M.S.W Spermon

In the November 2021 update, Articulate added three new built-in variables to Storyline 360. The Elapsed time variables. These variables give you lots of new possibilities for timed in Storyline 360. Elapsed Time Variables are built-in Storyline Variables. You can use them to track the elapsed time on a slide in a scene or throughout your whole course.

With Elapsed Time Variables you have all sorts of new possibilities to create timed interactions.

Articulate has recently added three new built-in variables to Storyline 360, elapsed time variables. Now these variables gives you lots of new possibilities for time interactions in Storyline 360. And in this video, I’ll show you where you can find the variables, how they work, and I’ll also show you three practical examples as inspiration to use elapsed time variables in your next course. So let’s get started. Now, let’s see where you can find the elapsed time variables in Storyline 360 and how you can add them to your project.

Where Can You Find Elapsed Time Variables

As mentioned in my intro, elapsed time variables are built in Storyline variables. So let’s open the my next project variables option, and you’ll see a new screen opens, and you’ll see now two tabs. Now on the project variable tabs, you will find all the variables that you created yourself in this project, in this case, none for now. And here on the second tab, we have all the building variables. Now it’s quite a list. So let’s use the search bar in top of the variable screen for what I’ll do. I’ll see El and you’ll see I have now the three elapsed time variables. There is a elapsed time variable for your whole project, for a particular scene, or for a particular slide. And now we know where we can find the elapsed time variables, let’s add them to our project.

How To Add Elapsed Time Variables In Storyline

Let’s close the variable window, and I have already created the slides with three text fields. And I want to add the elapsed time variables on the each text field. Now there are two options to do this in Articulate storyline. The first option is to create a text field and type the name of the variable with in percentage signs, but there is a second, and I think much easier method by adding a variable reference to your slide. So to add reference, the first thing is to add a new text box. So therefore I go to insert, create text box, and I draw a text box on my slide. The next step is to go to insert again, and go to reference. You see here, we have the managed project variables window, I type in EL and I’ll select my slide dot elapsed time variable and click on okay. Now Storyline has automatically added the reference to the slide elapsed time variable in the text box.

So I’ll make the font size a little bit smaller, so it fits on one line. And what I’ll do now is I’ll edit for the other two variables. For the first variable, I created the text field through the insert tab. What you also can do is press control T on your keyboard and Storyline adds a text field, and now you can go to insert reference. I type EL and select the scene elapsed time variable. And now I will also create an elapsed time variable for my whole course. So I added the last reference to the project, elapsed time variable and what I did. I copied this slide here in this scene and also created a new scene. So now let’s preview this course and see how the elapsed time variables work.

Preview Elapsed Time Variables

So now we’re preview mode and maybe you’ll see something you didn’t expect because instead of seconds adding up, you’ll see many numbers increasing really quickly, what Storyline does is it counts the time in milliseconds. So where a thousand milliseconds are one second. So this is something that you have to keep in mind when creating triggers. And if you want that something happens after for instance, five seconds, you have to fill in 5,000 milliseconds in your trigger. Now I added the link to a millisecond converter in the video description below to make it easier for you. Let’s jump to the next slide and see what happens.

So I’ll jump to my next slide and you’ll see the elapsed time variable for slides is set to zero and counts again. Now this is my last slide of the scene. So let’s click to the next scene. You’ll see now the elapsed time variable for the slides is set to zero and is adding up again. But also the elapsed time variable for the scene is set to zero and is adding up again. And the elapsed time variable for the course will run again. Now that you know how to add elapsed time variables and that Storyline tracks the elapsed time variables in milliseconds, I’ll show three examples of how elapsed time variables work in practice.

Example 1

So the first interaction that I want to show you where I used elapsed time variables is this interaction where you must guess which animal is hidden behind rectangles. Now I’ve created 19 rectangles. And let me show you which animal is hidden. Here, it’s an elephant. And the 19 rectangles appear mixed one by one. And so you can guess which animal you see. Rectangle six is the first rectangle that will be hidden and let’s check this trigger. So here trigger says change state of rectangle six to hidden. And when the variable changes, slide elapsed time, if slide elapsed time is larger than 2,500. So this means after two and a half seconds, the first rectangle, rectangle six will be hidden by Articulate Storyline. And after five seconds, this rectangle will be hidden, then this rectangle. And so and so on.

Now let’s check in the preview mode, how this works in practice. So we’re now in preview mode and you’ll see after two and a half seconds, our first rectangle disappears, then the second, the third one, the fourth one, and so on and so on. Now this is the first interaction that I want to show you. Now let’s go to my second interaction.

Example 2

So this is my second interaction that I want to show you. I have here a multiple choice question with a hint. So if a user doesn’t know the answer, he gets a hint after 10 seconds. Let me show you how I set up this interaction. So what I’ve done, I created a hint layer and I created two triggers and a custom variable. So I created the custom variable, a true, false variable reached 10 seconds, and I’ve used them in my triggers.

So let’s show the first trigger that says set the custom variable reached 10 seconds to true. And when should this happen? When the variable changes slide elapsed time and if slide elapsed time is greater than 10,000. So that means after 10 seconds, the reached 10 seconds variable is set to true. And now let me show you the second trigger. This will show the hint layer. Now the hint layer will be shown when a variable reached 10 seconds changes. And when does it change? It must change to true. So then the layer is shown. And this was my second example. Now let’s look at my third example.

Example 3

Now this is my third and last example. What I want to show you here is that you can also use the elapsed time variables for instance, for the project to complete a project after for instance, 10 seconds. So what I’ve already done here is I created a new variable that says reached 10 seconds. And I created a trigger that set says set reached 10 seconds to true. When the project elapsed time variable changes and if project elapsed time variable is greater than 60,000. So this means after 10 minutes, reached 10 minutes will be set to two.

Now, if we create a new trigger, we set complete course and not when start, but when variable changes and we use the 10 minutes. And here we say, when 10 minutes is set to true. So what we’ve done here with this trigger is that the Articulate Storyline will pass the course completed to your LMS when the variable reached 10 minutes, changes to the content of true.

Now, I hope the new video about elapsed time variables in Articulate Storyline was useful to you. If so, then feel free to hit the like button on this video. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and the bell notification icon so you won’t miss any of my upcoming videos. See you next time in my next video. Bye.

Want To Create An Escape Room In Storyline 360?
Watch my interview with Marloes Berkers about building an escape room game in Storyline 360.

I have the privilege of speaking to Karlis Sprogis, Karlis is the owner of FasterCourse.com.
FasterCourse sells e-learning templates that will save you lots of hours and will make your project look super professional.

In the conversation we talk about the benefits of working with e-learning templates, if every e-learning project is suited of templates and what the right moment is for you to decide when to use templates in your next e-learning project. Finally Karlis shares some great tips for starting instructional designers and e-learning developers.

In this video you’ll learn how to send custom xAPI statements from Storyline. So you’ll be able to track which videos learners watched, the amount of time they spent on a content item and much more in your next e-learning project.

In today’s video I’ll show you how the new xAPI reporting option works in Storyline 360 so you can send regular and custom xAPI statements from Storyline to a Learning Record Store in your next e-learning project.

In the November 30th 2021 release Articulate added the feature to send xAPi statements from your Course to an LRS. if you still don’t know exactly what xAPI is all about, I’ll explain it briefly.

xAPI is often described as the next evolution of SCORM

The major difference between SCORM and xAPI is what they track. Now SCORM has limited tracking options. It allows you to track whether a user completed an e-learning course, how long it took them to complete the entire course, whether they passed or failed the test in the course, and with what grade. With xAPI, the possibilities of what you can track are almost endless. You can track multiple scores and detailed test results but also track serious games or simulations

Let’s dive in Storyline to see how you can create these xAPI statements

I prepared a dummy course with three scenes in it. Let’s create our first simple statement. For instance on this slide that a user experienced this slide. Click on create a new trigger and in the trigger wizard by action under more you see send xAPI statement. Select this one. Now you can create the xAPI statement. First we choose a verb. Storyline has 16 predefined verbs. Let’s choose experienced. The next step is to select what a learner has experienced. This can be a slide, a particular object or you can fill in a custom text. I choose the slide here. So easy it is to create a standard xapi Statement in Storyline. Let’s crate another for a video.

I want to create a statement that reports that a learner has viewed the video. Therefore I’ll add a new trigger. By action I Select send XAPi statement. For the verb I choose viewed and the object is the video on the slide. By when I select when media completes. This means that Storyline will send a statement to a LRS when the learner has viewed the complete video.

We created two xAPI statements with predefined verbs, but Storyline gives you also the possibility to create custom statements. Now let’s create a custom statement that reports that a learner has completed a section in our course. I go to the last slide of this section and will add a trigger on the next button.

I select the button and I’ll add a new trigger. By action I choose send XAPi statement. By statement I choose ‘completed’ now there’s no option to select a scene. For convenience I will add the slide name and now I will edit the statement by clicking on the plus xAPI link. Now the xAPI Statement editor opens. The editor shows your xAPI statement in JSON format.

Now under object I don’t want the slide name but the scene name. Because there’s no Storyline variable that hold the scene name I will add the of the scene after en-US. So I type NameScene1. I also change the id. I replace slide id by scene Id. If you click on variables you can add built-in variables here. I choose the variable project.SceneNumber but you can also add your own variables. Now we created a custom xAPI statement.

You can click the xAPI dropdown to create your own statement with the options that appear. Under verb you can change the existing verb in another verb or type your own verb.

Under object you can add a new object property of select an existing property

With result you can add additional data to your xAPI statement for example how long a learners spend on your course but this one is optional.

And if you click reset Storyline changes the xAPI statement to its original state.

So this was a short overview of the new xAPI statement feature in Storyline 360. Thank you so much for watching. I hope the knowledge that I shared was useful to you.

In Articulate Storyline, you have the option that you can import questions from other storyline projects and Quizmaker files, or did you know that you can also import questions from Excel and text files? In this video, I’ll show you how you can import questions in Storyline with Excel or text files, and also what you need to consider if you want to start using this in your next e-learning projects.

How do you import questions into storyline?

Now, the first step is to create an Excel file or text file with the questions and that you can import in Articulate Storyline. I’ll begin with importing from Excel,

Create An Excel File With Questions

so let’s open an Excel file to see what the structure should be of a file. I’ve here already prepared an Excel file. You see here five rows and several columns, and the first row, this row, is the header row, and everything in your Excel that is after double slashes is considered as a comment by Articulate Storyline and won’t be imported. So this first row is purely for structuring the Excel file and isn’t imported in Articulate Storyline. Row 2, this is my first question, and this question and also the other three questions will be imported in Storyline.

Now let’s see what you have to fill in in the different columns for the row. So in column A here, you specify what question type it is. So here on row 2 it’s a multiple choice question. Row 3 is a matching drag-and-drop question. Row 4 is a multiple response question, and on row 5 is a pick-one survey question. Now, you can choose of 19 question types, and in the description of this video, I have a link with a table to all question types that are supported.

Now, you can import credit and survey questions. In column B, you must define the amount of points for a correct answer. Now, unfortunately you cannot specify points for an incorrect answer. So if you want to do this, something with points for incorrect answers, you have to do it manually in Storyline when you import the questions.

Now, here in column C, you see the question texts, and in the columns D until M, let me scroll here, are the choices. You can have up to 10 question choices in your Excel file. Now, on different cells on row 2 and also on row 4 and 5, you can see asterisk signs. With this sign, you can mark an answer as correct so Storyline knows that this is a correct answer. And after the answer option, and after the pipe sign, you see your feedback, so it just means you can have a specific feedback for each answer option. If you don’t want it and you want to use the normal feedback that is already in Articulate Storyline, you won’t put feedback in your Excel file and Storyline uses the normal feedback, their correct/incorrect feedback that is in the Storyline questions.

Now on row 3, here, we have a matching drag-and-drop question, and here the pipe sign is used to specify the choice and the match so Storyline knows what belongs to what. So we see here which countries and capitals belong to each other, so the Netherlands and Amsterdam, Germany and Berlin: these are the choice and the options that belong together. And you see here for the multiple response question that there are multiple answers correct, so here Antwerp and also Leuven, they are both correct on 5 as a survey question.

Create A Text File With Questions

So now let’s look at the structure of the text file, so I’ll click this away. I have here a text file prepared. What you see here is comments. So the same as in the Excel file: everything behind double slashes won’t be imported in Articulate Storyline, but our comments. And you see the question, everything has to be on a separate line. So the first is the format, the question type, then the points, the question, and then you have the different answer options. Put here the [inaudible 00:04:17] for correct, the answer option, and after the pipe sign, the feedback, for specific feedback.

And if you want another question in your text file, you can place it directly under the first question. So in this way, you can add it in the text file. Now, I prefer Excel files because it’s more structured and you have a better overview over the questions. Now let’s import the questions into Articulate Storyline.

Import questions from Excel In Storyline

So I created a new Articulate Storyline file, and you can import questions on different places. So the first place is if you go to File, Import, and click here on Question From File, but you can also go to Slides, Import and Import Questions, and let’s import my questions. So here is my Excel file. I click it and click on Open, and Articulate Storyline will read my file and this can take a while, and you see that it gives also feedback if my file is correct or incorrect.

Now, on line 5, I had a pick-one survey question, but it had a score and it was marked as correct, but a survey question cannot have a correct answer. So what I can do now is I can retry it, change my Excel file and try it again, or continue and Storyline will skip this question. So for now, I will click on Continue. Storyline sees the questions, and I click on Import, and now Storyline will import the slides.

Now, Storyline created a different scene, and you can’t import the questions directly in the question bank, so you have to import them first into a scene in Storyline, and from there you can copy or move them into a question bank. If you click import, what I’ve done, Storyline will import the questions, and the more questions there are in the file, the longer it takes for Storyline to load the questions in. I think that’s logical.

In this video, I’ll show you what scrolling panels are, and how you can use them to create scrollable content in your next Storyline project.

What is a scrolling panel in storyline 360?

The scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline is a feature that you can use to show extra content on your slide in Storyline. Now, the scrolling panel can scroll vertically. This way you can, for instance, place a large amount of text on your slide, and you see it with a scroll bar in your preview mode, or when you publish your course. Now, besides text, you can also add shapes, images, buttons, even web objects in your scrolling panel.

How do you make a scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline?

And now you know what a scrolling panel is, let me show you how you can add a scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline. To add a scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline, go to your Insert tab, and here on the right, you will find the scrolling panel option. Click the scrolling panel, and you can drop the scrolling panel on the slide. And if the scrolling panel is on slide, you can resize the scrolling panel by dragging it in the width and height that you need.

Add Objects to the Scrolling Panel

Now, let’s add some objects to our scrolling panel, and the first one is text box. So I’ll go to the Insert tab again, click Text Box, and draw a text box on my slide, and I will type #lorem and six between brackets, and I’ll show you what it does. So type #lorem, bracket, 6, bracket, and I’ll enter it. And Storyline now automatically adds six paragraphs of lorem ipsum text, so this is dummy text. Let’s change the font size a little bit, and it’s okay, and I’ll make it a little bit wider. And now let’s add this text box to our scrolling panel. So you see here on the timeline, I have a text box here and a scrolling panel. Now, I grab my text box, and I drag it onto my scrolling panel, and I’ll release it. And now you see, it’s in the scrolling panel, so it’s no more on the timeline, but if I click here on the triangle before the scrolling panel and I open it, you’ll see the scrolling panel here. And you’ll see here, my text box inside the scrolling panel.

Now let’s preview this slide to show how the scrolling panel looks like in your course. So I’ll go to Preview here, and I’ll preview this slide. So I now see the scrolling panel, the text inside, and you see here the scroll bar. So I scroll, so the whole text is visible. You see that now only the scroll bar is visible, so what you can do is format the scrolling panel, so let’s close our preview right now.

And what I will do, I’ll go to my Format tab and give the scrolling panel a shape fill, for instance, this one, and I can also give it a border, a black border, and I want it to have a weight of one. So let’s preview it again and see how it looks like. So you see now, our scrolling panel has the background and also a border. And you see here the scroll bar. So now you see that the scrolling panel is here and the white area is the rest of our slide. So let’s close our preview right now.

Remove objects from the Scrolling Panel

We’ve added an object to our scrolling panel, but how do we remove an object from our scrolling panel? You’ll select the object in scrolling panel that you want to remove from the scrolling panel, and if you want it outside your scrolling panel, you will grab the object and drag it outside the scrolling panel. And what you’ll now see is Storyline automatically removes it from the scrolling panel, and your object is now outside of the scrolling panel. If your object is inside the scrolling panel and you don’t need it anymore, you can also press, for instance, the Delete key on your keyboard, and the object is deleted off your slide.

Now I said earlier, you can resize the scrolling panel by dragging the width and the height, but you can also go to the Format tab, and here, with width and height, set correct numbers. For instance, I want the height of 500 pixels and a width of 425, so this is okay, and I want it to be centered on my slide vertically.

Now you’ve seen the basics, with one object in our scrolling panel in Storyline. Now let’s add more objects to the scrolling panel.

Insert Multiple objects to Scrolling Panels

I’ll now show you how you can insert multiple objects in a scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline. And the way I normally do this, what I will do is I’ll add two text objects and an image. So let’s start with the text objects. So I can go to the Insert tab, but I also can press Control key on my keyboard. I want some paragraphs of lorem ipsum text, so what I will do is type #lorem and two, and give them Enter, so there are now two paragraphs of text, and I’ll make it a little bit less wide, for instance, 400 pixels, that’s okay. And I can also get a little bit smaller font size, this, okay. This is my first scrolling panel.

Now, let’s add an image. So I’ll go to Insert, I’ll use the content library in Storyline, a nice image of a forest, for instance, forest. I think this is a nice image. So Storyline will now add it to my slide, so I will make it a little bit smaller. You can do this by dragging, but you can also do it on the Format tab here to adjust the width and the height. And what I’ll do now is I’ll copy this text box. So this will be my second text box, and I will place it under my image.

So I want to set the margin left on zero pixels so I can align them all to the left and vertically align them. What I’ll now do is I’ll press Control and G on the keyboard, so I’ll create a group, and I’ll direct the group inside the scrolling panel. And you’ll see here, now in the scrolling panel, here is my group, and here are the different objects. And it show how this looks like when I preview this slide. So you see here our scrolling panel with the text, the image, and the other text box. So what I normally do is I’ll create the content outside of the scrolling panel and then drag it inside the scrolling panel.

I’ll show you that it’s a little bit difficult to add another object, for instance. Let’s say we want to add a button beneath that second text box. So I’ll close my preview, go to Insert, add a button. I can type next into it. If I want to drag it, I cannot drag it here. You see it’s not on my text box, it’s inside my scrolling panel. But it’s a little bit difficult now to move it. I cannot see, because it’s now, we are outside of my scrolling panel. So let’s add it inside my scrolling panel. And what I can do now is I have to adjust the width or the height. So it’s on 483 now, 600. You see it’s now under my second text box. If I want to have it a little bit higher, I can do it with the arrow key on my keyboard or adjust the height here. So I think this is okay. And now, let me show you how it looks like if I preview it.

You see here is our scrolling panel. We have the first text box, the image, second text box, and here is the button. You see it’s a little bit more work to add something inside the scrolling panel when there are already objects, so my tip is to think about what objects you want in your scrolling panel, create them outside the scrolling panel, group them, and then drag it into the scrolling panel.

Use Scrolling Panels for Masking

You can use a scrolling panel in Articulate Storyline also for masking. I’ve used this, for instance, in my video about video backgrounds, on the icon and the text on this video background slide. And I’ve added a car to this video, so you can view this video. But now, let me show you how you can use masking in your next Storyline project.

Now for your second slide, with a text box called Title, and I’ll show you what I’ll mean with masking. Normally, if you add an animation, for instance, if I’ll add a fly-in animation for one and I’ll set it to from left, and now let’s preview our slide to see what it does. You see the animation flies in from the left, from the slide, but from the left. But for instance, I don’t want it. I have a line on the slide and I want the animation to appear from, as it look likes behind it, this line. So what I’ll do, I’ll draw a line on the slide, go here to insert shape, and add a line here. This is okay.

Now, if I preview it, the text box will still be flying in from the left of the slide. What I’ll do now, can do now, is I’ll create a scrolling panel. I’ll create a scrolling panel here. I’ll grab the title here on top of it, and now I’ll place the title inside my scrolling panel. So I drag it and place it inside of the scrolling panel. And I want it to be aligned a little bit like this.

Now, if we now look at the slide in our preview mode, let’s see how this looks. So you have the line, and you’ll see now it looks like the title is appearing from behind of this line. Now with this technique, you can create awesome, for instance, cover slides in your next Articulate Storyline course.

So now you know how scrolling panels work in Articulate Storyline. You can use it to add large amount of text on your slide, for instance, or use it with animations and the masking option to create cool slides in your next Storyline project.

Want to learn how to create effective and engaging e-learning courses quicker and with less errors? Then download my ebook now, where I review my personal eight-step process on how to create effective and engaging e-learning courses that I use for all my e-learning projects in Articulate Storyline for my clients.

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In today’s video I’ll show you how to set up a gradable Fill in the blank question with multiple blanks in Storyline 360.

You can use Fill in the blank questions in your next e-learning project to effective determine learner knowledge, as learners must know the information rather than choosing from a set of multiple choice answers or guessing “yes” or “no”.

Storyline has a standard graded fill in the blank interaction. A drawback of this interaction is that you can have only one blank that a user must fill in.

But with a workaround it’s possible to create a gradable Fill in the blank question with multiple blanks in Storyline.

Now, I’ve already created the basics of our fill-in-the-blanks interaction in articulate Storyline. So we don’t have to start from scratch. Now, what you see here is a title text with some white spaces, where the blanks become, a submit button, and in image on the right. Now, let’s insert the blanks. Therefore, I’ll go to insert here, click on input, and choose the text entry fields. And now, I can draw a text entry field on my screen. So this is okay. I remove the textiles in the text entry field, and I’ll do something on the color and the boarder. So therefore I’ll go to format, I’ll get it to white fill, and I’ll give it a grayish outline, but I want to have this outline dashed. So I’ll choose these dashes. And I think it has to be a width of two. Let me see the result. Yeah. This is okay.

Text entry

So what you see here at the right is that Storyline created the first text entry, and also created the variable that is called text entry. Now, I want to give the text entry some more descriptive variable name. So I click here on text entry, and click on new variable. Now, my variable window will open, and I’ll just FIB, as in fill-in-the-blank, one. So I’ll know this is the fill-in-the-blank one variable. And now, what we’ll do is I’ll copy this fill-in, and paste it on the other places. Here, there must be a fill-in-the-blank, and here, the third fill-in-the-blank. It must be a little bit smaller. And now, I’ll rename the other variables. So therefore, I’ll choose new variable again, make this FIB two, click on okay, and the third one will be FIB three.

So what we have now is a slide, with three fill-in-the-blanks, and a submit button, but our interaction doesn’t work right now. So this is the next step to make it work, and also make it gradable. And therefore, we will make it a freeform question. And it will be a freeform, a pick one question. And I’ll explain later on why I do this.

So to create a freeform question, go to insert, and click here on convert to freeform. Now, you can choose what for freeform slide you want. I want to pick one question, and I’ll click on okay. And Storyline now converts this slide to a gradable freeform, pick one question. You see, there is now a form view and a slide view, and what I will do now, I’ll add two buttons that I’ll place outside of my slide.

So go here to button, and this button, I’ll call, correct, and there is also a button, wrong. And these buttons will be the buttons for my pick one question. So I’ll go to form view, I’ll choose here the correct button, and I’ll state this to correct, and also the wrong button, and this will be wrong. And now, we can create some triggers to ensure that the question will work. The first trigger that I’ll create is on the submit button, and this will be submit, pick one. So if I click on the submit button, I’ll submit the pick one, and you see the correct or the incorrect feedback. So I’ll choose here for triggers to submit interaction pick one, when user clicks on button one, and this is button one. So this is okay. But the pick one interaction does not do something. So we’re going to make it work.

True-false variable

And for each of the text entry fields, I’ll create a true-false variable that will be set to true if the answer that is filled in is correct, and if all the true-false variables are true, I will set the correct button to select it, so then the pick one question is okay, and then we can submit it. So what I’ll first will do is create the three true or false variables. So I’ll go here to my variable window, and I’ll click on the green plus sign, choose true-false, FIB1_correct, and the default value is false. Now, I can now copy this and paste it, and change the name. So this is logical FIB2_correct is false. And I’ll also create the third one is FIB3_correct to false. And now we can create some more triggers.

So here, the sentence will be the Suntrust tower. So what I’ll do is create a trigger that says adjust variable, and the variable that we’ll want to adjust is FIB_correct to true, when the user clicks button one, if the condition is that FIB1, so this is the variable of text entry field, is equal to tower, and we can make it also case sensitive. We add another condition, and we fill in tower with a capital T, and we set the end to or. So FIB1_correct will be set to true when FIB1 is tower with a normal T, or FIB1 is correct if tower is written with a capital T. And this trigger has to come before the submit button.

And now, we have to create also the trigger for the second and the third text entry fields. So I can copy this one and paste it. And let’s make it FIB2 correct, when FIB2 is equal to, this will be tallest or largest. So tallest. And FIB, or you can also fit in largest. This is also okay. Largest. And we have to now create the trigger for the third variable, the third text entry fields. So FIB3_correct is equal to two, when FIB three is, and here, the answer is Florida. So Florida what a capital F, and also to be sure, with a minor F. So this is okay.

So we have now set the three true-false variables to true. And what we’re now going to do is set a new trigger that says change the state of our correct button. Where is it? Here, to select it if the user clicks button one, because that is our submit button. If FIB1_correct is equal to true, and FIB2_correct is equal to true, and FIB3_correct is also equal to true. So now, and this button has to become before the submit pick one.

Now, we also create a trigger to set the wrong button, to select it. So I can copy this trigger and paste it, click button one, and it has to come before the pick one interaction, because Storyline automatically executes the triggers in the order that they are here in your trigger panel, from top to bottom. So three, select it, when FIB1 is not equal to, or FIB2 is or not equal to, or FIB3 is not equal to. Now, let’s preview this interaction and see if it works.

So now, I’m in preview mode. So let’s fill in the answers. So the first answer was tower. The second answer was tallest or largest. So I did type in largest. And this was Florida. And now I’ll press submit, and you see, it is correct. My fill-in-the-blank interaction with multiple blanks is correct. And it’s also gradable, because on the backend, it’s a pick one question. So you can also use it in a quiz right now.

Make your form more appealing

Now, to make it even more appealing, you can also add some feedback options for instance, to see if this is correct or wrong. So I’ll show you this for one subject. So I’ll go close my preview. And what I’ll do now is I’ll add a line underneath this box. So I’ll go to insert, shape, and pick a line. And if I press my shift key, I’ll draw a straight line, and I want the line to be two-pixels thick. And we are going to add some states to the line. So I’ll go to edit states, copy the line, and add a new state that says correct, and also a state for wrong.

And now, I’m going to change the colors. So for the wrong state, it’s logical, let’s select the line that this will be red. So I’ll go to format, shape outline, and I’ll choose red here, and for the correct option, and that’s logical, it will be green. So I’ll choose the green right now. And we don’t want to see the normal state. So what we’ll do, the initial states will be hidden. And now, I can, for instance, go to correct layer, and add feedback, or add a trigger, trigger, change state of, and here, you can also change states of objects that are on my base layer. So line1 to correct, and I can choose here when time it starts, when time I start on this layer, if FIB1_correct is equal to two, and I can also create a trigger for when it’s false.

So when it’s false, we set it to the state wrong, and this has to be false. Now, let’s preview it again, and see if this works. So I’m in the preview again. So let’s fill in the first answer, the second answer, largest, and this was Florida. And now I’ll hit submit, and see that there is now a line under my textbox. So in this way, you can create a fill-in-the-blank with multiple blanks, that is also gradable, and you can use it in quizzes in your articulate Storyline project.

In this video I’ll show you how you can set up a timed quiz in Storyline 360.

Are you using time or timers in your e-learning project?

Because time [is 00:00:23] to create a sense of urgency or force quick decisions. But how do you create a timed quiz in Articulate Storyline? In this video I will show you. And you’ll see I already did some preparations. I created a quiz here with slide from the Articulate Storyline content library. You see here a welcome slide, three different question slides, and last slide is a quiz results slide. Let’s go to the design tab of the quiz results slides. And you’ll see here that you have the option for a timed quiz. Now, if you un-select it, it’s now not blue anymore and you’ll see that the options are gray. If you select it you’ll see that the options are editable. For instance, first the time. You can [here 00:01:09] set a time limit. Normally it’s set to 60 minutes, but this is a short quiz. I will set it to 5 minutes. I think that this is enough for three questions. And then you have some timer options. You can decide when to start a timer, for instance with the first question or with the first slide, and you can also set how you want to display. For instance, you don’t want to show time and then you only get a message if the time ends. And now I’ve set it to remaining.

Preview

And now let me show you how this works if you preview this in Articulate Storyline preview. Now I’m in the preview mode of this course. Let’s collapse the menu. First slide, and you’ll see there is no timing in the player. Let’s continued to the first question, and you’ll see Articulate Storyline now automatically is timing here. I can now for instance, add the questions. I have to complete this one, submit, correct, and I’ll go to the third question, correct. And now I have another option, submit. And now I’m on my quiz results slides and you’ll see the time is stopped. I have for 4 minutes and 35 seconds left. I have a passing score of 80%. My score was 100%. And this was because I can do the third question another time.

Time options

Now let’s go back to the edit mode and see for the other time options. Now the timer option was remaining, but we can also set it elapsed from total. And now if you go to the preview mode again, we’re in the preview mode of this course again and [inaudible 00:03:02] no time, so I’ll go to the first question slide and you’ll see here now that the timing appears different. You’ll see here I have five minutes in total and this is [suspend 00:03:13] time and it adds up. With the previous example, it subtracts from the total time.

Now let’s go to the last example. I’ll go back to edit modes. And here you have also elapsed. If I select this one and preview my course, now we’re in storyline preview mode again. I’ll click to go to the first question slide, and you see here now it’s only the elapsed time, but I think a drawback is that you don’t see the time remaining. You don’t know how much time you have. You can set it on the first slide with some explanation about the quiz, but I think it’s also logical to set it here in the player.

Let’s go back to the preview mode. For me if I should choose one time, it should remaining because it counts down or elapsed out of total so you see how many time you have in total and how many time you spent on the quiz and not only elapsed.

Now before you’re [add 00:04:21] time in your next evening project, be aware that time pressure doesn’t work for everyone. For instance, it can limit the accessibility of your course and other people just get nervous as soon as they find out that their actions are timed, and that doesn’t benefit learning at all. So, think carefully if time at something to your course or not, but you now know how you can simply add time to a quiz in Articulate Storyline.

Did you know that people forget, on average, 70% of what they learned within 24 hours? Shocking, isn’t it? Adding quizzes in your e-learning project can help people remember more of what they learned. And to build effective quizzes in Articulate Storyline, by the end of this video, you know exactly how to set up a quiz where a user can see his score on every slide of the quiz in Articulate Storyline. Are you ready? Then let’s get started.

A Storyline Quiz With A Result Slide

Now, to create a quiz where a user sees his current score on every slide, you could build a solution with variables in Storyline. But there’s a faster way with the score variables that belongs to a result slide. Now, I have a brand new Storyline project here, and let’s check the variables very quickly. I’ll go to variables here. Now you’ll see there aren’t any project variables, and with built-in, you don’t see any score variables at this moment. Let’s close this.

Now to show the result slide variables, I will set up a quiz with one question for now and a results slide. So let me double click this to go to the slide view.

Add Quiz And Result Slide

Now, what I could do is I could go to slides, pick a graded question and results slide question, but I want also something let’s choose a quiz slide and results slide from the content library. So I’ll click the content library here. And now if you select quizzing, you only see quiz templates. So I want the synergy templates to use for this project today, so I’ll select the multiple choice. I hope my control key and I also select the question results slide. So I have now two slides selected, and I click on insert two slides. Now do some tidying up very quickly. So let’s remove the first blank slide. Yes, I want that. And now we can continue.

Result Slide Variables

Now let’s check the variables again. So I’ll go to variables, and under built-in variables, you’ll see now, if I scroll down, that there are four result variables, two path variables, and two score variables, and we are going to use the score variables, and that is the score points variable.

Add A Result Slide Variable To All Quiz Slides

Because this variable is not only active on the results slide, but you can also use this variable on all slides of your quiz. So what I’ll do, I’ll click on, okay here, and I’ll go to my question slide. I’m already there. So what I’ll do is I’ll add a text box, so you can go to enter textbooks or press control T on your keyboard. So what I’ll so is I’ll type score, and now I’ll go to insert, reference. I’m on the built-in variable step, I scroll down, and choose results score points, and click on okay. And now Storyline as a reference to the variable.

Set Points Per Question

But I can imagine that you ask yourself, “But how does the variable get filtered during a quiz?” That’s a good question. And therefore, let’s go to form view here, and here down under feedback and brunching, behind the correct answer you see that a correct answer gets 10 points, and zero answer for incorrect points. And these points are the points that that a user will see.

So what we’re going to do now is let’s return to slide view for that, copy this slide. So I’ll have now two slides and quiz results slides, and now what we can do is check our results slides because here there are using the percent score. And let’s delete this score here, and I’ll go to insert, and to reference again, and here I fill in the score points, and let’s remove this one, and here I can remove this one, and go to insert, reference, and here I’ll add the pass points. So [inaudible 00:04:00] points.

And what we can do now is preview this quiz and see how it works. So I’m now in the preview mode for Articulate Storyline, and you’ll see here that my quiz score is zero. So let’s answer this quiz correctly, submit, and you’ll see that I’ll score 10 points. Now I’m on my second quiz slide so answered the second quiz slide correctly, and you’ll see that I’ve now deserved 20 points, and I had a passing score of 16 points.

Set Points Per Answer Option

Now, let’s close this preview and go back to our quiz question because I want to show you something else. So let’s go to the first question, and I’ll go back to form view here because you don’t have to give each answer 10 points, you can give a correct answer points ranging from one, that you can see here if I click to 1,000, add the zeros, so to 1,000 points. And for an incorrect answer, you don’t have to give zero points, it’s also possible to subtract points from the users score. So you can, for instance, use minus one, or to minus 1,000.

Now, and in this example, the user only gets points for a correct or an incorrect answer, but maybe you want to give points per answer option, and this is also possible in Storyline. So to do this, at the top here by score, we set this [inaudible 00:05:28] by question by score. And you see now that Storyline changes the points from here to here, and at every choice has it’s own points. So what you can do for instance here, give this option 10 points, this answer option five points, this answer option, I want to give it minus five, and let’s give this answer option also minus five points.

Preview The Quiz

Now let’s preview our mini quiz again. So I’ll go to preview, preview the scene. Let’s answer the first answer incorrectly. So I have now minus five points, and I can do it again. I don’t want it, so let’s do it, continue. And now I’m on the second slide, so I’ll give the question the correct answer, and you continue. So I’ve scored now five points, first minus five, and then 10 points makes it five points, I didn’t completed the quiz because I needed a passing score of 16 points. So this way, with the variables for the results slides, you can build a quiz where the user sees his current quiz score on every slide of the quiz.

I’m transforming my Articulate Storyline classroom training, and also my YouTube tutorials to a laser-focused online course on how to create engaging e-learning training with Articulate Storyline. Now are interested, you can join my waiting list, and you will the first one to know when my online course will launch. You can find the link to the waiting list in the description of this video below.

And if you want to create great engaging e-learning in Articulate Storyline, make sure that you get my free step by step guide on how I create e-learning in Articulate Storyline. And I know for sure that will help you because it describes my whole process that I use for every e-learning module in Articulate Storyline that I build. And was this video useful to you, then hit the like button below, and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button, and the bell notification icon so you won’t miss any of my upcoming videos.

In this video, I’ll show you two solutions to remove the decimal digits in a quiz score on the quiz results slide in Articulate Storyline 360.

When I delivered a client project last week, I got feedback where I was asked if it was possible to not show the decimal points in the quiz score in my delivered Storyline module. Now, in this video, I’ll show you two solutions to do this. One solutions is with triggers in Articulate Storyline and another solution is with a little bit of JavaScript edit in storyline.

The problem: Decimal digits

But, first, let’s take a look at the problem. Now, I have here a quiz with six question slides and results slide. Now, let’s preview this quiz, so I’ll click “Preview This scene” and now Articulate Storyline will preview my quiz. So, I’ll click on next and the first answer is right, so the first three questions I will answer correctly, and the four answers I will answer incorrectly. So, I have two correct answers and four incorrect answers. And if I click “Submit”, we will jump to the quiz results slide and see what happens.

So, you see that my score is now 33.33%, and my client wanted to show only 33%. Now, on the E-Learning Heroes forums, you can find a lot of old solutions that worked in Storyline 3, but not in Storyline 3 and 360 because Articulate changed the handling of decimal numbers. But I want to show you two solutions that will solve this issue. Now the first solution is a solution with triggers in Articulate Storyline. And the second solution is to add a few lines of JavaScript into Storyline. Now let’s go to the first solution. So, let’s close the Storyline preview, and I will go to my results slide. But before I’ll show you the first solution, I want to mention that this great solution is provided by Mitch Hayashi on the E-Learning Heroes forums almost two years ago, and you can find the link to the form thread in the description below this video.

A solution with triggers in Storyline

Now, what is the solution? Now the first step is to create a variable called “floorscore” in Storyline. So I’ll go to my variables panel here and I’ll click the green plus sign and type the name floorscore. And it will be a number variable and a default value is zero and I click “OK”. And I click on “OK” now, now the floor in the variable name refers to the JavaScript function, math.floor, where it rounds down number with decimal places to the largest integer. And that is what we are going to do with Java Storyline triggers. I’ll add a trigger now that sets the variable floorscore to a 100 when the timeline starts on the “Results” slide. So I’ll create a new trigger that says “Adjust variable”, adjust variable floorscore. That sets floorscore to 100 when the timeline starts on this slide.

So on the next step is to create another trigger where we subtract one from the floorscore variable, when this variable changes, just as long as the variable floorscore is greater than the default Articulate Storyline score. So let’s create this variable. So what we’ll do is adjust the variable floorscore. So the floorscore variable, and what we will do now is we’ll subtract one from floor score. When the timeline starts on this slide, where when the variable changes, Oh, let me see where it is. Here are “Variable changes”, and it will be floorscore. And we also create a condition. So the condition will be if our floorscore variable is greater than, and this won’t be a value but a variable. And let’s see where it is. A “Results.ScorePercent” we all going to use and take up.

Now, if our Storyline score is a 33.33%, what we saw in the example, Storyline subtracts one from floorscore until it reaches 33 and then floorscore is not greater anymore than the Storyline quiz variable. And the trigger will not be executed again. So what we can do now is that on the results slide, we can change the reference to a preferable result.score percent into floorscore. Now I will change this reference so we can see what it does. So I’ll add floorscore here and now let’s preview the module and answer the questions again. So I’m in the Storyline preview again. So let’s answer the first two questions correctly, and the other four answers incorrectly and six, and I’ll submit and jump to the results slide and what you see here. This is the standard Storyline quiz score that shows 33.33%.

And here at passing score, we changed it to the floorscore and our floorscore shows 33%. So this was the first solution in Articulate Storyline triggers. And I’ll now show you the second solution with a little bit of JavaScript codes.

Solution with Javascript in Storyline

Now and in the second solution, we’ll add some Javascript, but first for the second solution, we need two variables. So let’s go to our variables. We do, and you need the variables, nonrounded score and rounded score. So I already created them here, but you can create them here and then we’ll create a trigger. So I’ll create a trigger and not execute JavaScript, but adjust variable that says the nonrounded score will set it equal to the variable score percent. So let’s see where it is, it’s result.score percent. When the time I start on this slide and I will add it above the actions that will show the success and failure layer.

And the next step is to add a trigger that execute JavaScript. So let’s see where it is, execute JavaScript. Now it’s red so it means there is no Javascript included right now. So if you click it, the JavaScript window will open. Now I can add my lines of JavaScript. So I’ll copy them here and I can explain what they are doing. So the first line of JavaScript will rep all the Storyline variables and combine them to JavaScript. So you can communicate. The second line gets the value of the Storyline variable nonrounded score and sets it to the JavaScript variable rounded num value, for num value we’ll do a mass truncate. And that means that we’ll lose all the numbers after a coma or digit, and we’ll save it in the JavaScript variable here as “RoundedNum”. Now the Javascript here has rounded num”. The failure therefore will put it in the rounded score or firewall, so let’s click on “OK”. And “OK” here. And here, you see “RoundedScore”.

So now we can test our solution if it works now, because we all use JavaScript, we can’t use the preview function in Articulate Storyline, but we have to do it in the HTML output. So let’s open HTML output now. So I have here now, my Articulate storyline HTML output. So what we’ll do is I’ll answer the first two answers correctly, or questions correctly, and the third, fourth and fifth and sixth incorrectly. And now I’ll go to my “Results” slide. And you see here, this is the standard Storyline variable score with 33.33%. And this is the rounded num variables, a score. And you’ll see it’s 33%. So in this video, I’ll give you two solutions to lose the .33 in the result slide score.

You can do triggers in Articulate Storyline, or you can also do it with a four lines of JavaScript.