Govt Timed Class Help-Progress Bar, Time Out and NO FF!

Regarding 3, what do you mean?  There are at least two different progress "bar" options.

As to your first question, you can ensure that a slide is completely viewed before moving to the next by removing the Next Button from a slide and adding in your own that doesn't appear on the timeline until the end of the slide.

AW Thanks for the reply

1-The "seek" bar that is part of the player can be scrubbed forward. My limited experience is that this ability cannot be disabled/protected while the seek bar is viewable. Omit this seek bar and the user can't of course do that...no other seek or progress bar can be located by this user...hip me to the location of one that can track the entire class as well as one that can track per subject please without being able to manipulate said seek bar(s) would be a great help. Did I mention that after the material has been presented that the user can go back and go through the material at their own pace after the initial timed viewing? Ugh.

2-The process of removing the "Next"  but applying a "Next" that appears at the end of each timed slide would be a  GREAT!

How would that be accomplished?

Hey fellow Kevin!

Ah yes, the government regulatory training. Not the best instructional design approach but understand the need. Okay, let's break these down one by one:

1. Interactive elements to ensure learners are paying attention. There are a number of ways you can accomplish learner control. Your suggestion about a filling a button (assuming you mean a text box) can work by adding a Text Entry field on the slide with it initially set to Hidden. Disable the navigation first. Then at some point on the Timeline or another action, set a trigger to change the state of that Text Entry field requiring learners to enter data. For instance, you could reveal a simple question that is relevant to the slide's content. Doesn't have to be scored or correct/incorrect rather just to get learners to interact. Once they complete the entry, then activate whatever navigation button allowing them to proceed.

2. As for a timer, the only interaction in Storyline that offers that feature is a Quiz. However there's nothing global that can be used per slide. Not building this out as an example one idea comes to mind. Let's say each slide has a max duration of 1 minute. Drag the timeline out to 60 seconds for each slide regardless of slide content and/or audio. If the learner doesn't interact or complete the assigned task on that slide within the 60 seconds, set a trigger to fire at Timeline Ends to Jump To a Slide (you did not complete within time). With that slide having additional information. Or show a Layer when the Timeline Ends prompting the learner to repeat a section or repeating the slide from the beginning. There *may* be a feature on your LMS that can handle timing in terms of logging off a user or closing the session. Not sure if that's an out-of-the-box feature for an LMS but contact  your vendor and inquire.

3. Sorry you experienced a misunderstanding of what Storyline can and cannot do in terms of a progress bar. Yes, each slide can show progress independently of other slides. And Yes, there is no overall global progress bar by default. However, you can develop one custom using a set of variables and bit of calculation. I suppose you could build something external, but don't think there's a way currently for a third-party app to communicate with Storyline progress.

- I've built similar course progress bars for various projects, and some with cumulative scoring. You could build a graphical representation and place it on a Master Slide. With a series of visual cues tied to variables and triggers within the course you could control when, where, and how far the custom progress bar advances. The only downside to this is dedicating a piece of slide real estate across your course. A well balanced visual design though it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Hope some or all of this was helpful. The good news is what you're wanting to do is complete doable in Storyline except maybe the timer piece.

Good luck.

It seems to me that you could easily use the menu as a progress bar, though. 

It shows you what slide you're on and how many you have left, and you can disable navigation until the user has already visited the slide.

Kev thanks.

No joke about this class being a less than perfect learning tool.

It's a little Greek to me at this point but I will do more research into your explanation and try to disipher. Not that learned on the process and terms. Thing is...It was explained to me that a competeitor used this software for this specific project and the progress bars are intact and without issue for them...unless I was again misinformed...if someone can do it once we can do it twice...right?

My idea for the "button"

What I had planned were three text boxes per page as an example. The first fades in and along with a narrative the text is read as well as heard by the user. I want a button to appear next to the first text box after the narration ends which must be filled before the second text box appears. Once this button is clicked and filled the second text box appears...wash rinse repeat. This is what I devised in my head...I would imagine this is where triggers, states and layers come into play which I am begining to work on...do you follow me? Can this be accomplished as described?

See, Ashley jumps in here and has the perfect solution! The menu itself! I'm so far gone down the geeky path that I forget the simplest solutions.

Kevin - yes, I understand what you're wanting to do. Not quite clear what you mean by 'a button appear next to a text box which must be filled before the next text box appears. Once button is clicked and filled... What do you mean by filling a button?

Superb idea...just gotta figure out the "disable navigation"

Kev thought to use the "radio" buttons that are clickable. Can't see the next text box until the button is clicked and it fills...the basic sort fills in blue. Can the action of clicking the radio style (or any other) button initiate the next text box to appear? Maybe use the buttons that can fill with text and have the user click the button text box so the next one pops up?

Click on Home > Click on Player > Click on Menu > Click the Additional Options Gear > Change the Navigation Restrictions to "Restricted".

What you want to do is super easy with triggers and states.

Let's say you were doing a lesson on an art gallery.  You have three pictures and you want them to appear one at a time with an audio narration to each. At the end of each picture, you want the viewer to click a radio button that they are ready to move on.

What you would do is set the other two images to hidden. Add all three narrations to the slide. Also, make sure the audio narrations don't auto-play.   Do the same with three radio buttons (making the second two hidden).

Now, you want to set the trigger on Picture 2 to change state of Picture to to Normal when state of Radio button 1 is equal to "Selected".  This will make Picture 2 appear.  You also want to add a trigger that says, "Play Media Audio 2 when state of Radio Button 1 is equal to "Selected". 

I would assume that would do what you wanted.  I hope I'm being clear.

Yep. What Ashley said.

AW....THANKS so much for taking the time to spell this all out for me. You are very helpful and have eased some anxiety over this project.

"Let's say you were doing a lesson on an art gallery. You have three pictures and you want them to appear one at a time with an audio narration to each. At the end of each picture, you want the viewer to click a radio button that they are ready to move on."

This is exactly what I am trying to do. I know this is much to ask but if possible...can you give me a more spelled out version of how you previoulsy explained the process?

I am so dull to this and I can't get my head wrapped around this thing. Going over and over the tutorials for States and Triggers. Anything you can do to step by step me...thanks and have a great Sunday

Hi Kevin S (oh, and other Kevin and Ashley).

Thought I'd jump in to this last art gallery thing. I'm uploading a really rough idea here. Pulled some "artish" pictures from Microsoft. Inserted some (really bad sound quality) music that came on my computer in a sample folder for the audio. Didn't narrate because I have a really bad cold, but it's the same idea. Went it about it slightly differently than Ashley's suggestion (read hers after I gave it a go). But there's more than 1 way to do things in Storyline, and my solution is very close to hers.

Quick Summary.

• The music is very long, so I first went into Audacity and saved out 3 short clips. I inserted them on the timeline where they were named Sound 1, Sound 2, Sound 3.
• Inserted the 3 pictures and named them on the timeline.
• I set the initial state for the 2nd and 3rd pictures to hidden: Click the picture, Click the states tab. Click the Initial states drop-down and change to hidden.
• I inserted 3 text boxes, one under each picture, "describing" it (I use the term loosely . This is very rough and just to give you an idea of how to do this). I named each text box since this make it easier for me to work in projects.
• I set the initial state for the 2nd and 3rd text boxes to hidden: Click the text box, Click the states tab. Click the Initial states drop-down and change to hidden.
• I inserted 2 radio buttons, one on text box one, and one on text box 2. I set the initial state for the 2nd button to hidden.

Triggers

I added several triggers for each radio button. For example, for the radio button that's on the first text box, these are the triggers:

• Change the state of Abstract (picture) to normal when the user clicks.
• Change the state of Text Abstract to normal when the user clicks.
• Stop Sound 1 when the user clicks.
• Play Sound 2 when the user clicks.
• Change the state of Button for Angel (the radio button) to normal when the user clicks.

I repeated all this for the 2nd radio button

Both you and Ashley have been a great help Rebecca.

I have the theory down and can create just the progressed radio button interactions I had thought to be possible using States and Triggers however have another hurdle.

Again here is the set up... three text boxes, accompanying audio and radio buttons that need to be filled in order to move forward.

Thing is...any idea on how the last radio button can be used to move forward to the next slide? The rule is the current slide cannot be moved forward until all information offered is displayed. How can I force the user to wait until each of the entire slides information is displayed without them having the ability to move forward but at the end...supply a trigger that can be used to go to the next slide?

exactly.you need some sort of button that will move the user on to the next slide, but make its initial state hidden wih a trigger that would only chamge to normal once the state of all three radio buttons are selected.

Yep...some kind of final slide button.

Ashley...while I had mucho success on the first slide I followed your instructions on...the rest of them are a different story and while I tried to secure each step rigidly with notes so I could go back and duplicate the steps...maybe I missed something.

"What you would do is set the other two images to hidden. Add all three narrations to the slide. Also, make sure the audio narrations don't auto-play. Do the same with three radio buttons (making the second two hidden).

Now, you want to set the trigger on Picture 2 to change state of Picture to to Normal when state of Radio button 1 is equal to "Selected". This will make Picture 2 appear. You also want to add a trigger that says, "Play Media Audio 2 when state of Radio Button 1 is equal to "Selected". "

First text loads with the screen...ends and the radio button pops up like you said and works like a charm but after the second text box finishes the second radio button does not show up. I have them set to "hidden". Worked the first time and now the second and thrid radio buttons don't load up. Any ideas? Do I "Trigger Wizard" the buttons too?

Disregard...closed and reopened and it worked fine. UGH!