Have you ever added a "back door" or hidden shortcut menu that only you, as the developer, know - in order to jump around quickly in a course?
Lately, I've had to go back and do some testing on some older courses, that are overly long (1-1.5 hrs). These are linear courses with a locked down menu. If the "bug" I want to try to recreate is at the 58 minute mark, I'm stuck having to sit through 57 minutes of training to get there.
I had the thought of adding a hidden menu slide in future courses to be able to skip around in the course.
Has anyone else done this? How did you do it? How did it work?
Add a layer to the slide master that is only shown when a particular keyboard combo is pressed. On that layer I have debug info (e.g. variable references) and a menu that lets me jump anywhere in the course.
This is a really great idea.
I'm thinking of using this technique now for a certain client who always seems to have a very small number of learners who have strange issues (that I can't replicate) with interactive slides--ones where the learner can't move forward until they complete the interaction.
These very sporadic, rare issues include button sets that don't work, data entry inputs that don't let them enter text, drag and drops that don't work, etc. So far, we can't figure out what's going wrong--the vast majority of learners have no issues.
So I'm mulling over including a backdoor for all interactive slides for this client's future courses. If a learner gets stuck, tech support can tell them the secret keyboard combo that'll take them to a layer on the same slide with the interaction's answer(s) and a next slide button. I'll probably do a different keyboard combo for each interactive slide in the courses.
Yeah, that works but, from personal experience, sometimes learners get very frustrated when this happens (and sometimes even very angry when they've spent a lot of time trying to advance and have gotten nowhere before eventually contacting support).
Asking them for more info or to do any kind of testing or alternative (try a different browser or PC/laptop/tablet) sometimes is . . . rather dicey. So sometimes it's best to just get them going again in the course ASAP.
And most of the companies that I work always seem to provide a dearth of debugging info. Usually, it's just something like the course on this slide doesn't work for the learner.
When that happens, I compare my position to that of a fire investigator who is given one photo of the remains of a fire and then asked to tell what happened. Not going to happen.
This is a great discussion. I have used something like this before, but I use an "invisible" button or click region.
How would I make a layer display based on a keyboard keypress combination or sequence? I can only find a trigger that will work with a single keypress.
Can someone give me a brief example of this? I work with students in the US in grades 6-12, and I would not want to the student to accidentally stumble upon the combination or override.
I give them a keyboard shortcut that triggers an email. That email contains info about the browser they are using, their IP address, if flash is enabled, course progress etc. etc. etc.
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I’ve learned to use this method if I’m required to lock down navigation. It’s easy to disable if you later need to open it up to free navigation when making edits.
https://articulate.com/support/article/Storyline-360-How-to-Restrict-or-Lock-Navigation
This is a super useful tip, Matthew. My development team will love to implement it.
That's kinda what I thought I would do. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks. We use our own custom Nav buttons, but I could definitely do something similar.
This is a really great idea.
I'm thinking of using this technique now for a certain client who always seems to have a very small number of learners who have strange issues (that I can't replicate) with interactive slides--ones where the learner can't move forward until they complete the interaction.
These very sporadic, rare issues include button sets that don't work, data entry inputs that don't let them enter text, drag and drops that don't work, etc. So far, we can't figure out what's going wrong--the vast majority of learners have no issues.
So I'm mulling over including a backdoor for all interactive slides for this client's future courses. If a learner gets stuck, tech support can tell them the secret keyboard combo that'll take them to a layer on the same slide with the interaction's answer(s) and a next slide button. I'll probably do a different keyboard combo for each interactive slide in the courses.
Yeah, that works but, from personal experience, sometimes learners get very frustrated when this happens (and sometimes even very angry when they've spent a lot of time trying to advance and have gotten nowhere before eventually contacting support).
Asking them for more info or to do any kind of testing or alternative (try a different browser or PC/laptop/tablet) sometimes is . . . rather dicey. So sometimes it's best to just get them going again in the course ASAP.
And most of the companies that I work always seem to provide a dearth of debugging info. Usually, it's just something like the course on this slide doesn't work for the learner.
When that happens, I compare my position to that of a fire investigator who is given one photo of the remains of a fire and then asked to tell what happened. Not going to happen.
This is a great discussion. I have used something like this before, but I use an "invisible" button or click region.
How would I make a layer display based on a keyboard keypress combination or sequence? I can only find a trigger that will work with a single keypress.
the trigger will work with a compbination of keys just press the combination in the defined area.
Can someone give me a brief example of this? I work with students in the US in grades 6-12, and I would not want to the student to accidentally stumble upon the combination or override.
I apologize if there is something obvious that I am missing.
The only option I see in a trigger for "User Presses Key" allows just a single keypress to be added.
There are certain "allowed keys" that are recognized by most programs as "combination keys". The 3 I know of are:
Ctrl
Shift
Alt
You can hold down any combination of these keys plus one additional key in the Storyline trigger for "when user presses key".
For example:
Ctrl + Backspace
Alt + Caps Lock
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + 7
etc.
Owen,
Is CTRL the CMD key on the Mac for this purpose? Also, I am assuming you can press a combination of prefix keys before the letter to make this work.
No Ctrl is ctrl. Cmd is the windows key
Sent from my iPhone
Thanks, Phil!
Thanks for helping me to clear that up in my cluttered mind.
How can this be done? :D
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