Forum Discussion
How do Storyline beginners overcomplicate course building?
What do beginners tend to overcomplicate when building courses with Storyline?
Storyline is powerful, and new users can feel overwhelmed when they first jump in. They see polished examples on E-Learning Heroes, read “tips and tricks” blog posts, and spelunk the depths of r/InstructionalDesign to learn what Storyline can do.
Armed with all that knowledge, it’s easy to start reaching for every bell and whistle, while overlooking the simpler tools that are already right there.
Here are some examples I see from time to time:
- Using complicated show/hide trigger toggles with multiple objects instead of simply creating custom states on a single object.
- Endlessly nudging object positions on the timeline instead of using cue points or trigger events like “When media completes.”
- Adding loads of animations without stopping to ask how they actually help the learner understand anything. Sometimes less really is more.
- Jumping straight into using advanced concepts like variables and custom JavaScript when simpler, built-in options could achieve the same outcome.
- Most great courses start kind of boring. One slide. One interaction. One clear outcome. Then you layer in complexity only where it earns its keep.
If you’re experienced with Storyline, I’m curious:
- What do you see beginners overcomplicating the most?
- What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier?
And if you’re newer to Storyline, this is a safe space.
What feels harder than you think it should?
Let’s compare notes.
9 Replies
I did a guest webinar last year with my Top 10 Tips for New Storyline Users.
In essence, my advice is this: Take advantage of Storyline's built-in functionality.
From some of my observations,
- As you mentioned, too many pointless animations.
- Too many triggers. Often for what they want to accomplish, far fewer would do.
- Related to that (although potentially advanced), shunning very simple JavaScript solutions that would eliminate tangles of project variables and triggers. I understand the desire to keep your project clean but some actions, while possible, are just orders of magnitude more complicated without it.
- Creating overly complicated states. They quickly become very difficult to edit and troubleshoot.
- Not establishing and following a logical and consistent approach to organizing objects on your timelines. The same could be said about naming objects, but I am extremely guilty in regard to naming conventions.
- Placing too many slide objects on a single slide or layer. Not sure if things still bog down as before, but trying to fight it rather than just hiding extraneous objects during editing was always a losing battle.
- Developing projects without regard to the resolution of media objects. I tend toward larger media, but sometimes you'll find 4K or even 8k images stuck inside someone's project.
- Failure to plan for accessibility before and during the design/development phase. The accessibility checkers are helpful, but after-the-fact compliance updates quickly become a nightmare.
- More of a fundamental issue, but overreliance on templates. They simplify design but unless you eventually take the time to understand how to accomplish the task on your own, they can introduce unexpected problems and hinder skill development.
The biggest issue I see is using a layer instead of a new slide. The rule of thumb I offer is "if it covers your whole base layer, just use a new slide".
Meanwhile, I hate using "when media completes" and cue points for animation. I enjoy layering objects with offset animations, and its faster to rig their start times in the timeline than it is with cue points.
I always bristle a bit when I read comments like this:
- Jumping straight into using advanced concepts like variables and custom JavaScript when simpler, built-in options could achieve the same outcome.
How about making the software more intuitive for new users? How about seemingly little things like an issue I encountered recently building out a course in Rise where I have no way to use images for a Sorting block, which then requires me to create a much more complicated and time consuming workaround for a problem that frankly, should have been addressed by now.
The simpler, built-in options are lacking in functionality that require more advanced programming and that is where things get convoluted and complicated. I'm not new to instructional design or course development, but I am new to building courses in Storyline and Rise, so these insights and tips are very much appreciated.I needed states for videos, so as to toggle optional ASL translation on and off. There is no such default toggle. I had to create an entirely non-intuitive, hard to repair, paste-in-states set of objects to get the effect I needed.
More, intuitive options would be very much appreciated!
- Jumping straight into using advanced concepts like variables and custom JavaScript when simpler, built-in options could achieve the same outcome.
I've seen the "layer in place of a slide" too. To me, it reflects an unclear vision of course structure. A slide is not just one of any number of unnumbered places between the beginning and the end of a course; a slide is a point in the itinerary where the user does a particular thing. What that particular thing is should be an integral part of the course.
I've also seen the "object names not given meaningful names" problem too. No, having a slide with default object names isn't helpful after you get past a few objects. This wasn't a problem for me, but then again I'm both a programmer and a writer, so I have a bias towards naming things.
Lastly, I've seen the excessive use of X (usually animation). This one comes from not having a good grounding in instructional design. Often, course designers do things because they can, not because it serves the needs of the course.
What that particular thing is should be an integral part of the course.
This. 100%
I have seen not only the 'layer in place of a slide' issue but I've also seen entire courses built on just one slide! That one used show/hide triggers based on timeline cues to progress through the course. It made it extremely difficult to work with because there were so many text boxes sitting on top of each other that you couldn't actually see anything.
In true Instructional Designer fashion, I think the issue is training. That author of my above example was completely self-taught and (obviously) found the software to be complex and difficult to use. Storyline is a software that is very flexible and has many ways to achieve the same outcome, which can be overwhelming and confusing when you're getting started.I have been training new staff to use Storyline lately, however, and have covered many of your points in our sessions. They haven't had anywhere near the same resistance to the software because they have been shown best practices for using it along the way.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but there's no tutorial when you first load the product. Even a simple tour of the interface would help with many of the obstacles beginners face.I have no problem with not naming objects. I only ever name objects I interact with, makes it easier to set the focus order, and anything else is just a waste of my time.
The big things I see are:
- Replicating objects on states, such as for tabbed interaction the buttons are on every state
- Audio on the base layer, animated objects on layers, this makes your life so difficult
- Using layers like in photoshop and not understanding that layers need to be shown with a trigger
- Not following web conventions (e.g. wanting radio buttons to used in place of checkboxes
