Publishing Storyline to CD

Hey Sarah!

Sounds like publishing the course for CD and allowing the student to take the course offline is your best option, as we don't yet have the ability for a student to take a course offline, and then upload the results once they are connected to the internet. But allowing them to print their results is really easy. You'll just need to enable the option in your result slide:

Hi Sarah,

There are quite a few options for distributing the content you publish for CD. However, since the student you mentioned doesn't have internet access, you will probably need to burn the content to a CD or DVD. The student will need to have a CD ROM, or if it is burned to a DVD, they will need a DVD drive. For more information on publishing to CD, see this tutorial. An alternative would be to copy the content to a USB drive that the student could use. 

Since the student is offline, it may be difficult to track their content. Unless you have the course set up for printing the results page, they won't be prompted to do so.

If I could make a suggestion (sorry if it's silly), but could the student get access to a library? Most libraries will allow free access to internet-ready computers. It may not be the best solution, but if they have one nearby, it may be the quickest and easiest for getting their results. 

I hope this information helps. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Christine

Thank you Peter and Christine.  Unfortunately, Christine, we encourage our students to get to a library when they lose the internet, but they don't always do that.  Given certain circumstances, we are obligated as the school to deliver an education, whether they are following protocol or not.  Rock and hard place, type of situation.

Peter, thank you for the option to print the results.  I may add this option to my online SCORMS since our Moodle LMS currently does not like the version of Storyline and I am unable to see how they answered my questions. 

Now, what file do I exactly burn to the CD?  All I have available to me to select are the zip files and the file folder output for the lesson.  I did follow the tutorial link that Christine sent along and think I viewed that earlier, but I may be missing the boat on this one. 

Also, will my student need the Storyline program on their computer to 'play' the lesson?

Good morning Sarah,

Not a problem, I completely understand. I wasn't sure if this was a one-time exception for a student that didn't have access. I can certainly see how you would want to be able to provide access to the material for all students. 

• Also, will my student need the Storyline program on their computer to 'play' the lesson?

No, the students will not need Storyline to launch the course from CD. The only time they would need the software is if they were going to edit the content and I don't think that's what you have in mind  They'll need to have a CD ROM to launch the course, they won't actually be launching the course through Storyline, itself.

• Now, what file do I exactly burn to the CD? 

First, you'll need to publish for CD, but to your hard drive. You might want to try publishing to your desktop, just to be sure that you're able to easily find the files you want to put onto the CD. A folder will be created on your desktop (or whatever directory you choose). If you open the folder you'll see something like this:

This is the content you'll want to burn to CD - not the first folder. Depending on your operating system and your CD drive, you may not need to use a third-party program to burn to CD. Select all of the contents in the folder (you can easily do this by using the shortcut "CTRL+A") and right-click on the selected files. There may be an option similar to "Sent to...". Look and see if CD is an option. If it is, and you have a blank CD in your drive, it should copy the content over to the CD for you.

Now, if you don't see an option like I mentioned above, you may need to download and install a CD burning program. A quick Google search on CD Burning Software should give you a lot of options :)

I hope I was able to answer your questions. However, if you need any other information, please let us know!

Have a great day Sarah,

Christine

Thank you Christine!  I got the files burned over and now when I test out to see how it will operate from the student end I get a script error.  Thinking it might be on the configuration of our student's images on their computers.  Troubleshooting.

Thank you!

Hi Sarah,

Great! I'm glad you were able to get it burned to CD. Let me know how the troubleshooting goes with the student.

If you're not able to get around it, just let us know and we'll try to see what the problem is.

Thanks!

We are putting multiple lessons on one CD so students will need to launch each course individually (rather than via an autorun).  Which file should we recommend they use to launch to launch the course.  When I use the story.html, I can control browser settings, etc. but from that launching file, the resources files do not properly link and the "submit" button that is set to close the window on click does not work. 

If I use the launch.exe, the resource links work and as does the submit button, but we seem to loose the option to run the course in a browser window. 

Is it really one or the other of these or am I missing a step?

Thanks!

Hi Amy,

The file you'll want to run is called Launch_Story.exe. When you mention that you lose the option to run it in a browser window, where does the course run than? 

I have a question in regards to creating a hybrid cd.

Has anyone has success with creating a CD that will play the published file on a MAC? I know when programs like Flash and Director, you had to publish for MAC, since EXE's don't run on MACs. But since you can only publish with one option in Storyline, I wanted to see what my options were for it running on a MAC. Can it be done?

Thanks for any information and please let me know if I need to explain myself any better

Hey Hollie, I have a similar query/issue to yours. We have a blend of computer users and we are finding Storyline a pain for Mac users. I tried exporting to CD and, of course, had running issues. Instead of the .exe file to launch, I tried the story.html. This appeared to launch the player with the content menu, but nothing plays inside the player window and no sound. If I exit and return, it asks me if I want to resume? of course the answer would be yes if it had played something the first time... I followed some forum suggestions about Flash player settings and folder permissions, to no avail.

There are many avid Mac users now and this is an issue that needs to be addressed by Articulate as Mac users are increasing. I understand there is likely complexities about producing this software for Mac, but it needs a simple inclusion within the publishing to run on a Mac, ie. a Mac launcher of some type. That way we meet all users. Love a simple suggestion to get this working as it is limiting my client access and increasing their frustration/annoyance, as well as mine.

Use the LMS I hear you say, would if I could and the CD option is still often the only solution to get the product to the student.

Thanks, love to hear the solution ASAP. Great product, will be better if this is resolved.