Issue with randomly draw questions from the question bank.

Jan 31, 2017

Benny Kurniawan
By Benny Kurniawan

Hi,

Not sure if I am doing this right. I have a question bank with total of 8 questions. I would like to be able to draw 3 questions randomly from the question bank every time. I have the "Draw question randomly" checked, and also selected "3" from the "Include # questions" drop-down menu. But somehow the questions that appear were always the same. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

26 Replies
Alyssa Gomez
7 years ago01/31/17 at 9:14 pm (UTC)

Hello Benny!

When you say that the same 3 questions appear each time, do you mean that the same questions are appearing each time you click the Retry button on the Results Slide? If so, you'll want to move the "Reset Results" trigger in the trigger panel on top of the "Jump to" trigger for the "Retry button." You may see some repeats, as it is drawn randomly each time, but you shouldn't see the same 3 questions that way. Let me know if this helps!

Benny Kurniawan
7 years ago02/06/17 at 3:53 pm (UTC)

Hi Alyssa,

So there is no result slide. It randomize the first go through but if the user goes back to retake the knowledge check, it won't randomize. It would be the same 3 questions generated on the first run. The question slide is set to "Reset to initial state". I guess is it possible to randomize without the result slide?

Alyssa Gomez
7 years ago02/06/17 at 4:46 pm (UTC)

Ah, I see. Are you seeing this behavior in HTML5 output? If so, this is a known issue with Storyline 2, and you can work around this behavior in either of the following ways:

  • View the Flash or Articulate Mobile Player version of your course instead.
  • Exit the course, launch it again, then retry the quiz.

Let me know if you're seeing this in HTML5, as that would explain the behavior. Otherwise we'll keep digging!

Alyssa Gomez
7 years ago02/06/17 at 7:00 pm (UTC)

Thanks for that update, Benny. When you say Flash player for desktop, do you mean that you're viewing the published content locally? We recommend uploading published content to the intended environment since viewing it locally can cause various parts of the content to fail. 

If you're seeing this issue in the intended environment, would you mind sharing your file with the team so we can take a closer look? Once you submit your case, one of the Support Engineers will contact you via email and work with you one-on-one to get to the bottom of this. 

And please be sure to let me know your case number so I can follow along, as well!

Lee Ratcliffe
over 6 years ago01/05/18 at 2:18 pm (UTC)

Hi,

I have tried a few other forum threads on community.articulate.com around this subject or similar issues with question banks and randomisation issues. However, after lots of experimentation, re-engineering and even purchasing SL3 because on first appearance it seemed to fix the issue (later on we found it didn't) I think its come down to the same issue as Benny. 

So this has been tested In storyline preview, on a server, in an LMS and on ScormCloud. Both the Flash version and the HTML version. I have tried it in SL2, SL360 and now SL3.

A question bank of 10 questions, set to randomise and only show 5 questions will ALWAYS show those same 5 questions but in a different order when you come back to the question bank. I have set it so when you return to the question bank there is a hidden 'forwarding' slide which resets the question bank's linked results slide.

This obviously is not how I want the question bank to function when a user returns to retake the quiz, I want them to possibly get different questions from the 10 in the question bank. It seems that when a user enters the course (starts a session) the question bank decides what 5 out of 10 questions they will be getting until they reset their session data (restart the course and choose don't continue from where they left off).

Surely there is a missing setting here, surely there should be an option to 're-draw' from the bank instead of just representing the same questions. If there isn't a missing setting I would suggest Storyline reconsiders how people are using these randomised question banks in courses, this default behaviour is very restrictive and from what I have seen in various posts on this community its causing issues for lots of storyline developers.

Thanks in advance for any help, or information.

Lee

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 6 years ago01/08/18 at 2:08 pm (UTC)

Hi Lee,

Thanks for reaching out here - we have a few similar issues reported to our team, and a fix in the works for one of those issues where the HTML5 output won't show a new set of questions on a retry from the results slide when using a question bank on the third and succeeding retries. How many retry attempts did you test and notice the pattern?

If you'd like to share a copy of one of your .story files we can take a look and confirm if it's the bug I described, or a similar one and then keep you posted on an update/fix.

Leslie McKerchie
over 5 years ago09/07/18 at 11:47 am (UTC)

Hi Martin,

Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like your question could still be related to the issue discussed here. You're seeing a repeat question on a subsequent attempt, correct? It could certainly happen, as they are random drawings, but the same questions a second attempt is the issue we are looking into.

Parichay Gupto
over 5 years ago09/25/18 at 12:10 pm (UTC)

Hi

I am having the same issue. I am drawing 10 questions randomly from a question bank of 15 questions. In IE it is working fine when I am seeing the flash version. But in chrome I am having the problem. Same ten questions are coming in same order, I have tried for at least 7-8 times. Result is same. The same problem arises when I am viewing the HTML5 version in IE. I have check them by clearing the cache also. Also, I would like to mention, the RESET RESULT option is being called at the beginning of the intro screen of the quiz. Each time you RETRY, you come to the intro screen. I am prety sure that this issue arises with HTML5 only. Pease suggest.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 5 years ago10/03/18 at 7:30 pm (UTC)

HI Parichay,

Thanks for sharing that! Our team has this issue filed where the HTML5 output with a Question draw does not shuffle or randomize questions on Quiz Retry. We'll keep you posted on that here.

I did see that our team fixed a similar issue in Storyline 3 and Storyline 360. Perhaps you'd like to download the trial here to see if you're still having the issue. 

Graham Jones
5 years ago03/12/19 at 3:50 pm (UTC)

Hi, I'm using 360 and I have built a game where if you land on a specific square, you are taken to a question bank to answer a random question. However, you always get the same question during the game. If you start the game again, you get a different random question, but then this stays the same throughout the game again. Any ideas anyone? 

Leslie McKerchie
5 years ago03/12/19 at 6:55 pm (UTC)

Hi Graham,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing what you see in your project.

This sounds like the expected behavior. If you are leaving the question bank slide and returning, you will see the same slide.

You have a couple of options to use:

  • add additional slides to pull from a question bank
  • add a trigger to reset results on a result slide

Hope that gets you started in the right direction.

Cyntia Paré
almost 5 years ago05/07/19 at 2:23 pm (UTC)

Hi everyone,

We have a client that wants to stick to Storyline 2 and now we are facing the challenge of having questions picked from a question bank, repeating the same order everytime. I know Alyssa mentionned it was a known issue in the HTML5 output 2 years ago... https://articulate.com/support/article/the-same-questions-are-shown-when-retrying-a-randomized-quiz-in-html5-output  but has this been fixed ever since or is there a quick work around? 
Nowadays, the HTML5 output is mainly used so we have no other options than to have it working in the HTML5 versions.

I have 3 questions banks, with 20 questions, where 10 has to be randomly picked, but when you retry the quiz (even with the Reset Result Slide trigger), you always get the same question.

I would greatly appreciate some help on that topic, since my client is waiting for me to get back to him with a solution.

 

Thank you!

Leslie McKerchie
almost 5 years ago05/08/19 at 1:48 pm (UTC)

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for reaching out and letting us know that you're running into this issue as well.

I do not have an update outside of what you've shared above with the link to our documentation here.

From those workarounds listed, I would advise: Exit the course, launch it again, then retry the quiz.

Wendy Farmer
over 4 years ago07/19/19 at 2:59 am (UTC)

Hi Barbara

I’ve used random draw QBs in SL 360 and not come across this issue. Couple of questions  to try and help diagnose what’s happening.

Are you on the latest update?

In the far right column do any of the questions have the option ‘Always’ selected?

Perhaps you could share the ..story file and someone might be able to spot something for you

Here is a sample video 5 questions in a QB - draw of 3 and retried it 3 times - I'm not getting the same questions presented

 

 

Graham Jones
over 4 years ago07/19/19 at 11:40 am (UTC)

Hi Barbara,

unfortunately Storyline's quiz banks don't randomise when you re-visit
them, which is a shame as it seems this should be a key feature. I managed
to get round it in the end by adding a yes/no variable to each question so
it would jump on to the next one if it had previously been visited.

Speak soon
Graham Jones

07703 736357
01243 574257
Inside Outside Design Ltd
https://ioutsidedesign.wixsite.com/e-learning

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