Portfolio

Simon's Portfolio
(well... the parts he can show you)


I've made the source files for all these projects available to you on Google Drive at https://goo.gl/j224Pk.

Interactive map

Created for e-Learning Heroes Challenge #44, this sample includes free navigation using a novel text-based command mechanism (think Zork). The way it works is you type in commands (such as "go north", "open mailbox", or "inspect clothesline") and things happen.

As Storyline doesn't have a text parser, and I didn't want to use any JavaScript or external tools, I had to set up triggers for each possible action at each location.
There's a text entry field into which you type your commands. When you press Enter, the triggers kick in. For example, one trigger checks to see whether you typed "n", "go n", or "go north" (regardless of case) and reacts appropriately.

The major challenges I ran into were finding a way to ensure that the text entry field was selected by default (which I managed by putting it at the bottom of the timeline) and making sure the navigation worked (I plotted out the map on paper to keep track).

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 1, photos I shot around the house

If you want to get an idea of how tricky that can be, check out the Storyline source file.


Zombie Survival Guide

Just in time for Halloween, e-Learning Heroes Challenge #55 tasked us to create a course to help learners survive a zombie apocalypse.

For my spin on it, I designed a course to help newly risen zombies come to grips with their unlife. It features illustrated characters (made from simple shapes), animations using built-in Storyline features and Michael Jackson's zombie (and he's dancing!).

Since this was made in Storyline 1, I didn't have access to the motion path feature introduced in Storyline 2 (and Storyline 3/360). I created the "animations" by having the shapes which make up the characters appear and disappear at set points in the timeline.

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 1, background image from "Night of the Living Dead"


A Very Brady Org Chart
The task in e-Learning Heroes Challenge #43 was to produce an interactive graphic to introduce an organization's team members or key players.

I thought the Brady Bunch opening sequence was a fun and familiar way to introduce people to a team.

To recreate the feeling of the show's intro (where the characters look at each other in the grid), I used a combination of hotspots (one for each character), states (each character has various states, depending on where they need to face), and triggers (to make each character face the hotspot you hover over).

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 1, screenshots from a Brady Bunch DVD (which we happened to have in our classic TV collection).

Bonus features: 


Are You Ready for Some Football?
Around Superbowl Sunday (they tell me that's a real thing), the weekly e-Learning Heroes Challenge (#68) was to create a football related interaction.

This one has some fun stuff such as a branching scenario and multiple tests (with separate question banks) feeding the same results slide.

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 1 and royalty-free images.

Oh yeah, and some of the quiz questions are impossible to get wrong. Who loves ya?


Math for Fun and Profit
The objective of e-Learning Heroes Challenge #71 was to teach math skills online.

I wanted to share how much fun math can be, so I created a course based around math jokes (i.e. math for fun) and threw in some key information for answering skill-testing questions in contests (i.e. math for profit).

To ramp up the fun, I also included a relevant soundtrack by "Weird Al" Yankovic, which runs through the whole course (a feature that's not supported by Storyline, the e-Learning authoring tool I used). To get that to work, I had to edit the HTML files in the published output. 

Listen carefully and you'll hear Weird Al rap about pi - I told you it was relevant.

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 1 and stock photos.


Video background
I made this one for e-Learning Heroes Challenge (#95). The challenge was to use background video or cinemagraphs in e-Learning.

I used an old Super Mario Bros TV commercial for the demo, but you could use this same approach to create annotated "how to" videos for software training or skills demos.

I used call-outs (which look like the ? box in the game) to provide additional information. You click on one to learn more (sort of like VH1's "Pop Up Video".

To make the video "loop", I put it on a layer and used triggers to hide then show the layer when it ended.

Tools/assets used: Articulate Storyline 2, video and images found online.


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