PPT and presenter navigation functionality question

Jul 01, 2012

Hi all!  I'm working on the menu of a course I'm developing.  I want to design this menu so that people have the option to choose the order of teh topics they wish.  The course also has two quizzes or knowledge checks built in.  The idea is, they view the first 4 topics by clicking on the icons, in whatever order they wish, and then they take one knowledge check.  then, they view four more topics in whatever order they wish, and then they take a 2nd knowledge check.  Each of the topics is some kind of Engage interaction or a quizzmaker scenario.  I want to design the course so that they aren't required to view all of the topics, they are just required to pass the quizzes.  Here is a picture of the menu I have so far:

I've fixed the menu so if you click on any of the icons, it directs the user to that part of the presentation.  I did this using the insert actions option in PPT, and by selecting the appropriate slide.  I have also set it up so taht each time a user finishes a particular interaction, they go back to the menu, so they can then select their next topic.

I used to have icons for the knowledge checks on the menu, but we decided to take them off the menu because it might be too confusing to the learner.  they might select the knowledge checks (KCs) before they have a chance to go through the topics, which we DON'T want.

the problem with this approach is that since I've taken off the knowledge check icons off the menu, they have no way to get to the knowledge checks, and no way to get to the final slide.  I don't want to program one of the interactions to take them to the KCs, since we want them to have the option to choose the order in which they want to go.  If I set up one of the interactions to take them to the KC, there is a possibility that they may not have a chance to view all of the topics for that section. 

is there a way to set up the file, eihter in PPT or using presenter, so that they can have the option to choose the order of topics, and have the course take them to the appropriate KC after they view all 4 topics? 

the other option of course, is to make the menu more directive, and take them to a specific topic in a specific order, and eventually to the KCs.  I would rather not do this, as I liked the idea of having this course be more user-led.  However if there is no alternative I will revise the menus to take users through the course in a directive pattern. 

I would be curious to hear from anyone who has ever designed a course that allows users the freedom to navigate topics while still taking them to some required course features.

Thanks again, Barbara

2 Replies
Jeanette Brooks

Hey Barbara! That's a great question, and currently, the logic for that sort of thing doesn't exist in PowerPoint/Presenter. There's not really a way for the course to monitor whether the learner has completed all four sections and then take them to the quiz.

About the closest you could come would be to create the content for all 4 sections in an Articulate Engage interaction, and apply properties to the interaction that prevents learners from moving on until they viewed all sections of the interaction. For example, you could create a Tabs interaction in Engage, and each tab would cover one of the following: Levels, Roles, Religious Orders, and Clergy/Laity. Learners would explore each tab, in whatever order they want, and once they've visited each Tab, they would be allowed to move on to the next slide where you could place your quiz. Of course, this wouldn't work well if you had a lot of content for each of the four sections, as it might not be appropriate to place all of it within a single tab in an Engage interaction.

Barbara Pando-Behnke

Thanks very much Jeanette for your thoughts!  This is more or less what I was coming to conclude - that this design just wasn't possible given the current functionality of PPT/presenter.  Thank you for confirming that.

Indeed it is a LOT of content I am trying to provide, so the engage tab interaction encompassing all topics wouldn't work so well.  I have a separate engage interaction for each section! 

Thanks again,

Barbara

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