Storyline Step-By-Step Slides: View, Try and Test Mode
As you’ve used Storyline 360, you may have noticed the Record Screen option. It’s perfect for putting together a software tutorial or explainer video quickly. But once you’ve created a recording, did you know that Storyline 360 also has three ways to automatically break that content into easily digestible steps? That’s right—Storyline 360 keeps track of all the different clicks and interactions in your recording. So if you want to transform that video into step-by-step slides, Storyline 360 can do the development work for you. You can then use the results as is or further customize the steps to fit your learners’ needs. In this article, we’ll look at how these different step-by-step modes work and when they’re most helpful for learning. Demonstrate a Process with View Mode If you need to introduce learners to a new tool or process, View Mode is the way to go! With View Mode, your video is split into multiple slides that show each step. The slides automatically animate through your tutorial, like a guided tour. And with the option to add text captions automatically, you can even include on-screen explanations of each step. Since learners are just watching the demonstration, it’s a perfect way to ease them into navigating brand new tools or techniques. Provide Hands-On Practice with Try Mode When you want learners to try out a process in a safe environment, select Try Mode. Storyline 360 automatically adds timed pauses, hotspots, and keyboard shortcuts to make your screen recording interactive. And for more guided help, Storyline 360 can also add small text captions on each screen to provide hints about what to do! Since Try Mode asks learners to do the process themselves, it’s a good fit for when they already have some baseline knowledge—either from past experience or an earlier lesson—and need hands-on practice. And since Try Mode interactions aren’t graded, they’re a stress-free way to learn from mistakes. Assess Learner Skills with Test Mode At first glance, Test Mode looks a lot like Try Mode. But where the latter is all about practice, the former focuses on assessment. In Test Mode, Storyline 360 converts each interactive video slide into a graded question. You can then use the Test Mode options and quiz settings to customize the experience further. For instance, you can set what feedback (if any) to show after a learner responds to the steps, how many attempts they have to get it right, and what counts as a passing score for the overall test. Test Mode is perfect for wrapping up a course and confirming learners can do a process independently. And since the quiz score can be reported to a learning management system (LMS), it’s also a way to mark course completion. Try Out These Modes for Yourself Those short explanations are a great introduction, but do you know the best way to understand these different modes? By getting hands-on experience with them! Want to see these modes in action? Check out this Storyline step-by-step example to see the same content shared in View, Try, and Test Modes. You can also watch the original screen recording they were all created from. Wrap-Up The screen recorder in Storyline 360 makes it easy to provide the help learners need to pick up new or improved software—whether with a video tutorial, a step-by-step breakdown, guided practice, or an interactive assessment. And since there’s no limit to how many times you can use your recording, you can even include more than one mode in your course with minimal additional effort! Interested in discovering more tips for recording your screen with the Articulate 360 apps? Then check out these helpful articles: Follow These 5 Steps to Record Your Screen in Storyline 360 How to Decide Which Articulate 360 App to Use for Screen Recording 5 Tips for Creating Effective Software Simulations with Storyline 360 Want to try something you learned here but don’t have Articulate 360? It takes no time at all to start a free 30-day trial. If you have any questions, share them in the comments below. And be sure to come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.Everything You Need to Know About Creating Software Simulations with Storyline
Software simulations are a great way to help learners get the hang of working with software. When you capture your screen and walk learners through a process step-by-step—and then let them practice the process in a risk-free environment—you’re helping them gain new skills that they can put to work right away. And with Storyline, it’s so easy to create a simple screen capture video or a detailed software simulation. Just record your screen and then use that video as is, or use the editing tools in Storyline to create a step-by-step demonstration. The best thing about Storyline is that you can record once, and then you’ll have the flexibility to choose your output without having to re-record anything—it’s a huge time-saver! Check out these articles to learn how to use Storyline to create rich and helpful software sims: Storyline Step-By-Step Slides: View, Try and Test Mode Follow These 5 Steps to Record Your Screen in Storyline 360 2 Reasons to Use Storyline 360 for Software Simulations 5 Tips for Creating Effective Software Simulations with Storyline 360 Follow This Process to Create Software Simulations and Systems Training Like a Pro Use Action Fine-Tuning to Edit Your Storyline Simulations Creating Software Sims in Storyline 360: Setting Your Recording Size & AreaStoryline: Dial-Driven Map Activity
Storyline 360’s dials feature makes it easy for learners to manipulate data, explore cause-and-effect relationships, and control other objects in the course. You’ll often see this e-learning feature used in settings and situations where you’d find a dial in real life, but there’s no reason that needs to limit how they can play a part in your courses. In this creative download, pictures are used as dials to simulate the different components of a compass. Those dials all come together to allow learners to try their orienteering skills in a guided map navigation experience. Explore this project Want to know more about how this project was created? Check out the related behind-the-scenes article: How I Built This Dial-Driven Map Activity in Storyline 360 (With Help From ChatGPT). This template will work for folks using Storyline 360, the continuously updated version of Storyline included in Articulate 360. Want to try it out? Get a free trial of Articulate 360 right here. And subscribe to our newsletter to find out about other helpful downloads.6 Software Training Examples That Will Make Learners “Screen” With Joy
Employees often come to an organization with a wide range of technical experience. But one thing is certain—software training empowers employees to perform more efficiently and confidently. For intuitive software, a simple screencast can orient your employees to an app’s layout and features. Other times, you might need to give learners a more hands-on learning experience with a simulation that creates a risk-free practice environment. In either case, if you need some inspiration for creating software training, check out our favorite community examples. From screencasts to simulations, you’ll find creative solutions to spark your next project! Rise 360: Project Management Software Training Use labeled graphics, multimedia, and interactive blocks to give learners both an introduction and inspiration for how to use new software like Madison McCartney does in this Rise 360 course. Storyline: E-Learning Heroes 101 Guide learners through the step-by-step process to create an E-Learning Heroes community profile with this helpful simulation from Allison LaMotte. Storyline: Audio Editing Simulation Get learners comfortable using audio editing tools before even downloading any software, thanks to this simulation by Josh Petermann that includes both a view and try mode. Storyline: Learn Triggers Software Simulation Safely introduce new software to learners and let them practice risk-free, like in this handy simulation by Richard Watson. Storyline: Review 360 Software Simulation Replicate the experience of using new software by taking inspiration from this helpful Review 360 software simulation created by the Community Team. Storyline: Video Editing Controls Simulation Give learners a realistic opportunity to practice interacting with video editing software just as Dan Sweigert does in this guided simulation. Wrap-Up Hopefully, these examples spark ideas for how you’ll empower learners with your next software training. Our generous community members share their projects in weekly challenges, downloads, and examples, so check back regularly for new inspiration. What type of software training do you plan on tackling next? Let us know in the comments! To learn more about creating software training, check out these articles: The Difference Between Screencasts and Software Simulations 4 Tips on Creating Software Tutorials in Rise 360 2 Reasons to Use Storyline 360 for Software Simulations Everything You Need to Know About Creating Software Simulations with Storyline How to Decide Which Articulate 360 App to Use for Screen Recording Follow This Process to Create Software Simulations and Systems Training Like a Pro Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Follow This Process to Create Software Simulations and Systems Training Like a Pro
If you’ve ever recorded a software simulation for soft skills or systems training courses, you know there’s a lot to consider. If you want a polished result, you can’t just launch your screen recording tool of choice and capture the sequence. A professional product requires you to be deliberate. So what’s involved? Quite a few things! You need to select the best app, do a task analysis, review product documentation, record your simulation, edit the video, and more. The easiest way to show you is with an example scenario. You work as a training designer for a medium-size company called Widgets Inc. One of the directors, Fatima, needs you to deliver systems training on the company’s customer database, WidgetData, for the customer service representatives. Let’s assume you’ve already selected Storyline 360, so we don’t have to worry about the app-selection process. So let’s focus on the additional steps, as follows: Identify Tasks Perform Task Analysis Document the Processes Prepare Your Demo Data Prepare Your Recording Area Record Your Simulation Edit Your Recording Step 1: Identify Tasks You’ll first need to identify the tasks to cover. Since most software systems are multifunctional, you need to narrow down the specific processes to simulate in your course. Start by interviewing the stakeholders, those people responsible for the processes, and the target audience (if it’s different than either of those two groups) to find out what they consider vital tasks to be covered in training. Once you’ve identified those processes, check to see if the software vendor or your internal teams (think the system owner, IT, etc.) have video or written tutorials you can reference or repurpose. Back to our example! Ask Fatima about the tasks she wants to cover in the systems training. Her response is that she wants learners to know how to do the following in WidgetData: Add a new customer Search the database Edit a customer profile Delete a customer You also find out that the system was built in-house, so there’s almost no existing documentation and there are definitely no video tutorials. With that in mind, you next need to identify the step-by-step sequences for each of those tasks in WidgetData. It’s time to do a task analysis! Step 2: Perform Task Analysis In some cases, you might already know the step-by-step sequence for the processes you need to cover in the training. When that’s not the case, work closely with a subject matter expert (SME) who does. A few tips to remember when walking through processes with SMEs: Respecttheir time. Prepare a list of processes you’d like the SME to demo for you. If you can, send the list ahead of time. Record the meeting. Use the recorder built into your e-learning authoring app. Better yet, meet virtually and record the session. A virtual meeting has the benefit of capturing not only the step-by-step process but any additional information you discover while chatting with the SME. The recording is what you’ll rewatch later to analyze each step. Ask questions. Put yourself in the mindset of someone who’s never encountered the tool before. There are no stupid questions. As the training designer, you need to uncover as much information as you can to understand the “why” behind a process so you can pass that key information along to the learners. Build some scenarios around what’s being demoed to represent the real-life situations learners will encounter. When training has relevance for learners, they’re more engaged in finishing it. At Widgets Inc. Fatima puts you in touch with Derrick, one of the company’s top customer service reps, to act as your WidgetData expert. You invite Derrick to walk you through each of the processes in the system while you record the screen. As he talks you through every click and keystroke, you ask questions like: What happens if you forget to input this information? What are the most important things to remember related to this process? What would be the worst-case scenario if someone did this step or process incorrectly? Asking these types of questions will help you gather critical contextual information about the processes. Step 3: Document the Processes Once you’ve identified the step-by-step sequence for each of the processes you’ll cover in the training, create a document that clearly lists each process. For our example, we’ll use a table format, but you can use whatever you’re comfortable with. It’s also helpful to add information you uncovered during your task analysis so that you can reference it during your demo recording. At Widgets Inc., you’re using the recorded video version of your meeting with Derrick to document each step of the processes you’ll need to cover in your WidgetData systems training. Here’s what you documented for the first task: Name of Task Trigger for Task Steps Additional Info Add a new customer. A customer calls who doesn’t have a profile. Navigate to WidgetData home page. Click the Customers tab Select Create New Customer from the drop-down menu. Enter customer information in required fields. Click the Create button. Enter information in all of the required fields or you’ll get an error message when you click Create. After you’ve created a new customer, a pop-up confirmation message displays letting you know the account is created. Step 4: Prepare Your Demo Data You’re almost ready to start recording your systems training—but before you do, make sure you have all the data and information to complete your recording. Here are a few things you might need before you start recording: Get access to a “sandbox” environment. A test version (“sandbox”) of the computer system software will enable you to complete your processes without impacting real data in the system. Create an account or profile in the sandbox. You’ll want an account that gives you system access similar to that of your learners. Add some sample data. You’ll need some dummy data that you can quickly input into the system for processes as needed. In our Widgets Inc. example, Courtney in IT has given you access to a sandbox version of the WidgetData system as well as a fake account with the same admin rights as a Widgets Inc.’s customer service rep. Your interface looks exactly like the customer service rep’s, with the same available options. In this sandbox Courtney says you can create, edit, and remove customers without impacting any real data. Step 5: Prepare Your Recording Area Before you record, you’ll need to prepare your virtual environment. If you’re using a fresh sandbox, don’t add additional icons or customizations unless you need to better mirror your learner’s environment. If you’re using your own system, remove extra icons, bookmarks, and personal data and images. It should be free of distractions. Along those lines, make sure before you start recording that all external system notifications are disabled (unless you need to record them for the demo). Additionally, you should: Launch the applications and systems you’ll use in your recording before you start so that they’re ready to go when you need them. Have all the data you need close at hand on the system where you’re recording. Have your step-by-step document available as a hard copy or on a separate system from the one you’re recording. Next, access the sandbox that Courtney provided and make sure all extraneous applications are closed. Turn system notifications off to prevent pop-ups from interrupting your recording and launch WidgetData so you don’t waste any time waiting for the application to launch. Finally, check that your process document is close at hand so you can follow it step by step as you record. Step 6: Record Your Simulation With your prep work done, you’re ready to record your simulation! The steps will vary depending on the recording app you’re using, but you’ll start by selecting the size of the recording area. Then you’ll hit the Record button and click through the process step by step. Pro tip: Do a test recording to make sure the video quality is acceptable (just a few seconds; it doesn’t have to be the whole process). You don’t want to have to re-record a lengthy process due to a technical issue with your setup. Depending on your project, the type of simulation you record will vary. It might be interactive, where the learner clicks through the simulation themselves. Or it might simply be a demo with captions along the way that describe what’s happening. It could even be a graded quiz game, where learners click through the process themselves and lose or gain points depending on where they click. Suffice to say, you have tons of options, depending on your project, your audience, and what you hope to achieve. For Widgets Inc. you’re using Storyline 360 to record your processes in WidgetData. Once you’re finished, you can reuse that recording in any format you want, either as a single movie or as step-by-step slides. Step 7: Edit Your Recording No matter which recording app you use, you always have to do some amount of post-recording editing. As soon as you've finished recording a task or process, preview it from start to finish and see how it looks. Make sure you capture everything and that it flows logically. Then, one slide at a time, make the necessary adjustments to the caption text, hot spots, mouse clicks, data entry fields, and other objects. If you’re using captions, here are a few tips: Use consistent terminology and language across all captions. If you use an abbreviation or acronym, even if it’s common knowledge to your audience, consider including the full term the first time it’s used. Be direct and concise; don’t use words you don’t need. Start instructions with a verb, except for captions providing general knowledge or information, like defining a term. Don’t hide important information with on-screen captions. Don’t include wordy paragraphs in your captions. Omit anything unnecessary and break up longer chunks of text over several captions or slides. In addition to instructional and informative captions, you might need an introduction and summary caption for each task. If you have tips or additional information you noted during the documentation process, consider including them throughout the simulations as appropriate to provide added value for your learners. For example, the introduction slide for each WidgetData task explains the context and trigger for completing that process in the system. The summary slide describes what happens at the end of the process and provides follow-up information. Wrapping Up That’s how you create software simulations like a pro, from the initial request to the post-recording edits. Remember, planning is key. As you can see, if you want the best possible simulation, there are a lot of steps before you actually hit “Record.” For more information about task analysis, check out our recently refreshed How to Do Task Analysis Like a Pro. For ideas on working with SMEs, check out this series on Everything You Need to Know About Working with SMEs as well as these awesome downloads from Sarah Hodge. If you’re looking to do even more with Rise 360, be sure to peruse this fantastic guide on creating software tutorials. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.5 Tips for Creating Effective Software Simulations with Storyline 360
When it comes to software training, many people’s minds go straight to video tutorials. And while video tutorials can be good for picking up the basics, when it comes to learning more complex skills, software simulations like this one are often a better option because they allow learners to literally get in there and practice using the software without impacting the actual production environment or real-life data. But how do you make an effective, professional-looking software simulation? Keep reading to find out. 1. Choose the Right Recording Size If you want your screen recording to take up the same space as your other slides and remain nice and crisp even when your course scales to fill the browser, set your recording area to be exactly twice the size of your story slide. For example, if your slides are 720 x 540 pixels, set your recording size to 1440 x 1080. To adjust the size of your recording area, drag the sizing handles on the dashed outline or use the drop-down list on the control bar to choose preset dimensions. Not sure what your slide dimensions are? Click on the Design tab and click on Slide Size to find out: 2. Use Interactivity Wisely Storyline 360 offers a variety of ways you can turn a tutorial video into an interactive learning experience. The easiest way to do this is by choosing either the Try or the Test Mode option after you record your screen: But what about when you just need to add interactivity at a few points? A lesser-known trick for those situations is to insert your slides in View mode and add interactivity using Hotspots. That way you can add interactivity only when it makes sense. 3. Add Contextual Information Contextual information helps learners make sense of what they’re learning. It gives them insight into why and when they might need to use the skills they’re learning. While the Storyline 360 recorder will automatically capture the names of the buttons you click on and add them to the captions, only you can add that extra contextual information that helps your learner understand the “why” behind it all. What type of information should you add? Here are some examples: An introduction slide or caption that explains the process they are about to learn (like this example does) and provides the real-life trigger or context for when this process would need to be completed on the job. Explanations throughout the simulation that help learners understand why and when they’ll use each feature you’re pointing out. However, be sure to keep this information short and to the point. You don’t want to end up with huge captions filled with long paragraphs or bullet lists of text. A summary slide or caption letting learners know the process is complete and summarizes what they’ve done. Instructions on how to move forward. You don’t want your learners feeling confused and unsure about how to continue to the next part of your course. 4. Make Your Captions Stand Out The color of captions matters. Choose something that stands out from the background but doesn’t clash, so it’s both easy to pick out and cohesive with your design. Take a look at the two examples below: Low Contrast High Contrast Do you see how much easier it is to see the blue caption on the right-hand side than it is to see the gray one on the left? That’s because it contrasts with the background of the slides and the app’s interface. And because it doesn’t match but coordinates with the color of the buttons, it makes the captions look like they belong while ensuring they’re easy to spot. In Storyline 360, it’s super easy to update the color of all of your captions at once by updating your Theme Colors. 5. Hide the Clutter If you’re recording a web app, it’s best to hide things like your bookmark bar and your browser extensions before you record so they don’t clutter up the screen. But if you forget—don’t worry! You don’t necessarily need to rerecord. Often, you can simply place a solid color rectangle over whatever it is you want to hide, like in the before and after screenshots below: Before After Simply use the eyedropper to grab the background color so it matches perfectly, and no one will be the wiser: You can also use this trick to hide private information, pop-ups, or anything else that appears that you don’t want learners to see. That way your simulation looks polished and your learners can focus on the important stuff. Wrap-Up And there you have it, folx! If you follow these five tips you’ll be well on your way to creating effective, interactive software simulations for your learners. Looking for more tips on creating software training? Check out the helpful articles in this series: Everything You Need to Know About Creating Software Simulations with Storyline. Want to try creating your own software simulation in Storyline 360, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Storyline: Review 360 Software Simulation
Replicate the experience of using new software with Storyline 360's screen recording tool. Slides, captions, and hotspots are automatically generated for you to speed up your workflow. All you need to decide is whether you want to use the view, try, or test mode. Explore the project. Want to try building something similar in Storyline 360 but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial.Storyline: “Learn Triggers” Software Simulation
It's a Storyline software simulation showing learners how to use Storyline! Thanks to the help of hotspots, layers, and triggers, this example walks learners through the process of creating a button trigger. After seeing how it's done, learners get to practice themselves in a risk-free environment. Explore the project here. Want to try building something similar in Storyline 360 but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial.16 Examples of Interactive 360° Images in E-Learning #467
Using 360° Images in E-Learning RECAP #467: Challenge | Recap This week’s challenge asked course designers to show how 360° images can transform static visuals into interactive, explore-type activities. Jonathan Hill Example | Download | Jonathan Hill | Website | @DevByPowerPoint Jayashree Ravi Example | Jayashree Ravi | LinkedIn Elizabeth Kuhlmann Example | Learn more | Elizabeth Kuhlmann Thierry EMMANUEL Example | Thierry EMMANUEL | Website Jodi M. Sansone Example | Jodi M. Sansone | Website | @jodimsansone Samuel Apata Example | Samuel Apata | Website | @afrostem eLearn Dev Example & learn more | eLearn Dev Mallory Frazier Example | Mallory Frazier Ron Katz Example | Ron Katz | Website Angela Thomas Example | Angela Thomas Trey McNabb Example | Trey McNabb bylittle learning Example | Download | bylittle learning | Website Sonya Crider Example | Sonya Crider Andreas Paul Example | Andreas Paul Kate Golomshtok Example | Kate Golomshtok | Website Sabrina Sgoda Example | Sabrina Sgoda Walkabout Learning Example | Walkabout Learning New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I'll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please write about your challenge example. I'll add links to your blog post so your examples get even more exposure. And for those who share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, please include #ELHChallenge so your network (and Articulate!) can track your e-learning coolness. Share Your 360° E-Learning Examples! The 360° image challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.Storyline: E-Learning Heroes 101
Whether you're new to the E-Learning Heroes community and you want to learn the basics or you're looking for a software simulation example,this course is for you. Want to try building something similar in Storyline 360 but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial.
