning themselves as part of their required coursework. That dual exposure, as both learner and builder, shapes how the program teaches instructional design.

Before adopting Articulate, the program had tried a mix of general web design platforms and a dedicated e-learning authoring tool to teach these skills, but none of them worked well.

“Students consistently found the old interfaces clunky and frustrating, and the software often became an obstacle rather than a creative tool,” says Sam Bond, BVIS Clinical Assistant Professor, who teaches Articulate in the program. That was a particular problem for a program focused on learning theory: The available tools couldn’t keep up with the interactive learning experiences the coursework demanded. 

What the program needed was a platform capable of supporting that ambition, one that would let students spend their time on instructional design instead of fighting the interface.

The Answer

A platform to focus on the idea, not the interface

BVIS was introduced to Articulate when a collaborating organization introduced the team to Storyline. Quickly, it became clear how much more capable it was than what the program had been using. 

“Articulate is such a good fit because it complements these technologies rather than competing with them,” says Bond. The ability to customize navigation, integrate a wide range of media, embed external applications, and add custom code gives students the flexibility to build more advanced, interactive experiences.

That value has held up as AI reshapes content creation elsewhere. “As AI continues to change content creation, we’ve found that Storyline remains valuable because students still need to design meaningful learning experiences,” says Lebowicz. “Technology can generate content, but thoughtful instructional design remains a human skill.”

Storyline is taught in three of the program’s courses—one required and two electives—and many students carry it into their independent graduate research. 

“One of Storyline’s greatest strengths is its versatility,” says Bond. “It provides the flexibility needed for the kinds of custom interactions, serious games, and immersive experiences our students are expected to create.” Just as important, she says, is that the software gets out of the way: “It’s clear that the platform prioritizes user experience, allowing students to focus on instructional design rather than software limitations.”

Rise is used more by faculty and collaborators elsewhere in the university, who build and maintain their own course content directly. BVIS students benefit from those modules as learners because they’re so easy to access and maintain. 

Two recent student projects show what’s possible for students to build with that kind of flexibility. One alum, Jer Weann Ang, created an award-winning Tumor Pseudoprogression module that walks learners through a complex radiology diagnosis, pairing narrative scaffolding with an explorable 3D model, imaging, and data so learners can examine the concept from multiple angles rather than just reading about it. BVIS student Madison Taylor used Rise to combine an interactive 3D anatomical model with a shared learning session for physical therapy and dental students, held live and synchronously.

Neither project would have worked with a tool built only for slides and quizzes; both needed a platform flexible enough to hold custom media and interaction.

Unlocking Human Potential

Courses that connect people with science more deeply and more equitably

Across UIC, adopting Articulate has changed how both students and faculty experience training. It’s freed BVIS students to spend more time refining instructional design instead of working around software limitations and given faculty elsewhere in the university an easy way to build and maintain their own course content directly. 

“The response from students has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Bond. “As we’ve expanded our use of Storyline, we’ve seen student projects become increasingly sophisticated, allowing them to spend more time refining instructional design instead of working around software limitations.”

One of the clearest examples of that impact is a graduate research project by Khorizon Dunn Lee developed in collaboration with the UIC College of Medicine: an interactive module built to help medical students recognize the signs and symptoms of liver disease across diverse skin tones, a topic with direct implications for health equity and diagnostic accuracy. The project has since been adopted into the UIC College of Medicine curriculum, meaning training built by a graduate student now helps educate the physicians who will treat future patients. 

“Seeing a graduate research project evolve into a resource used to educate future physicians reinforces for our students that the learning experiences they create can extend far beyond the classroom and have a meaningful impact on medical education and, ultimately, patient care,” says Lebowicz.

The impact carries into students’ careers well after graduation. “Graduates report using Storyline skills in learning design, project management, museum exhibit development, healthcare education, and scientific communication,” Lebowicz says. “Having learned Storyline allows them to rapidly prototype ideas while grounding those ideas in sound educational design. With insight into both design thinking and logic, they can bring an efficiency to their work that is increasingly required of today’s communicators.” Because Storyline is widely used across healthcare, higher education, and corporate learning, graduates often arrive with skills employers can use immediately.

That work ties directly back to the program’s larger purpose. 

“By combining educational research with powerful authoring tools like Storyline, students learn to create experiences that are scientifically accurate, visually engaging, and accessible to diverse audiences,” Lebowicz says. “When those projects are designed thoughtfully, they help connect people with science in deeper, more meaningful ways that ultimately promote empathy, understanding, and equity.”

With Articulate 360, UIC’s Biomedical Visualization program trains graduate students to turn complex science into training that follows them into their careers, and in one case, straight into a medical school curriculum.