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E-Learning Challenges
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How Can You Use This Motion Path Tip in Your E-Learning Projects? #445

DavidAnderson's avatar
11 months ago

Using the 0px Motion Path Trick #445: Challenge | Recap

Happy New Year, E-Learning Heroes

This week's challenge is a bit off the beaten path compared to what we usually do. Instead of diving into a popular feature (slidersdialsvariables) or a common interaction (tabstimelineaccordion), we're zooming in on a more unique, lesser-known use of a feature. Think of this as a sandbox challenge.

Check out this example and see what I mean.

Sugary Drinks by Annabelle Grew

Why is this interesting?

Aside from the creative concept and visual design, what really grabbed my attention here is the approach Annabelle took to put this whole project together. 

Typically, drag-and-drops are set up with just a fixed number of draggable objects, right?

That's perfectly fine if you're dealing with, say, under ten items. But here's where it gets juicy: imagine you've got dozens of objects, and you want them all to be draggable.

Now, the standard move would be to create individual objects for each drag item. But let's face it, this method works, but it can make editing and managing the slide a real challenge. 

That's why knowing your tools can really help save you time and work quicker. 

How does it work?

There's only one drag object in the project. The drag cube has a motion path with a length of 0 px and a duration of .10 seconds. Each time the sugar cube is dropped on the target, the trigger tells the sugar cube to move its motion path. Because the motion path is set to 0 px, it resets the sugar cube to its default starting position of the sugar cube.

Brilliant, right?

It's not just about what you create but how you create it that can make all the difference. And that's what this week's e-learning challenge is all about!

🏆 Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to share an example that uses the 0px length motion path trick. You can recreate an existing example or play with ideas that show potential uses for this technique.

Two More Examples

Reset an Object's Position

In this example, Ron used the 0 px motion path in a way that's not just about duplicating objects. Instead, it's used to play multiple audio clips from multiple objects. The 0 px motion path resets the object's position after the learner drops the object on a single target. Ron's got a detailed forum post where he breaks down how he built his project.

Casualty Incident Response by Ron Katz

Drag-and-Drop RAID Storage Calculator

I put together this example nearly five years back, right around the time we kicked off our online webinars. I've always been a fan of Drobo and especially liked their interactive capacity calculator. The project file is available for download and if you want to see how it works.

Drag-and-Drop RAID Storage Calculator

Video Tutorial of the 0 px Motion Path Technique

✨ Share Your E-Learning Work

  • Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post.
  • Forums: Start a new 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 to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure.
  • Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness.

🙌 Last Year's Challenge:

Before you tackle this week’s challenge, check out the colorful examples your fellow challengers shared in last year’s Pantone Color challenge:

Pantone Color of the Year 2024 RECAP #444: 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.

Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.

Got an idea for a challenge? Are you interested in doing a webinar showcasing how you made one or more challenge demos? Or do you have some comments for your humble challenge host? Use this anonymous form to share your feedback:  https://bit.ly/ElearningChallengeForm.

Published 11 months ago
Version 1.0
    • LindaLorenzetti's avatar
      LindaLorenzetti
      Super Hero
      I've had to make a lot of risk matrix for several eLearning courses, none of them interactive like this though, good idea. I wasn't sure what MTTF stood for.

      You might want to tell the learner to click on the print icon to access more information.
      • PhezuluDhlod919's avatar
        PhezuluDhlod919
        Community Member
        Hi Linda,

        Thank you for the feedback.

        I am now an expert in the use of the term after encountering it in a Scenario for a Cybersecurity course that l am doing. A funny story is told of a Customer whose routers were no longer working. When taken to the manufacturer for repairs under warranty, the Customer was asked how long have the routers been operational without replacement. They quoted the number of days and the Manufacturer showed them that the figure coincided with the MTTF and there was nothing they could have done to prevent that. That stood out for me.

        Mean time to failure (MTTF) is a maintenance metric that measures the average amount of time a non-repairable asset operates before it fails.
  • Hello all, I've been learning the basics of Storyline for a couple of months and I have lots to learn!! I recently discovered this community and have found it so so helpful even to get a better idea of what kind of things you can build in Storyline. Very happy to be here with you all! :)

    This is the first challenge I'm trying out and I'm stuck. I am following the tutorial for the 0 px motion path but I've run into trouble with the counter trigger. I set the state of the object to normal when counter changes, if counter = value 0. When I copy and paste this trigger and then try to change the state of normal to custom in order to change to 1, I don't have an option for custom or to add any numerical values. Does anyone know what I'm missing here? Thanks for any suggestions you can provide!!
    • ThierryEMMANUEL's avatar
      ThierryEMMANUEL
      Community Member
      You can't be too far away, Laura. I'd love to help, but it's never easy to find the solution with a description, which may not describe the real problem, I think. Could you post your demo in the Review (whether it works or not yet, you'll update it later) with your file.story attached in the comment? Oh-Oh! Ange just offered to help just before I did. Almost the same answer. And Jodi too! :-)
      • LauraFerguson-a's avatar
        LauraFerguson-a
        Community Member
        Thanks so much Thierry! I really appreciate the encouragement and the offer to help :) I think the issue may be that I have to first create custom states for the object. I'll continue playing around with it a bit and post if I still can't get it. I don't feel ready to share my project with the world yet haha
    • JodiSansone's avatar
      JodiSansone
      Community Member
      Laura, you can also publish your file into Articulate Review and share the link here in the challenge--attach your file to the comment pane and any of us can look at it for you here. :)
      • LauraFerguson-a's avatar
        LauraFerguson-a
        Community Member
        Thanks so much, Jodi! I think I have to figure out how to add custom states and maybe then it will work...I'm not sure I'm ready to share it yet but that's a great option if I still can't get it. Thank you!! :)
  • Ange's avatar
    Ange
    Community Member
    Hi Laura, Tough to say without seeing the file. Variables can be tricky. Off the top of my head to start the trouble-shooting I would check that you have the following in place for the variable triggar "ADD 1 to counter when... " and put the variable onscreen (see around 4:05 on video) so you can see if changes you want to occur do occur as you drag the images. Another option is to upload the file in "Course Building" https://community.articulate.com/forums/building-better-courses , it's always easier to help out when the file is available as the problem of why it's not working could be any of many, many reasons. Best.
    • LauraFerguson-a's avatar
      LauraFerguson-a
      Community Member
      Hi Ange, thanks for the suggestion! I do have the "add 1 to counter" command and the counter does seem to work. I think I need to figure out how to define a custom state, maybe? Thanks for sharing the option of uploading it in "course building." I think I'll do that if I can't figure this out! Thanks again :)