Preface
Storyline rocks! And you're about to discover why.
As you work through this book and get hands-on with Storyline, you'll be amazed at what you're capable of producing with little or no prior development experience, and just how quickly you can do it.
Storyline is an authoring tool packed with out-of-the-box features that don't require any special knowledge to operate. Hold on…what was that? That's right, this is a programming-free zone that everyone can jump into. No longer is e-earning authoring limited to developers, the doors are now wide open for subject matter experts with their content, instructional designers with their storyboards, and graphic designers with their media to work, in conjunction with developers, to collectively create some very cool e-earning projects.
Knowing this, you may want to keep it a secret and dazzle others with amazing productions that magically work on desktops and mobile devices. There will be oooo's and ahhhh's guaranteed and you will leave others impressed with how you were able to do so much, so well, and in record time.
This is a book about how to use Storyline, but it should be noted that knowing how to use Storyline features and understanding how to use Storyline for e-earning are two different things. It's like providing a guitar to someone who knows the basics. You can expect they will have mastered several chords and can play a few songs pretty well. But the same instrument with all the same features in the hands of someone such as Eric Clapton will result in something quite different. It doesn't matter how well you know Storyline, if the learning experience isn't well designed from a content point of view, you won't produce effective learning material.
The good thing about Storyline is that it isn't going to take years of training to master, like it would for an accomplished musician. It will, however, take some extra time and attention on your part to master the art of producing great results with Storyline.
Beware, Storyline is a bit like a shiny new Ferrari. It's tempting to hop in, put the pedal to the medal, and create some screaming e-earning, after all, the bells and whistles are there to use. It can be easy to go down a path that is fun, but it likely won't result in practical solutions. You'll want to keep your focus on using the features appropriately and in a way that truly helps convey a key concept or demonstrate a difficult process, or otherwise aid the learning process.
The aim of this book is to provide you with one-on-one tutoring to help you with the basics while also learning how to best apply Storyline features in the context of the work you do. When you finish this book you will confidently create shining examples of e-Learning which bring content to life in interesting and engaging ways. It is this skill that will set you apart from the crowd.
