In this episode of The Learning Pro Live, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Karlis Sprogis, the founder of FasterCourse. We tackled a topic that often divides the instructional design community: the use of templates.

While some designers feel the need to build every pixel from scratch, the reality of modern L&D demands speed, consistency, and high-quality visual design. Karlis and his team based in Latvia have spent years perfecting a library of resources that help developers bridge the gap between efficiency and creativity.

Here are the key takeaways from our chat about how templates can revolutionise your workflow.

The Case for Using Templates

There is a misconception that using templates makes you “lazy” or restricts your creativity. However, as we discussed in the video, it is actually about working smarter. Building complex interactions, such as a glossary with 30 active letters or a branching scenario, can take days of development time.

By utilising a pre-programmed template, you aren’t just saving time on the build; you are securing a professional “chromeless” base. This allows you to strip away the default player settings and focus your energy on what matters most: the instructional content and the user experience. Whether you are a master developer or a beginner, templates provide a safety net of professional graphic design principles, including grids, layouts, and iconography.

Nordic Design Meets Functionality

One thing that has always stood out to me about FasterCourse is their aesthetic. Heavily influenced by their location in Northern Europe, their templates feature that clean, flat, Nordic design style that is incredibly popular right now.

Karlis explained that their library now boasts over 2,000 templates across the three major authoring tools:

• Articulate Storyline
• Adobe Captivate
• Trivantis Lectora

The beauty of these files is their flexibility. They aren’t locked down. You can change colours to match your branding, swap out logos, and tweak the functionality. It empowers instructional designers who may not have a graphic design background to produce work that looks visually stunning.

The “80% Ready” Course Model

Beyond individual page templates, we discussed a fascinating offering from FasterCourse: Source File Courses.

Often, clients request compliance training, such as Data Protection, Workplace Safety, or Sexual Harassment, where the core content is 80% generic and only 20% specific to the organisation. Instead of building these from the ground up, FasterCourse provides fully built courses, including the source files.

This allows you to take a “shelf-ready” course and inject your own “magic”, your specific company procedures, branding, and tone of voice. It’s a massive value-add for freelancers and internal teams looking to roll out high-quality compliance training rapidly.

Gamification Without the Headache

We also touched on the complexities of gamification. Building leaderboards, countdown timers, and complex variable-based games is difficult. Karlis showcased some brilliant examples, including:

• The “Can You Survive a Year?” Factory Game: A resource-management simulation where learners must balance budget and sustainability.
• The Ice Cream Game: A clever, non-violent alternative to “Hangman” where wrong answers result in a melting ice cream rather than a hanging stick figure.

These templates allow developers to implement engaging game mechanics simply by swapping out the background images and questions, making high-end interactivity accessible to everyone.

Master Your Tools

Finally, for those struggling with the learning curve of Adobe Captivate, Karlis shared their new training platform. Unlike the vast community support available for Storyline, Captivate resources can be scarce. FasterCourse has launched a focused training library with exercise files to help you break things, fix things, and master the software.

Watch the full interview above to see these templates in action and discover how you can speed up your eLearning production without sacrificing quality.