Custom Course Timer in SL 360
Dec 21, 2017
Though the latest release of Articulate Storyline 360 or 3 came with a bunch of new features, there are still a few that are not available natively. One of them is a Course timer, which allows learners to view the time they have spent in a particular course. This feature can still be achieved using some smart work-around.
Thought this would be cool to share, so that other with similar requirement can be benefited as well.
Here's a quick video on how to create a Custom Course timer:
If you need to take a deeper look on how it's done.
Feel free to check out my blog from the below link where you can also download the sample source that I have created.
26 Replies
Why does Storyline not have a built in timer. You guys need to catch up with the times, even Lectora is ahead of you guys..Lol
Richard,
Storyline does have a timer for the quiz. It is set in minutes. You will find it in the Results slide of a quiz.
Ya thanks! But that timer will not work for us and our courses. We need a timer to time hours and one that will time out if the student sits idle in the course.
Hi! Thank you! :) Does it work only for one screen? It's possible to create it for the whole course?
It works for whole course.
What do you think: if I create this mechanism on the master slide - it will be works? Or it's nessesery to repeat these layers on each slide?
You just need to do it on the master slide.
This is brilliant. Not a commenter, but this has to be said: great work Godwin, thank you so much for this. I used it to create a countdown timer (the reverse basically of yours, and would've taking a hell of a lot more time to figure it out from scratch, so thank you!)
Thank you Godwin, mine look different in the end but the tutorial video was super helpful to understand how to create a countdown :)
Glad I could help.
I tired this and it's not working. Put on the main master slide. Here's what my triggers and Show Timer layer look like
Here's the triggers
Hello Godwin,
Thank you for the custom timer video. I tried it and it worked fine but I noticed in the slides that have layers, the timer stops in the layers but continues in the slides again. Similarly, in the feedback layers of the quiz, it stops. Would be great if you could help me out.
Thanks
Sajna
Please check if your layer settings. If they have hide other checked please remove it.
Hi Godwin,
Well yes, it worked now but I need the other slide layers to be hidden. Anyway, thanks, will see a workaround.
Thanks
Sajna
Hi Godwin,
This nice one can you share storyline file.
Hi Rajendra,
I created this sample couple of years back while I was working at Swift. I don't have it now.
I enjoyed the tutorial, very helpful, thanks.
Did you ever hook this up to a leaderboard so that it could be used for competition between learners?
Can this be used in SL 3 as well?
Love it and it is exactly what I need in my life.
Hi Sajna, you can easily fake hide the layers by adding a shape or picture of what you want the user to see, to cover the other layers... it's what I call using an illusion.
Hi Godwin,
Great tip, thanks for sharing. I've added the functionality to pause the timer if the learner remains on any given slide for longer than x minutes (depends on the nature of the course)...if time data is being used for analytics then it is important it is an accurate representation of how long learners are actually engaged. If a learner gets up to make a cup of coffee then their data (and aggregated data) will be skewed unless it is paused after an extended period of inactivity.
Here are the steps I took in case anyone else wants to implement this solution:
1. On the Slide Master, create two new slide layers, one called 'Timeout' and another called 'Timeout Notification'. The 'Timeout' layer should be blank (same as the 'Timer' layer) and the 'Timeout Notification' layer should have some text letting the learner know the timer has been paused (e.g., "You've been inactive for X minutes, please click the button to continue").
2. Create a trigger on the base layer that shows 'Timeout' when the timeline starts. To make sure that more than one layer can be active at once, all three slide layers ('Timer', 'Timeout', and 'Timeout Notification') must be set to not hide other slide layers.
3. Set the timeline length of 'Timeout' as the desired time before the timer is paused.
4. Create a trigger on 'Timeout' that pauses the timeline on 'Timer' when the timeline completes.
5. Create a trigger on 'Timeout' that shows the layer 'Timeout Notification' when the timeline completes.
6. Add a button on 'Timeout Notification' that allows the learner to acknowledge that they are engaged in the course (e.g., ...please click the button to continue).
7. Create a trigger on 'Timeout Notification' that resumes the timeline on 'Timer' when the learner clicks the button.
8. Create a trigger on 'Timeout Notification' that hides layer 'Timeout' when the learner clicks the button.
9. Create a trigger on 'Timeout Notification' that hides layer 'Timeout Notification' when the learner clicks the button.
Hi everyone,
First of all, thanks to everybody who shared experience on this topic, it really helped me!
I've created my story file with this custom timer but now, I've got this problem: when the learner leaves the course tab on browser, the timer stop counting.
Is there any way to keep counting the time, even if the learner leaves the tab, switches it or open a new window?
Creating new triggers, editing the scormdrive file or executing JavaScript?
Hello all,
I've tried to replicate this function with no success. It seems the timer only shows a snapshot of the time once I view the timer layer. It doesn't continue counting.
Can someone take a look at my attached .story file to see where I've gone wrong?
Much appreciation!
I found a workaround by using a simple javascript timer that starts on a button click and ends at another trigger several slides later. Since it's javascript, it runs in the background and doesn't seem to be affected by layers. There are a few browsers that may not report it correctly and it's not 100% accurate, but it's better than the complete lack of built in support for this. My original thread is here and there's a link to where I got my info in that thread as well.
Your timer is triggered by user clicks to start and to continue. In order for the timer to continue automatically, it needs to be triggered by the timeline.