Advanced Actions Help

[Sammykins777]

Created a custom single choice quiz so that correct and incorrect feedback would pop up on individual slides.

This was suggested as a work around for captivate's quiz accessibility issue (the feedback is not read when a screen reader is on)

The set up I'm going for is depending on the correct or incorrect choice, the corresponding slide shows. I also wanted the user selected choice to be visible behind the feedback graphic. I've attempted this several times and the user's choice does not show when entering the correct or incorrect slide.-. I was hoping to make these shared actions.

What's the best way to do this?

Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

Can you tell which version you are using? Complete number please, as shows up under Help, About Captivate.

How did you set up the 'selected' choice on the feedback slides? Can you show screenshots of the advanced actions? You have first to get them to work, before trying to convert to shared actions (which makes sense of course, I am a shared actions fan)

[Sammykins777]

The version we have is 9.0.2.437

Attached are my images.

One for individual choice, one for submit button, one for feedback slide entry. I have individual variables for each choice. SCChoice1, SCChoice2, etc.

The first two actions work, the on entry action does not work. Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

Please, is it possible to give a complete Preview of the conditional action? Use the Preview button, which is the first button on the top right control bar in the Advanced Actions dialog box. In your version it only is available for a conditional action, not for standard actions. It looks like a play arrow.

Also want to see the timelines, because I have no idea what the labels are pointing at.

[Sammykins777]

Sorry Lilybiri,

I'm attaching those photos now.  I seem to have a problem with the incorrect feedback advanced action to work on enter. I won't show a  selected user choice.

Regular Question Timeline

Submit Button Advanced Action

Correct Feedback Timeline

Correct Feedback Advanced Action

Incorrect Feedback Advanced Action

Incorrect Feedback Timeline

[Lilybiri]

It is not totally clear yet. However I have a memory about a use case I created many years ago (think for CP5) where I displayed chosen answers in a different way. Since you use custom radio buttons, if you have the two feedback slides after that question slide, why not time those radiobuttons (and the answers) for the rest of the project so that they appear automatically on the Correct and Incorrect feedback slides? If you group them, it will be very easy to hide them on the slide following the feedback slides. Totally different from your approach, but would avoid a lot of hassle.  

[Sammykins777]

I will try that. I figured I was probably doing it the hard way. Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

Overthinking, happens so much. I always try to find an easier way by getting out of the first workflow and starting from scratch.

[Sammykins777]

Hey Lilybiri,

Do you have any suggestions on where I could get how to properly use advanced actions from scratch. I am really struggling trying to get my custom quiz to work.

The main feedback from our 508 compliance office is that the feedback in the regular captivate quiz isn't read by the screen reader... and they're now less likely to let us just use a pdf as a substitute.

Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

I don't know what you really want? I have been creating and blogging about advanced/shared actions since about 10 years, when they first appeared with Cpativate 4. You can find lot of use cases on my blog. Alternative is to have a training ot  to contact a consultant.

[Sammykins777]

For example, my questions worked when I previewed each question event one at a time as I was building it. When I went to preview all of my question together in one project, nothing worked for me. It was not showing the selected answer nor going to the right slide based on my actions.

I was going to try just creating an advanced action for each quiz question and feedback because my shared actions don't seem to work properly.

[Lilybiri]

Very difficult to solve that by just asking questions in a forum. 

[Sammykins777]

Okay,

I will keep plugging away! Thanks as always for your time.

[dan561]

Shared actions can give unexpected results if multiple variables are declared with the same value when creating the action (e.g. the value 1 is assigned to several variables). If your questions work with separate advanced actions but NOT with shared actions, I think this might be your issue.

You can try recreating the shared actions and making sure that, before saving as a shared action, the values you give for different variables are all different. Make sure you set all of the variables as parameters that must be filled in when assigning the shared action to a button. This will result in more click-work each time you assign a shared action to buttons, but it might solve your problem. If you still get errors, just stay with lots of advanced actions. It's less efficient for the system, but at least they'll work!

[Lilybiri]

What you claim about literals is only a problem if that literal is defined as a parameter in the shared action.  Not if it is left as a fixed value. Literals and variables do not have to become parameters as is the case for other items like objects, slides, states....

The workaround, which I also mention in my blogs and weinars about shared actions, to have different values for lterals which have to be defined as parameters, is not always foolproof. It needs a lot of testing. Often I had to replace the literal by a variable to have it functional in all circumstances.

I have been following up this thread since the start, the OP has not used a shared action yet....

[Sammykins777]

I think you both touched on my main problem. I was using the same variable on different slides thinking that I could reuse them. So I had planned on changing the literal value depending on the circumstance. If that makes sense. I'm sticking to advanced actions for now.

[Lilybiri]

I often re-use variables myself in courses, which is a good practice.  Much better than having tons of variables as I often see during consultancy jobs. Once I cut down 600 variables to about 50 in a course, and used a lot of shared actions. That doesn't mean that you cannot use shared actions, it is just about being careful with defining literals as parameters. 

[dan561]

You can re-use variables - just remember to reset to a default value on enter of a slide when necessary. For example, if there is a maximum number of user tries for something and a variable tracks the number of clicks (or other user actions), it would most likely have to be reset to zero on enter of a new exercise.

[Sammykins777]

Okay, I will try that. Was trying to get the most efficient workflow.