As a trainer I have two needs. The first is for an interactive eLearning engine that is hosted through my LMS. Storyline is perfect for that.
Can it be used for, or what is the best way, to use the same presentation for an Instructor led training in a classroom? Though the largest quantity of our traing is performed online, I often visit our business partners and would like to not have to carry around a Power Point after having put time into Storyline. In other words, can Storyline be used to "mimic" Power Point? I use "mimic" very, very loosely, as I would use Power Point if I wanted exact Power Point behavior, know what I mean?
I recommend showing the Storyline file in place of an ILT presentation to my client most of the time. That way I only have to create one set of material and it's pretty easy for the instructor to use the Storyline output in a classroom setting. Of course, I typically only recommend this for courses that are more similar to an ILT style (slide vs high interactivity/audio/etc.) In fact, I have 2 courses that have some interactivity in them that are currently being used for ILT sessions as well as available for learners to take them online if they prefer.
The hardest part of using a Storyline course in an ILT setting is that forward/backward movement since the instructor has to be at the computer to advance or have someone sit at the computer to advance the pages. For PPT files, you can use a "pointer" to advance the slides from a distance.
Thank you, that really does help. As I dig into this further, it looks like the biggest issue is in animating talking points. Storyline doesn't seem to be designed to place manual control over bullet points either to the student or the instructor in the traditional way that Power Point does. I don't think this is insurmountable; rather, it will just take some out of the box thinking and some good planning.
As someone who has presented lots and instructed for a few years, I would prefer PPT over Storyline for most outputs in front of the classroom. The exception is when I wanted to have a more dynamic presentation output like a simulation or switching between views of an object (can be done in PPT, it's just not as fluid). For these instances, I'd use a link to open a popup of the presentation to show the demo. I used to do this for Flash based concept simulations where I could adjust the inputs with a slider and show the change in real time.
Not going fullscreen produces some side effects to attention. I don't really want anything to pull focus from my presentation. I think you can plan for "near full screen" with Storyline outputs but that comes with trade-offs
As a presenter, I like to make annotations on breaks as well to embed notes directly in the presentation for future update. Locking the presentation away from modification has benefits but most of the time it's going to end up motivating the presenter to push in another direction.
I have produced content for interactive whiteboards using storyline and they work great, and the kids love them. However you cannot beat PPT or Keynote for presentations and there is always a trade off when using storyline.
Yep. After playing around with both its seems that trying to prepare a Storyline presentation for occasional classroom presentation is probably more work than maintaining a flexible PPT for classrooms. Thank you for all of your input.
5 Replies
Hi Adam,
I recommend showing the Storyline file in place of an ILT presentation to my client most of the time. That way I only have to create one set of material and it's pretty easy for the instructor to use the Storyline output in a classroom setting. Of course, I typically only recommend this for courses that are more similar to an ILT style (slide vs high interactivity/audio/etc.) In fact, I have 2 courses that have some interactivity in them that are currently being used for ILT sessions as well as available for learners to take them online if they prefer.
The hardest part of using a Storyline course in an ILT setting is that forward/backward movement since the instructor has to be at the computer to advance or have someone sit at the computer to advance the pages. For PPT files, you can use a "pointer" to advance the slides from a distance.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Stephanie
Stephanie,
Thank you, that really does help. As I dig into this further, it looks like the biggest issue is in animating talking points. Storyline doesn't seem to be designed to place manual control over bullet points either to the student or the instructor in the traditional way that Power Point does. I don't think this is insurmountable; rather, it will just take some out of the box thinking and some good planning.
Adam
Hey, Adam -
As someone who has presented lots and instructed for a few years, I would prefer PPT over Storyline for most outputs in front of the classroom. The exception is when I wanted to have a more dynamic presentation output like a simulation or switching between views of an object (can be done in PPT, it's just not as fluid). For these instances, I'd use a link to open a popup of the presentation to show the demo. I used to do this for Flash based concept simulations where I could adjust the inputs with a slider and show the change in real time.
Not going fullscreen produces some side effects to attention. I don't really want anything to pull focus from my presentation. I think you can plan for "near full screen" with Storyline outputs but that comes with trade-offs
As a presenter, I like to make annotations on breaks as well to embed notes directly in the presentation for future update. Locking the presentation away from modification has benefits but most of the time it's going to end up motivating the presenter to push in another direction.
YMMV. My 2c.
I would agree with Steve's comments.
I have produced content for interactive whiteboards using storyline and they work great, and the kids love them. However you cannot beat PPT or Keynote for presentations and there is always a trade off when using storyline.
Yep. After playing around with both its seems that trying to prepare a Storyline presentation for occasional classroom presentation is probably more work than maintaining a flexible PPT for classrooms. Thank you for all of your input.
Adam
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