Need help with multi-select question and changing checkbox states

Feb 03, 2021

Michelle Kempenich
By Michelle Kempenich

I've searched the discussions and can't seem to find anything that helps me figure this out. I have a Storyline 3 file that has several multi-select questions (these are not quiz slides). The SME wants each of these questions to work as follows:

  • Select all but one of the answers = correct
  • Select that remaining one answer = incorrect
  • Select some of the correct answers, but not all = incorrect, but with different feedback

I've set up feedback layers for all of these situations, as well as another to prompt them to answer in case they click Submit before they've selected anything. 

The feedback layers mostly work. However, I could not get the "some, but not all" feedback layer to show correctly. So I added an "all of the above" option to simplify. 

That seems to work; however, I'm struggling with the checkboxes and their states. For example, if the user selects "all of the above", I want all the checkboxes for the correct answers to change to a selected state. When the user selects "none" (the incorrect answer), I want all the other checkboxes to change to a not selected state. 

The problem I've having is with the None option. For some reason, it unchecks the boxes individually instead of all at once, so I have to keep clicking on the "none" checkbox until all the others are not selected. Obviously this isn't acceptable behaviour. I've tried everything I can think of, including several solutions that were provided for other questions related to checkboxes. None of them seem to address this issue.

I'm about at my wit's end. Not sure what else to do to get these behaving properly. I suspect the issue is with using "Normal" state, but I can't figure out how else to do it to uncheck the boxes, because there is not state for "not selected". I'd really appreciate any help anyone can offer!

6 Replies
Judy Nollet
3 years ago02/04/21 at 2:35 pm (UTC)

Hi, Michelle,

Here's my advice: Simplify things for yourself by removing the "All of the above" option.

IMHO, that is not an appropriate response for a multiple-response question. Just let the users look at each item and decide whether or not to select it. That'll reinforce the learning. And there won't be any possible confusion about whether there's a difference between clicking all the items vs clicking "All of the above." 

Michelle Kempenich
3 years ago02/04/21 at 3:15 pm (UTC)

I'd love to - the questions didn't originally have that option. The problem is that the feedback for "some, but not all correct answers" doesn't seem to work and I've tried multiple solutions. I also submitted this to Support, so maybe they will have a complete solution for me. Taking out the "All of the above" option doesn't solve the problem on its own.

Judy Nollet
3 years ago02/04/21 at 7:42 pm (UTC)

Hi again, Michelle,

The attached file shows how I'd program this slide.

  • I started with the basic elements from the base of your slide.
  • I added a trigger to each of the first 7 checkboxes  (the "correct" ones) that deselects checkbox 8 (the "No items" one). And I added triggers to checkbox 8 that deselect the other checkboxes.
    • This achieves your goal of ensuring that the user can't have the "No items" checkbox and any other checkbox selected at the same time.
  • I transformed the slide into a Freeform pick-many question. Thus, is can rely on the built-in question-slide functionality.
  • If the user clicks the Submit button when no checkboxes are selected, the built-in warning about having to answer the question appears. (This doesn't look the same as your custom layers, but it works without special programming. And, hopefully, it'll rarely be seen anyway.)
  • Currently, the question is set for unlimited tries. That means the Try Again layer will appear when the user answers incorrectly. 
    • The feedback textbox on that layer has two states to accommodate different feedback based on how the user answered.  
    • The Normal state contains the feedback for when a user selected some but not all of the correct answers. A trigger shows this when the “No items” option is not selected (which means that another option is selected).
    •  The NoneCorrect state contains the feedback for when the user selected the “No items” option. 
  • There is an Incorrect layer. With the question is set for unlimited tries, the user would never see this layer. However, you could lower the number of tries if you want to. 
  • As expected, the Correct layer only shows if the user answers correctly. The Continue button is programmed to go to the next slide. 

I hope this helps!

Michelle Kempenich
3 years ago02/04/21 at 9:09 pm (UTC)

Thanks! I should have posted an update - the guy from Support sent me a solution that worked brilliantly once I played around with it a little. Best part is I've been able to remove that "All of the above" option, which made me pretty happy. Without this option, I actually achieved the functionality I wanted originally. I just couldn't figure out how to do it without that "All of the above" (and then it still didn't work, so ... LOL).

The solution we used is this:

  • Changed the slide to a multi-select quiz slide with unlimited attempts
  • Set a variable for the slide that will toggle depending on which options are selected
  • If the wrong answer is selected, it applies a value of "1" to the variable under the condition that all of the correct answers are not selected
  • If all the correct checkboxes are selected, it applies a value of "20" under the condition that the wrong answer is not selected
  • If some of the correct checkboxes are selected, it adds "30" to the variable
  • I have three feedback layers - Try again, Incorrect, and Correct. Each layer is tied to the appropriate variable value (=1, >20, and =20 respectively).  

It works perfectly! I just about cheered when it finally worked! And I didn't bother adding functionality to change the state of the check boxes - for example, if None is selected, the others should not be selected. Without the "All of the above" option, I think it's fine now that the feedback is working as it's supposed to. It's so frustrating when you spend all this time trying to get the right functionality and end up over-complicating it (and still not getting the right functionality)! Ha ha! 

I really appreciate your help. Thank you for your suggested solution. I'm going to save it so I can play with it and learn that functionality for future projects. I've learned so much in the last week working on this, and I have many years of experience in Storyline. Just goes to show that there's still quite a bit of functionality I'm unaware of!

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