Elearning Tutorial:

Question Types

Overview of the Different Question Types in Opus Pro

In this section of the tutorial, we will quickly examine the way the other question types are used. In particular we'll look at how to check and score a text input question.

Multiple Response Questions

Multiple choice tests can often include questions to which several answers are required. Opus Pro refers to these as Multiple Response and they allow the user to make several choices before confirming their answer. For obvious reasons these questions always require a confirmation process, such as a Submit Answer button, so that Opus knows when the user has finished making their choices.

The scoring is done in the same way as Multiple Choice questions but more than one answer will have a score and be marked as correct. Note that when calculating the total score available for the quiz Opus will add all the scores in a Multiple Response question.

Drag and Drop

As you will realise from the following examples the answers to a question are set by the Set User Answer action and that means the answers can be set by any action available in Opus. Thus when using a drag and drop template you will find that the Dropped Object trigger is used to set correct or incorrect questions. Remember to use the Dropped Object Removed trigger to Reset User Answer so that Opus knows the answer has been changed. (When using the Push Objects Out option for drop zones the removed object will automatically generate a Dropped Object event and so will reset the answer.)

Picture Questions

The preceding techniques can also be used with images - simply apply the actions to image objects or create graphical buttons instead of text ones.

Text Input

Text Input is used in several different sets of questions provided with Opus including Fill Blank, Cloze Procedure, Long Answer and Diagram. The Text Input questions work slightly differently. In this instance an answer is not set by the user but instead the answer is provided as a piece of text. this means you must check the user's text against the text you want for the correct answer.

There are two aspects to using a text input question.

Firstly you need to tell Opus whether the text the user has typed in should be checked against any answer to the question or against a specific answer. You would use the former in cases where the answer is more freeform or you want to check a long piece of text for a number of different words. You might use the former for questions where the text is for a specific purpose such as a label for a diagram or the entry in a cloze procedure. You achieve this via the Text Input tab on the Properties for the Text Input object. In the place where you would normally set the variable for the text input to be stored in there is a drop down list allowing you to chose to compare the text with a specific answer or with any answer.

Note that if you do not see this drop down list box it is because the objects in not part of the Question frame. Simply drag the text object and insert into the Question frame and the drop down box should appear.

In the Question Properties for a Text Input Question you will note that there is an additional edit box at the bottom of the dialog. This enables you to set the text you want the answer to match. So if Answer 1 required the user to type in "music" and Answer 2 was the slightly better answer of "pop music" and we would also allow for "rock" on its own then you would proceed as follows:

1. Click on the Name column of the Answer 1 and type in whatever name you want for this answer. Again it is only a reference or aide memoir and not the answer itself
2. Set the score you want to award and set the answer to be correct.
3. Next click in the edit box at the bottom and type music.
4. Select Answer 2 and set the name and score as required.
5. This time in the Search for edit box you should type "pop music". Make sure you include the quotation marks so that Opus knows to match the entire phrase and not merely one or other of the words pop or music.
6. To ensure this answer also allows for rock as well you should then type or Note that this becomes capitalized and turns red to indicate that it is an operator and will not be search for itself. Then type rock. The screen should show something like this:
   
7. Click Apply to set you changes.

Like most search boxes you can use AND, OR and NOT in the Search for box, thereby allowing very sophisticated text checking.

Here is another example from the General Knowledge Quiz sample provided with Opus Pro.

Simulations and other Custom Questions

In addition to being able to trigger answers with any Opus Pro action we have also included support for the new Question object in Opus Script which means you can create sophisticated training simulations and still connect them to new scoring system.