Timer, Changed Behavior Post-Update

Hello Keith!

This is the default behavior when using quiz timers in Storyline 360; the quiz timer is paused if the user is on another tab. It sounds like you'd like the timer to continue running if the user moves away from the course. I'll hand it over to our community members to share if they've crafted a workaround to accomplish something similar.

Hi Lauren!

Thanks for sharing this, and looking into this. Our research suggests the change took place in about the December, 2020 timeframe. Maybe a little after. We have about a dozen or so quizzes published prior to that which do have the timer continuing to run in the background. Maybe that will help? I did not see anything in the SL update announcements about the change so we weren't sure if it was intentional or not.

Hello Keith!

I've opened a case on your behalf so that our Support Engineers can step in and offer their expertise! You should've received an email confirmation that includes an upload link. If you can share a project with us, that would be helpful!

You'll hear from our team shortly!

Thank you! :)

Hello!

Is there any news on this case?

Our company is facing the same issue. We have about 20 certification courses that need a exact time to conclusion. The students have 2:30 hours to finish their exams, if this time is passed, the course will close automatically.

Hi Sabrina,

Thank you for chiming in to share your expectations as well. Our team is digging into this behavior and I've added the details you've shared here as well.

This conversation is linked so that we can provide updates with you here.

Exciting news today, Keith & Sabrina! 🗞

We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 57, we've included important fixes and new features. Here's the item you'll be interested in:

Fixed: Quiz timers paused when switching to another browser tab, giving learners more time to complete quizzes.

Just launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for each application—details here.

Please let us know if you have any questions or reach out to our Support Engineers directly!

This is WONDERFUL news! Thank you, Becca!

Hi Becca, thanks for the warning!

I've been testing the updated timer behaviour and unfortunatelly found a few problems. :(

1 - If the page is refreshed or the learner exits the course, when the he gets back to it the timer restarts, even if resume option on the course is set to "always remember".

Here a video that simulates this situation: https://youtu.be/aGRgQv08fSM

2 - After the learner gets the feedback from each question, the timer strangely starts to run faster

Heres another video that simulates this: https://youtu.be/sx3kVZQt5Ls

My timer is set to:

Course published on SCORM 2004 3rd edition.

Oi, Sabrina.

Obrigada pelos vídeos, e por enviar seu projeto!

I went ahead and opened a support case with our engineers, so you should hear from our team soon via e-mail.

Tenha um excelente dia!

Thanks Maria!

Hello Sabrina!

So sorry for the trouble after updating Storyline 360! We just released the fix for the issue you reported where the quiz timer could speed up when taking quizzes.

You'll want to update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app to ensure you're using Storyline 360 (Build 3.57.26476.0).

Hello Lauren,

Thank you for the heads up.
I've made a few tests and the bug that speeds up the timer is fixed, but when I refresh the browsers page or leave the course, the timer still starts over again.

Hi Sabrina!

I see that you're working with my teammate, Mcgem, on troubleshooting the issue where the timer starts over again when refreshing the browser window. We'll continue working with you directly in your case. 

Hello, are there any news on the matter with the timer that starts over again when you refresh the browsers page or leave the course ?

I m facing the exact same matter as i m building monthly quizzes in which the time is an important parameter for the validity of quiz results.

Can you get back at me please? 

Thank you in advance

Hi, everyone,

I have great news to share!

We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 60, we've included important fixes and new features.

One of the fixes we've included is:

Quiz timers reset to zero seconds when refreshing the browser tab or exiting and resuming the course.

To take advantage of this update, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.

Please let us know if you have any questions by posting here or by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly. 

Hi everyone,

Great news! I've made a few tests and so far so good; no problems found. My team will continue testing the quiz timer and if we find any trouble, I'll get back here.

Now, during the time the quiz timer feature wasn't working I've tried to make a quiz timer in JavaScript, it didnt't work 100% but it was possible to make a few "tricks" as:

• give the learner a sound and image alert when the time was close to end.
  Example: We had a quiz timer with 2 hours, if the learner reaches 1 hour and 50 minutes without finishing the quiz, we showed a slide layer with sound saying "you have only 10 minutes left", the learner presses OK in this slide layer and continue the quiz.
  My question is, is there any way to reference to the native quiz timer from Storyline and create something like this?

If no, here is a suggestion: add this feature in the quiz timer configurations, I'm sure a lot of users will benefit from this.

To illustrate my example I'll add my .story file in this topic, you can see the JS code and the triggers i've used in the slide master from any question.

This question was made in support case #02970213 as well, but I wanted to bring here so if anyone have this doubt too.