Using Lightbox Slides in E-Learning Courses #316

Using Lightbox Slides in E-Learning #316: Challenge | Recap

Lightbox slides give course designers an elegant solution for presenting learners with important resources without leaving the current slide. Some of the most common use cases for lightbox slides include:

  • Job aids and handouts
  • Tables of contents and menu navigation
  • Extended resources and reading lists
  • Video how-tos and other types of media

How Do Lightbox Slides Work?

Lightbox slides are loaded on top of the current slide and resized to 80% of the original slide. To help learners focus on the lightbox content, the main slide background is dimmed, emphasizing the lightbox.

Storyline 360 Lightbox Slides

The best part about Storyline's lightbox slides is that any slide in your course can be used as a lightbox slide. This means any slide in your course (menu, dashboard, quiz results, interaction) can double as a lightbox slide.

There are dozens of practical uses for lightbox slides. Let's look at a couple of examples.

Workplace Learning & Performance

This meet-the-team interaction from Joe Waddington is a fantastic example of how lightbox slides can reuse content across an entire course. 

Each team member profile presents both individual and shared information. Personal info like one's name, job title, bio, and StrengthsFinder profiles are presented on the slide. But the shared info, the StrengthsFinder profile definitions, are loaded as lightbox slides since they're generic descriptions of each strength.

Workplace Learning & Performance

View project | Learn more & download | Joe Waddington

DiSC Insights for Managers

I like to share Jodi's example in my lightbox webinars because it shows how lightbox slides can be used to present content while helping learners remain focused in the moment without jumping out to new slides or scenes. 

DiSC Insights for Managers

View project | Download | Jodi Sansone

Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to share one or more examples that demonstrate how lightbox slides can be used in e-learning courses.

Share Your E-Learning Work

  • Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
  • Forums: Start  your own thread and share a link to your published example..
  • Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
  • Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.

Last Week’s Challenge:

Before you dive into this week’s challenge, check out the interactive timeline examples your fellow community members shared over the past week:

33 Creative Examples of Interactive Timelines in E-Learning #315

Interactive Timelines in E-Learning RECAP #315: Challenge | Recap

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

225 Comments
Jeffrey Riley
Patti Myers
Patti Myers
Ange CM
Amy Palian
David Anderson

I had to pull my 6th-grader in for some help with your example, Amy:-p Thanks for sharing this week. I like the visual feedback you added for the markers to indicate correct and incorrect choices. That's a nice touch and something I think a lot of experienced users don't even know is possible with markers. The only feedback I'd offer is regarding the placement of the on-slide submit button. I didn't expect to see it in the same place as the previous button. Being a primary button, I'd expect to see it visually emphasized over the next button. And thinking about it, since the next button is inactive, you could either 1) add opacity to reduce its emphasis or even place the submit button in the next button's location. Anyway, this is a great example of lightbox slides (and general c... Expand

Amy Palian

Hi David, lol, oh trust me, I ask my 9th grader about all sorts of things I don't know about. I totally get it :). Thanks for the wonderful feedback and suggestions you gave me. When I was testing it out, I felt that the submit button is intuitively at the wrong place, but the thought of making the next button invisible until it's activated never crossed my mind. Thanks so much for giving me the tip and the feedback. I'll edit it because this is something I want to add to my portfolio ;). As for the markers, I created new states for them and customized the colors to green and red. I'm glad my sample provides usefulness for other IDs. Isn't it wonderful the things we learn when we step outside of the box or see other people's work? Thanks for keeping an active community here. You are ve... Expand

Allison LaMotte
CONNIE JONES
Jennifer Sweet
Reginald J