We’re super excited to share the latest- highly requested!- new feature in Storyline 360: the conditional seekbar. Now you can prevent learners from skipping ahead until they've completed content. After that, they have the option to drag the seekbar back and forth.
The conditional seekbar in the modern player makes it easy to ensure that learners view all your content. Take a look at this video to learn more:
Hi Steve! Yes that is correct. If you choose to enable the Play/Pause button, they can pause the video the first time through, but can't fast forward. Once they've viewed the entire video, they can they use the scrub bar to go forward or backward in the video, and also the play/pause button to pause or play anytime. Hope this helps!
Hi John! We are not planning to add the conditional seekbar to the classic player. That being said, you can still submit a feature request for that. Also (just for my own knowledge!) I'm curious to know if/why you prefer to use the classic player vs the modern player. Thanks in advance :)
I have to admit I really don't like this kind of control over navigation for adult learners.... I can imagine you get a tonne of demand for it, but does it really add value or ensure good quality learning and experience? I'd rather see features that help create better activities and experiences--i.e. easy way to take notes in a module or something.
Agree - if you need this kind of feature in the modules you create, you should really take a good, hard look at yourself because you're failing miserably. What about creating something people actually want to use?
Imagine the same feature in a book: The information I need is in chapter 4, but I can't skip over chapters 1, 2 and 3...I HAVE to read them to get to the information I need.
Thanks for your comments and for sharing your opinions, Stacey and Martin! In certain industries, compliance training is a legal requirement. Sometimes the requirement goes as far as needing to be able to prove that the learner saw each screen or every piece of information within a course.
If the company can't prove that the learner has indeed seen every single piece of content in the course, they could be deemed non compliant and could be liable. Being non-compliant opens up these organizations to serious issues including litigation.
This is why some organizations cant rely on simply making the training interesting and engaging (which HOPEFULLY they are doing anyways) but must also rely on features such as this.
Keep in mind it's only locked the first time you go through the content. Once you've watched it the first time, you can go back and review content to your hearts content.
Hopefully this helps you understand the need and reason behind these features!
I notice your video above explaining the new features, is using Wistia, a JWPlayer alternative, that offers a degree of flexibility with regards the player's interface. Is there any chance that kind of feature could be incorporated into the in-built "Video Player"?
This is a great new feature, thank you. Like Nicole mentioned to Marin's post there are certain industry requirements where this feature is very useful and we happen to be one of them.
We have to restrict navigation anyways to make sure users can't skip ahead and complete a 20 minute module in 3 minutes. This is because the hours are credited towards their mandatory training hours and they are getting paid to take these training's.
The problem, before this was implemented, was when a user went back to review the slides the seekbar was still locked. They were stuck watching that slide from the beginning.
The only issue is we are still having is the same problem we had previously with restricted mode. Some of the slides don't register as complete which prevents the the "next" button to unlock and now it prevents the the conditional seekbar to work as described. It happens on average to 20% of the slides within the module.
More details regarding this issue prior to this new feature has been discussed in this forum here in more detail. A few things mentioned seem to help but nothing works 100 percent of the time.
Any additional help would be greatly appreciated. But this is a great new feature either way.
Tell me more about how you're restricting navigation. Are you using the built-in restricted navigation option in Player Properties, or did you manually build triggers on each slide to restrict the navigation?
Could you share a few slides that have this issue so we can take a closer look?
I was trying to use the built-in restricted navigation at first but I had to use manually triggers to get it to work for the most part. Its weird, it works exactly how we wanted in Presenter using default restricted navigation option but not in Storyline.
The goal is to restrict users from skipping ahead and having the next slide automatically advance when timeline ends.
I attached some examples. One using Storyline and one using Presenter.
The manually triggers I tried using are included in the example. The most reliable trigger so far is using - when timeline reaches X secs move to the next slide (X = the exact time of each voice over for each slide)
I appreciate your time and please let me know if you need any additional information.
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. In theory, the Next button should be enabled after the timeline ends on a slide, but that isn't working correctly when the slide is set up to advance Automatically.
I'm going to bring this to my team so we can begin looking at a fix for this problem. I'll let you know as soon as I have more to share!
I ran a bunch of tests and tried a few other options and I believe I found a workaround that is working. Its a bit time consuming.
I added two slide triggers to each slide. For example, if the voice over on slide 1 is 22.3 seconds. I added on trigger to: Jump to "next slide" When the time line reaches 22.35 seconds. Adding a few tenths of a second seemed to help.
The second trigger i added was: Change state of the "next button" to "Normal" When timeline reaches 22.35 seconds.
It seems with these two triggers it unlocks the next button after slide is viewed and still advances it to the next slide automatically while still in restricted mode. Plus the conditional seekbar is working.
I tested it out on four modules with about 15 - 20 slides. Some of the slides had videos and the others with voice overs. Published it to our LMS and all next button registered as normal after first time viewing.
Its not ideal because of the extra time but I wanted to post this just in case someone else was looking for a workaround for now.
It still would be nice if Storyline functioned the same way Presenter does in restricted mode. It would be great if you and your team can find a fix or better solution. I appreciate any help you guys come up with.
I did attach the test version with the triggers added.
Thanks for sharing your workaround, Erik. Once we get this fixed, you shouldn't need to use those triggers to enable the Next button. Until then, I'm glad you found a way to stay up and running. We'll keep you posted!
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I liked this when it was introduced in Rise. I like it even more in Storyline. Thanks team!
Does the Play/Pause option mean that I can pause the video the first time through but just not fast forward?
Hi Sam! Thanks for the comment, so glad you like it!
Hi Steve! Yes that is correct. If you choose to enable the Play/Pause button, they can pause the video the first time through, but can't fast forward. Once they've viewed the entire video, they can they use the scrub bar to go forward or backward in the video, and also the play/pause button to pause or play anytime. Hope this helps!
I assume this is only for the modern player?
This will be very helpful. Thank you.
Hi Andre! Yes, this is available in the Modern Player.
Thanks for leaving a comment, Sana! We are glad you like this feature :)
Great feature! Any chance it will be added to the classic player?
Hi John! We are not planning to add the conditional seekbar to the classic player. That being said, you can still submit a feature request for that. Also (just for my own knowledge!) I'm curious to know if/why you prefer to use the classic player vs the modern player. Thanks in advance :)
I have to admit I really don't like this kind of control over navigation for adult learners.... I can imagine you get a tonne of demand for it, but does it really add value or ensure good quality learning and experience? I'd rather see features that help create better activities and experiences--i.e. easy way to take notes in a module or something.
Agree - if you need this kind of feature in the modules you create, you should really take a good, hard look at yourself because you're failing miserably. What about creating something people actually want to use?
Imagine the same feature in a book: The information I need is in chapter 4, but I can't skip over chapters 1, 2 and 3...I HAVE to read them to get to the information I need.
Thanks for your comments and for sharing your opinions, Stacey and Martin! In certain industries, compliance training is a legal requirement. Sometimes the requirement goes as far as needing to be able to prove that the learner saw each screen or every piece of information within a course.
If the company can't prove that the learner has indeed seen every single piece of content in the course, they could be deemed non compliant and could be liable. Being non-compliant opens up these organizations to serious issues including litigation.
This is why some organizations cant rely on simply making the training interesting and engaging (which HOPEFULLY they are doing anyways) but must also rely on features such as this.
Keep in mind it's only locked the first time you go through the content. Once you've watched it the first time, you can go back and review content to your hearts content.
Hopefully this helps you understand the need and reason behind these features!
Hi Nicole - thank you for the input - that makes sense
DELETED: Moved query to new thread.
I notice your video above explaining the new features, is using Wistia, a JWPlayer alternative, that offers a degree of flexibility with regards the player's interface. Is there any chance that kind of feature could be incorporated into the in-built "Video Player"?
This kind of user flexibility is Exactly what pedagogy tells us learners need/want. Its a Perfect approach for when you want to require content.
This is a great new feature, thank you. Like Nicole mentioned to Marin's post there are certain industry requirements where this feature is very useful and we happen to be one of them.
We have to restrict navigation anyways to make sure users can't skip ahead and complete a 20 minute module in 3 minutes. This is because the hours are credited towards their mandatory training hours and they are getting paid to take these training's.
The problem, before this was implemented, was when a user went back to review the slides the seekbar was still locked. They were stuck watching that slide from the beginning.
The only issue is we are still having is the same problem we had previously with restricted mode. Some of the slides don't register as complete which prevents the the "next" button to unlock and now it prevents the the conditional seekbar to work as described. It happens on average to 20% of the slides within the module.
More details regarding this issue prior to this new feature has been discussed in this forum here in more detail. A few things mentioned seem to help but nothing works 100 percent of the time.
Any additional help would be greatly appreciated. But this is a great new feature either way.
Hi there, Erik!
Tell me more about how you're restricting navigation. Are you using the built-in restricted navigation option in Player Properties, or did you manually build triggers on each slide to restrict the navigation?
Could you share a few slides that have this issue so we can take a closer look?
Hi Alyssa,
Thank you for the quick response.
I was trying to use the built-in restricted navigation at first but I had to use manually triggers to get it to work for the most part. Its weird, it works exactly how we wanted in Presenter using default restricted navigation option but not in Storyline.
The goal is to restrict users from skipping ahead and having the next slide automatically advance when timeline ends.
I attached some examples. One using Storyline and one using Presenter.
The manually triggers I tried using are included in the example. The most reliable trigger so far is using - when timeline reaches X secs move to the next slide (X = the exact time of each voice over for each slide)
I appreciate your time and please let me know if you need any additional information.
Thanks,
Erik
Hi Erik,
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. In theory, the Next button should be enabled after the timeline ends on a slide, but that isn't working correctly when the slide is set up to advance Automatically.
I'm going to bring this to my team so we can begin looking at a fix for this problem. I'll let you know as soon as I have more to share!
Very much appreciated. If you need any additional information, let me know.
Thanks,
Erik
Hi Alyssa,
I ran a bunch of tests and tried a few other options and I believe I found a workaround that is working. Its a bit time consuming.
I added two slide triggers to each slide. For example, if the voice over on slide 1 is 22.3 seconds. I added on trigger to: Jump to "next slide" When the time line reaches 22.35 seconds. Adding a few tenths of a second seemed to help.
The second trigger i added was: Change state of the "next button" to "Normal" When timeline reaches 22.35 seconds.
It seems with these two triggers it unlocks the next button after slide is viewed and still advances it to the next slide automatically while still in restricted mode. Plus the conditional seekbar is working.
I tested it out on four modules with about 15 - 20 slides. Some of the slides had videos and the others with voice overs. Published it to our LMS and all next button registered as normal after first time viewing.
Its not ideal because of the extra time but I wanted to post this just in case someone else was looking for a workaround for now.
It still would be nice if Storyline functioned the same way Presenter does in restricted mode. It would be great if you and your team can find a fix or better solution. I appreciate any help you guys come up with.
I did attach the test version with the triggers added.
Thanks,
Erik
Thanks for sharing your workaround, Erik. Once we get this fixed, you shouldn't need to use those triggers to enable the Next button. Until then, I'm glad you found a way to stay up and running. We'll keep you posted!
So the Classic player isn't getting this feature. Will this be the same for other player enhancements in the future?