Adding a text box for user input in Rise360
Jan 17, 2023
Hi Team,
I am experiencing difficulty in Articulate Rise 360, so I need your assistance and guidance throughout the development process.
- How can I add a text box for user input in Rise360? (any readily available templates from content library you can suggest). I tried the knowledge check option, but I don't want to see a result screen, therefore it's not a good fit.
- I also attempted to incorporate a quiz made in Storyline/Quizmaker 360 by going to Interactive > "Add a Storyline 360 interaction from Review 360," but I'm unsure of where the quiz's results and information are being saved in the LMS.
- The Multimedia > Embed > Pasted URL / iFrame Code feature in MS-Forms is really useful, however the embedded item still looks like MS-Forms.
In the meantime, the two paths I have taken so far, namely:
- Adding a web form as an embedded object and using that to get the learner's input is a good way to achieve this. However, the challenge is if you do not want the form to look like MS Forms or a Google form, you would need to create and code the custom form separately.
- Using a Storyline block will work to get the input, however, the input is not sent to the LMS. Only the Storyline block completion is reported to the LMS. A possible workaround would be to send the data manually from within the Storyline course using JavaScript.
Additionally, I wanted my learners to download a PDF file of the entire Rise 360 course. We've designated a digital journal in RISE 360 with several text inputs for the learners to fill out during the live classroom discussion. Our goal was to have the participant fill out text boxes (hard coded with JavaScript, not visible in Rise 360) with their responses and then have the page saved as a PDF.
Please DO NOT suggest the below mentioned workaround solution.
You can give the learners an option to download the PDF version of the course by doing the following:
1. Once you have finished your Rise 360 course, Select Export.
2. Export the entire course as PDF.
3. Edit your course again and add a Multimedia > Attachment block.
4. Edit the Attachment block and upload the PDF file you exported in step 2.
Any advice or feedback you can offer is much welcomed.
62 Replies
Hi Saikat
I can't help with the first part of your question - i.e. the quiz - But we have been working on collecting data using a Storyline block in Rise and then outputting the data to a downloadable pdf.
This demo I posted a couple of weeks ago demonstrates where we have got to:
https://rise.articulate.com/share/CxNcomo7LqqWkBOahhImYPgO8E7PEeYG
Inside the Storyline we use text input boxes to collect the input from the learner. We then use a JavaScript library 'pdf-lib' in our JavaScript code to take this input and fill out a pdf 'form'. In the demo the pdf 'form' template is included inside an attachment block.
Using this technique, you could create the form to include part of the course itself with form fields where you want the learner input to appear.
This works fine BUT... and it's a big BUT... we cannot carry variables over from one Storyline Block to another i.e. we cannot accumulate variables and store them until the end of the course. RISE doesn't have variables. so as soon as the learner exits from the Storyline block the variables are lost.
You would have to store the data somewhere to get what I suspect you are trying to achieve. We have a client who has requested we work on this - we are going to try using local storage in the browser (not ideal - but viable). If we have success I will update this post.
I would like see a text entry added natively to Rise. I am not going to hold my breath.
In a previous course I tried using an iframe embed and made a HTML page that can store the value in local storage.
https://frumbert.github.io/public/reflective_activity.html?source=mybucket
To get different values showing up I would then send in a 'source' parameter so that each text entry could be unique.
I would then have to modify the exported Rise package in order to embed the iframe source file into the Rise package (so that it could run on an intranet without internet access). I made myself a tool for re-packing externally referenced files into Rise:
https://www.frumbert.org/risefix/index.php
In my next project that required text entries the client required that the learner enter a value before Rise would let them navigate. I hadn't been able to get that working properly with my iframe based solution. I had reversed engineered the Rise player enough to see how other interactions work to set a complete flag so that the Continue button would then become active, and emulated that in my own code. But it doesn't work on iframes, so that prevented me from implementing anything there.
I now need learners to be able to write into a text entry and then, later in the course, have these entries show up again somehow. During output of the values, I'd like it to pop up or being something printable, since Rise doesn't save the value from a Storyline file. I had wanted to see if I could hook into the SCORM player of the Rise package and store a value there somehow, but cross-frame scripting gets in the way (and even after published when the package is in the same domain, the code didn't work).
So I'm stuck with Storyline, since when a Storyline file completes, Rise will see that completion and release the Continue button.
Here is as far as I am right now, and I've attached the storyline files that are loading for reference on that side.
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/1770286b-a109-49b1-95ce-a34e61e662fc/review
This reveals a couple of bugs in Storyline:
The other thing it reveals is that Rise will re-use the same Storyline instance if you add it multiple times. This might be an efficient programming thing, but it sure is annoying when I want to add multiple text entries. I have to publish the same Storyline file multiple times to Review 360 for each text entry I want in the course.
On the summary page, I have a loader which is looking at my local storage and concatenating each entry into the text field. This is far from ideal - mainly because of the scrollbar bug.
I tried using a TextBox in Storyline too, but it doesn't have a variable and you can't set its value at runtime. This would have been great since you can add a TextBox to a Scrolling Panel to get the scrollbars showing up. But you can't add a TextEntry field to a Scrolling Pane (or at least I couldn't get mine in one). Executing javascript on form load could pop a window (if the user allows it) or throw up a PDF like in the previous users example - I haven't got that far myself yet.
I hope some other developers/creatives can chip-in with Text Entries in Rise and offer their own examples, because I don't think Articulate are ever going to add native Text Entry support to Rise.
Wow, this is great guys. Thanks for sharing, although unsure how to implement with such a little time. Up for Rise text entry functionality being developed ASAP!
Free Form Text Entry fields are what's keeping us from using this platform. We need student responses that others can review in real time. Not quizzing responses. Open Text fields that stay in the lesson item please.
Hello Paula! I understand you are looking for text entry fields that you can view student responses in real-time.
We don't currently offer this feature in Rise. However, we are tracking requests for Freeform questions or text entry fields. I can add you to the list so that you'll get notified if this feature gets released or if we make any changes that will help.
Thanks for letting us know you need this feature.
Even if Articulate don't add the free-form text entry fields to RISE, it would be really useful (as I have suggested in earlier posts) if they allowed for even a small number of named user variables added to the RISE memory which could be set and picked up through the course.
The solution we have implemented using Storyline blocks to capture text entry data relies on browser local storage to hold the variables so we can print the user notes, certificate or learning journal at the end of the RISE course. It works fine - but is not ideal.
Hi Angelo, we are very interested in such a text entry field feature in Rise, too. Could you add us to the list? We'd love to be notified if this feature gets released. Thank you very much!
Can you also add me to the list of people who will be updated if and when Articulate launches an freeform text field feature? Also please add me to the list of folks who are desperately requesting this feature. It's mind-boggling that it wasn't in from day 1.
Please add me too! This feature would open up a world of possibilities!
+1
Can I please be added to this list, too? This would help us adopt 360 across most of our courses.
+1
Hi Tim, could you tell us how the export button is built? Do you have an example .SL file?
Hi, please add me too!
Hi there,
I'd be very interested in this feature too, especially if that text from a freeform text entry field could be captured and made available to course tutors/administrators.
John Cooper
Hi Saikat
I can't help with the first part of your question - i.e. the quiz - But we have been working on collecting data using a Storyline block in Rise and then outputting the data to a downloadable pdf.
This demo I posted a couple of weeks ago demonstrates where we have got to:
https://rise.articulate.com/share/CxNcomo7LqqWkBOahhImYPgO8E7PEeYG
Inside the Storyline we use text input boxes to collect the input from the learner. We then use a JavaScript library 'pdf-lib' in our JavaScript code to take this input and fill out a pdf 'form'. In the demo the pdf 'form' template is included inside an attachment block.
Using this technique, you could create the form to include part of the course itself with form fields where you want the learner input to appear.
This works fine BUT... and it's a big BUT... we cannot carry variables over from one Storyline Block to another i.e. we cannot accumulate variables and store them until the end of the course. RISE doesn't have variables. so as soon as the learner exits from the Storyline block the variables are lost.
You would have to store the data somewhere to get what I suspect you are trying to achieve. We have a client who has requested we work on this - we are going to try using local storage in the browser (not ideal - but viable). If we have success I will update this post.
I said I would update this post when we had created a downloadable pdf with data collected across a RISE course from several Storyline Blocks with text entry fields using local storage in the browser (similar to Cookies).
Just to say we did this and it works fine.
Would love to have this feature too!
+1 - This is a feature that has been requested for a couple of years now.
I am also very interested in a freeform text entry feature. Thank you.
+1 . Please make this happen :)
I would very much like to have free text entry as well!
Plus a feedback button that would enable to provide for example a model answer if needed. I have used Adapt and this includes this feature.
This is really valuable learning as it enables practice and reflection and can be used in a number of ways.
+1
+1 for this feature. We need learners to have the ability to enter freeform text to make our courses 'useful' as we are trying to assess critical thinking, not simply quiz 'level' of thinking.
Hi Mat!
Thanks for the feedback on the type of functionality you'd like to see in Rise 360!
I've included you in the feature report and will update this discussion as soon as we have news to share. If you'd like to stay up to date, you can bookmark our Feature Roadmap.
Have a great rest of your week!
Please sign me up as well :)