Take your eLearning quizzes to the next level

How to combine built-in Storyline functionality with custom elements for a better eLearning testing experience.

This week, one of our graphic designers/course developers will take us through her process of building engaging eLearning quizzes from standard Storyline templates.

In the eLearning world, we have all taken our share of boring quizzes: those in which the design of each question looks the same, with the standard radio buttons, checkboxes, and feedback screens. These kinds of text-only quizzes do not provide the learner with any visual cues from the course, and they certainly do not make the testing experience memorable or fun.

While Storyline does have some great pre-programmed templates that make it easy to build out different kinds of quiz questions, we like to treat these templates as building blocks only. As a rule of thumb, we strive to incorporate course imagery into our quizzes as well. The repetition of imagery associated with a concept will not only trigger the learner’s memory during the quiz but will increase retention.

Say we have a course about the color wheel as it relates to hair dying. With this example in mind, let’s explore a few standard question types. Storyline’s built-in templates can take assessments to the next level with some simple customization.

Pick Many

The “Pick Many” question allows the learner to choose more than one correct answer. In the example below, the learner is instructed to click on all the tertiary colors. Using the built-in functionality of Storyline, we’ve replaced the checkbox answer options with images used previously in the course. Clicking on flashcard-like images is certainly more engaging than checking a box!

Matching

In this question, the learner is instructed to match each color with its complementary color. As you can see, the standard Storyline matching question provides you with gray interlocking rectangles. To customize this question, we’ve replaced the rectangles with half-circle images of the colors themselves. This way, the learner can match one complementary color to another and see how the colors look when paired together.

Feedback

Feedback slides are where we like to have some fun. Imagine the learner is asked what color hair dye a certain customer needs. In the feedback below, we’ve used the built-in feedback functionality but added a funny image to show what might happen if the learner gave a customer the wrong hair dye. Not only is this a fun surprise, but it also helps learners to see the impact their answer choices could have if applied in the real world.

Additional items

Of course, there are so many other elements to add to quizzes to make them more engaging and memorable. We’ll list some of our favorite easy additions below.

• Timers: We like to use a rectangle that fills up from left to right at the bottom of a slide, with the animation and timeline set to the allotted question time. When the timeline ends, we trigger a layer with the words “Time’s up!” to make the quiz more game-like and engaging.
• Sound effects: On feedback slides, we enjoy adding a little “ding” sound effect for correct answers, and a “wah-wah” effect for incorrect answers. It’s incredible how much this simple effect enhances your quizzes!
• Simple animations: Lastly, we find adding simple animations to feedback slides can make your quizzes more like games. For example, an empty rectangle could fill up to the top for correct answers, while filling only half way for incorrect answers.

Our team of instructional and graphic designers work together to develop completely customized courses for clients that engage their learners and improve performance. If you’d like to learn more about how custom elements can improve learner experience, give us a call today.