Intro

Not so long ago I posted a blog about replacing textual answers in a Multiple Choice Question by images. That worked quite well, by rearranging the embedded objects on the quizzing master slide, and on the quiz slides themselves.

Last week a similar question appeared here in the portal, about using Images in Matching questions. I posted an answer without having tested it out, because Matching questions are rather different. Today I found some time to double-check my answer, and want to post about the possible problems. You’ll get – as usual – an example project as result of the exploration.

Example

This published project uses the packaged ‘City Vibes’ theme (with some editing of course). You will see a Quiz with three Matching questions:

1. Default Matching Type question: images are in the first column.
2. Default Matching Type question: images are in the second column.
3. Drag&Drop custom question slide as alternative.

There is one attempt on question level, and 3 attempts on quiz level. Review Quiz is possible after passing the quiz or having exhausted the attempts.

Workflow for Matching Type with Images

Similar to the MCQ workflow when using images, part can be done on the Quizzing master slide, part on the quiz slides themselves.

On Master slide

You need to make the two column areas bigger, which means moving and reducing the space for other objects.  I also needed to create a duplicate Master slide for the second quiz slide, which needed a wider second column, whereas the first master slide has a wider first column. To emphasize the size of the two column areas I have added a dashed stroke.

On Quiz slide

It is not possible to re-arrange the individual answer size on the master slide, that has to be done on the quiz slides. Rearranging the answers in the first or the second column can be seen in these screenshots.  The first master slide (small second column) was applied correctly on a quiz slide, for the second one (small first column) I had to correct the size again on the quiz slides. This may be a bug.

Problems – limitations

For Matching type slides it is impossible to take out the numbering, which was possible for a MCQ slide.

You should not activate the Shuffle option, because that will not work if images are present.

Changing the vertical alignment for the numbering leads to problems. Often the numbering just gets lost.

As you may have experienced, it is not always easy to drag the item to the correct one in the second column, especially for the second slide.

Since the added images are custom objects, they are below the embedded objects on the quiz slides (z-order). That makes exact moving difficult, and editing the colors of the SVGs (second slide) as well. Some tips:

• Do not try to select the custom objects on the stage, select them in the Timeline.
• To resize a custom object, do not try to use the handles but use the Options tab of the object.
• To move a custom object use the shortcut keys (with arrows). SHIFT-arrow moves 10px, CTRL-arrow 16px
• To edit the colors of the SVGs move them to the scratch area. It will be very difficult to double-click while they are on stage. Of course you can use bitmap images.