Collaboration in Articulate Storyline - best practice?

Hi Henry,

We are a small team and are working on huge projects dealing with 1000 of slides; We have to deliver training course on Aviation safety. The raw material are law texts with over more than 2000 pages… so go figure…

What we did, we divided the raw material in its smallest parts, in our case paragraphs (which sometime span more than 2-3 pages). Each paragraph was developed as if it were a standalone training course (based on the slide template), proper navigation, scenes, layers, animation, the works…

In our case, a paragraph can be used in different training courses. So for us a training course for is a collection of individual paragraphs which are placed in a certain context within the course (via through navigation).

Here is how we work (also attached a part of my presentation to our management)...

• We create a template for slide development colour schemes, navigation…) – also for quizzes
• We also created a template for course development (player default, Disclaimer, glossary, definitions, resources…) the course template is also based on the slide template (to keep the same slide masters)
• We created an XL-sheet keeping track of which paragraph is used in what course and whether the paragraph is developed or not
• We created a directory structure on a common network drive (1 paragraph = 1 directory)
• Each paragraph is developed locally on our C-drives. Each slide is based on the slide template.
• When a paragraph is finished, we copy it into it appropriate directory on the common-drive.
• If we use referenced material (PDF’s, videos…) we first copy it into the appropriate directory and the link it with our slide. This will allow SL to find the material when the course is assembled
• When all paragraphs for a course have been developed we start with the course assembly.
• We create a new course base on the course template
• We import (not copy/paste) the paragraphs in the course (using new scene option when importing)
• We import (not copy/paste) the quizzes in the course
• When all paragraphs/quizzes have been imported we create the context by creating course specific glue slides. (specific menu slide,….)

Hope it helps…

I can give you more information but then you’ll have to send me a personal message…

Cheers

Geert

Thanks for reply Geert, this is very useful info!

A few more questions:

• How do you deal with global changes to the template – if client wants to change the logo, or font etc? Do you apply the changes when you assemble the files, or apply the changes on each individual paragraph file?

• I encountered quite a few bugs when importing slides from another file (font size changed, images not appearing). Is there any work around this issue?

Thanks again.

Hi Henri,

To circumvent the problem of fonts changing when importing I've noticed, that when everybody uses the common slide-template (somewhere on your common drive), the problem is kept minimal... In our case (non-existent). Of course developers need to have the discipline to ensure that the fonts are consistent in their module(s)

When developing modules, we don’t care about the logo’s or other cosmetic course things… This is all done during the assembly phase. Of course when slides are developed you should care about logo-sizes and positions, yet this is not something that changes every day…

If you use different slide masters when assembling your courses, you can give each course a different branding, so you can pass by the ca$h register every time…

If your source material changes (eg in our case the law), then thanks to the XL-sheet we can identify which courses are affected, change them and create a delta course, only with the applicable changes à $$ again…

 It is a lot of administrative overhead, yet when you do it right its very effective

Cheers

Geert

Great post Geert, exactly the kind of advice I was looking for!