Embedding problems in Storyline

I have problems embedding....

Embedding content into a Storyline is a nice way to add video content or a survey into a package so students don't need to leave.

Storyline has a nice feature that allows you to embed videos directly from the code or embed a web object such as a mentimeter poll or Qualtrics survey into your content (other polling and survey tools are available).

Here is what I have learned
 

1. YouTube – works like a dream. Copy the embed code, paste it into the ‘video from website box’. Done. 

2. Qualtrics – ditto. Copy your survey link and paste it into the ‘insert web object’ box. Job done, make a brew.
(side note – I also add a click here to open in browser option)

3. TED – works like, well Southern Rail. It functions but not as you may like it to. Grab the embed code from your TED talk and copy it into notepad. Then look at it! There is a lot of unnecessary junk in there which means that your video will not render well.

<div style="max-width:854px"><div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://embed.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix" width="854" height="480"  style="position:absolute;left:0;top:0;width:100%;height:100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div>

When all you really need is this

<iframe src="https://embed.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

4. Mentimeter - works. Less horrifying than TED but there is a minor vexation. If you share the presentation link it asks if you want to create an account. I have one thanks, and I doubt my students want one, more importantly though this option takes up space – which you don’t have in a slide. 

 However, menti offers an embed function, so you can put results into a webpage. You can’t copy this into the video embed box – I tried it, it doesn’t work – but you can copy the embed url and use that as your ‘web object’ and hey presto, no pushy sales box.

<div style='position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; padding-top: 35px; height: 0; overflow: hidden;'><iframe sandbox='allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation' allowfullscreen='true' allowtransparency='true' frameborder='0' height='315' src='https://www.mentimeter.com/embed/c096b6865c/3b8413c9abaa' style='position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;' width='420'></iframe></div>

Accessibility updates

I am back,

It has only been two years - and in my defence the world has been on fire for a year of that. Plus I don't have a large number of readers do I?

No Katie, you do not!

I was very excited to learn that the December update of Articulate 360 included accessibility features that allow a user to modify the text font and size and change colours. I was less excited to learn that doing this through Blackboard when you publish as a SCORM package was not super simple!

But I have done it.

After you have run your Storyline update anything you publish will have the accessibility tools on the player as a default.

 

As default accessible text is set to off (false). You can change this from the variables menu, built in variables. However, at time of writing, I would advise against having the accessible text on as default as it has a minor effect on the formatting.

So far so simple.

If you are publishing your content for the web - all is good now. However, if you are publishing for a VLE using SCORM there are a few things to note.

1. Articulate support were really helpful, and they pointed me to SCORM cloud as a platform for testing - which was actually really helpful as it means you don't have to faff about deploying things in a VLE.

2. Not all accessibility software is created equal, I think I will end up recommending the free version of helperbird, not because it is necessarily better than other tools but this is the one I got to work most effectively in this scenario (and actually with Blackboard in general)

3. And this is the important bit, as far as I can tell it doesn't work if you set your player to open in 'frameset’. The best option I have found is

SCO launch = new window

Player launch = frameset.

(this can all be tested easily in SCORM Cloud)




On the one hand this is good because the default is new window. On the other hand, I prefer to use 'frameset' as it gets around the pop-up window (and it being blocked by internet settings etc)