Question: How to eliminate the need for a submit button in a multiple-choice question? How to have it as an auto-submit? How to reduce the minimum required number of clicks in a multiple-choice question/
Thanks, I will do as you suggest.
What I am looking into is for low stakes formative quizzes.
I did this really interesting interaction at the behest of one of my viewers. I really like this but without a submit button it only works for single answer questions and the learner doesn’t get a chance to change their mind.
Adobe Captivate Custom Quiz Questions Made with Shared Actions
Thanks. That is exactly what I was looking for.
Now I am thinking, how difficult would it be to have the system shuffle the answers for each viewer? Moreover, have them reshuffled for a retake.
That would add to the complexity. You couldn’t use the inbuilt functions in Adobe Captivate to do this.
That’s too bad.
Thanks.
I warned about that in my answer. I have created many custom questions as you can see on my blog. But recreating all the functionality of the default question slides is a lot of work, but possible. It is a lot of work, and I found it necessary to understand first of all the different situations the learner needs to cope with. For that reason I have first explored the default setup of question in-depth. Learn first to walk, then to run, have the appropriate equipment before running a marathon.
I agree that I need to learn to walk first before running. However, it is not always easy to know that path. There are not many official manuals or good books (I have purchased two). It seems that to learn CP I need to do trial and error and dissect existing presentations. But dissecting a presentation is not as easy as it might seem. There might be so much material hidden inside each slide. I thought that I had fully explored the default setup question but according to your comment I have only scratched the surface. I wish there was something like an “object explorer” which would list all the objects included in a slide and I could then select one by one and examine them in detail.
Maybe a guide similar to a roadmap indicating the order in which one should learn CP and also some instructions on how to go about in each of the places would be very useful.
I started as a programmer in 1979. I first wrote an accounting information systems on the Apple II that was used by hundreds of small and medium size companies. I then developed an entire ERP in the IBM PC that was used by companies of all sizes. But I stopped with the Macintosh and object orientation. I agree that OO languages were the future but I was not good at them. I am still not good with them. Multitasking is not my strength and while OO is about encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism the part that troubles me is the multitasking or idea that many things are happening at the same time (which is how things work in the real world).
Thanks for your help.
Will repeat this for the nth time, for a topic like Captivate a canned training is seldom the best way to learn Captivate. I have never bought any book on Captivate, have participated in several webinars and was mostly very frustrated about the superficial approach. No one is a dummy, every trainee comes with skills and a history both in IT and in learning.
My conclusion: I never offer a canned training. Each training which I do will start with a long conversation to understand the needs and the existing skills and history. At that moment I will lay out a step-by-step formation. In most cases that will be achieved by lot of ‘homework’ for the trainee, and short online sessions with focus on a specific topic. As interactive as is possible, and most of my trainings are online.
Books and manuals may work for some, as may passive video. Real insight in Captivate can only be acquired by developing. Training should be done with the project provided by the trainee, not the other way except maybe for a very basic training.
How did I learn Captivate? I had lot of experiences in IT and with Adobe applications. My learning was done by solving problems for users on the forums. Almost daily I discover fans of my blog, and just regret that too little interactivity happens (comments) to blog posts. I only have the numbers of views (do not like to analyze) and that helps me see which topics are most wanted. BTW I have used a lot of programming languages as well. In college I have given training for about 30 different applications (AutoCad, MS project and other Project management languages, Lotus 1-2-3 which was killed by MS but had in 2000 several features which Excel never mastered….). That made Captivate rather easy.
Self-teaching is great for some, especially if you have the personal motivation to do research as you learn. To offer an alternative view, I will suggest that selecting foundational training might work better for others. For example, the Adobe Professional Certification: Adobe Captivate will give you enough to not only get started with actually using Adobe Captivate but help you decide what you want to learn next. I know it’s called “Professional” but it really is fine for first-time users as well. It includes over twenty hours of video-based lessons with exercise files and a two-day virtual class session with instructors. Many of my clients who purchase one on one instruction through my website at https://CaptivateTeacher.com start with the APC training but go on to get additional lessons from me specific to their needs. Like Lieve, I like to provide lessons based on your needs and not necessarily following some curriculum. For example, I’ve been working with a client recently who is only really interested in software simulation. This has been what our lessons have been about, nothing else.
You give an example of a typical basic canned training. Not very fitting for cferran1, look at his questions. How many of those questions would have been answered with such a canned training? Be honest.
You talked about a trainee who only wanted software sims… and you offer a personalized training. That is to me the only way to go for more Captivate users than you think. Will not expand too much on this topic for many reasons. Too much time is lost during a canned training where stuff is only defined by the ‘trainer’ (I don’t think this to be a correct name in that situation). That has always been the case for every type of learning, and is what causes lot of efficiency in classroom training, in online synchronized an asynchronized training.
If a canned training used the approach of flipped class, problem-based or project-based learning efficiency could be important. That was the reason I searched and found Captivate to enable those approaches. It makes me sad that after 20 years (started with flipped classes so long ago) not much has changed.
LOTUS 1-2-3? That is not old! I taught Visicalc. And before Visicalc there was a language (I cannot remember its name) that was used to “generate” something similar to spreadsheets. That language was the idea for Visicalc. When I worked in the oil industry as a financial analyst I took a course and then later, during my doctoral studies I learned that my advisor was one of the three authors of that language.
There is no discussion that personalized training is far better than canned training but not everyone can afford the personalized training. The master-apprentice model that was used for centuries is fantastic but today, with mass production of everything, very few people get to be in that relationship. In fact, the classrooms keep on getting larger. The ratio of instructor to student keep on getting worse.
Flipped classrooms? I laugh when people tell me of the novelty of the flipped classroom. 40 years ago my parents talked about how every seven years there was a “movement” from students asking to change the teaching method. First they want a lecture because they have not read anything before entering the classroom and then they argue that why do they need to waste their time listening to a lecture that repeats what is on the books. And it went back and forth. So you had the lazy cycle (lecture) and the smart and hard working cycle (students read first and then there is a class discussion not a lecture).
I would love personalized training but I cannot afford it. I can hardly afford the college tuition of my triplets… So I depend on my trial and error and the help of dedicated people like you that spend their free time helping others. I help my students, you help me. What goes around, comes around.
Thanks.
I used flipped classes and other methods as well long time before I learned the terminology. It just comes naturally if you are passionate. I don’t even understand why formal education is still so conservative and outdated even for learning eLearning tools.
Not sure that a personalized training is by definition more expensive. I am sure that for many trainees which I got AFTER a canned (sometimes very expensive) training were very frustrated and not capable even of starting a project in the right way. In my case a consultancy job mostly becomes also a training job, but with focus on a project and a workflow which is well known for the trainee. You can learn simple step-by-step or Todo workflows from videos, insight and good practice however not.
I am just crazy about learning, because I spend more money on helping users than having ROI. That is the frustrating part.
If you price your Captivate teaching and market it correctly, I’m sure you would find it very rewarding personally and financially. I believe that you have undervalued your knowledge and skill and give too much of your experience away for free.
I have always given too much for free, and hate marketing.
Real expertise is no longer what people want, nor real quality. That used to be different. Mediocrity everywhere at this moment. Maybe better for most people.
Overview of Quiz blogs:
Thanks. I will read all of that material.
I would first of all recommend to read at least some of my blog posts about Quizzing. Yesterday I posted a revised version of the overview table. There are more than 30 blogs.
If you want to use the default scored questions in Captivate, with all their functionality (filling quizzing system variables, Retake and Review, score slide….) you need to understand the design of those questions based on quizzing master slides with a lot of embedded objects which have included functionality. The ‘Submit’ button is the main object on each quiz slide (as is the Continue button on the score slide). You cannot just get rid of it. Tweaks are possible of course, you can reduce the two-step submit process, you can tweak a lot of features like having the Submit button appear later etc. All can be found in my blog.
Your question is not really learner friendly at all. You know that I am a teacher, and am aware of the difficulties of especially text-based MCQs, for some learners. Give them at least time to reflect on their answers and decide when they Submit their answer, after having changed their first choice.
To answer your question: you can create a custom question the way you want, but if you want all the functionality of a default question slide you’ll need a lot of work. I am not yet talking about the transfer to a LMS, which is also much more complicated (using JS, or the CpExtra widget is a necessity). There are some blogs in the list about custom questions. You can use Learning Interactions for those questions: radiobutton, checkbox, dropdown/combo.
Thanks. Will do (if I find how).
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