Jeanette Brook's style text entry interactive sim

Oct 19, 2012

Hi 

I've been trying for a while now. I'd simply like to create a text entry field for an interactive simulation (Try it) in the same way as Jeanette Brooke's has in the demo Creating effective meetings. I have watched the tutorials and they don't actually help me here - but see my questions below to see how far I got ... 

http://articulate.demos.s3.amazonaws.com/CreatingEffectiveMeetings/story.html

Questions

1. Do I take a screenshot (rather than use the screen recording) to simulate this?

2. Do I use the Text entry question type or convert to freeform function to do this?

3. I really don't get the object trigger that displays - when you put this in - Set text entry equal to the typed value when the control loses its focus. What does lose it's focus mean in this case? Getting it right? When I click outside of the control, it seems to move to the next slide.

4. Then I customise the feedback?

5. For the tips - do I use hover trigger and click trigger? with a hotspot? so it looks like Jeanette's does.

Thanks heaps

Kate

10 Replies
Jeanette Brooks

Hey Kate!  

The simulations in that course were done with Storyline's screen recording feature. In that course, there are two insertions of the same screen recording: one is a series of View Mode steps (which displays if you click "How to Use Ketchup" in the menu), and the other is a series of Try Mode steps (which you'll see  If you click "Practice with Ketchup"). 

You mentioned you're curious about the text entry fields, so I believe you're looking specifically at the Try Mode slides, where the learner has to actually perform the tasks in a software procedure. The cool thing about inserting a screen recording like this is that Storyline does pretty much all the work for you - for example, if you insert the video as Try Mode slides, Storyline automatically inserts the hotspots on slides where the learner needs to click on something... it inserts a Hint Layer which displays when learners hover over a correct hotspot... it inserts a Try Again layer which displays if learners perform an action incorrectly. So the basic framework of the simulation is all set up for you when you insert the screen recording. The text entry slides, where learners need to enter something, behave just like a text entry quiz question, but it's all set up for you and you just adjust or customize as needed. For example, you might want to adjust the size or position of the hotspots, or customize the wording on hint layers, etc. 

If you're interested in creating a simulation like the one in the Effective Meetings course, I'd recommend finding a simple task you can record, such as building the agenda on the Ketchup site. Record yourself as you perform some steps, and then insert that recording in each of the following ways, just so you can see the differences: Video on a Single Slide, Try Mode Steps, View Mode Steps, and Test Mode Steps. As you practice, you might want to have the following tutorials handy so that you can take a look at your options:  when you're adding a screen recording and inserting screen recordings.

Hope that helps!

Kate Simpson

Hi Jeanette!

Wow - amazing ... thank you so much for responding... I'm definitely speaking to the right person. 

It doesn't seem to be automatically setting up the text entry slide to get learners to practise typing in the field.

For example:

I just recorded a simple screen recording which involved me typing in one field in the software.

I then inserted it as a Try Mode slide. 

I previewed it and it had the hotspot. I clicked the hotspot and it took me straight to the text box completed.

I went in and then using the action trim editor, I extended the end of the recording so that it included the actual typing. And put it back into the slide.

I previewed it again, and it had the hotspot. I clicked the hotspot and it shows the beginning of the screen recording and showed the typing of the letters in the box.

It doesn't seem to automatically set up the text entry slide/functionality? Only hotspots?

I must be doing something wrong here ... 

Thanks heaps!

Kate 

Kate Simpson

Okay right. 

Wasn't working in the chrome browser for some reason. The recording wasn't picking up on the type in the field for a try it slide so I wasn't automatically getting the text entry question set up for me.

When I do it in IE or Firefox - it automatically picks up on it and sets it up Phew!! Thank you for your suggestion to try small ...

Also took me a while to realise the Type slide had the text entry box covering the whole screen with white solid fill - so when publlished or viewing in the software it looked like a blank screen. But I knew I was on my way as it had created a separately labelled type "slide" and the appropriate triggers and captions ...

Thanks again, 

Kate :)

Jeanette Brooks

Great, glad to hear you're making progress, Kate! And yes, sometimes the browser can make a difference, if you are recording a web-based task or application. Typically folks find that  Internet Explorer is the best bet for recording web tasks, because it provides the richest set of data to the Windows accessibility API that Storyline listens to. Firefox also works very well, but Chrome unfortunately reports very little data.

Kate Simpson

hi again - making progress slowly . Quick question - how do you get the hover state to stay for hints? For example, for the text interaction, as soon as I click in the box to type in preview mode, it disappears, and I'd like it to stay for the user (ie Type xxx in the box). When I get it wrong and try again, it's no longer there?

Thanks heaps in advance ...

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