How do I capture answers to all question types using variables?
May 15, 2019
There are sporadic issues when users of our LMS are using published Storyline activities. To mitigate these issues and have a more secure way of capturing work, I am using some Javascript to push answers to a Google sheet from a Storyline instance.
The problem I am coming across is when trying to capture a user's answers using a variable, certain question types aren't as clear to me. A multiple choice question is very simple to capture the answer using a variable. All I do is set up a trigger to set a variable to equal to 1 when the 1st answer is selected, 2 when the 2nd answer is selected, etc.
However, when trying to capture a Matching Drop-down answer, the approach isn't as clear. My only options for setting a variable when the state of the drop-down changes, is when the drop-down is 'Normal' and 'Hidden'. Neither of which captures the answer the user chooses. I bet I am missing something obvious but before I sink too much time into this, I am reaching out to hopefully gain some insight.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is there an easier way to do this? There are other question types I bet I will have issues with too, e.g. drag and drop.
3 Replies
Hi Brian,
I don't know much (if anything!) about Javascript or how to send those values outside of Storyline to external document - but I'd love to help on the issues you've run into with your LMS.
Could you share any more details here and that'll guide our conversation for next steps?
Ashley,
The difficulties I am experiencing are happening with Canvas. 95% of the time, a user completes the Storyline activity and the grade is entered in the gradebook correctly. The other 5%, the grade doesn't record correctly and the student needs to retake the activity. To avoid this, I want to pull all of the answers the students submitted. I have figured out how to do so with multiple choice questions and my spreadsheet populates with their answers. I get their answers using variables. The issue stated in my original post is that I cannot figure out how to assign a drop-down answer as a variable.
Hi Brian,
I can appreciate that it's frustrating when only a few learners are running into an issue, especially when you're unable to replicate the behavior yourself. Have you narrowed down any commonalities for the 5% - i.e., they all took the course in one browser, they exit out using the browser close vs. your built-in exit button, etc.? That type of info should shed more light on how to prevent this.
Drop-down questions don't have states or variables already associated with them, and there isn't a way to add a state. Using Javascript could be an option - but I'll leave that to our community experts!
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