multi-language quiz

Report · Oct 01, 2015

I have been reading lots of threads and I just know there are bits of this that have been posted,blogged or otherwise referenced many times, but it seems that the piece I am stuck on isn't very clear.

I have a series of courses we are wanting to alter so that the user could select either English or French.

I know that we can export the captions/tex to a document and then add the French translation and then re-import it in to create French version. I've done that, and it works pretty well.

This, of course, results in two different modules, each of them being in their own language, which is very cool.

I also know that we can add all of the content for both languages on each slide and use actions to show/hide the captions on each slide based upon the language that has been selected.

( I added an ENGLISH and a FRENCH choice on slide one, made the variable = to 1 to select the language and then used a conditional action to hide/show the proper content on each slide)

That is no problem either, the problem comes to when we get to the quiz. The system generated quiz slide don't seem to have this same option. So I cannot control whether the questions appear in English or French based upon the value of my original choice (ENGLISH or FRENCH).

IS there a way to check the language that has been selected and display the quiz questions accordingly?

I tested a method by combining the English version and then adding the French version in the same module and sending the user down the appropriate language path based on the initial language choice. It works great that way as well, except that when you hit the quiz, it seems to fall apart. It will send me to the proper version, and take me to the proper language quiz section, but I will fail the quiz every time because the system recognizes 12 questions, not 6, so even if I get all 6 correct in either language, i will only score a 50%.

The other thing I thought of would be to combine my course versions as described above, and simply create my quiz manually by making custom question slides, but I am having trouble getting that to function.

I am throwing this out there in the hopes that someone has attempted to build something similar and perhaps can point me in the right direction.

As always, I appreciate the time to read this! Would love to get some insight on this if you have any!

Thanks again

jon

Report · Oct 01, 2015

Hi Jon

You may find this article from Lieve useful

http://blog.lilybiri.com/branch-aware-quiz

Donal.

Report · Oct 03, 2015

That would have been my suggestion as well, to use Branch aware. In my blog post you'll see the limitations (navigation) but it works well as far as limiting the score and other system variables to those questions that have been taken by the user.

Report · Oct 16, 2015

OK..so I wanted to revisit this when I felt I could end this thread properly.

I have read all the stuff that Lily et al have sent and i want to say THANKS for all for chiming in on this. For me, the issue has always been one of trying to make the solution as elegant as possible so that I can continue to reuse the actions/template moving forward. I took my time digging in and it paid off.

for others who were as stuck as I was, I offer this brief recap of who I ended up getting it to work.

A) I had the original module in English, I exported the .doc and then re-created the course in French.

B) I set up two slide groups. One For English and One for French

C) I replicated the quiz questions for each language choice.

D) As lily or Poojah suggested in previous post (somewhere) I simply added two buttons on slide 1. I assigned variables of English and French and set them to Zero.

E) I created an action that set the selected language to 1, and then let it take me to the appropriate language set

F) As lily and Rod (I think) stated earlier, I made sure Branch Aware was selected in quiz settings. (this allowed for my two groups of 6 questions while counting only the 6 that are answered)

G) The last Question slide on each language path jumps to the system generated "summary page"

H) I have success and failure messages set up in both languages on that page beneath the system scoring recap (total questions, # of questions, percentage etc..)

I) When we land on that summary page, it checks the value of English and French. The action reports if you pass and what language you selected on slide 1 and displays the pass/fail message for that language.

works like a charm. The ONLY thing I cannot figure out how to do...and I don't know that its possible...is to have these items in both languages: {score}, {max-score},{correct-questions}, {total-questions}, {percent}

initially I thought I could do it by simple duplicating those items on the slide and hiding them until they were triggered by the pass/fail action that considers the language preference, but since they are system generated pieces, I don't think I can do that.

This multi-language project has been in the works for the last 6 months as we have been trying to get the Canadian team to get moving on it. I am thankful that I had the time to ask the questions and get the feedback that I did from you guys. It's been a little challenging, but it has been an excellent exercise for me. Actions are the toughest part of this whole process, so I was glad to have to sit down, read a bit and think it out.

I know all of these things were covered in perhaps many threads, but I wanted to post my 2 cents in one spot, this way, if someone who was as lost as I was needs a road-map, they have it right here.

It can be done!!

Thanks to all who helped make it clear!!

You helped make me look like a rockstar! I'd share the glory with you, but I don't want anyone to know that I am not the smartest "Captivater" that ever lived lol

Thanks again

- jon

Report · Oct 16, 2015

You can create a custom score slide, or even edit the labels in the default score slide. What you mention, are the fields that will be populated by the system variables (between {}), those are numbers and do not need translation. You can find stuff like that in my blog. as well: Intermediate Score Slides - Captivate blog explains how to set up a custom score slide.

Report · Oct 16, 2015

Well done!

One day I would hope that we had the option in Captivate to use User Variables in every place where languages needed to change and then dynamically swap the User Variables over as needed. But unfortunately we are not there yet.

Report · Nov 27, 2015

well...after 9 versions, you would think we'd be a bit closer to that, no?

Report · Nov 27, 2015

Most enhancements in software apps like Captivate are driven by marketing.

You only get enhancements that are likely to be VERY popular with purchasers of the software (or their managers).

Unfortunately, as much as you or I might WANT a particular enhancement, if the number crunchers don't believe there will be enough of a boost in sales from spending the development budget in that area, then it just doesn't happen.

The vast majority of Captivate's sales are in North America and other English-speaking countries Now why do YOU think a lot of money never gets spent on features that would assist localisation into other languages?

Report · Nov 29, 2015

I'm sure you are correct, but I suppose it just seems to me that if you are going to market a product as an industry leader, it should actually lead the industry...like...the whole thing..not just the easy shit

But Im just being pissy...you make a good point.

Report · Nov 29, 2015

I tend to agree with you. But as I indicated in my answer, when the purse strings of the development budget are being held by the spin doctors and the bean counters, decisions don't always come out the way we would like.

Selling an 'industry-leading' anything in today's market is like waging war with your competitors. And as someone once said: "In war, truth is the first casualty."