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Flash Lite 2
Flash Lite 2 is the latest Flash player for mobile phones - imagine Flash Player 7 running on a small screen with limited memory and processor speed. FL2 can manage basic Question Writer quizzes as long as the theme is kept simple and the questions limited in number (about 10 with no feedback or 5 with feedback).
Here's some sample Question Writer content for FlashLite 2 (double size in browser, click here to download .swf to try on your phone). The content here imagines that an estate agent (or realtor) is entering details of a new rental property. It works well as a quick and easy form - it can be used for form filling in a situation where a keyboard isn't practical. It uses the texting mechanism so can be completed with one hand. I can also imagine using it to make a 'Cosmo' style quiz that could be sold like a ringtone, and also more serious portable diagnostic quizzes (using the branching mechanism).
Here's the theme download (.qws) - (use Question Writer Publisher Edition if you need to alter the theme)
Posted by Alexander on May 25, 2006 | Flash Lite 2| TrackBack
FlashPaper in Question Writer
Nearly all version 6 Flash (Flash MX) can be embedded inside a Question Writer Assessment using the Flash Element. That includes Flash with audio, movies, animations and even complex actionscript features. The Flash elements can be embedded so that they form part of the main assessment file - or linked in, so they are loaded at runtime.
Flash elements can also be displayed directly or loaded through a component, defined in the Flash Control Panel. This component can then act to modify the Flash before it is displayed - I've used it to zoom pieces of flash on mouseover - and I've used it today to display FlashPaper inside Question Writer. FlashPaper has an advanced sizing capability - so the flash component resizes the FlashPaper after it is embedded.
Adobe's FlashPaper is a neat tool, that allows you to display anything that can be printed as a Flash file with a built in viewer. For example, it's useful for displaying PDF files when you don't want to use the PDF format. In an assessment context, you might want to present a PDF, and then ask comprehension questions on it without switching between display mechanisms. Here's a short example of that.
Question Writer - Publisher Edition Source (.qwf)
Flash Paper Display Component Source (.fla)
Posted by Alexander on May 24, 2006 | FlashPaper in Question Writer| TrackBack
Star Rating Question Component.
Here's a new Flash Component Question for Publisher Edition - it allows the user to give star ratings. Just click on a star, and the stars light up to that point. It's intuitive, easy to use and makes a nice change from a likert scale. It's mostly useful for surveys, but it might have applications in test and assessment too.
Here's an online example, the example source (.qwf), and the component source (.fla).
Posted by Alexander on May 22, 2006 | Star Rating Question Component.| TrackBack
Quiz Edition Tutorial
Karen Garrett, TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) Teacher of the Year, and host of Music Tech Teacher has just made available this great Question Writer Quiz Edition Tutorial. It's very visual, with lots of screenshots. It covers creating a quiz, changing the theme, creating questions and changing some of the advanced settings. Karen has also posted this quiz on Jazz trivia. Thanks for all the new content, Karen!
Posted by Alexander on May 21, 2006 | Quiz Edition Tutorial| TrackBack
Resizable Properties Box
We've had a few requests on the forum to make the properties box resizable. That's so that all the properties can be edited without having to scroll. I love getting requests like that. One reason is because it's one of those small things that can make a big difference to usability. The other reason is because it reminds me that our customers have the expectation that we'll care about and fix the small things that help to make the software invisible.
So in the latest version, you can resize the properties box, and the software will remember your prefered size.
Also new - expanded SCORM support in Quiz Edition - now 'passed' or 'failed' will be sent back to the Learning Management System rather than just 'completed'.
A new option to remove the quiz title from question pages - especially useful for mobile quizzes, where the space is limited.
Posted by Alexander on May 18, 2006 | Resizable Properties Box| TrackBack
Two Stylish New Themes
Two nice new themes available today - both created by Dmitrii Tenko of CreateFor.Net - here's a preview of the Verdant theme and a preview of the Fresh theme - both will work with both Quiz and Publisher edition. Here's the download links for the themes - Verdant Fresh
Posted by Alexander on May 12, 2006 | Two Stylish New Themes| TrackBack
New Theme - PlayStation Portable
The Playstation Portable is a mobile gaming device. As of last week, it now supports Flash 6, and so you can run Question Writer tests and quizzes on it. It has a large screen for a mobile device, with widescreen proportions (480x272). You can use the existing themes with the PSP, but it looks best with a theme that is specifically designed for it.
Here's a sample quiz that we've made for the PSP, (or here, stretched for desktop use), the source for the quiz, and the theme (.qws) file too. Kudos to Radu Chiotan for creating a great theme and Delia Mihai for the cool background.
When publishing for the PSP - there's a few things to take into account.
1. Use the most recent version of Question Writer. There's a few updates that make things run smoothly on the PSP.
2. Turn off the 'Maximize in browser' option - this will ensure the quiz appears at the correct size.
Quiz Properties -> Web Settings -> Browser Options -> Maximize in Browser
2. User's can't use the keypad to tab between the buttons. I'm continuing to look into that possibility, but for the time being, users must use the pointer device and X button.
3. It's a good idea to avoid the use of scrollbar to preserve memory on the device.
4. You'll get between 5 questions with feedback or 20 questions without running out of memory - it depends on all the factors that go into your quiz - more question types, with scrollbars and feedback, and complex buttons and themes all increase pressure on the memory and can lead to an 'out of memory' error on the device.
5. Users have to click once on the Flash before starting the quiz to focus/activate it.
6. Users can download tests and quizzes to use offline, or live on the internet.
7. The PSP runs quite a bit more slowly than desktop flash, users will have to wait a second or two after clicking a button for the effect to show up.
8. PSP supports Flash 6 - Flash 7 is required to use the 'Results by Email' service. There's a way around this if you send the results back to your own server, but Flash 6 doesn't allow sending results to our service.
Posted by Alexander on May 5, 2006 | New Theme - PlayStation Portable| TrackBack