Storyline 360 tips

Storyline 360 is our go-to learning development programme whenever we’re creating a course with a set canvas size. It’s super-friendly to use and has some cool customisable features. Here are a few top tips we’ve learned…

A whole host of benefits

Using Vimeo to host your videos is a no-brainer – it’s the easy-to-use industry standard. And, when you have lots of videos in your course, you’ll need to think carefully about how you’ll manage them to avoid a goliath-sized project file. Vimeo saves your bandwidth, has bigger player controls, and means file sharing is a breeze. 

It’s really easy to create a Vimeo account. Once you’ve uploaded your videos, it’s simple to add them to your courses:

1. In Vimeo, copy the embed code of the video you’d like to use. 
2. In Storyline, use Video from Website and paste the embed code into the window.
3. Now, all you need to do is create buttons and triggers to control how you’d like learners to interact with the video.

Note, you won’t be able to preview your slide to see how the video works, instead, publish to 360 Review when you’re ready to test.

Being resource-full

A key feature of the in-built Storyline player is the ability to store course materials in one place using the Resources tab. But, if your course is jam-packed full of resources, it’s even better to organise them by section so your learners can access them easily. 

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Create a lightbox slide to hold all your course resources. To make it look really good, use javascript to get a transparent look.
2. Create a new layer for each resource section e.g. for ten sections you’ll need ten layers.
3. On each layer add in the title of each of your resources. We also like to add icons as it’s helpful for learners to know the document type.
4. Hyperlink each resource title to its source. Storyline will package the documents together when you export to your LMS or web.
5. For every other slide in your course, set a variable to identify the section e.g. for every slide in module one, you would need to set the variable to 1. This lets Storyline know which layer on your resources slide to show. 
6. Finally, create a custom ‘Resources’ tab in the Storyline player. Then, uncheck the standard Resources tab, and add a lightbox action. You’ll need to publish to the web (you can save it on your desktop) to test javascript.

Contact us for a free copy of the javascript you’ll need to make your resources slide look transparent.

Better take note

We’ve created a simple way to allow learners to create notes as they complete training in Storyline 360. To do this, you’ll need to use a little javascript magic: 

1. Create a new layer with a Text Entry box on each slide where you want the learner to take notes, and add a button on the base layer to access it. 
2. It’s helpful to keep track of the slide titles and text entry variables as you go (we find it easiest to create a quick spreadsheet).
3. Once you’ve created all your notes layers across your course, update each Text Entry variable to a useful name in the variable manager e.g. instead of ‘Text Entry 17’, try using the slide number, like ‘note_slide_10_7’ (your spreadsheet will come in very handy here).
4. Create a ‘download’ button to let the learner download their notes at the end of your course. The download button will execute a javascript. You’ll need to write a script that should collect every note, and then add that note to it’s appropriate title, before exporting them all into one document. 

Sounds a bit tricky? Contact us for a free copy of the javascript you’ll need.

State of play

When we play we learn without effort. Injecting a bit of playful interaction into a learning course doesn’t have to be rocket science to be engaging. For example, using a few custom states in Storyline and a static illustration, we created a fun stop-motion style animation that responded to the learner’s choices.

Here’s how we did it:

1. In this example, we had six questions we wanted to animate. We created a series of 12 different images in Adobe Illustrator from just three illustrations: a mountain background, a climbing person, and a person holding a flag. 
2. To make the first 11 images we simply moved the climber slightly up the mountain from the bottom to the top (and reversed every second image to simulate climbing movement). For the final image, we illustrated a person at the top of the mountain.
3. In Storyline, we made 12 states with an image in each one (the Normal state was the midpoint where the climber was halfway up the mountain).
4. For each question we asked the learner, we added or subtracted one from a variable depending on their answer, and used the value of the variable to control what image state was shown.

A dynamic duo

Another way of using Storyline to spice up your learning is to make dynamic interactions. Take for example, a simple drag and drop. Using just two in-built states in Storyline you can give an instant response to your learner. It’s a fresh twist to learning checkpoints that can make it just that little bit more interesting and engaging.

Here’s how we do it:

1. Design your drag and drop assets (we use Adobe Illustrator for custom illustrations) – you’ll need three, a drag, a drop, and a drop-correct version. 
2. In Storyline, create a freeform drag and drop interaction.  
3. For each drag item, create an extra state Drop Correct, and replace the image with the drop-correct illustration. 

Don’t forget to uncheck ‘Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted’ so your learner gets immediate feedback.

Looking for more Storyline support?

We’re constantly looking for ways to make learning in Storyline as engaging as possible. If you’d like to see more tips and tricks, then get in touch. Alternatively, if you’ve got a question about using Storyline, contact us and we’ll be happy to share more about what we’ve learned.