Drop States When Drop Target Is "None" Not Working?

Hi Ray

yes you can manually set the distractor triggers.

change state of 'Artistry' to drop incorrect when object 'Artistry' is dropped on - then check all the possible drop targets.

repeat the trigger for its definition and for Failure.

Thanks Wendy!

Doesn't it seem like this should happen automatically? Since the distractors are not matched with any drop target, then they must be incorrect if placed in any drop target (at least, by my logic).

I will try to set them manually. Thanks so much for the quick reply!

Cheers!

    -Ray

Hi Wendy,

Let me just start by saying I am going to argue with you in the friendliest possible spirit. I realize that we're drifting out of the realm of technical how-to questions here and into the realm of philosophy, and therefore it is possible for us both to be right from the (different) premises from which we start.

That said, I think for me it comes down to a question of whether Drop Correct and Drop Incorrect cover the entire space of possibilities. In other words, if an item is dropped, does it have to be either dropped somewhere that's been marked as a correct match, or somewhere else which therefore would not be correct.

You (and Storyline) seem to be saying there are actually three possibilities: Drop Correct, Drop Incorrect, and some other state which is neither correct nor incorrect; let's call it Drop Neither.

I feel like that logic is sound as far as it goes, but then when I look at the built-in states for drag items, I don't see a Drop Neither state. When I set up the matches between drag items and drop targets, I only specify correct matches, leading me to the (apparently false) conclusion that Drop Incorrect is defined as any drop other than those I list as correct. If there are actually two other states, then just specifying the criteria for Drop Correct means we're not fully specifying the desired outcomes by specifying only the correct matches.

By this logic, just as

context drag item is incorrect if dropped on any target other than context

I expect

content drag item is incorrect if dropped on any target other than <none>.

In both cases we define the incorrect state by a failure to match the criteria for the correct state.

If you're still reading this, thanks for indulging me! :-)

Cheers!

   -Ray

Hi Ray, 

I also see both sides of this coin - but as to how they are described in our definitions it'll need a potential target to register as incorrect:

Drop Correct: This is how a drag item looks when it's dropped on the correct target. If you want this state to display after users have submitted the interaction for evaluation, mark the option to "Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted". On the other hand, if you want this state to display immediately (i.e., before users submit the interaction), do not mark the option to "Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted".

Drop Incorrect: This is how a drag item looks when it's dropped on an incorrect target. If you want this state to display after users have submitted the interaction for evaluation, mark the option to "Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted". On the other hand, if you want this state to display immediately (i.e., before users submit the interaction), do not mark the option to "Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted".

Hope that helps - and the idea for a new state may be something to share with our Product development team. 

Just a quick follow-up to say that I ran into another wrinkle while implementing this interaction. Since I'd checked Delay item drop states until interaction is submitted, it didn't work for me to change the state on the matched-to-none drag items immediately upon their being dropped.

Instead, I had to set a variable for each one to record that it was dropped, and then check that variable in the Incorrect feedback layer to change the state there. That meant also having to reset all these variables when the learner clicks Try Again, Prev, or Next. Ugh. That took some time.

But it does seem to be working now as I wanted it to.  Thanks for all your help!

    -Ray

Ashley, thanks for posting the internal definitions that Articulate is using. I will just say again, I think these are not the best definitions. But, given that they have already gone out this way, and there is code out there that expects this behavior, it might be impractical to change the definition of Drop Incorrect to be any drop that's not a correct drop. That means a third state should probably be added to the built-in states to cover the case when a learner drops a drag item that is matched to <none>.

If I get some time when this project is wrapped, I will try to remember to suggest this to the product development team.

Cheers!

    -Ray

I would gree with Ray that Drop target set too none that dropping on a target should trigger Drop incorrect, glad you got it fixed :-)

Thanks Ray - and I thought your explanation above was really well written out, so I went and submitted that as a feature on your behalf - you'll see the confirmation of that shortly so you won't need to go ahead and do it on your own. 

Hey, thanks Ashley! I do appreciate it.

Cheers!

    -Ray

Ray was being very kind here, and he is very right!

I hope Articulate will change this, as it makes NO sense that a decoy object dropped on any target does NOT generate a "drop incorrect" state. There is no third state - either a response is correct or it is incorrect. This is a very big problem, and causes huge amounts of extra work for drag an drop interactions.