Load an Articulate Quizmaker Quiz into your Flash Object and Track Score

This is an update to a previous post in which I proposed a way for you to load a quizmaker quiz into your flash project and track the score. I have now worked on a second version of this that works with most browsers, as the original solution was only for IE 7+.

For the HTML part, simply use Articulates published html, and swap the name of the swf it is loading. (you will also need to change the width and height)

In your flash project, for the onLoadComplete of the quiz, you must set all these variables:


function onLoadComplete(mc:MovieClip)
{
mc.vHtmlContainer=_root.vHtmlContainer;
mc.vCaptureRC=_root.vCaptureRC;
mc.vUseFSCommand=_root.vUseFSCommand;
mc.vLMSPresent=_root.vLMSPresent;
mc.vAOSupport=_root.vAOSupport;
mc.vIE=_root.vIE;
mc.vResumeData=_root.vResumeData;
}

Basically these are all the initializing variables sent by the Javascript/HTML to the flash quiz to let it know if it's in an LMS and also what type of Browser is being used.

There is one small code change that I made to api.js, this was to get the solution working in IE6, For some reason the only way I could get scores tracking in my LMS on IE6 was to add an alert box to the DoOnClose function in quiz.js

function DoOnClose()
{
if (!g_bCloseExecuted)
{
if(IE6)
{
alert("");
}
g_bCloseExecuted = true;

if (g_bAOSupport)
{
PostResultsOnUnload()
}
}
}

SCORM Cloud

Fantastic and Free! Site that helps you test any SCORM courses you're working on. Have been using it to debug several issues, and it's been nothing short great to work with.

Check it out: cloud.scorm.com

Apple Infographic

Had this sent to me from onlinedegrees.org, I don't endorse or really have any feelings about their site or business since I am not familiar with it at all, and this is clearly just a means of promotion for them....that being said, I still thought the infographic was worth re posting, with the aforementioned disclaimer.

Using Handwritten Fonts

Notice anything awesome about this post?

I was inspired by Tom's post at his Word of Mouth blog on using Handwritten Fonts to add personality to your e-learning courses. I've been using his free font sets in several flash objects and captivate presentations and getting great feedback, but didn't even think about using handwritten fonts in HTML pages because of the issue of converting and embedding fonts.

Then today I read a fantastic post at Net Tuts which outlined Google's Font API which allows for easy embedding of any of Google's supplied fonts, and sure enough they have this fantastic Handwritten Font called "Reenie Beanie"

Now we can add a touch of hand written fonts to our html without having to worry about creating images of the text, or having the font not show up on the end users system.

Thanks Google!

Apple's thoughts on Flash

Very interesting posting by Apple.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

With the demise of the PC as we know it now looming in the future, we should pay a close eye on where technology is heading. I don’t read this as Flash will not be successful in the long run, but I do believe that Flash will need to respond through their own software releases. All in all we want to follow these things closely so that we can develop for the trend and not find ourselves converting because we chose beta when everyone else chose vhs.

One problem that I face in developing in HTML5 is that a lot of user base I run into in elearning would not have the browser support for that. Given that I field support issues from clients using IE 5.5, it may take some time before I can introduce an HTML5 based course into my development. However, to develop for mobile learning it does seem that HTML5 may have the upper hand based solely on the expanding consumer base of Apple devices.

Hide the Review Quiz button from an Articulate Quizmaker Quiz

Very similar to my earlier post on removing the Finish Button on an Quizmaker Quiz. The Review Quiz button can also be removed by creating our own swf in flash with some small actionscript that we will insert into the first slide/question of the Quiz.

So, in flash create a new fla and on frame one layer one just add the following actionscript:

_root.g_mcFrame.mcReviewQuiz.swapDepths(_root.getNextHighestDepth());
_root.g_mcFrame.mcReviewQuiz.removeMovieClip();

Publish this to a swf, then in quizmaker insert that swf onto your first question or slide, this code will make sure that review quiz button gets removed!

Enjoy!

Get Student Name on Print Results Page in Articulate Quizmaker using SCORM

Seems to be a couple requests for this one, but basically the problem is that by default there is no way to put the Students name on the Print Results page other than selecting the prompt student for name checkbox in quizmaker.

Well no worries, this is actually a simple fix, as long as you're publishing for your SCORM LMS.

Here's the code/solution:

In your quizzes published folder look for quiz_content/report.html

This is the html page that gets loaded.

Now, we need to add this code:

"window.opener.parent.GetStudentName()"

Where do we add it? well that depends on where you want it to show up!

For now just search for:

document.write("<P><H1>" + strTitle + "</H1></P>");

and replace with:

document.write("<P><H1>" + strTitle +"<br>"+window.opener.parent.GetStudentName()+ "</H1></P>");

This will put it just below the header! Test it out, and then try out moving it to different locations or adding formatting!

Hope this helps!