Widgets and Custom Questions - part 1

Intro

No, I did not start creating widgets, we have great Widget Kings/Wizards/Princes in the Captivate community. Since a while I planned to create some examples with the widgets, created by the Adobe team and provided (free) with Captivate 5. I also promised users on the forum to give a step-by-step explanation how to create custom question slides. And then I remember a user who wanted to have multiple True/False questions on one question slide.

And this is the first posting: how to use the widgets 'radiobuttons' and 'checkboxes' to create MultiChoice questions or to have multiple True/False questions on one slide. In this post I will describe the use of the widgets and their associated variables. Detailed explanation of the advanced actions has been published in this article.

http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/893/cpsid_89307.html

Quiz - example

Play with this quiz to see three question slides: a slide with 4 True/False questions, a Multiple Choice Question with one correct answer and a Multiple Choice Question with multiple correct answers. The scoring is explained by rollover Text Captions. After clicking the Submit button, a Feedback caption and the score will pop up, and the Continue button appears. The quiz ends with a Results slide, on which you can choose to Review or to Retry the Quiz.

Widgets and variables - tips

Both widgets, "Radiobuttons" as well as "Checkboxes" need user variables. For Radio buttons one variable is needed, for Checkboxes as many as you have checkboxes. Those variables will not be automatically created when you type the in the Widget Properties! You will have to create them using Project, Variables, which is not the case for all Captivate widgets : for the Certificate widget the needed user variable is created automatically.

You probably know already about the 3 widget types: Static, Interactive and Question. At first I was confused by the difference between Static and Interactive Widgets, but found a clear explanation in the blog post of Tristan Ward, the Widget King (Static/Interactive Widgets). The two widgets used in this post are Static Widgets. That means that they are not scoreable, but doesn't mean that an interaction is impossible: the user is able to choose a radiobutton or tick a checkbox, and the result will be stored in variables. There is a restriction: you cannot reset a widget, as is possible with a Question slide (using the Retake button), once a radiobutton is clicked or a checkbox is ticked it will remain that way until the user changes it.

For both widgets you will have to list options and variables in a list separated by commas: be sure not to put a space after a comma. You can have spaces in item names however. Some examples:

Question1 - comma separated values True,False is OK but True, False is not OK (has a space before False)

Question2 - comma separated values Soundbooth,Photoshop,Dreamweaver,Flash

Question3 - comma separated values Captivate 5,Soundbooth CS5,Photoshop CS5,RoboHelp 9,Acrobat X
- variables CP,SB,PS,RH,Ac

Do not forget that variables are case sensitive!

Question slides - description

1. Multiple T/F questions

This slide is created with the widget 'Radiobuttons'. It is used in a horizontal way, with only 2 values True/False, but I used the widget 4 times, labeled them Radio1, Radio2, Radio3 and Radio4. Each widget instance has a user variable associated: TF1, TF2, TF3 and TF4. When the user has chosen an answer, this answer will be stored in the variable, in this case 'True' or 'False'. You can watch the settings fror the first widget Radio1 in the first picture of the Gallery. The elements on this question slide:

Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
4 Text Captions with questions
4 'Radiobuttons' Widgets, labeled Radio1, Radio2, Radio3, Radio4 (first picture in Gallery shows settings for Radio1)
1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled TFFeedback
1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreTF
1 Submit button (BtSubmitTF), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show TFFeedback and ScoreTF, this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
1 Continue button (BtContTF), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide'

2. Multiple Choice question with one correct answer

I used the widget 'Radiobuttons' again , but now in vertical way (see second picture in the Gallery) and with 4 values. Its associated variable is MCQ1Answer. This variable will store the chosen answer literally (Soundbooth, Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Flash). The elements on this question slide:

Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
1 'Radiobuttons' Widget, labeled MCQ1 (look at the settings in the second picture of the Gallery)
1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled MCQ1Feedback
1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreMCQ1
1 Submit button (BtSubmitMCQ1), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show MCQ1Feedback and ScoreMCQ1; this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
1 Continue button (BtContMCQ1), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide'

3. Multiple Choice question with multiple correct answers

The widget "Checkboxes" was used. It has 5 values and 5 associated variables. The settings are visible in the third picture of the Gallery. Each variable will be empty at the start, and will get as content the value if the user has checked that checkbox. Example: if user ticked the boxes "Soundbooth CS5" and "Acrobat X", the variable SB will have "Soundbooth CS5" as content, variable Ac will have "Acrobat X" as content, whereas the three other variables will remain empty. You could also assign a default value to the variables (such as 'NoCheck') but I left the value empty while defining the user variables. The elements on this question slide are:

Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
1 'CheckBoxes' Widget, labeled MCQM (look at the settings in the third picture of the Gallery)
1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled MCQMFeedback
1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreMCQM
1 Submit button (BtSubmitMCQM), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show MCQ1Feedback and ScoreMCQ1, hide the button Submit and show button Continue; this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
1 Continue button (BtContMCQM), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide'

4. Results Slide

When entering the results slide, the total score and percentage are calculated using an advanced action. The text captions are self-explanatory. On the slide you will find two buttons:

Review: will allow the user to re-visit the question slides and read the text captions again

Retry?: will allow the user to make corrections to the answers, all scores will be reset, but as I explained before the previously chosen radio buttons/check boxes cannot be reset.

31 responses

This is great, and pretty much what I was looking for. I think this would work as a great solution for what I'm trying to accomplish with the courses I am working on. Looking forward to the article.

— kmcb2010

Thanks, Karen. And you gave me the inspiration for this blog post. If you have some more ideas, please?

— Lieve Weymeis

Lieve,

Great post. I was wondering if you could help me? I trying to to use the CheckBoxes enhanced widget to check off user interactions. For example, when the user rolls over a rollover slidelit, check box 2. (var_2a) should check.

I'm afraid I'm rather new working with variables so I'm not sure how I should set up the advanced action and variables to accomplish this.

Your advice would be much appreciated!

— ddnorwood

You can change the value of the enhanced widget by advanced actions. For a rollover slidelet you have two possible triggers: on rollover and on click. So it is possible to create an advanced action that will be triggered by a rollover and assign a new value to a variable, in this case to the variable associated with the corresponding Checkboxes widget.

Thanks. I understand the theory, but how do I associate a variable with an object? I viewed your other tutorial for creating text entry fields with associated variables, but there are no such options in the Property Inspector when I select the widget. I have associated variables to the values inside the widget properties. But when I try to create an advance action using those, nothing happens. On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 4:11 PM,

For a widget you'll have to look at the widget properties. And be sure to create first of all the user variables you need to associate with the widget. Have a look at one of my latest blog posts with tips about using widgets: http://lilybiri.posterous.com/using-captivate-widgets-some-tips
Perhaps you'll have to do some resetting to activate the display of the changed value of the variable, but it is possible with the enhanced version that you are using to display the content of the variable that is changed by an advanced action. That is not possible with the default Checkboxes widget that is in the CP-box.

In the end, it was syntax that was causing the problems. When I assigned literal value in the advanced action, I forgot to put quotation marks around it. Go figure. Thanks again for all the help. You definitely are the go to person for Advance Captivate.

Now I'm puzzled, you do not need to put quotation marks in an advanced action. I never do. When the 'literal value' has more than one word, separated by spaces, Captivate adds automaticallly the quotation marks.
Thanks for your last comment. Glad my blog was of some help for you.

Yeah I was pretty perplexed too because I've had the same experience, but I thought I would give it a shot because I had tried everything else. Perhaps it was because the literal value was "1.", "2.", etc. instead of 1,2,3. I'm not sure.

I viewed your tutorial for creating text entry fields with associated variables. It's helpful for me.

— ralph eggleston

I followed your tutorial however on my TFSubmit advanced action, my score is never correct. Would there be anyway to get a copy of your captivate file to look and make sure that I am entering the data correctly?

— mawoolwine

I published your CheckBoxDemo project to Adobe Connect LMS. The results for the variables are not passed to the LMS. To use this as a quiz, I need to be able to see what check boxes the viewer checked. How do I see this in the LMS? I have tried both SCORM and Connect. Thanks.

— maxbliss

Hello Lieve,
I wanted to ask you.
Is there a way to add the score from one of these type of slides into the total score of a project which includes typical question slides?
Thank you!

— alextagoulis

I have been blogging about reporting in two other posts. You cannot manipulate the quizzing system variables, but interactive objects can have a score and I used that to explain how to add the score except for partial scores. I haven't blogged about those custom questions yet, but you'll need Javascript in that case or perhaps the Mastery widget of InfoSemantics.
Blog posts about reporting are: http://lilybiri.posterous.com/report-custom-questions-part-1 and http://lilybiri.posterous.com/report-custom-questions-part-2

Lieve,
I read in another site that you mentions that you can have multiple quizes with branching, but the quizes need to be linked to the file in order to remain separate. I have four training modules (Branched). Each module has a practical exercise requiring 70% or better to proceed. During the Branching, I lost the Results Slide for 3 out of 4 quizes. I am new to Captivate 5 and am learning as I go. WHEEEEEEEE!

How do I link the quizes. Please be specific.

Save a computer, train before you do!

v/r
Mark

— kmatc

Are those quizzes in separate Captivate files, linked to one main file? Each Captivate file can have only one Quiz (except Captivate 6 where also a Pretest is possible). The result will be in that file. If you want to have the results in another file, you'll need the Save and Load Data widget from Michael Lund (cpguru):

I will use branching to setup the main menu and the first of four exams. For the other 3 required tests, I will need to link the Menu ICONs to the training examine project. How do I do This?

Mark

Finally, the answer I was looking for!!!

— Ron

@Ron... post was waiting since long time for you. One of the most popular articles I published.

— ir. Lieve Weymeis

Now my 2nd question, is there a way to make this scoreable, or an action that takes "right" or "wrong" answers and process those answers into grades for any LMS platform (I'm working on MODDLE with my pupils)?

This is only the first of a sequence of posts about custom questions. The whole list, including some posts about reporting: http://blog.lilybiri.com/widgetsquestions-sourc...

Hello, Thank you so much for your posts/tutorials. They are always so helpful and informative. I recently was asked to create an asset for reading fluency. The idea is basically to add the text for the story on screen. The student would click to start a timer, read the story, and then click to stop the timer to see how long it took for him/her to read. Is there anyway to manipulate the timer widget in such a fashion? Thank you kindly, Brittany Coursey

— Brittany Coursey

Timer widget is no longer available in most recent versions, but has been replaced by two other learning interactions, slightly different behavior. However to achieve what you want, you'll need a custom solution, using JavaScript or perhaps advanced actions.

I would like to do exactly what you lay out in "multiple T/F questions"--but in Captivate 11 I don't see any radio button options in widgets (possibly no longer offered?) My situation is this: I have a practice where learners read a scenario then determine whether which features (there are 4 of them) are "present" or "absent" (assuming true/false is a proxy for present/absent). I have tried to use text entry boxes--where the values are both set to "Y" (for yes), but can't seem to get it to work. Is there a way to get to the same result that you have featured in your " Multiple T/F questions" example?

— jan

The Radiobuttons Learning Interaction is still available in 11.5. Recently I published a new version of the Table with learning interactions. You can find it in the eLearning Community: https://elearning.adobe.com/2019/08/learning-in...

ahhh, thank you!

You're welcome.

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