Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

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E-Learning Challenge #224 – How are Designers Using Progress Bars in E-Learning?

Wow. If this isn’t a unicorn sighting, I don’t know what is! I’m finally participating in another e-learning heroes challenge!

The Concept

This week’s challenge was to share an example of how designers are using progress bars in e-learning. I have to admit that I chose a lazy approach, but it’s still a nice looking and effective approach.

The Method

In considering this challenge, time really was of the essence. Like I said, it’s been awhile since I’ve participated in a challenge, I don’t really have time to do so anymore without cloning myself, but I wanted to bang something out! The first thing I did was modify the player – I turned all of the buttons off, and customized the default Classic player to put it all on black (got an Alkaline Trio reference in there – it’s a successful Saturday!).

Then, I removed the next/prev functionality from each slide and instead added an Icon from the content library and applied a trigger for Next functionality.

In the master, I added a rounded rectangle with four states: 25, 50, 75, 100. Each state had the rounded rectangle filled with approximate colouring (25/50/75/100). Then, I popped in 5 slides, added some nice images of Unsplash for visual appeal. I added a numeric variable for Progress, and then added a trigger to change the state of Progress to 25/50/75/100 when the timeline started, depending on the slide we were on.

The Result

To view the full interaction, Click Here.

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Screencast: Adjusting Player Size Under Browser Settings in Articulate Storyline 360

Over the weekend, I received an email from someone looking to change the size of their organization’s existing Storyline files to a larger resolution. They wanted to do this without all of the headache involved in tediously shifting slide objects slide-by-slide to align with the new resolution. In this screencast, I’m showing you the solution that worked for her and their Learning Management System (LMS).

Check out the screencast below!

Where Have I Been?!

The statement ‘New Year, New Me’ never really spoke to me until this year. At the tail end of 2018, I accepted a  full-time position as a Senior eLearning Developer at Traliant, and I’ve been MIA from the blog because I’ve been insanely busy ramping up with them (and learning so much!) as well as ramping down with my other obligations.

What is Traliant?!

Traliant is an e-learning company that develops compliance training – primarily Sexual Harassment and Preventing Discrimination and Harassment Training – that truly looks like something you would find on a news channel or streaming service (e.g., Netflix or Hulu). I’ve only been with the company for just shy of a month, but I’ve already fallen in love with the quality of the content, the excitement and enthusiasm of the team, and the sheer volume of exciting clients that have come across my desk so far!

What You Can Expect from Me

Aside from being MIA for the majority of this month, things will be ramping back up with the blog in the coming weeks/months. I love maintaining this blog, and there are a ton of things I’m really excited to share, so stay tuned for more content, more screencasts, and a new design (coming soon, THANK YOU, Erin)! I’ll be getting back into a normal routine with the blog, so keep checking in.

What Else Have I Been Up To?

To be honest, when I haven’t been doing something work-related, I’ve been taking time to wind down:

  • Listening to lots of podcasts (I recently started the Monster podcast)
  • Watching lots of Netflix (Birdbox, F is for Family, The Punisher, the Fyre Festival documentaries)
  • Enjoying time with my little family
  • Going gluten free (since November) – I hate to admit it has helped my migraines, but it really has (still looking for a solid pizza crust recipe though!)
  • Planning my conference schedule for 2019 – I’ll be at ATD ICE and DevLearn this year for sure
  • Helping organize a Halifax Articulate Roadshow (!!! so excited about this and will be happy to share details once they’re available)

Random

I am still waiting on a knee surgery from a baseball injury this past July. It’s progressing in that I’ve received my MRI results, received confirmation that I do in fact have to have a meniscus repair that hasn’t healed on its own, and I have a consult with the surgeon for the beginning of March. That being said, it is extremely discouraging to know that with a 3-4 month recovery and no surgery date as of yet, I’ll be unable to play softball this season (maaaaybe in the fall, but we’ll see). It’s also been extremely hard, mentally, to do zero physical activity requiring my legs (I’d even settle for a 15 minute dog walk without a swollen knee at this point).