Resumed State - Review Content

Rather than relying on object states to trigger the Next button, I would try using a True/False variable such as "Slide1Complete", and so on and trigger it to update the variable once all are viewed.

Erin,

I did use variables for another project but there ended up being way too much to keep track of for the whole project. I may have to go back to that but I don't it's scalable. I may have to use the honor system that the learner is actually going through everything.

Mike

Yes large amounts of variables can become cumbersome to manage. Is the project chunked into sections, and you could use section complete variables to reduce the load to manage, but still provide some amount of control on revisit?

Not chunked. Fairly linear and I have the layers/interactions on the individual slides. This is something that I have been battling with when designing a course. Trying to find a good balance between ensuring learners don't miss/skip over the content and finding a way for them to be able to review the content without having to go through it all over again. 

I had a "lightbulb" moment over the weekend and I'm glad I remembered to come back and share it.

One thing you might look at is using the "Restricted naviagtion" feature in the Player

Here's an article that describes it https://community.articulate.com/series/articulate-storyline-360/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-customize-the-menu#restrict

Erin,

I love lightbulb moments. I usually get them during my commute.

I don't believe this will work though. It's for restricting the navigation menu so learners can't skip by clicking on a slide. It still allows you to click the next button to skip the layers.

I pretty much have the navigation issue with the next button working. I think the bigger issue is the saved/resume state. When they come back, it displays the current finished layer and they can't review it. I might just have to keep the Next button displayed and trust that they aren't skipping ahead. Wish there was auto setting where next button didn't display until all layers had completed.   

I've used it before, where I turn the Menu visibility off (i.e. no menu shown), but on the "Menu" tab in the Player properties changed the Navigation to Restricted and select "Restrict Next/Previous buttons."

Question, are your layers linear or designed to be a free navigation?  If linear, then maybe using the Restricted navigation along with "Pause base layer timeline" might accomplish your goal or ensuring that learners explore the entire slide before progressing but have free navigation upon review.

I'm actually already using the Restricted menu with restrict next/previous buttons. With that set, how does the learner go to the next slide? Can they still click on next or do you need to put a trigger?

I have some layers that are linear (storytelling) and I have some slides that are free (but they have to view every layer). I'm not sure what yo mean by pause base layer, how would that help?  

If I recall correctly the restricted mode triggers the enabling the "Next" button when the timeline of the base layer finishes. 

So if each layer pauses the timeline of the base layer (except for the last layer) then the next button wouldn't be enabled until all were viewed.  Thus eliminating the need for any complicated triggers and taking advantage of SL's built in features.

That sounds promising and doable. I will try it out. 

Only issue I see though is that the next time they go to review the slide, I believe the next button will be restricted again. I like them to be able to skip the slide upon review and have option to click next button. That's why I have triggers to restrict next only if they haven't completed all states.

I guess they could skip the slide by clicking on the course navigation menu but I would need to put in explicit instructions to that.

With Restricted they can view the current slide and past slides, so if they go back (or have viewed that slide previously) then the Next button should be enabled upon revisit.  I'd do some testing obviously.

I was able to pause the base timeline which restricted the Next button. The next layer played as designed but there doesn't seem to be an option to resume base timeline unless I use a variable or change in state. There's no option for resume base when layer 2 timeline ends (or vica versa).

The timeline should resume when a layer is hidden or will continue to play if "pause base layer is not selected"

Sometime it's helpful to enable the seekbar during testing to watch the timeline run.  I often find I think it's stuck when in reality 5 seconds seems really long.

Here's a brief demo using a process interaction (linear) and tab interaction (free-nav)

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/07280c81-c616-4e1a-9398-2b35a5776c1e/review

I haven't used the pause base layer before. That seems to work well but I was having trouble getting it to work properly. Your demo is most helpful.

On the Process Interaction slide, how did you get Step 4 to allow base to run? Just uncheck pause base timeline? I have some narration on my last layer - if base timeline starts/ends before this layer completes the next button will appear too soon.

Related Content slide makes sense. Looks like use of variable would be easiest since I already use the Visited state to change state of Next button.

I really appreciate you taking the time to assist me. It would be easier if I could dedicate full time to this but I'm also LMS admin and troubleshooter for a host of things. 

Erin,

Thanks for the tips. It seems to be working the way I want it to with a little bit of setting adjustments (resume saved state on base). I haven't tried it out yet though where I have multiple layers that show automatically in sequence. I assume it'll work there too.

I think I started hiding the next button because the restricted setting had next greyed out and I thought it might be confusing to users. Your method is much easier. 

Question: I have a variable that changes to True when a scene is completed. Clicking Next goes back to a previous scene where I want the state of an object to change to Complete when that variable is True.

It doesn't change state. Is that because the variable changed on another slide? It's late friday so I might just be tired.

Hi there, Mike! To answer your question about the state change based on the variable: You'll want to be sure that the trigger to change the state of the object happens when the timeline starts on the slide with the condition of the variable being true. While the variable retains its value throughout the course, it actually changes on another slide. 

Let me know if that helps on a fresh Monday! ☺️

Crystal,

Yes, Monday sure did help! I figured it out. 

I changed the variable to True when a scene was complete, then the learner goes back to a table of contents slide where another variable changes to True on Condition the scene was True. All of this to just put a checkmark on a particular choice!

Amazing what a fresh day can do.

Mike