Unlock New Skills with AI Assistant Training
We’re thrilled that AI Assistant is here, and the Articulate 360 training page is packed to the brim with videos and resources designed to get you up and running fast. Whether you're looking to sharpen your skills with AI image generation or refine your writing using the power of AI, our on-demand video library is here to support you on your journey. Live Webinars Save your spot in our live sessions! You’ll learn how to partner with AI Assistant to improve writing, generate content and images, instantly convert blocks, create text-to-speech narration, and more. AI Assistant in Storyline Upcoming Webinars AI Assistant in Rise Upcoming Webinars On-Demand Training One of the best parts about our training videos is the flexibility they offer. You can watch them anytime, anywhere—whether you have a few minutes or a full hour to spare. You’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned in no time, boosting your confidence and competence using AI Assistant. AI Assistant in Storyline On-Demand Training AI Assistant in Rise On-Demand Training Hands-On Practice We know that hands-on experience is crucial. That’s why our practice videos are designed to provide real-world examples and practical exercises using AI Assistant. Pause, rewind, or rewatch sections as you practice alongside the video. Hands-on Practice with AI Assistant and Storyline Hands-on Practice with AI Assistant and Rise Feature Tutorials Our easy-to-follow video tutorials walk you through all the key functionalities of AI Assistant, ensuring you get the most out of every feature. Whether you’re looking to master a specific function or explore new capabilities, our short tutorial videos are designed to make learning quick and enjoyable. AI Assistant in Rise Tutorials AI Assistant in Storyline Tutorials Resources to Bookmark For more help getting started with these features, check out our handy user guides: Accelerate Course Creation with Articulate AI Rise 360: Create Content with AI Assistant Storyline 360: Create Content with AI Assistant And if you want more information about AI Assistant and the other AI features we’re working on, head over to these resources: Articulate 360 FAQs: Articulate AI Build Compelling Courses Up to 9x Faster with Articulate’s AI Assistant How E-Learning Experts Are Shaping Articulate AI How Articulate AI Safeguards Your Data Articulate 360 Feature RoadmapUpcoming Articulate 360 Training Webinars
Stay ahead of the curve with our free Articulate 360 Training webinars. These weekly sessions are designed to help busy course creators like you enhance your e-learning skills without investing too much time. As an Articulate 360 subscriber, you can grow your expertise through targeted training on the latest techniques and best practices – all at no additional cost. And if you want to view some on-demand training to view at your own time, visit the Articulate 360 training site to see what's available. Check out our upcoming webinars and level up your e-learning game. If you can't attend, that's OK. We record all of the sessions, so just sign up and you'll get a recording emailed to you. Date Title September 17, 2024 Typography Basics for E-Learning September 17, 2024 Getting Started with Reach 360 September 24, 2024 Guiding Principles of Instructional Design September 24, 2024 Getting Started with Reach 360 September 26, 2024 Quick Tips & Tricks: Episode 108 October 1, 2024 ✨ Getting Started with AI Assistant in Articulate 360 October 1, 2024 Getting Started with Reach 360 October 1, 2024 Getting Started With Rise 360 October 1, 2024 Storyline 360: Creating Social Personality Quizzes October 8, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Rise October 8, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline October 8, 2024 Getting Started With Storyline 360 October 8, 2024 How to Build Compliance Training in Rise 360 October 15, 2024 Getting Started With Rise 360 October 15, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline October 15, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Rise October 15, 2024 Getting Started with Reach 360 October 22, 2024 Branding your Rise 360 Course October 22, 2024 Getting Started With Storyline 360 October 22, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Rise October 22, 2024 ✨ Overview of AI Assistant in Storyline October 24, 2024 Unleash Your Inner Spark: Supercharge Your Self-Care with E-Learning with Guest Presenter Misty Wert Not yet an Articulate 360 subscriber? Sign up for a 30-day free trial and check out as many as you’d like. And if the live webinar time doesn’t work for you, no worries! Simply sign up anyway and you’ll receive the recording in your inbox so you can watch it whenever you have time. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming webinars!Engineering Journal: Demystifying 64-Bit Storyline
I’m Jesse Taber, engineering manager for Storyline 360, here with the first Engineering Product Highlight. My plan is to regularly cover a new or upcoming Storyline enhancement from an engineering perspective to provide technical insights you won’t find in release notes or product documentation. This first highlight is all about 64-bit. In November 2023, we released a 64-bit version of Storyline 360 to public beta that appears in the Articulate 360 desktop app as “Storyline 360 x64.” Since then, we’ve heard a lot of excitement about this new version of Storyline 360—but also some confusion. To address this feedback, I wanted to offer an FAQ that goes beyond the basics covered in the support article about 64-bit Storyline 360. What is Storyline 360 x64, and how does it differ from the version of Storyline 360 I’ve been using? Storyline has traditionally been a 32-bit application. The primary difference between 32-bit and 64-bit applications is the amount of system memory they can use. In Windows, 32-bit applications can access, at most, ~4GB of memory, while 64-bit applications can access far more memory than any modern consumer-grade PC can accommodate. Put simply, the 64-bit version of Storyline 360 can take advantage of the relatively large amounts of memory available on most modern PCs. Does Storyline 360 x64 provide performance improvements? The primary benefit of targeting 64-bit processor architecture is the ability to use more system memory. When Storyline 360 opens a project file, it loads it all into memory. Very large projects, particularly those with many rich media assets, can experience issues opening, saving, and publishing in the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. Projects like this should be much more stable in Storyline 360 x64. Aside from memory usage, most authors will likely see performance on par with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. While performance improvements were not a primary driver for creating Storyline 360 x64, we plan to invest more directly in performance improvements going forward. Is Storyline 360 x64 a full rewrite of Storyline? No. Storyline 360 x64 comes from the same source code as the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. The difference is that it’s compiled to support 64-bit processors and operating systems. What functionality differs between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Storyline 360? Because both versions of Storyline 360 share the same source code, their functionality should be identical. However, certain third-party components Storyline 360 uses don’t work with a 64-bit processor architecture. We’re currently working on removing, updating, or replacing those features. For example, the screen recording feature was not available in early builds of Storyline 360 x64 because a third-party component it relies on did not support 64-bit. As of Update 85, however, the screen recording functionality is available in the 64-bit version. The support article about 64-bit Storyline 360 lists the features we plan to remove (deprecate). Storyline 360 x64 is in public beta. Is it okay to use for my day-to-day work? We feel confident that Storyline 360 x64 is stable and suitable for production work. We have been using it internally for months without issue. We have also gotten positive feedback about its stability from several Storyline 360 users who have been using it regularly since it was in private beta. We plan to move Storyline 360 x64 out of public beta and into general availability in the second half of 2024. Most of the remaining work centers around providing a seamless experience for all customers to migrate from the 32-bit version. Because it shares source code with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360 there are no compatibility issues. That means that if you run into problems with Storyline 360 x64, you can always close your project and reopen it with 32-bit Storyline 360. Why did it take Articulate so long to deliver a 64-bit version of Storyline 360? Articulate released Storyline 1 in 2012. At that time, 64-bit processors and operating systems were becoming more popular in consumer-grade PCs, but 32-bit software was still prevalent. In the years that followed, memory got cheaper, which meant more PCs with memory greater than 4GB hit the market. Larger amounts of memory drove the need for 64-bit processors and software that supported them. We opted not to update Storyline 360 to support 64-bit until 2023, which we now realize was a mistake. When we consider the changes we want to make to Storyline 360, we have to weigh the impact that each change will have and the effort required to implement it. We must also consider the opportunity cost of choosing certain changes over others. We believed the effort to make Storyline 360 support 64-bit processor architecture was far higher than the impact it would have on our customers since it wouldn’t bring dramatic performance improvements. The Storyline codebase is over a decade old, and to say it is large and complex would be a gross understatement. Ensuring this code and the various third-party components would work properly in a 64-bit environment was daunting. Customers were also asking for many other features that would need to be put on hold if we committed to the 64-bit work. The team discussed 64-bit support many times in the 10 years that I’ve worked here. Each time, we reached the conclusion that it didn’t make sense. So what changed? Why now? Over the past several years, some of the third-party components that were roadblocks to 64-bit support have been updated or removed through the normal course of expanding and improving Storyline 360. More importantly, some intrepid software engineers on the Storyline team spent their Hackathon—a quarterly event where engineers can work on self-directed projects—proving that getting Storyline to support 64-bit processor architecture was more feasible than previously thought. When Kerry Munz came on board as our CTO, she brought a fresh perspective. She correctly surmised that our customers interpreted the lack of 64-bit support as a signal that we were not investing in Storyline 360. She directed us to prioritize this work as the first of several projects to modernize Storyline 360 and cement our commitment to its future. Will there always be both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Storyline 360 available? The number of 32-bit processors and operating systems actively in use today is extremely low. Eventually, we will only build and ship Storyline 360 in a 64-bit configuration. We’re currently working on a plan to make this transition as seamless as possible for our customers. We’ll share more details when they’re available. Wrap-Up I hope this product highlight has clarified the “what, how, and why” of Storyline 360 x64. If you haven’t already, I recommend trying out the public beta, particularly if you need to work with large or media-heavy projects. And remember to use the “Report a Bug” option at the top right corner of the application window to share any feedback directly with the engineering team. Stay tuned for future engineering journal entries! And please leave a comment below if there are specific topics you’d like me to cover.3 Ways to Create Drag-and-Drops with Storyline 360
Are you looking for a way to make e-learning courses more dynamic and engaging? Look no further than drag-and-drop interactions. Drag-and-drop interactions give your learners the opportunity to make decisions and engage with course content, and can be an excellent learning tool when used appropriately. That begs the question, when should drag-and-drops be used? In my experience, they can really come in handy when you want your learners to: Sort correct and incorrect items (view an example) Order the steps in a process (view an example) Match items (view an example) Place items or objects (view an example) Storyline 360 offers a variety of ways to create drag-and-drop interactions. Let’s have a closer look at three easy techniques. Graded Quiz Slides Storyline 360 offers 11 graded question types, two of which are prebuilt drag-and-drop interactions. The nice thing about Storyline’s graded question slides is that they’re superquick and easy to set up since you don’t have to create a single trigger. All you have to do is select the type of drag-and-drop question you want—matching or sequence?—and insert your content. View a Storyline 360 Matching Drag-and-Drop Quiz Slide View a Storyline 360 Sequence Drag-and-Drop Quiz Slide Matching activities are great when you want learners to make a connection between several items, for example an event and the date it occurred. Sequence is great for having learners identify the order of a process or task. Freeform Freeform slides let you convert any regular slide into a graded drag-and-drop quiz slide in a few clicks. Freeform slides are a really powerful tool because they allow you to completely customize every single aspect of your slide and drag-and-drop interaction. Freeform is perfect when you want to create a drag-and-drop that is not a matching or sequence activity, for example, to sort incorrect and correct items or to match non-text items such as shapes or images. Here are some examples of customized drag-and-drop interactions created using Freeform slides: View a Freeform Gamified Drag-and-Drop View a Freeform Placing Drag-and-Drop Activity To create a freeform drag-and-drop interaction, insert a new slide and click the “Convert to Freeform” button on the “Insert” tab of the Storyline 360 ribbon. Select the drag-and-drop option, then click Insert. Storyline will automatically create a graded drag-and-drop quiz slide, and will even add the “Submit” button and the feedback layers. You will be presented with “Form View,” where you can assign your drag items and your drop targets. Storyline 360’s Drag-and-Drop Freeform Form View When you’re in Form View, you’ll notice that there are options available to you in the ribbon. Options available in Drag-and-Drop Freeform Form View A few things you can do here: shuffle the answers, assign a results slide, and assign the number of attempts learners have. Above all, the one key feature you need to know about is the “Drag & Drop Options” button. Drag & Drop Options Knowing about these options can save you a ton of time and headaches. These options give you flexibility when you’re tweaking your drag-and-drop interaction to work just the way you want it. Need your drag items revealed one at a time? No problem! Do you want to allow multiple items onto one drop target? Just check the box. These options will let you customize your drag-and-drop interaction to behave just the way you want. Triggers There’s one more, little-known, way to create a very simple, ungraded drag-and-drop interaction by using a single trigger. You’ll need at least two objects on your slide to make this work. The “When” drop-down menu in the Trigger Wizard offers two options: These Drag Drop Events are available in the Trigger Wizard By using either of these options in a trigger with two objects from your slide, you can create a very simple drag-and-drop interaction. However, you can’t customize that interaction in any way and it can’t be graded. For that reason, it’s typically recommended to use the freeform drag-and-drop interaction, which is superpowerful, graded, and offers many options for customization. In Sum Creating drag-and-drop interactions with Storyline 360 is intuitive and easy, no matter which method you choose. Go ahead, build your own drag-and-drop interaction so you can see for yourself how quick and easy it is. Let me know how it turns out in the comments below! Want to try something you learned here, 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.How to Number Randomized Question Bank Slides in Storyline 360
In the past, numbering slides in a randomized Storyline 360 question bank was doable but required quite a bit of manual setup. This is because the process included creating variables and setting up triggers for each and every question slide. That process has gotten a whole lot quicker and easier with the Insert Slide Number feature available in Storyline 360. This feature allows you to pop in the slide number in one click, no triggers or variables needed. Have a look at how it works in this example: View Example|Get Download Let’s have a look at how quick and easy it is to accomplish this. Step 1: Create Your Question Slides The first step is to create the question slide you want to include in your question bank. Be sure to add an area on the slide where you can reference the question number. As you can see in the example below, I’ve included text that says “Question /5”. The actual slide number will appear before the “/5,” as in slide 1 out of 5 or slide 2 out of 5. Remember: the slide number will be different every time the learner goes through the course, because these slides will be pulled in randomly from a question bank. I need the slide number to be pulled in dynamically, and this is where I’ll use the Insert Slide Number feature. I’ll start by placing my cursor inside the text field where I want the slide number to appear. Next you’re going to head to the Insert tab on the Storyline ribbon and click on the Slide Number drop-down arrow. From the drop-down menu, you’ll select the More... option, which will open up the Insert Slide Number window. In this window, you want to select Project Order, and then Slide Number in Scene from the Insert drop-down, as indicated above. When you’ve inserted the slide number, your slide will look like this: Now you can duplicate this question slide and update the question text and answers to create all the question slides you want to include in your question bank. Step 2: Create Your Question Bank Once you’ve created the question slides, you can create a new question bank and copy the existing question slides into the bank. You can also adjust your Attempts and Points for each question slide here in the Question Bank view. Step 3: Insert Slide Draw The last step is to insert your Slide Draw into your project. The Slide Draw is what will pull questions from the question bank. It’s important to note that the Slide Draw should be the first slide in the scene, because the questions in the bank use the Slide Number in Scene option. Once you’ve got it set up, you can preview your project to test out the question bank and see your slide numbering in action. There you have it! That’s how easy it is to set up automatic slide numbering for random question slides with the awesome Insert Slide Number feature in Storyline 360. Have you used the Insert Slide Number feature in your Storyline 360 projects? If yes, let me know how and why in the comments below! Want to try something you learned here, 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.7 Most Popular Storyline 360 Examples & Downloads of 2023
E-Learning Heroes Community is the perfect place to get inspired by examples from both our amazing community members and our Articulate staff members. Below are the top seven Storyline 360 examples from 2023. 1. Storyline Comics Style Communication: Branched Scenario See how you can use interactive storytelling elements and branching techniques to teach learners the skills they need in this cool example. 2. Power of Self-Motivation Scrolling Experience Check out this completely unique interactive example that engages learners right from the start. 3. Office Safety Training Template Want to teach workplace safety in a memorable and interactive way? Check outthis downloadable template to help kickstart your project. 4. Interactive Storytelling Template Learn how to leverage storytelling in Storyline 360 to help your learners apply their skills in a real-life scenario with this inspiring example. 5. Room Exploration Interaction Template Make searching an office, home, warehouse, store, or any other 2D environment feel more cinematic with this downloadable interaction. With the help of hotspots, triggers, and layers, learners can use the on-screen flashlight to help them discover clues. 6. Reset Drag-and-Drop Incorrect Choices Template Ever wanted to reset only the incorrect drag choices in Storyline 360? Use this starter template and supporting video tutorial to learn how to reset your own drag-and-drop interactions. 7. Employee Health and Wellness Check out this stunning example to see some of the immersive and custom learning experiences you can create with Storyline 360. Wrap-Up We hope these examples inspire you as you work on your next e-learning projects! Did we miss any of your favorites? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. You can view more article recaps from 2023 by checking out our latest compilation of articles here: All the Best E-Learning Heroes Content from 2023 in One Place. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.How I Made This Randomized Math Game in Storyline 360
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher would hold math competitions. He’d call two students to the front of the class and then give us a multiplication problem to solve. The first student to answer correctly would remain at the front and another student would be called up until there were no more students left. The last person remaining was the winner. It was a fun yet nerve-wracking challenge. I liked math (note: this was before calculus 😆), but didn’t always like practicing in front of a large group of people. That’s what inspired me to create an online version: View | Download In my version, instead of competing against others, learners can either answer at their own pace or race against the clock. And thanks to random number variables in Storyline 360, I built it all without any coding skills! Curious how I did it? Let me walk you through my process. 1. Create the Storyboard The concept for this game was pretty simple: I wanted to present learners with 10 questions and see how many in a row they could answer correctly. With that in mind, I decided to draft a storyboard using this visual template. Here’s how it turned out: Basically, I mapped out: An intro slide with a Start button and an Instructions layer, where learners decide whether they want to race against the clock. A main slide for all the math questions, with some feedback layers. A final slide where learners can see if they passed or failed and decide if they want to try again. 2. Build the Slides The first thing I did to bring that storyboard to life in Storyline 360 was build each slide and layer. From there, I inserted the text, shapes, icons, and graphics. I found the background image and all the monster illustrations in Content Library 360. Then, I used the media library feature to quickly open and edit the illustrations in Photoshop. For example, I was able to transform this free purple monster asset … Before (Content Library 360 illustration) … into four additional options by removing the background and making more poses and facial expressions, for a more engaging learning experience. After (edited versions) After I finished building and designing all my slides and layers, I was ready to focus on the more technical aspects—math!😬 3. Display Random Questions and Feedback To make this game challenging, I wanted learners to see different math problems each time they played. I also wanted to show a variety of feedback messages so it felt more personalized. To do this, I used variables. Variables collect and store data in Storyline 360 that you can use to display information anywhere in your course. This can be text—the learner’s name, for example—or numbers—like in math problems. Most people create variables first and then insert the references to display the values on the screen. However, I decided to type my variable names on the slide before creating them to figure out exactly how many—and what kind—I needed. In Storyline 360, it’s easy to manually insert variable references. Simply insert a textbox and type percentage signs on each side of the variable name, as shown below. Slide On the base layer, I ended up with the following variables: Variable Name Type Default Value Purpose score Number 0 The total score. a Number 0 First number in the math problem. b Number 0 Second number in the math problem. I also planned to add one behind-the-scene variable that wasn’t going to be visible on the base layer: Variable Name Type Default Value Purpose timer True/False False To make the timer visible for learners who want it, and invisible for those who don’t. Layers For the layers, I added the following variables: Layer Name Variable Name Type Default Value Purpose Correct FeedbackCorrect Text blank The Correct feedback text. Incorrect FeedbackIncorrect Text blank The Incorrect feedback text. Incorrect and Time’s Up answer Number 1 The Correct answer. I also planned to add one behind-the-scene variable that wasn’t going to be visible on the correct and incorrect layers: Layer Name Variable Name Type Default Value Purpose Correct and Incorrect FeedbackNumber Number 0 Decides which Correct and Incorrect feedback phrases to display Once I identified all the variables I needed, I went ahead and created them by clicking the Manage Project Variables icon at the top right of the triggers panel. I then selected the plus (+) sign to create each new variable. When you’re done, this is what it should look like: Once everything’s set up, the default values will appear automatically in place of the variable references, as shown below with light yellow boxes. But don’t worry, these boxes won’t show when you preview/publish. They’re simply there to help you see which variables are being referenced. All you need to do is hover over each yellow box to see the name of the variable. Slide Layers 4. Make a Space for Learners to Type Their Answers Next, I needed to create a space for learners to type their answers. I went to the Insert tab, clicked Input, and chose Numeric Entry Field. Then, I drew the data-entry field on my slide. I customized the formatting of the text in the numeric entry field to match my course design and formatted the shape by removing the outline and making the fill color completely transparent. (Note: Do not select the No Fill option. Doing so will prevent learners from clicking on the object and typing an answer.) When you add a numeric entry field, Storyline 360 automatically creates a variable to save the data … … and a trigger to set the value of the variable to whatever the learner types in the field. So there’s nothing else for you to do! It’s supereasy. And now, when the learner enters their answer and then clicks away—or selects the Submit button—the NumericEntry variable automatically updates to the value they typed. 5. Set Up the Math Calculations With the variables and the numeric entry field all set up, it was time to add triggers to make the math problems work! Triggers make it so easy to build these types of interactions without any code. All you have to do is choose an action and decide when you want it to occur. Let’s take a look at the triggers I created on my slide. First, the base layer. I organized the triggers into two parts: when the timeline starts and when the user clicks Check Answer. Let’s take a look at the triggers I created. 1. When the timeline starts on this slide. At the start of the slide, learners are presented with a random math problem. Here’s the image with the variable names so it’s easier to follow along. Variable Trigger Purpose a Set a to random number between 1 and 12 when the timeline starts on this slide I chose to pull from a range of 1 to 12 since this is a common range used for testing multiplication. You can easily edit the trigger to display a different range. b Set b to random number between 1 and 12 when the timeline starts on this slide NumericEntry Set NumericEntry to value 0 when the timeline starts on this slide I wanted the data field to display a neutral number so the learner knows to type their answer there. 2. When the user clicks Check Answer. Once the learner types their answer in the numeric entry field, they click the Check Answer button and are automatically directed to a custom feedback layer—Correct or Incorrect—depending on their response. Here are the triggers I created to ensure they were directed to the right layer. Variable Trigger Purpose answer a Multiply answer by variable a when the user clicks Check Answer When I created the variables earlier, I set the default value of answer to 1. That’s because this is a multiplication problem and anything multiplied by 0 is 0. Setting answer to 1 makes it so: answer (1) x a = a answer (1) x b = b Which then makes the correct answer: a x b = answer answer b Multiply answer by variable b when the user clicks Check Answer NumericEntry answer Show layer Correct when the user clicks Check Answer if NumericEntry＝ variable answer This lets learners know when their response is the same as the correct answer. Show layer Incorrect when the user clicks Check Answer if NumericEntry ≠ variable answer This lets learners know when their response doesn’t match the correct answer. 6. Add Some Feedback When it comes to quizzes, feedback is essential because it lets learners know how they’re doing. Since this is a game, I kept the feedback simple to keep the momentum going. Let’s take a quick look at how I set up the feedback from a technical perspective. Correct layer For the Correct layer, I organized the triggers into three different categories—Score, Feedback, Next button. 1. Score: Displaying a score helps learners gauge their progress. Since the goal of this game is for the learner to get 10 questions right in a row, I created the following trigger to calculate the score. Variable Trigger Purpose score Add value 1 to score when the timeline starts on this layer For every question the learner gets right, a point is added to their score. 2. Feedback: When I first created the Correct layer, I typed the feedback phrase, “That’s right!” But as I reviewed this interaction, seeing “That’s right!” 10 times in a row felt too repetitive. So, in addition to random math problems, I decided to add random feedback phrases for some variety. I wasn’t quite sure how to randomize words, but I remembered seeing this awesome Storyline: E-Learning Needs Analysis Generator by Montse. The concept was similar to what I was looking to do, so I dug into her file to see how she set it up. Here’s how I got the randomized feedback to work in my project: Variable Trigger Reason FeedbackNumber Set FeedbackNumber to random number between 1 and 10 when the timeline starts on this layer Since the goal of the game is to answer 10 questions right in a row, I included 10 different feedback phrases. This random number determines which phrase displays each time the learner answers correctly. FeedbackCorrect FeedbackNumber Set FeedbackCorrect to value Way to go! when FeedbackNumber = value 1 These are all the positive feedback phrases that display depending on the FeedbackNumber. I assigned each phrase a different number. Set FeedbackCorrect to value Outstanding! when FeedbackNumber = value 2 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Marvelous! when FeedbackNumber = value 3 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Incredible! when FeedbackNumber = value 4 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Right on! when FeedbackNumber = value 5 Set FeedbackCorrect to value You’re on fire! when FeedbackNumber = value 6 Set FeedbackCorrect to value I’m impressed! when FeedbackNumber = value 7 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Good thinking! when FeedbackNumber = value 8 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Grrr … eat! when FeedbackNumber = value 9 Set FeedbackCorrect to value Brilliant! when FeedbackNumber = value 10 3. Next button: After the learner reviews the correct feedback, they can move on to the next question. But since I built this entire interaction on just one slide, there are a few other triggers to add to reset everything after each question. Variable Trigger Purpose n/a Hide this layer when the user clicks Next button If the learner hasn’t earned 10 points yet, the layer closes and they’re presented with a new question to earn more points. score Jump to 1.3 Pass when the user clicks Next button if score = value 10 Once a learner earns 10 points, instead of hiding the layer to display the next question they’re directed to the final slide. answer Set answer to value 1 when the user clicks Next button Since the learner is moving onto the next question, this trigger resets the correct answer to its default value of 1. NumericEntry Set NumericEntry to value 0 when the user clicks Next button Instead of leaving the previously typed answer visible, this trigger resets the numeric entry field to 0 so the learner can start with a neutral number. a Set a to random number between 1 and 12 when the user clicks Next button These triggers reset both number fields to display a new math problem within the selected range. b Set b to random number between 1 and 12 when the user clicks Next button Incorrect layer For the Incorrect layer, I organized the triggers into two categories—Feedback and Next button. This layer didn’t require as many triggers since the Next button takes them to a final slide that allows them to restart the game. 1. Feedback: Similar to the Correct layer, I wanted to present different feedback phrases for incorrect responses. This is how that works: Variable Trigger Reason FeedbackNumber Set FeedbackNumber to random number between 1 and 3 when the timeline starts on this layer This random number determines which phrase displays each time the learner answers incorrectly. Incorrect FeedbackNumber Set FeedbackIncorrect to value Ahhh! when FeedbackNumber = value 1 These are all the Incorrect feedback phrases that display depending on the FeedbackNumber. I assigned each phrase a different number. I only included three different feedback phrases since the game is set up to get more answers right and the learners won’t see this layer as often. Set FeedbackIncorrect to value Grrr … when FeedbackNumber = value 2 Set FeedbackIncorrect to value Eeek! when FeedbackNumber = value 3 2. Next button: After the learner reviews the Incorrect feedback, they’re directed to the final slide. Here’s how I set that up: Variable Trigger Purpose n/a Jump to slide 1.4 Fail when the user clicks the Next button Since the learner didn’t answer 10 questions right in a row, they’re directed to the final slide, where they can play again. n/a Hide this layer when the user clicks Next button Left this trigger in to ensure the slide resets on restart. 7. Include an Optional Timer I decided to give learners the option to race against the clock, to make it even more challenging if they wanted to. Timed quizzes make for a more gamified experience, but—for accessibility purposes—I made the timer optional. Timers put learners who have visual, cognitive, or motor impairments and those using screen readers at a disadvantage. By providing two options, all learners are empowered to personalize the experience to fit their needs. Here’s how I set that up. Create the Timer Graphic To create the timer graphic, I inserted three long, thin rectangles at the top of the main quiz slide. Then, I changed the fill colors of each so that I had one white, one gray, and one red rectangle. Hide the Timer For learners who want to answer the questions at their own pace, I hid the timer. To do this, I changed the initial state of each shape to Hidden. Now, if a learner selects “Not timed,” the timer remains hidden. No triggers necessary. Show the Timer Then, to ensure the timer is visible for learners who want it, I added the following trigger to the Instructions layer of the introduction slide. Variable Trigger Purpose timer Set timer to True when the user clicks Timed button To save the option selected by the learner: Timed or Not Timed. Then, I added three triggers to the base layer of the main quiz slide—one for each of the colored rectangles—so that the timer displays if the learner selects the Timed button: Variable Trigger Purpose timer Change state of [timer color] to Normal when the timeline starts on this slide if timer = value True To show the timer at the start of this slide when the learner selects the Timed option. Remember: You need to add the above trigger to each colored rectangle, so in the end, you should have three almost identical triggers: Make the Timer Work Now it’s time to add animations to the timer so it looks like time is running out. To do that, I added a Fade and Wipe from Right animation to the red timer rectangle at the top of my slide. I changed the duration of the wipe to 30 seconds to give learners 30 seconds to complete the 10-question quiz before the timer runs out. Next, I extended the timeline of my slide to 30.75 seconds to take into account the animation durations. Then, I added the following trigger to display the Time’s Up layer when the time runs out: Variable Trigger Purpose timer Show layer Time’s Up when the animation Exit on red completes if timer = value True To make the Time’s Up layer appear when the red shape is no longer visible. Here’s what that layer looks like: Since the Time’s Up layer appears automatically when time runs out, there’s no time for learners to click on the Check button to see if they answered the questions correctly. For this reason, I added the following triggers to this layer: Variable Trigger Purpose answer a Multiply answer by variable a when the timeline starts on this slide To show the correct answer on this layer. answer b Multiply answer by variable b when the timeline starts on this slide Then, I added a trigger to jump to the Fail slide when learners click on Next so they can see their score and decide whether they want to play again. Variable Trigger Purpose n/a Jump to 1.4 Fail when the user clicks Next button To see their final results and give them another chance to play. Finally, I adjusted the settings of each layer on the main quiz slide so that the timer would only run when the learner was solving a math problem—not when they were viewing feedback. To do that, I clicked the properties icon and selected the Pause Timeline of Base Layer option: 8. Add Finishing Touches Once everything worked the way I wanted it to, I added some finishing touches to make it feel more game-like. For example, I inserted music I found on YouTube Studio and included a few sound effects I downloaded from Freesound. I also added subtle fade-ins and wipe-up animations for a smoother gaming experience. It’s amazing what a difference these small details can make when it comes to the overall experience. Wrap-Up In this project, I used random number variables to generate unpredictable math problems and phrases to make a more dynamic learning experience, but there are so many other cool ways to use this feature. Want to take a deeper dive into this game? You can download it here. How have you used random number variables in your projects? Please share your ideas or examples in the comments below. Looking for more inspiration on how to use variables in your projects? Check out these these e-learning challenges: 39 Brilliant Ways to Use Random Number Variables in E-Learning 24 Dynamic Ideas for Using Number Variables in E-Learning 33 Random Number Variable Examples in E-Learning Want to try building something similar in Storyline 360, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial.How to Randomize Quiz Questions in Storyline 360
A big part of being an e-learning developer is creating quizzes. Choosing question types, writing plausible choices, crafting meaningful feedback—these all go into building a great quiz. When putting together your quizzes, you might have encountered a situation where you’ve wanted or needed to randomize the questions in your quizzes. Why randomize questions? Perhaps your subject matter expert (SME) has provided you with more questions than you actually need to test learners on, or you might want to ensure that the order of the questions is different every time learners take the quiz, to minimize cheating and keep it interesting. Whatever your reason for randomizing quiz questions, one simple and straightforward way to do so in Storyline 360 is to use question banks. Here are the steps you can follow to randomize questions in a bank: Create a Question Bank Your first step is to create the question bank. To do so, you’ll head to the slides tab on the Storyline 360 ribbon. There you’ll notice the Question Banks button with a small arrow pointing down, indicating there is a dropdown menu. The Question Banks button is located under theslides tab on the ribbon. Click the Question Banks dropdown and select Create Question Bank. Once you’re in the Question Bank view, you can either import existing questions you already have in your .STORY project, or you can create new questions from inside the question bank. Once you’ve got all your questions inside the bank,you can also easily set all of your attempts and points in one fell swoop. A question bank that has been populated with question slides. Keep in mind you can have multiple question banks within one Storyline 360 project. You might create one bank of easy questions and one bank with more advanced questions. Or you might have one bank of questions for customer service reps and a different set of questions banked for sales reps. You can have as many question banks in your project as you need. Insert a Slide Draw Once you’ve set up your question bank, the next step is to insert a slide draw into your project. The slide draw is the slide in your project that displays the question bank to the learner. To insert a slide draw, head to the Question Bank dropdown button once more and click New Draw from Question Bank. The slide draw is inserted into your project and has a question mark on it, as indicated in the image below: Slide draw appears as a slide. Adjust Slide Draw Properties You can now double-click on the slide draw slide you’ve just inserted to open up the Draw Questions from Bank window. From here, you can control all the settings for how the question bank will appear for learners. Question Bank dropdown. If you have multiple question banks, use the Question Bank dropdown field to select the question bank you want to pull from on this slide draw. Edit Question Bank. Click this to open the selected question bank and make changes to the questions and slides contained within it. Draw Questions Randomly. Ding! Ding! Ding! This is the option you will select if you want to randomize the order of your questions. Include X Questions dropdown. From this dropdown you can select “All” or specify the number of questions you want included in the draw. Include in Shuffle dropdown. This can be set to “Randomly,” “Never,” or “Always,” depending on how often you want a question to appear. Here’s an example of how I can customize my question bank settings: I want to create a question bank that randomly draws five of the seven questions included in my bank, but I always want Question A to be included. I would simply set the Include X Questions dropdown at “5” instead of “All,” and I would change the Include in Shuffle option for Question A to “Always.” These settings will randomly draw five questions from the bank.Question A will always be included in the shuffle. Test Your Slide Draw Once you’ve set up your slide draw with all the right options, you’ll want to preview the scene that your question bank is in to test it out and see how it all comes together. Run through your question bank a few times to ensure that the correct number of questions are drawn, and in a random, different order each time. Hopefully these simple steps will help you create your own randomized quizzes. If you want to learn more about using question banks, here are a few additional helpful articles: 5 Things You Should Know About Storyline 360 Question Banks 3 More Tips for Using Question Banks Like a Pro Want to try something you learned here, 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.7 Pro Tips for Working with Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360
Animations can be a powerful way to explain a concept, tell a story, or make your content memorable. Storyline 360 has a variety of animation options—including entrance, exit, and motion paths. With motion path animations, you can control how your objects move and bring your ideas to life. Here are some time-saving tips to help propel you forward when working with motion path animations. 1. Rename Motion Paths When you add a motion path animation to an object in Storyline 360, a name is automatically assigned. If you plan on adding multiple motion paths, it’s a good idea to rename each one. This will make it easier to identify which motion path you’re working on when editing triggers. 2. Copy Animations If you plan on using the same motion path animation on several objects, save time by copying the animation from one object to another using the Animation Painter. By double-clicking the Animation Painter, you can apply the same animation to multiple objects one after the other without having to click the Animation Painter over and over again. To turn it off, click it one last time or press the ESC key on your keyboard. Did you know? When you copy and paste an object, any animations you’ve added to the object are also copied over. So if you’re using the same object multiple times, add any animations you want to include before you copy it to save time. 3. Sync Using Cue Points As you build content, you might change your mind about when you want your motion path animation to start. Syncing your motion path to a cue point gives you the flexibility to change the motion path timing without having to edit the trigger each time. All you have to do is drag the cue point along the timeline until the timing feels right, and the motion path will start at the new time. 4. Select the Object Path to Edit To edit a motion path, you can select the start or end point individually using your mouse and drag the point to the desired location. If you have multiple start or end points overlapping each other, you can easily select and edit them without having to hide objects from your timeline. Simply select the line of the object path you want to edit. It will turn bright blue while the other objects and their paths will fade. Then, move the start or end point as needed. Did you know? Another way to fine-tune a motion path is to select the start or end point of one or all of the objects and edit the X and Y coordinates. This is great for times when you need to be super-precise. 5. Change the Easing Option By default, Storyline 360 automatically assigns an ease-in and ease-out effect to your motion paths. This controls the acceleration and deceleration of an animation. If your animation needs to move at the same pace across the screen, then you’ll want to edit the easing direction to none. 6. Orient Shape to Path There might be times when you need to include an object that faces a certain direction as it follows a path—for example, a car making a right turn. By selecting Orient Shape to Path, the object will always face the direction it’s moving, even when it travels on a nonlinear path. 7. Use a Relative Start Point Perhaps you want to create an interaction where the object can move multiple times depending on the learner’s choice. For example, let’s say you created a racetrack and want the learner’s car to move forward whenever they answer a question correctly. Instead of duplicating the object and creating motion paths for each possible outcome, you can select Relative Start Point to move the object along the motion path starting from its current position. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this tutorial. Did you know? You can add more than one motion path to the same object and have each begin at the new location of the object based on previous movements. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this free Storyline 360 download by Samuel Apata. Motion path animations give you the flexibility to quickly create content that’ll move your learners. What tips do you have for working with motion paths? Share your ideas in the comments below. Want to try something you learned here, 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.
