Preferred Navigation Settings
Dec 12, 2018
Hey all, I'm curious about the default navigation you like to use in your courses (free, restricted, or locked). In the past, I've used restricted (without next/prev button restricted) so that I can restrict moving forward on interactive slides until all clickable activities are completed (using triggers and visited state), while still allowing users to easily move forward if a slide has no action required (i.e. only includes text).
This ensures that learners access all content available to them, but also increases dev time and can cause frustration if learners are unsure of what they need to do to move forward.
What are your preferred navigation settings for general (non-compliance) courses? Have you heard any feedback from your learners on the navigation style they most prefer?
5 Replies
Great question, Ellen! I'm personally a proponent of free navigation unless locking things down is required for compliance reasons. I think most learners prefer to be able to have more freedom.
Remember that you can't actually force people to learn things, so even if you restrict the navigation that doesn't guarantee they're actually soaking up all the information. This isn't unique to e-learning, it's the same with in-class training. Just because people are physically present doesn't mean they're learning.
I'm curious to see what others have to say on this topic!
Hi Allison and Ellen.
We are having this debate at the moment for one of our courses. For ease of use we would like to allow free navigation because we often to information on other screens within the course. BUT we do also want the learner to visit every screen in order for the course to be marked as completed.
How can we find that balance between usability and ensuring that every screen is visited without confusing the learner or the setup of the course? We're using Storyline 360.
Thanks!
Hi Jane!
Can you tell me the purpose of making sure that learners visit every screen? Is it for compliance reasons?
Hi Allison
It's not quite as strict as compliance. The course is preparation for a face to face to course so we're wanting to make sure they are fully prepared by visiting each screen, although I do understand the argument that you can't actually make them read it!
Hi Ellen,
We don't lock our courses down-even compliance courses. We've found that people enjoy the freedom to move around, and have made it clear that the expectation is that they read each slide.
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