If you have multiple sections in an eLearning courese atogether totaling about 60 slides, what is the best way to strucure the sections? Should you use branching or multiple scenes if you want to give users access to any of the modules and keep track of their progress from one welcome slide?
From a development/organizational perspective, it might help to drop the sections into different scenes. You could put your navigation slide in scene 1 and then divide up the sections from there. At the end of the scene you'd have the next button jump back to the menu slide.
The other thing that I do using scenes is to always put all Lightbox slides into one scene, remembering to take out all the "Next Slide" Triggers from each one.
That way I can easily keep track of what is a slide, and what is displayed as a Lightbox.
Good advice Bruce. And I frequently work as Mike described. And to combine both methods, instead of having the user go back to the first menu scene after each scene/branch, I've used a Lightbox slide as the menu with its trigger up in the player next to the Resources tab. That way the user can jump to the menu at any point in the course.
That's a slick idea. While I used a lightbox slide as a "scoreboard" in my demo course when Storyline first launched but hadn't thought of using it as a persistent menu slide.
I sort of came up with the idea when trying to figure out how to make a single menu that could link both within a SL file and to other SL files since the built in side bar menu can only be used within a file. By using a Lightbox you can set up the links to go anywhere you want.
Besides doing what Bruce suggests for having a separate scene for lightbox slides and what Brett suggested as as menu, I also keep some resources in a scene that the learner will never access. Like slides that got cut, some developer notes, etc.
I also put the quiz in a separate scene, along with any resources for custom tabs in the top menu.
David, I don't have an example I can share but it's pretty straightforward. Just create a slide with a menu structure of internal links to different sections of your course and any external links you desire. Then add a MENU link to the Topbar. Double-click the Menu to open the Trigger Wizard and then set it to Lightbox your Menu slide.
It was pointed out to me recently that this works a little bit differently in SL2 it seems. When you put your triggers on the lightbox slide it is jumping to the right slide but within the lightbox instead of back on the main screen. You can fix this by adding another trigger to your buttons on the lightbox slide. You need to set it up to 1) Close the lightbox when the user clicks, and 2) Jump to the desired slide when the user clicks.
This should then jump to your new destination in the main screen and not in the lightbox.
14 Replies
James,
From a development/organizational perspective, it might help to drop the sections into different scenes. You could put your navigation slide in scene 1 and then divide up the sections from there. At the end of the scene you'd have the next button jump back to the menu slide.
Thanks Mike! I'll Try it!
The other thing that I do using scenes is to always put all Lightbox slides into one scene, remembering to take out all the "Next Slide" Triggers from each one.
That way I can easily keep track of what is a slide, and what is displayed as a Lightbox.
Not for everyone, but it works for me.
Good advice Bruce. And I frequently work as Mike described. And to combine both methods, instead of having the user go back to the first menu scene after each scene/branch, I've used a Lightbox slide as the menu with its trigger up in the player next to the Resources tab. That way the user can jump to the menu at any point in the course.
Brett,
That's a slick idea. While I used a lightbox slide as a "scoreboard" in my demo course when Storyline first launched but hadn't thought of using it as a persistent menu slide.
Thanks for sharing the idea!
Mike
Mike,
I sort of came up with the idea when trying to figure out how to make a single menu that could link both within a SL file and to other SL files since the built in side bar menu can only be used within a file. By using a Lightbox you can set up the links to go anywhere you want.
Hi James! Looks like you are getting some great assistance here
Brett, thanks for sharing as well!
Brett,
Could you post an example?
Besides doing what Bruce suggests for having a separate scene for lightbox slides and what Brett suggested as as menu, I also keep some resources in a scene that the learner will never access. Like slides that got cut, some developer notes, etc.
I also put the quiz in a separate scene, along with any resources for custom tabs in the top menu.
David, I don't have an example I can share but it's pretty straightforward. Just create a slide with a menu structure of internal links to different sections of your course and any external links you desire. Then add a MENU link to the Topbar. Double-click the Menu to open the Trigger Wizard and then set it to Lightbox your Menu slide.
Thanks Brett for popping back in to assist David here and great tips Gerry, thanks for sharing
Appreciate it folks!
It was pointed out to me recently that this works a little bit differently in SL2 it seems. When you put your triggers on the lightbox slide it is jumping to the right slide but within the lightbox instead of back on the main screen. You can fix this by adding another trigger to your buttons on the lightbox slide. You need to set it up to 1) Close the lightbox when the user clicks, and 2) Jump to the desired slide when the user clicks.
This should then jump to your new destination in the main screen and not in the lightbox.
Thanks for popping in to update an old thread Brett :) Perhaps that will save someone some time in the future.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.