Storyline 360 Pros — What’s Your Favorite “Hidden Gem”? 💎
As someone who’s spent a lot of time working with (and on!) Storyline 360, I’ve come to appreciate the power in the little things — those lesser-known features that quietly make our lives easier. Here's one of my personal favorites: 🎧📽️ Cue Points with the “C” Key: I recently spoke with a customer who struggled to time trigger actions to audio and video media on their slides. They would preview the slide, make note of when a trigger should be fired, then return to slide authoring view to add a cue point to the timeline to tie into the trigger event. This would require a lot of manual back-and-forth between authoring and previewing. I often have to do the same thing, and there is an easier way. If you use stage preview (accessible via the "Play" icon" in the lower-left corner of the Timeline panel), Storyline will stay in the slide authoring view and play the timeline of the slide, including any audio or video media that's present. As it plays, you can press the "C" key on your keyboard to have cue points added to the current playback position. It’s a simple way to place cue points in real time, right where they’re needed — perfect for syncing trigger actions to specific moments in your media. cting Storyline 360's UI and using the "C" key to drop cue points on the timeline. Now I’m curious: What’s your favorite under-the-radar Storyline feature? Something small, subtle, maybe even a little obscure — but that you personally couldn’t live without. Drop it in the comments — I’d love to learn what little gems you rely on. 👇TIP: Controlling the NEXT Button 101
It's great to let users explore content on their own. But sometimes you need to ensure they view the full timelines on the slides and complete the interactions. For example, this might be required for compliance/regulatory reasons. In other words, sometimes you need to control when the Next button is disabled and enabled. The attached file demonstrates how to control the Next button in these situations: Force users to view the full timeline on all slides by using Restricted navigation Force users to complete an interaction by verifying that all of the buttons have been clicked Force users to view the full timelines on the slide layers by verifying that all of the timelines have been completed (2 methods) The demo also explains the programming. See it in action here: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/1139e0c0-7c9f-4a16-b943-cce2c5081bad/review Nothing new here for advanced users. But I hope newbies find this helpful. By the way, this is about controlling the Next button while the user remains on one slide. If the slide branches to other slides, well, that's a custom menu. You'll find details about those here: TIP: Create a Custom Menu Slide | Articulate - CommunityPRIMER: Pretest in a Storyline Course
Storyline 360 lets you include a Pre-Check quiz (that is, a pretest). If a user passes the Pre-Check, Storyline submits that score and marks the course as complete. If the user fails the Pre-Check, Storyline won't mark the course as complete until the user finishes another designated tracking option. For example, you could track completion with a Final Assessment or with a Complete Course trigger. If you include more than one additional tracking option, Storyline marks the course as complete based on the first tracking option that the user finishes. Even when the user fails the Pre-Check, Storyline submits the quiz data to the LMS/LRS. You have to work with your LMS/LRS team for how to extract that data. The attached file demonstrates and explains how to set up a Pre-Check in Storyline. Here are some additional resources: Storyline 360: Adding Result Slides | Articulate - Community (Choose a Quiz Type) Storyline 360: Changing the Resume Behavior | Articulate - Community Storyline 360: Publishing a Course for LMS/LRS Distribution | Articulate - Community (Choose Reporting & Tracking Options) Storyline 360: More Quizzing and Tracking Options Yukon Learning YouTube: How to ADD a Pretest in Storyline 360 Note: Rise 360 only allows tracking via one option. At this time, it doesn't include pretest functionality.Translation / localization
Hi, We currently have our course in English only, but more and more we get requests to translate the content. The content is mostly text and speech (generated with the text to speech feature). I know about the feature on how to export, translate and import again, but now with AI and LLM and translation tools like DeepL is there a smarter and easier way to do it than duplicating slides and courses in different languages? Anyone with ideas, experience or suggestions? I am happy to hear what you think.RISE- Automatic Certificate Creation
I've been playing around with how to create a custom certificate in a Rise course and I've finally found a workaround using an embedded form that creates and delivers a PDF. Check it out: https://share.articulate.com/IcrVo3X-PV5k7x9CMMFkx I've been struggling with this for a long time and I know a handful of you have been too. Hope it helps! ps. I used the AI Assistant to create this mini course based off of the video I recorded outlining the steps, which I also included as content within the course to follow along.Mac OSX - Another request for native app
I'm running a small business for which I plan on making full motion videos and click-by-click learning activities in SL. I haven't used this product in years so I'm just doing the 30 test before I start to buy company licenses. I would like to once again beg for a native MAC version, we got a copy of SL to run on VMWare Fusion, using a MacBook Air (M3 and m4 base model 8gb RAM). but without the upgraded ram isn't not as fluid, snappy or responsive as a native windows machine. Our company is small, we don't have budget for separate windows machines just for one app, nor do we want to replace our laptops with upgraded devices with more ram. So we'll stick with VMWare + Windows 11...but we really really want to express how much easier/cheaper life would be for our company if we had a native Mac OSX compatible version. Thanks.Publishing from Storyline and Rise not working
Anyone else out there having an issue publishing to SL and/or Rise today (8/22)? I published from Rise earlier today without issue but when I went to republish it just keeps saying "Connecting to Review 360". With SL, it looks like it wants to publish and then an error message displays with "Something went wrong".Expert Insight Needed!
Hi Everyone! I am a graduate student in an Instructional Design and Performance Technology program. In my Distance Learning Policy and Planning course, we are conducting an informal research investigation on current use of technology in our field. We are tasked with finding out what practitioners are using out in the real world, and how they feel about those technologies. Can you please share the platforms you use and your own personal feelings about these technologies (what works well, what is challenging, etc.) for purposes such as: Delivering instruction or training (such as an LMS) Communication and collaboration Assessments or testing Analytics Thank you so much for helping me learn from your experience!❓What Is an LMS… Really? And How Do LRS and LCMS Fit In?
I’ve noticed a surprising lack of consensus around this in the industry so I thought it might be useful to do deep dive and ask: 🕵️What is a Learning Management System (LMS)? Is there an official checklist that a piece of software has to meet to earn that title? And what about a Learning Record Store (LRS)? Or a Learning Content Management System (LCMS)? The answer? There isn’t actually a universal, enforceable definition that says, “This is an LMS!” Instead, the industry’s largely settled into a “call it what we want” model, where marketing often defines classification more than behavior. 🤷 But from a practical engineering and standards-based perspective, I think we can be a little more precise—especially because specs like AICC, SCORM, xAPI, and cmi5 clearly define the roles and responsibilities of LMSs compared to other components. 💡Here’s how I define an LMS at the functional level If a piece of software does all three of the following, I consider it an LMS: Hosts eLearning content built to a standard (like AICC, SCORM, xAPI, or cmi5) and makes it accessible via a portal or interface Provides user/learner management (logins, assignments, access controls, etc.) Records user/learner data and makes that data available for analysis or reporting Why those three? Because every major eLearning specification includes a section titled “LMS Responsibilities”—and when you distill that down to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), these are the pieces that remain consistent. All other features—dashboards, UX bells and whistles, analytics layers—are useful but not required for a system to be an LMS by role. Many elements of an LMS are actually outside the scope of eLearning specifications! 🔍What About an LRS? A Learning Record Store (LRS) is similar in some ways, but with a few key differences: It doesn’t need to host the content (though it can) It can treat events or content as "experiences" tracked through xAPI It identifies users, but doesn’t typically manage roles or course permissions It records structured learning data, but doesn’t always offer built-in analytics In essence, LRSs are structured databases designed for learning data. Because of their database-like nature, they’re often paired with LMSs in what I’d call "LMS/LRS hybrids"—systems that handle frontend access and user roles while leveraging xAPI data for deeper analysis. Fun fact: cmi5 itself is a kind of an LMS/LRS hybrid by design. It was created specifically to fill the gap left by xAPI’s lack of LMS-like mechanisms, such as content launching and attempt tracking. 📚And an LCMS? An LCMS (Learning Content Management System) is the fusion of two worlds: A content authoring tool An LMS While it’s not a spec-defined term, it’s useful for describing platforms that allow you to both create and deploy learning content in one place. These systems can really streamline workflows and help teams consolidate tools. There are a few LCMSs out there on the market—and depending on your use case, some may even straddle the LRS category too! 🤔Is that all there is to it? Maybe! But it's a huge world out there and the number of LMS and LRS platforms grows and shrinks almost daily. Each one brings its own nuances and minor differences, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a type of system out there I haven't encountered yet! Your turn: Which platform(s) do you use and how would you classify them—LMS, LRS, LCMS, or a hybrid? Or, are there other criteria you’d add to the list when deciding what qualifies as an LMS? It's a big world out there, and I can't explore all of it alone, so I look forward to hearing others' thoughts and ideas!
