Add a timer to your quiz to give pressure

I was searching for a quiz timer to give some pressure on the quiz. I wanted to set the time per question to 30 seconds to force quick decisions.

I found the following article on how to set timing options for a quiz: http://www.articulate.com/support/storyline/how-to-add-a-timer-to-your-course

This topic explains on how to set the options for timing the quiz but not for having a timer per slide. The default settings allows that when the learner answers some questions quickly, he/she has more time for the remaining questions because the default set the time per quiz. Not bad, but when you want to give pressure on a slide to make a decision this does not help enough.

What I wanted to achieve 

An indication of the time left per question and set a fixed time per question. When the time is up proceed to the next question:

 I found another topic that was meant for Articulate Quizmaker. It was build up by adding text boxes with the seconds on the timeline. I used this idea to create a timer on a Quiz Layout in the Slide master. Every second the time is counting down. To create a timer for 30 seconds, I needed 30 text entries with the seconds on it and put in the timeline for 1 second each:

When you open the Slide Master you search for the layout that is used for the Quiz (else you can create a layout) and build the timer there by adding a text box "30"on the first second on the timeline, then 29 and so on.

  

I found out that it was easier to just copy the text field 30 times, use the alignment tools to align them at the same spot and then use the Show/Hide button (the eye icon at the left) to hide them all and then display them one by one and filling in the correct time frame. I also renamed the images in the timeline to reflect the number to prevent making errors.

Play with the Game

I published the game here if you like to test your whisky knowledge:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20052760/Published/Articulate_Community_Whisky_Game/story.html

Download source files 

I upload the original file so you can re-use the timer when you open the Slide Master. The attached file contains the whole quiz, which was actually just a fun thing I created when I handed over some bottles of whisky to a colleague.

Improvements 

Currently this quiz goes automatically to the next question after 30 seconds. It's also possible to display an image "time up" over your question and forcing the learner to proceed manually or something.

The timer itself can be visually enhanced as well.

If you want to enhance it, go ahead. If you have some nice idea's feel free to discuss!