Checklist - Storyline progress level

When we start learning something new, while initially the process can feel exciting, many times it can also be daunting. One of the things that can cause problems is not knowing where in the process we are and what steps we need to take to be able to get to the next level.

This checklist tries to offer some help related to your Storyline journey by identifying some of the key stages and elements of knowing how to work with the software. As discussed in the other blog posts, Storyline is the most often used authoring tool for e-learning, instructional design and digital learning projects. This is why many people to decide to get started with the journey of understanding the different parts of the software and see how it can be used to help our learners reach their goals.

Before looking at the various levels, I would like to point out that these levels will not be able to give a completely accurate picture of the learning process for various reasons. Firstly, as you can see and probably have experienced, many of the items on the list could be moved around. For example, creating layers might be something that someone will learn at an early stage of their process, but they won't need to worry too much about publishing and the player settings until later. The other reason is that many of these functions (e.g. editing shapes) can be done on various levels which means it's difficult to categorise them as something you would know at a "beginner" or any other level. A single shape or a set of shapes can be designed, customised and programmed to such complexity that they could easily fall into the highest levels of expertise.

All in all, this checklist will hopefully be a good starting point for someone who is new to the software and a good conversation starter for people who have been using it for a while.

Level 1 - Beginner

Even though the name of the level might mean that the person with this knowledge has very limited knowledge of Storyline, the opposite can be often true too. The ability to create projects using the software with confidence takes time and practice and everyone at this level should be happy to have come this far.

The initial steps of learning a new piece of software are not easy, but fortunately Storyline and the Articulate community offers a lot of help and support for everyone to get started.

The first stage is usually about learning the basic functions of adding, editing and handling new slides and objects - images, shapes, videos, text and audio files to your project.

This can be followed by learning how to work with these objects. For example, how to set the entry animation of them or how to change their colour, size etc. Most of these settings can be learnt intuitively or if there's anything specific you need, you can always Google what you're looking for with the usual "how to..." search terms.

This is the stage where you will most likely first meet with triggers, and learn what their purpose is. You will probably not use them for too many things just yet, but you will certainly have good fun with the first steps of programming the slide to follow a specific path or do something that you find useful or beneficial for your future learners.

Level 2 - Intermediate

After fighting your way through the fundamental steps of using the software, here is the even more exciting part! You've got a good understanding of how to insert and edit objects and use triggers and other methods, now you start looking at more complex solutions to create learning experiences.

During this stage, you are likely to start experimenting with features like the slider, dial or some more complex triggers and there's also a good chance that you start interacting with the Articulate community.

During this stage of my learning journey, I often found myself encountering an issue - meaning something didn't behave in a way I wanted it to. A good example of this was the slider interaction. It took a couple of videos to watch and some researching in the community forum to find the solution and then happily apply it to my portfolio project.

Even though, I started working with them from the very beginning, only after a month of use did I start to utilise the opportunities within using various states. I should say "over-utilise" as there were times when I used states for most of the more complex triggers and interactions I created.

The previously mentioned experimenting period is crucial to be able to progress to the next level. As with most of the other software we use, Storyline also has unlimited options, features, possibilities to explore, but it takes a lot of trial and error to get there. This is why it's great to have some inspiration so that we can push ourselves and the product to bring the most out of it.

Level 3 - Advanced

As mentioned above, there's a great likelihood that you've started dealing with some of these points at an earlier stage - and of course there's a chance that you haven't had much need for some of these even though you've been using the product for a while.

This stage also often requires a lot of digging in the Articulate community forums and trying out things. You'll soon realise that there are some things which are just simply not possible, but these are also helpful for you to develop your understanding of the limitations and possibilities of Storyline. At this point, you are a confident user of the software and you are likely to create courses for real-life projects with specific needs. For these specific needs, many times, you need to create custom solutions related to user experience - e.g. preventing / allowing learners to progress - chunking - only enabling learners to see specific information - quiz scores and data tracking - data reporting and tracking and so on.

These specific needs are great opportunities to further enrich your knowledge of not only Storyline, but all the supporting applications (photo, video, audio editing) that can help you to create beautiful, engaging and perhaps most importantly effective learning experiences.

Level 4 - Pro

You've been using Storyline for years and you haven't had the need for most of these? You are probably not alone. These features and functions often take a long time to build, therefore, in many projects they won't be at the top of the list of requirements.

On the other hand, they offer extremely exciting opportunities to further customise and personalise the learning experiences we create not to mention the improved efficiency (e.g. advanced data tracking).

Almost everyone who uses Storyline at some point hear about these features, but due to the complexity and the nature of these tasks, there's a possibility that at many organisations, there are people who specialise in one or two of these areas to be able to fully utilise the possibilities that these technologies can offer.

Conclusion

Storyline is a great tool, but the ability to customise these courses to the smallest detail also bring some complexity to the software which takes time to master. Understanding the different stages - and the connections between them - can be very useful on your journey to create great learning experiences.

What do you think about the progress level checklist? Where are you on it and would you structure it differently or add something to it?

If you're interested other tips and tricks related to Storyline, e-learning development and Instructional Design, visit my other blog posts here.