Stop Users from Taking Tests Without Viewing Content

Nov 10, 2022

Hi

I have just been informed that, in all my courses, users can simply navigate straight to the quiz at the end, without viewing any content, and be marked as "passed" if they guess right.
This had never occurred to me because ... well, I'd never do it ...

I have researched far and wide on the subject, but I want people to be able to view the lessons within the course in whatever order they want.  Especially since my content is intended to be picked up again for reference, piecemeal fashion, at future dates.  So disabling the sidebar or forcing people to watch the entire course in order doesn't sit with this.

Are there any settings available for the quiz (I can't see any...) that would require people to have viewed content before they start it?

Ingenious solutions are welcome!

Thanks
Steve

10 Replies
Tom Kuhlmann

You can use variables to track that people have viewed slides or sections, etc. Then enable moving the to the quiz on the condition that the variables are at a specific value.

Most people would use a T/F variable. Assume you had 5 slide and the 6th was a quiz. The sixth slide isn't available at slide 5. The button to get there is not available.

  • Create a T/F variable for each slide (or perhaps after a section). Example: var_Slide1visited=F
  • When they get to slide 1, create a trigger to change the value of var_Slide1visited=T when timeline of slide starts
  • At the place where they need to access the quiz, create a trigger to change state of nav button to normal on the condition that all of those variables are true

That's the gist of it. There are a few ways to do it, but essentially you can use variables to track the movement through the course and then enable the navigation on specific conditions.

Tom Kuhlmann

Ah...I missed the Rise part :) I clicked into the link from my email and it doesn't show which group.

Unfortunately Rise doesn't allow for that. There may be something you can do with JavaScript but I don't know JS. Perhaps someone can jump in. 

Going with just out of the box, you could perhaps do something where the course is open to navigate, however, they can't get to the final quiz without a password. And they learn the password through the course. They could cheat, I guess, and go to where the password is and collect just that, but there's some workarounds to make it less obvious.

Here's an idea. It's not perfect, but it uses just SL blocks and Rise. 

  • Create a SL block that grants a token. I used the SL block to get them to reflect. I'd tell them they need to do the activity to get the token. But you could just place a token anywhere in the course, like an easter egg.
  • I used a knowledge check instead of a quiz so I could put an unlocking SL block that prevented them from advancing without the tokens.

    https://rise.articulate.com/share/1fVEsUjUxelcO5iVhWVjQ2iBJT4gPifk
  • Here's an overview of what I did.
Steve Warren

Thanks Tom, this is very helpful.

The problem here (isn't there always a problem with these things?) is that I need to export using Passed/Incomplete and Rise will only recognise a Pass/Fail result from a quiz, not a knowledge check.

The rigid nature of the standalone quizzes in Rise seems to leave every course open to this weakness unless you force people to complete the whole course in full. It therefore means, I think, that some kind of JS solution would be needed to restrict navigation, but although I've done some minor things with JS and CSS, this is way above my head.

Thank you again for your help - I will look at this as a way to add more to my courses, using your excellent work as a guide ('ve bookmarked it) - but as you say, maybe someone can jump in with another solution.

Best regards
Steve

Steve Warren

Thanks Phil

Very interesting idea!
I don't think my own LMS would do this, and I have a couple of resellers with LMSs I can't control.
If things happen within Rise, it will be OK but outside of that, relying on an LMS to activate a quiz is likely to land me in problems.

But my own research has shown this inflexibility to be a big problem for some Rise users, so your suggestion will probably be of great help to others with more control over the LMSs they use.