Importing Questions. Advanced Features?
Jun 21, 2019
Hello all,
As a one week old newbie, I want to thank everyone in this amazing community for all your help! I've come a long way. But please bear with me for a bit longer... I still have 101 questions. I hope to soon be able to give back. :)
I am trying to find ways to automate as many content creation steps as possible. One feature that I am trying to utilize is the Questions Importer. Using Google Sheets allows SMEs to enter questions. This has the potential of working out except for one big problem. One of my requirements is that each question must be accompanied by a reference URL back to the learning content related to the question in Confluence. Unfortunately, the import parser sees the backslashes in HTML as the beginning of a comment and truncates any text beyond the two slashes.
I have also tried using the localization option, but I cannot embed a working hyperlink. It URL can be added this way, but it appears as text only.
There are other apparent limitations with importing graded questions:
- I cannot include a Title line to a question.
- I cannot assign a hyperlink to button (or just the hyperlink). This is the most important question.
- Maximum of ten answers in a multiple choice.
- Cannot align a large number of answers into two columns. I can do this manually, but Storyline automatically reconfigures to a single column when the list is edited. :(
Thank you for your advice.
6 Replies
Why was my post "reported"?
Hi Shawn,
Your post looks good to go now. It may have been caught by our spam filter and I see that you made a few posts in a small window of time, which can be the reason.
Not to worry, we review and release valid posts that get caught by this system. It sure beats having to weed through spam posts here in the forums :)
On to your questions.
The ability to import questions is meant to save development time but doesn't eliminate it.
I can confirm that all of the items you've shared above are correct and expected. The hyperlink is formatting that is removed during the import.
These details are listed in this documentation if you'd like to take a look.
Not sure if anyone in the community has come up with additional automation processes that they could pop in to share with you as well.
Thank you again, Leslie.
I appreciate your quick response. :)
So, I am now looking at a way to create my own parser that will allow me to include additional information in the import spreadsheet. For instance, an additional Excel column:
//Reference URL
//URL...
Now I just need to understand how to write the reference URL to the correct button for the correct quiz question.
Leslie, does Articulate publish a document that explains the .story files format? Because I am having some trouble interpreting the xml. For instance, the main title and question text are repeated 3 times, and answer selections are repeated 6 times.
Thank you.
Hi Shawn,
The .story file is specific to Storyline, and we don't have any background details to share on how it's structured or pulls in data/resources. The link Leslie shared is specific to setting up the import from Excel and how items should be laid out in your import file.
Thank you, Ashley.
It seems that my issues are unusual?
I'm being tasked with finding ways to lower the cost of building content with Storyline. One way to lower costs is by automating content creation as much as possible by enabling the SMEs some form of direct edit access to the content.
In my earlier example, we need the SMEs to create about 50 quiz questions. Rather than the traditional workflow of first, storyboard editing, then copy/pasting this content into Storyline... I thought asking the SMEs to enter the questions into Google Sheets > save to XLS > Import into Storyline would be the solution. Unfortunately, many of our questions require URLs, other special formatting, and/or images.
It's a pity that you don't offer advanced web-based collaboration. Even Articulate 360 seems limited to commenting only. Or am I misinformed?
Thanks so much.
Hi Shawn,
I've been here for a bit, and it's not a common question I've heard, so it does appear quite unique!
If the question does have a lot of links, images, etc. perhaps you could look at having the SMEs build those pieces out in Powerpoint? That way you could use the Question text import, and then copy over the pieces from Powerpoint to make a bit faster build in Storyline.
With Articulate 360, collaborative authoring is a part of Rise 360, and Review 360 allows for commenting on published content to share feedback, ideas, and areas to revamp.
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