51 Replies
Nancy Woinoski

Sorry Oswaldo , this feature is not available in Storyline.  I think it became too complicated to calculate with the introduction of layers and onclick triggers.

Is your objective to show the time for each slide or do you want to use this feature as a way to show the user when the timeline has ended?

Oswaldo Villoch

I figured with the layers/triggers this is the reason it is not available.  I am just looking to keep things consistent with the courses I have previously developed in presenter and feel the timer per slide gives the end user a good idea of how much time if left on the slide. Also, prior to the user starting the course they can get an idea of how long the course is overall, now I can't provide them with an overall expected time for the course.

Jill Freeman

Hi, everyone. Similar to Oswaldo, my client wants the elapsed time to display at the top as in previous (Presenter) courses.

Have any of you explored Javascript or another way to calculate the current location and display it at the top in SL? Even if it is just the main slide time (not including diversions to layers, etc.).  I am not a coder by nature, but wonder if we can find a way until the feature is added in SL. Please let us know if you come up with anything.

Cheers!  - Jill

Jamie Morgan

Just my 2 cents, but this new software might be a great time to "educate" clients and promote your development of a fully interactive course. Gone are the days of a straight PPT driven course that is linear and easy to calculate. Interactive training isn't a count down the time event.

What I promote is that I can give them an estimate of how long a learner should spend in a course to get maximum benefit (i.e. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, etc). I think this is more beneficial than an actual countdown in the course itself. Plus, you get the learner away from "watching the clock" and more engaged in what's going on.

Bruce Graham

Jamie Morgan said:

Just my 2 cents, but this new software might be a great time to "educate" clients and promote your development of a fully interactive course. Gone are the days of a straight PPT driven course that is linear and easy to calculate. Interactive training isn't a count down the time event.

 What I promote is that I can give them an estimate of how long a learner should spend in a course to get maximum benefit (i.e. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, etc). I think this is more beneficial than an actual countdown in the course itself. Plus, you get the learner away from "watching the clock" and more engaged in what's going on.


Spot on

A very strong part of our role (IMHO) as Instructional Designers is to explain "best practice" to clients. I think this point is extremely valid.

We must promote "learning" over "timing" - ask them which is more important? I appreciate that many course commissioners, (especially certifying institutes) still require "...x hours learning..."  to be demonstrated. I think that over time this will change, but it is still in our interests, as a profession, to be strong and emphasize "substance over seconds."

This may mean a few contracts lost for us freelancers, however, that's the price (literally) of moving the industry forward sometimes.

Bruce

James Brandwood

Jamie Morgan said:

Just my 2 cents, but this new software might be a great time to "educate" clients and promote your development of a fully interactive course. Gone are the days of a straight PPT driven course that is linear and easy to calculate. Interactive training isn't a count down the time event.

Jamie, I couldn't agree more.

I can understand why employers would ask for a clock to let learners know how long they have left in a course, when they ask for 'new training' they are often really saying 'can you update our training but make it exactly the same'.

But I don't feel it would add any value to the course and giving an employer a realistic timeframe is just as useful. Provided a learner can see they are progressing through the course and know how long the course is expected to take they have all the information they need. The only advantage a clock would have is to provide the learner with a 'count down' to when they are free - kind of couter productive.

Bruce - thanks for the info on how to calculate the approximate time. I am guessing this won't allow for web objects (including engage interactions) and quizzes/assessments. So I may just have to add a few minutes onto the estimate.

Nancy Woinoski

Karen Loomis said:

Wow, this is a bummer.  I'm finding alot of the old QuizMaker features not available in SL (can't automatically insert question x of y and points x of y).

I need a timer for a timed quiz to me administered at the end of a class.  Unfortunatley I need to exchange everything from SL to QM.


Not sure what you are talking about with regard to inserting question x of y and points x of y, but you can set up a timer for your quiz questions.  You can find the setup for this on the Results slide .

Steve Gannon

Be aware that there is a known issue with the SL quiz timer. Once time expires, a dialog box appropriately pops up, informing the user that time has expired. However, there currently is no way to make that dialog box go away. In effect, your module is locked up.

Articulate is aware of the issue and has advised not using the timer feature until they can get this corrected.

Steve Gannon

GanTek Multimedia

Nancy Woinoski

Steve Gannon said:

Be aware that there is a known issue with the SL quiz timer. Once time expires, a dialog box appropriately pops up, informing the user that time has expired. However, there currently is no way to make that dialog box go away. In effect, your module is locked up.

Articulate is aware of the issue and has advised not using the timer feature until they can get this corrected.

Steve Gannon

GanTek Multimedia

Thanks for the update Steve. I never use timed quizzes so was totally unaware of this.
Gerry Wasiluk

Very interesting discussion.  Spot on in educating clients.  I don't even mention this option any more to clients--out of sight, out of mind.

YMMV but I think it is sometimes more important to tell the learner how long the course will take them--then having a countdown timer and just one more thing to distract the learner from the message.

So easy to add a statement at the beginning of the courseon the estimated length of the course.

Steve Flowers

There are definitely times where a timer adds a sense of challenge. I wouldn't use one without good design rationale, but I think there are times where a timer is useful. I wouldn't use one, for example, if the reason is "we've always used one".

But if a decision is time sensitive and I can authentically represent the stimulus for the decision, I can see a really practical use for timers. These are relatively easy to pull off in SL using layer toggles that increment a variable. 

Steve Gannon

I can't recall ever having to impose a time limit on a formal quiz. However, I came across this bug when developing a game. I used SL's quiz timer to impose a time limit on the "contestants", challenging them to answer as many questions as possible before time expired. This all went out the window when I found that the "time expired" dialog couldn't be cleared. I'm currently working on developing a timer SWF built in Flash and plan to communicate with the SWF via Javascript.

Nancy Woinoski

Steve Gannon said:

I can't recall ever having to impose a time limit on a formal quiz. However, I came across this bug when developing a game. I used SL's quiz timer to impose a time limit on the "contestants", challenging them to answer as many questions as possible before time expired. This all went out the window when I found that the "time expired" dialog couldn't be cleared. I'm currently working on developing a timer SWF built in Flash and plan to communicate with the SWF via Javascript.

Nice, I'd like to see this when you are done.
joann lynch

I am working on a project about a change in the current process. Ive designed it to show a current state and desired state video. I plan to use a timer to show that both examples achieve the same end result however the current state takes longer to accomplish. A built in timer would be lovely but it seems that is not currently available (unless using a quiz slide). My plan is to create a little background SL magic to accomplish instead or bring in a Flash object. @Steve Flowers if you want to send a little "relatively easy to pull off in SL using layer toggles that increment a variable." my way I'd appreciate the time saver.

James Brandwood

Steve Flowers said:

"There are definitely times where a timer adds a sense of challenge. I wouldn't use one without good design rationale, but I think there are times where a timer is useful. "

This is a really good point Steve. In fact the added time element to a task is one of the ways in which to make a task move from 'group' to 'co-operative'.  Although I am yet to figure out how to make online content co-operative, since computers lend themselves to direct instruction. In this environment I think you need to state the purpose for the timer clearly to make sure the learner knows if it is a 'challenge' or a 'test'.

When going for a job one time I had to do an online, timed test to prove I was competent. I literally had to answer as many questions as I could within a specified time period. You had to get your answer right before you moved onto the next question which was fine until I ran into a rather easy question that had the wrong answer marked as correct. I lost a bit of time before I realised I wasn't the one making the error and began randomly selecting the other multi-choice options until I found the one that was marked as correct (and yes I really was correct). Even if their wasn't an error in the test I still question the validity of the test - I'd much rather know how well a person responds than how many responses.

Also Steve Flowers -  I'm with Joann and would love to see the SL work you have done. In my head I am seeing layers that appear stating time increments rather than a running clock. What I can't see in my head is how to make this run over a number of questions... unless you use quite a number of variables but I wouldn't be able to make it very accurate over a number of slides.