Forum Discussion
Give learners the option to turn on and off audio narration for entire course
I would like to give the learner the option to turn off the audio narration, and in turn, just read the speakers notes themselves. Is there a way to offer this option? In the past, our courses have been very linear. The course advances when the timeline ends after the speaker notes have been read. I can remove the trigger to advance to the the next slide when the timeline ends, but can I create a trigger the stops the narration lesson wide? Or do I just instruct them to turn off their volume?
Thanks
You can create an audio toggle.
- Create a t/f variable [AudioOn=T] to track if you want audio on or off
- On the slide you need a trigger to pause media when slide starts if var AudioOn=F
- You need another trigger to play audio when slide starts if AudioOn=T
You can put a toggle button on the master slide that is persistent and allows the user to turn audio on/off
- Create a trigger to adjust the T/F variable when clicked and you'll need to set it up to toggle the variable
It's hard to say without seeing your slides. Go into Storyview, select all the slides. And then in the side panel under Slide Properties set slide advances to By User for all of the slides.
Thanks for this. The video was a very helpful guide. I did have to configure the triggers a little differently being that I am using a newer version of Storyline. With that being said, I have the button and the variable. You click the button, and the audio no longer plays on every slide. Task accomplished... almost. The problem now is the presentation automatically advances to the next slide when the audio is done, even if it's not playing. I have removed the trigger to "jump to the next slide when the timeline ends," but it is still advancing. I ended up having to create another trigger that pauses the timeline if the audio variable is set to false. I am a little surprised that I have to do this, as there is not trigger to advance to the next slide beyond clicking the 'next' button in player triggers. Is this normal?
Hi Tom, Thanks... that's exactly what it was. Made the change and works as I had hoped. Your help has been very much appreciated.
Cool. Glad it worked for you.
I noticed an issue with this method of giving the viewer the option to turn on and off the audio. It seems to detach the audio from the timeline (seek bar). For instance, the user selects the audio "on" option, and as they are listening they want to back up the audio by just a few seconds by sliding the seek bar back. With this method the audio just keeps playing until the audio is complete. I hope this makes sense. Is there a work around for this? Thanks
Hello,
Has this issue been resolved? If I add that Play/Stop button, I cannot use the seekbar. Thank you.
Hi Robi!
I just wanted to pop in and share that since this thread is a little older, Ari may no longer be subscribed.
If you wanted to reach out to them directly, you can do so by clicking on their name and navigating to the Contact Me button.
Please let me know if you have any more questions!
Is there a way to set a trigger to also automatically turn off narration associated with an embedded video within a course? The AudioOn t/f trigger works great so screen reader users can turn off all narration at the beginning of a course. I use this trigger in all my courses now. But I can't figure out how to also get it to turn off the audio for videos embedded within a course. The video does not automatically play when the learner advances to the slide. Not sure if that has an affect. I do include the full transcript from the video within the Notes section for the screen reader to read. I know they can mute the sound once the video has started, but was hoping to save them the extra step. Thank you!
The video was helpful and I'll try both methods. This is great for an individual slide. However, I would like the user to be able to choose whether to hear the narration at the start of the course. It is awkward to have to turn audio off on each slide and then each layer separately each time.
We are using the computer voice to read Text To Speech as the narration for accessibility. I would like the user to turn this off at the beginning or the course and not have to do this for each slide. The user should have the ability to turn it back on if they wish, as well.
The video wasn't clear how to turn off the narration and keep it off for the duration. Are we supposed to past this toggle into each master slide? Thank you.
If you create an audio on/off variable the user can set that a the beginning of the course. Then on the slide, create a trigger to play audio or not based on the current value of the variable.
I use the on/off variable method to allow the learner to turn off sound at the beginning of each lesson. They can always navigate back to the first slide to turn the audio back on or off at anytime. One drawback I found is that it seems to disconnect the audio from the timeline. With this option being available, if someone wants to rewind the audio, they can no longer use the timeline to do so.
I use the Play audio trigger on the main slide (Set PlayAduio to value True when user clicks text box x) then a trigger on each subsequent slide (Play media Audio x when the timeline starts on this slide if PlayAudio = value False). I have hidden text at the top of the title screen the screen reader user can tab to and select Enter to turn off narration throughout the course. The screen reader will pick it up at the top of the page as the user tabs through to the Start Course button. It works really well except when you want to replay the audio as Ari said. It also won't turn off narration for embedded videos within the course. At least I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
