Free Form Text Entry Question

Apr 24, 2022

Hi there!
I am trying to create a Free Form Quiz question within storyline. The question asks individuals to name 3 out of 5 areas of concern for a patient. There is no particular order the responses have to be entered in. I have put three text entry boxes on the screen. I know that Storyline cannot evaluate multiple text entry boxes at one time. Therefore, I have set the question up as a multiple choice free form question with a "Correct" and "Incorrect" button which would hidden from the viewer. My goal would be to have the "Correct" button changed from "Normal" to "Selected"  if Text Entry Box 1 is the same as one of the five responses, Text Entry Box 2 is the same as one of the 5 responses, and Text Entry Box 3 is equal to one of the five responses, and the user click the "Submit" button then it should show the "Correct" feedback layer. If one or all of the text entries are not the same then the "Incorrect" button would change from "Normal" to "Selected" and therefore show the "Incorrect" feedback layer.

The problem that I am having is that when I enter three correct responses and I click "Submit" I get the "Incorrect" feedback layer. I have seen videos online about how to add multiple text box responses on a slide and those inspired the creation of this slide, however I am not sure if those posts exactly match the need.

(I have attached the storyline file for review.) 


I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this or if there were any videos that could point me in the right direction?


Thank you so much!

7 Replies
Judy Nollet

The text entries will always meet at least 4 of the 5  "does not equal" conditions, which means they'll always be incorrect. 

It's easier to evaluate each answer separately, set a corresponding T/F variable to True if it's correct, and then change the Correct button to Selected if all 3 variables are True.

  • See what I mean in the EDITED slide in the attached file. 
  • FYI: One remaining issue is that a user could enter the same item in all 3 text-entry boxes and have that marked as correct. So this probably also needs triggers that ensure the text-entry variables don't equal each other. 

It's also best to use the built-in question functions where possible. So part of the editing I did was to use the standard "Submit" trigger. That requires using these exact names for the layers: Correct, Incorrect, and Try Again (with no punctuation!). 

By the way, on the base layer, I also enlarged and cropped the hospital photo, so it looks more natural behind the character. (Otherwise, she looks like a giant.) I didn't bother switching it on the layers. You can do that if you want. Or you could redesign the layers so they use the photo on the base. The different looks of the character could be done with states. 

Biofourmis Inc.

Hi there Judy,
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this question. I have learned a lot through replicating the file you shared. I completely agree that a learner could input the same answer multiple times and still get the correct answer. I was trying to troubleshoot that problem in my attached storyline file, however I seem to be missing something. I have been trying to set the condition where when the answer input or answer variables are equal to each other, that it would trigger the "Incorrect" layer. However, when I placed those triggers into the slides I am getting the "Incorrect" feedback layer, even when I input three different entries into the text entry fields.

I was wondering what the proper trigger sequence and logic is in order to mark the question incorrect when two text entries are the same? I am more so interested in the logic so I can apply this to future projects.

Thanks so much for your support!

Walt Hamilton

I changed slide 1.1 to have the triggers you are asking for, but in my opinion, that is far from the biggest problem.

The biggest problem is that "respiratory status" is not equal to "respiratory status ", nor is "control of diabetes" equal to "diabetic control". That's why short answer questions (even with answers as short as these), are problematic if they lack human eyes to evaluate them. My personal preference is a word bank, with a list of options to choose from, whether by dragging, selecting, dropping down, or whatever.

The sample I recommended above can give you more flexibility, allowing you to easily choose a variety of answers that are close enough. It still requires a good deal of expertise to anticipate at least a majority of the forms a correct answer might take. I certainly would only use it for low-stakes assessment.

Biofourmis Inc.

I have been meaning to write back and just wanted to thank you both your feedback and time with regards to this question. I completely agree with your comments and have brought those ideas to my SMEs attention. I also appreciate the time you took to help me with this builds, it has been very informative!