Randomizing Drag and Drop Items - HELP!!! (I'm new to Storyline 360)
Mar 08, 2024
This seems like a simple feature so I'm sure i'm just missing a setting somewhere. But I created a very simple drag and drop card sort exercise. To explain it simply:
- There is a drop area A and drop area B.
- There's a stack of cards with words on them (ie 'dog').
- Each card is a button as I made a card so when you click it the down state is a picture of a dog.
- Each card is on it's own layer of course.
- Each card is a Drag Item and belongs to either Drop Area 'A' or 'B'.
- I have all the cards centered (horizontally and vertically) so it creates a stack.
- I have the Drag and Drop Options setting to 'Reveal Drag Items One at a Time'
I won't explain all my other little settings but If I publish my little exercise everything works as I would like it to, except the cards aren't randomized, they show up in the order that the layers are.
I know there is a setting for setting the Drag Items Sequence... but I don't want to hard set that. I want it to randomize the cards. I set "Shuffle:" to "Answers" but that doesn't seem to do anything.
I can't imagine there isn't something very simple i'm missing here. Please help a newbie :)
7 Replies
First, be sure you need to randomize. Pedgogically, randomizing is useful only if learners are repeatedly taking the quiz, or if they might be in a position to share answers with each other. Otherwise, for each distinct person, the cards are essentially in a random (unpredictable) order.
The Shuffle Answers option only effects items that are on the base layer. Of course, if you take the items off the layers, and put them in a stack on the base, then reveal items one at a time and shuffle items options will function as intended.
Thank you Walt! Yes I hear you and completely agree, in this case, this is an exercise for kids and they will be repeatedly taking this so it does need to be random.
As for the layers, I used the wrong verbiage perhaps... everything is in the base layer, but by different layers I meant they are all in the timeline, on different layers. Here's a screenshot.
Those different levels on the timeline represent the Z-coordinate of the objects. The ones that are higher in the list cover the ones that are lower.
If you have made this as a Freeform Drag and Drop, you can go into the Form View, and asssign each to a target. Each object can have only one target, but targets can have multiple objects. Once they are assigned, “Reveal one at a time”, and “Shuffle” will work.
Thanks Walt... yes I have all the targets assigned, I have 'reveal one at a time' selected, and 'shuffle' but everytime I run it, it shows the cards in order and not shuffled.
Hello Christian,
I'm happy you're getting great support from Walt so far! We appreciate the screenshots you shared and the detailed description of the issue. It would be helpful if you could also share your Storyline course with us so we can look more closely at what you have set up.
Would you be willing to share the project file with us here? You may also share it privately by sending it along in a support case. We'll delete it when we're done!
My mistake. Reveal one at a time and Shuffle are not compatible. What SL means by shuffle is that all the answers appear at once, and it changes their position around, so they are in different locations. To appear one at a time, and in random order, you will need JavaScript.
Here's a sample that may get you started.
Thanks, Walt. It would be nice if Storyline had an option to just randomize like they do questions in the freeform drag and drop. You're best building your own drag/drop interaction and using Walt's javascript to do the randomization at the moment. You also could drag, drop, and make another one pop up immediately if you trigger your javascript on every correct drop.
Of course, it'd be nice if you could define all your javascript variables and functions for a slide on the "on timeline start" and then access the functions and variables in other triggers on that slide. But I digress...