Quiz slides sometime shows Prev/Next and not Submit

Apr 15, 2015

Hi, folks.

This is a sporadic problem. I have double-checked the quiz coding in SL2, and the slides are correctly coded. Yet sometimes when a user accesses the course, the slide will not give a Submit button, but only give the Prev/Next choices.

Any hints on how to reliably show the quiz are appreciated! Cheers.

29 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Marie, 

You're seeing this in one file, that some questions show next/prev whereas some s how submit? You mentioned sporadic - does the same question sometimes change the behavior? Are you only seeing this in Preview or in the published output? Have you checked the slide properties - is that what you mean by the quiz coding? As there you can determine to show the next/prev buttons instead of the submit button. 

If you're still having difficulty can you share the .story file here with us? 

Marie DesJardin

Hi, Ashley

Yes, this is a sporadic problem that occurs in the final published module. The slide properties are all correct. What we occasionally see is SL will give a Prev/Next choice for a quiz slide instead of the coded Submit choice. I haven't been able to duplicate this in my current project, but a reviewer has seen it. In a SL1 project, I observed this behavior also. In that case, there were 20 or so quiz slides. I'd run the project once, and slide 2 (for example) would show this behavior. I'd immediately run it again (no changes), and now slide 3 would have the problem, then slide 4. It's frustrating because the problem appears to be a compilation problem, not an authoring problem.

So far I've dodged the bullet because our SL modules are ungraded. When we require a passing score for certification, correct grading is essential. 

Has no one else reported this problem? Thanks!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Marie,

I haven't seen a report of this that matches your scenario, so I'd want to take a look at it and do a bit more digging in terms of what happens and how it behaves. You mention a compilation problem vs. an authoring problem and I'm not sure what you mean by that? Have you looked at testing this outside your environment, say in another web server or LMS option such as SCORM Cloud? SCORM Cloud is the industry standard for testing SCORM content. There are also a few web server options you could use in this article for testing purposes. 

Marie DesJardin

Thanks, Ashley! I'll look into your testing options next week. 

"compilation problem vs. an authoring problem" means it's Storyline's problem, not mine. I'm sorry I can't direct you to a specific slide to look at, because the program behaves correctly for me. I saw this problem in SL1 and hoped it was fixed in SL2. Now I'm worried, because we'll be charging a fair amount for these courses and we can't afford to have scoring issues. 

I'll get back to you when I have a chance to look into this further. Thanks for your suggestions. Have a great weekend!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Marie,

I certainly understand, but without being able to see the file and try to replicate it myself it's hard to say what may be occurring. In SL1, there was the issue where the prev/next buttons appeared as a part of the review even if they were disabled and you were using a custom submit button - but again, that doesn't seem to match what you'd describing. If you're still seeing the same issue at SCORM Cloud we'll want to take a look at the file ourselves and if you can't share here in the forums you can send along here. 

Marie DesJardin

I figured out the trouble. The issue occurs when the project is posted in the LMS and:
- the "Resume where you left off" option is implemented
- the Quiz properties are set to "Automatically decide"

1. I run the lesson and select 2 random questions.
2. I exit the course.
3. I run the lesson again and click Resume.
4. The 2 slides I previously answered show only Prev/Next. I believe this is the expected behavior.
- The first slide lets me click Next, but not change my answer.
- On the second slide, Next does not work. I had to go to the Menu to proceed.

The way I have coded my course, each mini-section ends with a quiz (there are a dozen of these). The Correct/Incorrect layer of the final quiz slide is coded to take the learner back to the Main Menu after viewing their success/failure.

- If I set the Quiz slide to "Reset to Initial State", I get the Submit button, but I have to answer the question each time I revisit the slide.

- How can I get the slide to show Prev/Next when visited, but have the "Next" button (that only appears at that time) correctly take me to the Main Menu?

Thank you!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Marie, 

Is the "final quiz slide" at the end of a scene? Is that where it's getting stuck as there isn't a "next" slide to go to? You mention selecting two random questions - are all the questions part of a question bank? Showing next/prev on the resume if they've already been answered does sound like the expected behavior, but proceeding beyond that final slide will be dependent on what the next slide is. 

Could you share a copy of this course so that we could take a look at your set up and offer some additional suggestions? If you'd prefer to share privately you can also send along here. 

Marie DesJardin

Hi, Ashley

Yes, the story structure returns the learner to the "main menu" so I don't have a series of linked "next" slides. This is proprietary information so I uploaded the story in the link you provided. 

While reviewing I also noticed the Review Quiz function does not work properly. Here's a summary of the problems, copied from my story upload. Thanks for looking at this!

Summary: I have 2 problems with quiz operation in this course:
- When I click the "Review Quiz" button, it shows me one slide and Next takes me out of the quiz review to the Player slide.

- In the LMS, if the "Resume where you left off" option is implemented and the Quiz properties are set to "Automatically decide", the Next button at the end of each of these sections does not work. The user is trapped and has to go to the Main Menu to proceed.

These problems are doubtless related to the story structure where I don't have a Next slide. I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to make the quiz functions behave better. Thank you.

Janet Ann

Ashley- I am having a similar problem.  After publishing, my project plays correctly through the first time, but if the learner hits "prev" to review content, sometimes the 'submit' button changes to 'next' on my freeform questions.  I have not set any slide properties to do this; the slide is set to 'reset to initial state.'  When the rogue 'next' button appears, none of the answer buttons work. It will, however, advance to the next slide, until it hits the end of a scene.  At the end of a scene, nothing will advance. Sounds exactly like the problem Marie encountered. Were you able to fix this problem?  Is this a 'me' problem or an Articulate problem?

 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Janet,

Yes, I took a look at Marie's case and it was reported to our QA team. It seems that the next button caused her set up to be stuck on the last slide and the user wasn't able to proceed forward, but they could click on prev. It was determined a workaround was to ensure the slide numbers were in order numerically and that's how the user was accessing them to allow the next button to continue. 

The issue is still with our QA team for additional investigation, so I don't have any more information to share at this time but will include this thread in the report filed with our team so that I can keep you posted here. If you'd like us to take a look at your file to confirm it's the same situation you can share it here in the forums using the "add attachment" button or send it along to our team here. 

Janet Ann

Ashley-
Yes, that sounds exactly like my problem. When revisiting a quiz slide, the 'submit' had changed to 'next.' That 'next' advanced to the following slide within the same scene, but locked up at the end of the scene and would not allow the learner to advance. The learner could not see previous answers highlighted, nor could they select any answers.

I worked around it by consolidating all the scenes into one. I also changed the quiz slide settings from 'reset to initial' to 'resume saved state.' That way the learner will see the answers selected and go straight for the 'next' button.

A couple of notes for your team:
-I started this project on my hard drive, but put it on the server, then made some major changes while working off the network. So that may be a contributing factor (?).
-At times, I could revisit a quiz slide (while properties were 'reset to initial'), and it would actually reset and require the learner to re-submit an answer. However, if I got to the last slide of the project and then went back (which some of my learners may do), then the 'submit' disappeared and the rogue 'next' appeared.
-Other times, the rogue 'next' appeared on the first revisit, regardless of how far I'd gone in the course.

Hope this info helps! I'm glad I'm not the only person who's encountered this. I thought I was going crazy. :)

Thanks,
Janet

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Janet, 

Thanks for sharing that info. The working off a network drive could be a part of the issue in your file, so you'll always want to make sure you're working locally but since it sounds like it matches the issue I mentioned I've included it in the report. Since I don't have a timeframe to offer, you'll want to continue using the workaround of having them all in the one scene or the number element as I mentioned. 

Marie DesJardin

Just to add to Ashley's statement, in order to get my quiz review to work properly and advance beyond the end of a scene, as a workaround:

-at the end of every scene I insert a blank slide with a trigger set to jump to the next quiz slide (whatever that is) when the timeline starts. Each end-of-scene slide is customized to go to the first quiz slide in the next scene.

- for the very last scene, this trigger jumps to the Quiz Results when the timeline starts.

If I don't put these blank slides in, the user gets stuck on Next forever during slide review. I have produced several courses since containing this workaround, and have had no further user complaints, so it seems to be working.  

Kevin Wilson

I do LMS support at my company, and I had a Storyline user with this same issue.  I took his Storyline file and found that on the Results page of his quiz, when I edited that page, he had a timer turned on that was set to start on the first slide.  The timer was set to 120 minutes and the quiz would then turn off.  I'm not sure about the logic of that setting or why anyone would want to cause their course to self destruct after 2 hours, but turning that off fixed the problem.  When we tested, we could start his course and jump in the menu to the quiz and it would work. But, if we went through the course slide by slide,  when we got the quiz, there was no Submit button. Turning off this quiz timer setting seems to fix the problem. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jason, 

Are you revisiting a slide that was previously seen and answered? If so, that's expected that you'll see the prev/next buttons versus the submit button. You can see this noted here. 

If you're running into something else, can you let me know a bit more detail on the issue? It would help to have a copy of your .story file too. 

Jason Gallo

Hi, Ashley. Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, I am unable to share the source file, but here's what I figured out (although it seems like there may still be a bug here).

The Basic Design:

The course is designed with a total of 5 Scenes.

Scene 1: Welcome
Scene 2: Quiz 1
Scend 3: Quiz 2
Scene 4: Learner View Results Slides
Scene 5: Results Slides (Hidden)

A separate results slide measures the score for each quiz section. The results are submitted for each quiz scene on the last (blank) slide before moving to the next scene.

During 1st attempt at the course, the learner must go in order (Scenes 1-4).  Once arriving at Scene 4, they can view the results of the two quiz section. If they did not pass (100%), they must retake that quiz scene. Triggers are built in at this stage to reset the results of the quiz and navigate the learner back to the start of that quiz scene.

Individual page navigation uses the submit button to move from question to question and next to move from the last slide in a scene to the first page of the following scene.

The Issue

When attempting the quiz the first time through, the submit button is not at the bottom of the 2nd quiz questions (Scene 3). Instead, there is only a Prev / Next button even though these are not enabled for the slide and the learner hasn't yet completed the quiz. I can add quiz questions to Scene 2 and there is no error until the learner moves to Scene 3.

A Few Things to Note:

  • This did not occur in an earlier version of the course uploaded to our LMS.
  • The issue appears on multiple computers which publish the course.
  • All triggers were verified and all score submissions only occur at the end of the scene applying to the questions set for the coordinating results slide. 
  • We attempted to publish the course both with and without html5 (some earlier blogs said that this could be an issue).
  • When previewing in Storyline (SL2) this is not an issue.

What Finally Worked

The only way I could get this issue to resolve itself was to move the results submission trigger to occur after the learner completes ALL quiz sections (not just the quiz section completed). While at first, this sounds logical, remember we sometimes use an initial quiz to evaluate the learner with secondary quizzes to focus on more in-depth learning. It seems like a handicap to be unable to check in on the learner's results before the final slide of the course. 

Screenshots

Slide Properties:

 

View when previewing in Storyline:

 

 

View when accessing via LMS:

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jason,

Thanks for that detail! One piece I got a little lost on, you mentioned:

When attempting the quiz the first time through, the submit button is not at the bottom of the 2nd quiz questions (Scene 3). Instead, there is only a Prev / Next button even though these are not enabled for the slide and the learner hasn't yet completed the quiz. I can add quiz questions to Scene 2 and there is no error until the learner moves to Scene 3.

In that setup, it sounded like there are not initially questions in Scene 2 even though it's labeled as a quiz? Is that accurate? Are Scenes 2 and 3 drawing from the same question bank or something similar?  When you're seeing the prev/next button, can the users select answers or it's as if the slide is frozen and the user already answered? 

Also, it's good to see that it's working in preview, so can you tell me a bit more about your publishing and hosting set up, i.e., what LMS are you using? Have you tested any others such as SCORM Cloud? What about the browsers you're using? Do you know if they have Flash enabled or not? What update of Storyline 2 did you publish with? The latest update would be Update 13. 

Lastly, I understand if you're unable to share your file, but since it's the best way for us to demonstrate the problem and document a defect, we'd happily accept a .story project shared here privately if you change your mind.

Lauren Hamilton

I've already opened a support ticket, but I wanted to add here that this is happening to me in Storyline 360. We were directed to seek help from our LMS provider, so I am currently in talks with them about this situation. So hard to diagnose the problem when it is only happening to a few people and not everyone!

This is happening randomly on ungraded test questions with 'automatically decide' set on the revisit. No next or previous button is active on these slides, only the submit button. This has never caused issue before in the package running in the LMS for over a year, however after making a small change to question content and republishing, random users (10 out of approx. 125) are receiving next/prev buttons on random ungraded questions.

As Marie said, if the question is at the end of the scene and the next/prev buttons appear, the user is stuck and cannot proceed. Unfortunately, we don't use the menu, so there is no way for the user to proceed and they must start completely over, or we have to create a special package for them that has the content that they have already seen removed.

I'm going to change the revisit setting on the review questions to 'Reset to Initial State' today and test in a live environment next week to see if the problem is still occurring. Hoping that if we change this setting, if the user logs out of the class when this happens and then gets back in, it will have the submit button as intended. Wish me luck! ;)