Adobe Captivate quiz using 'submit all' and a timer

[sameerk42449256]

I have seen some similar questions answered about having a timer inserted into an Adobe Captivate quiz which allows the user to have a limited time to perform the quiz, and when time runs out it forces them to the quiz results screen. The issue I am having is the combination of this timer and the 'Submit All' function which is a requirement for my quizzes, which does not allow the user to continue to the quiz results screen without having all questions answered (unless I am missing something), and therefore still allows the users to go back to unanswered questions and complete the quiz after the timer has run out. I want to be able to have the time limit run out, and force the end of the quiz, grading only the questions that were answered and getting zero points for unanswered questions while still using the 'Submit All' function so that users can go back and change answers if they still have time.

It seems to be a limitation of Captivate, as I am unable to see a way around this using a variable for the timer/hourglass widget and an advanced action which does not get blocked by the 'Submit All' function. I have also tried modifying the quiz preferences from "answer all" to any of the available options, such as "pass required", "required" and "optional" but none of these make a difference to this functionality.

Also on an unrelated note, I have seen this limitation before from some people but no real answer to solve it: when using the 'Submit All' function, has anyone figured out a good way to "FLAG" any unanswered questions, so that the user knows which questions they need to go back and answer before submitting all answers, without having to go back and check every single question? Preferrably there should be some way of using the table of contents to set a flag if the question has been answered or not on each quiz question, to make it easy for the user to navigate ony to the unanswered question.  Thanks in advance!

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

AFAIK you are indeed bumping onto Captivate limiations. When Submit All appeared, I was very enthusiast and have tried many scenarios (amongst them the Flag feature you suggested) but to no avail. Be sure, I don't easily give up. To be honest I never use the Submit All feature, because you need indeed to answer all questions, and a timer like you suggest will not work (have created lot of timers, changing in color with the elapsed time etc).   I am really sorry and bit frustrated about this feature.

The only workaround I can offer is to not use the default quiz slides, but create custom question slides using variables, scored objects and advanced/shared actions. It will need a lot more time, but you'll have full control. Drawback is that if you also want to allow Review, you'll have to create that situation as well. Nothing will be automatic except the population of the quizzing system variables.

[sameerk42449256]

First of all thank you Lilybiri for your quick reply.  I was afraid of this answer 🙂 I am trying to find some guides or tutorials about creating custom question slides like you mentioned, but maybe I am not searching properly, could you please point me in the right direction about how to go about this method? Even the quiz variables available in Captivate don't seem to be any help in this, so i assume the variables you are speaking of would be totally custom, right?

Also regarding the second question: creating flags that are set for questions that are not answered for users to be able to easily find which questions they have not yet answered in the TOC, any advice you can provide me on this or a workaround would be really appreciated! thanks again.

[Lilybiri]

I have written a lot of blogs about custom questions, most of them still have an embedded output file in SWF. Did write so many articles, freely available, that it is impossible to recreate all for HTML output. Here a couple of links:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/svgs-for-custom-hotspot-question

https://elearning.adobe.com/2018/09/custom-short-answer-scrolling-text/

As for quizzing system variables: not only the score of quiz slides are included but all scores of all scored objects. Each interactive object can have a score.  I planned to write out a blog about the Advanced Interaction panel, but still didn't do it. Have a look at:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/using-quizzing-system-variables

In this post you'll find a downloadable pdf with (almost) all the blogs I wrote about quizzes:

https://elearning.adobe.com/2019/11/quiz-resources/

[sameerk42449256]

Thanks! looks like I have some reading and practice to do.

[Lilybiri]

Only a couple of links...much more on my blog under the tag custom questions.