Using eLearning Characters to Engage and Connect with Learners

This was one of my earliest interactions. A simple light switch toggle which affects the character and the environment.

At this point I was just beginning to learn about Storyline 360 and triggers. The interaction happens when the user clicks the picture of the light switch.

Storyline uses object states to determine how something looks. The light switch has two states: off and on. We toggle those states when the user clicks the light switch.

Three other objects in the room have on and off states as well. The lightbulb, the character, and the room itself. We toggle those also when the user clicks the light switch.

Storyline uses simple terminology for triggers which is easily readible. You need to just ask yourself two question.

What do you want to happen?

When do you want it to happen?

For example, in this interaction if 'bulb' is the name of a true/false variable, lightbulb is the name of the picture of the bulb and switch is the name of the picture of the light switch, the following triggers would toggle the switch and the bulb from on to off each time the user clicks the switch.

Using the same format, we can control the states of the room and the character as well.

Lessons Learned

I learned to use a variable instead of the state of an object when doing an interaction like this.

For example:

Looks good, but doesn't work because Storyline will execute one trigger and then immediately execute the other. That is why we needed to add in a T/F variable and reference that instead of the state of the lightbulb.

Here a simple light bulb/light switch interaction for you to download if you want to play some more with the triggers in Storyline.