Software interaction quiz question

Nov 11, 2021

William Ryan
By William Ryan

Hi All,

I am working on a slide that tests knowledge of a software interaction. The user must click on certain hotspots (5 in all) that display new screens (e.g. hotspot 1 goes to screen 2 [we are already on screen 1], hotspot 2 goes to screen 3 etc.) I don't like the inbuilt screen recorder, for a couple of reasons. The mouse interaction doesn't look good to me, and it also requires a lot of re-formatting that, to be honest, is more time consuming than just using screenshots and hotspots. My dilemma is that my quizzes serve two functions. First, it is a test for an individual procedure that is part of a certification requirement. Second, those questions go into a larger test that is part of a recertification requirement. 

I am thinking of two different approaches...

1. Use the individual screenshots with hotspots to create a sequence of slides. The advantage of this is that there will be feedback if the user clicks on the wrong area. The disadvantages (in my mind) are that it increases the number of interactions a person must make (clicking away the "correct" or "incorrect" layers), and that every interaction is a new quiz question, which kind of bloats the question bank. Also increases slightly the complexity because you must lock the slides to each other, for those quizzes whose questions are randomly selected (which for me, means all of them). 

2. Use a single slide. The first screenshot of the series is shown, and each interaction changes the state of the picture to the next screen. There are a few disadvantages and advantage. Disadvantages: it makes the slide very complex. I have a sample that I made, it has 22 triggers and 6 variables. In its current state, if someone does not click in the correct place there is no feedback that they did something wrong. I think I have the workaround (clicking on the background picture instead of the hotspot brings up the "incorrect" layer), but this will add some more triggers - I'm starting with this now, but need to experiment a little to see if it will work.  The advantage is that there is only one slide. 

The point of the quiz interaction is to see if the student knows how to get to screen E from screen A. That, for me, is one question - hence one slide. In my mind it is not 5 questions (as the screen capture sequence treats it). 

...any thoughts?

8 Replies
Walt Hamilton
over 2 years ago11/12/21 at 5:41 am (UTC)

My first instinct is to use one slide with layers, rather than states. (My second thought is that 22 triggers and 6 variables is a pretty simple slide, not at all complex.)  Any place you can click will bring up the appropriate feedback layer, which can be set to disappear after a set time. 

There are a lot of ways to do this. If you are planning on progressing through a series of different screens when the correct spot is clicked, you can use states for the background picture, or use different graphics that appear and disappear, or you can use a combination of layers . The correct click brings up the new layer, the incorrect brings up a feedback layer that doesn't hide other layers, but does hide itself after an appropriate time.

William Ryan
almost 2 years ago04/27/22 at 6:25 pm (UTC)

Hi Satyam,

Actually it is a static slide. With this project I started with a recorded video. I found out through experimentation that one can change a state of an image with a video. I put as the base image Picture 1.png. Triggers change the state of the base image, showing those small videos... you can do it that way, but if you are using static images instead of videos, you can use each new screen image as either a new state to the base image, or put the new screen image on a new layer. 

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