I'm creating a course in Storyline 2 and have a support character in it (Ask Ali) who can be used by the learners to provide contextual support at any point during the activities. I want to try and also make the character a bit more proactive and had a thought that she could appear if the learner has been in the e-learning after a certain period of time (eg. after 20 mins constant use she pops up and says, fancy a cup of coffee, take a break and rest your eyes etc).
Does anyone know if this is possible and if so how do you do it?
That's a cool idea. My REAL friend Ali never reminds me to have coffee... haha. :)
I'm not sure how you could natively support her popping up based on time alone (especially if there is a lot of untimed user interaction), but I suppose that reminder could happen after so many slides. The one thing I'd consider is how that impacts her other triggers. To avoid interfering with the users' ability to trigger her support functions, the reminder could be on another slide, or a lightbox, even.
Hoping to get some input from the rest of the community!
First, I just have to say I'm really digging the choice of name for your support character :) And just to clarify, I've definitely made Crystal a breakfast sandwich and coffee before so she would take a break ;)
Going off of Crystal's idea too, without seeing the exact setup of your course, one thing that comes to mind is selected slides throughout the course for this action to happen on. There isn't a built-in way to have it happen based on the course's overall timeline, so strategically choosing a few slides throughout to put it on may be the best option. Granted, it won't happen exactly at the same elapsed amount of time for each learner, but they would still be getting the message intermittently throughout the course.
I'll defer to the community for other ideas on how to accomplish this, but you may also want to attach your project file here so our community can get a better overall sense of your layout. I'd also recommend reaching out in our Building Better Courses forum. It's a fantastic melting pot of great design ideas and tips as well as folks with a wealth of instructional design knowledge and expertise!
A long time ago, I had done an example of a lightbox that pops up after a certain time, no matter where you are in the course. See here. The timer sits on the masterslide. I guess you could `turn off`the timer but keep the functionality to pop up your avatar after x. min.
Thank you Michael & Matthew, thats given me lots to think about and look into. I'm new to Storyline and have not used/created timers or javascript before so am currently on a rather steep learning curve. Finding this community invaluable.
Nope, no JS required. See attached the file. It was done in SL1, with layers on the masterslide. If I had to do this again in SL2, I would probably use a more elegant solution with a looped motion path as the counter. I described this option here.
Matthew, I've had a look at your 'how to create a countdown timer' and can get it to do what I want by putting it on the master slide so that it auto starts when the course starts. When it runs out it opens a lightbox slide.
What I really want is for the timer to automatically start again once it has run out so that the lightbox will pop up every 20 mins. Don't suppose you would let me know how to do this? I would be very grateful.
12 Replies
That's a cool idea. My REAL friend Ali never reminds me to have coffee... haha. :)
I'm not sure how you could natively support her popping up based on time alone (especially if there is a lot of untimed user interaction), but I suppose that reminder could happen after so many slides. The one thing I'd consider is how that impacts her other triggers. To avoid interfering with the users' ability to trigger her support functions, the reminder could be on another slide, or a lightbox, even.
Hoping to get some input from the rest of the community!
Hi Chris!
First, I just have to say I'm really digging the choice of name for your support character :) And just to clarify, I've definitely made Crystal a breakfast sandwich and coffee before so she would take a break ;)
Going off of Crystal's idea too, without seeing the exact setup of your course, one thing that comes to mind is selected slides throughout the course for this action to happen on. There isn't a built-in way to have it happen based on the course's overall timeline, so strategically choosing a few slides throughout to put it on may be the best option. Granted, it won't happen exactly at the same elapsed amount of time for each learner, but they would still be getting the message intermittently throughout the course.
I'll defer to the community for other ideas on how to accomplish this, but you may also want to attach your project file here so our community can get a better overall sense of your layout. I'd also recommend reaching out in our Building Better Courses forum. It's a fantastic melting pot of great design ideas and tips as well as folks with a wealth of instructional design knowledge and expertise!
A long time ago, I had done an example of a lightbox that pops up after a certain time, no matter where you are in the course. See here. The timer sits on the masterslide. I guess you could `turn off`the timer but keep the functionality to pop up your avatar after x. min.
Thank you Michael & Matthew, thats given me lots to think about and look into. I'm new to Storyline and have not used/created timers or javascript before so am currently on a rather steep learning curve. Finding this community invaluable.
Hi Chris, if you do decide to follow my suggestion let e know and I dig up the .story file for the timed lightbox example.
Thanks Michael. Does it use javascript as I think I'd rather do it without javascript if possible?
Nope, no JS required. See attached the file. It was done in SL1, with layers on the masterslide. If I had to do this again in SL2, I would probably use a more elegant solution with a looped motion path as the counter. I described this option here.
Thanks Michael, I'll take a look at it.
Matthew, I've had a look at your 'how to create a countdown timer' and can get it to do what I want by putting it on the master slide so that it auto starts when the course starts. When it runs out it opens a lightbox slide.
What I really want is for the timer to automatically start again once it has run out so that the lightbox will pop up every 20 mins. Don't suppose you would let me know how to do this? I would be very grateful.
Thanks Matthew
Thanks for your lo-tech solution, Michael! Using your method, I built the countdown timer I needed without complicated code! Woohoo!
Glad that Michael's solution was able to work for you as well Fletcher. Thanks for popping in to share.
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