Storyline 360: Course Playback Speed Control

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Let learners explore content at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed that's comfortable for them—between 0.25x and 2x. Speed control makes content more accessible. For example, learners might slow content down to accommodate language barriers or cognitive disabilities. And they might speed up when reviewing content they're already familiar with.

Enabling Playback Speed Control

Go to your player properties, ensure you're using the Modern player style, and mark the Playback speed box in the lower-left corner of the window, as shown below.

Tip: We left-aligned all the player controls in a single list, as shown above, so they're easier to find. We also moved the check boxes for player tabs (menu, glossary, etc.) to the left for consistency.

Controlling Playback Speed

To change the speed of a published course, simply click or tap the playback speed icon and choose any speed between 0.25x and 2x. You can also press the arrows on your keyboard to select a speed.

Here's what you can expect when adjusting playback speed:

  • Audio Pitch: On desktop computers and non-iOS tablets and phones, the pitch remains the same no matter which speed you choose. However, on iPads and iPhones, the pitch rises as you increase the speed and deepens as you decrease the speed.
  • Controlled Elements: Playback speed affects the seekbar, audio tracks, video files, webcam videos, screen recording videos, object animations, and slide transitions.
  • Uncontrolled Elements: Playback speed doesn't affect website videos (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) or quiz timers.
  • Course Speed vs. Video Speed: The course playback speed control affects the entire course, including video files, whereas the video speed control only affects videos. Thus, videos respond to both controls.
  • Bonus: The technology that powers the course playback speed control allows Google Chrome Live Caption to work with Storyline 360 courses. Live Caption works even if you disable the course playback speed control.

Compatibility

The course playback speed control is exclusive to the modern player style in Storyline 360 as of January 2023. You can open, edit, and publish project files that use this feature in Storyline 3 and earlier versions of Storyline 360. However, the course playback speed control won't appear in these versions of Storyline (and the player returns to the classic style in Storyline 3).