Intro

Knowledge Check Slides have been introduced as one of the new quizzing features with version 9. The Help documentation is ‘spartan’ as usual. You can read this as Features (quote from the Help):

• Knowledge check slide imbibes similar features of question slide without any results, reporting structure and interaction ids. 
• Knowledge check slides do not participate in reviews. 
• Random questions are not applicable to this knowledge check slide. 
• Master slide and controls usage is similar to question slide. 
• Knowledge check slides can be used to impart the learning on specific topics. 

I explored those KC slides in preparation for a workshop about new Quizzing features, and want to give you some more tips. Since the KC slides are very similar to normal quiz slides, I’ll start with ‘Recognizing KC slides’. Then I’ll show the differences in default setup, and in some other aspects not mentioned in the Help,  the relationship with the quizzing system variables and – what did you expect? – a tweaking tip.

Recognizing KC slides

• • in the Filmstrip, KC slides get a special indicator at the bottom right, which the Quiz slides do not have; in this screenshot slides 1&3 are KC slides and have that indicator:

    

  • in the Quiz Properties panel you see more differences with normal quiz slides, most are due to the fact that KC slides are not scored by default:

The mention (KC) next to the type of question
The lack of the possibility to choose between Graded and Survey (because KC slides are not scored)
No partial scoring for MCQ slides with multiple correct answers
No points
No penalty

• in the Advanced Interaction panel you don’t see a specific indicator. The score of the KC slides is set to 0,  they are not set to be reported but… contrary to what the Help tells, the KC slides have an individual Interaction ID. This is probably not used. Look at this screenshot:

  

There is no way to convert a KC slide into a question slide, nor a question slide into a KC slide!

Default setup KC slide

The default settings for a KC slide are bit different from those for a question slide:

1. For a KC slide only the Incomplete feedback message is activated, not the Correct message as for Quiz slides
2. For both KC and Question slide only the Submit button is checked off. The Back, Skip and Clear buttons can be activated, but they are not by default.
3. Attempts are set to Infinite, with the Retry Message enabled. For question slides by default Attempts is set to 1. Because the attempts are set to infinite, you don’t have a Failure message enabled for KC slides. You can decrease the attempts and in that case you can provide up to 3 Failure message, same as for Question slides.

You read in the Help that KC slides will not be visited during Review, they are not in the Quiz scope, except of course if they are nested in between normal quiz slides. Contrary to Pretest slides, the KC slides will not prevent navigation by playbar or TOC.

It is not possible to use question pools (see Help), random questions but it is also not possible to use GIFTformat to import KC slides.

Some options in the Quiz Preferences do work for KC-slides: if you check the option to Hide Playbar in Quiz, this will be valid both for question slides and KC slides. Unchecking the option ‘Allow Backwards Movement’ will only prevent backwards movement on question slides, not on KC slides. However, KC slides do not get a Progress indicator! IIf you want a progress indicator (question X of Y) you can have a look at this older blog post..

When you leave a KC slide, it is reset immediately which is not the case for question slides which are frozen until a new attempt on Quiz level is started. In that way a KC slide behaves like a Drag&Drop slide that is not set to be reported, had no score. There is no possibility to freeze the answer on a KC slide, which may be a game stopper sometimes.

As the Help mentioned, design of the KC slides depends on the same master slides as the normal question slides, with the exception of the new Review buttons which will never appear on KC slides. For navigation on KC slides you can use the Back/Skip buttons or add custom shape buttons.

System variables

Contrary to the Pretest slides, there are no specific system variables available for Knowledge Check slides. I have been looking for quizzing system variables that do get a value from a KC slide. Here is an overview of the variables that are not used by KC slides:

• cpInQuizScope and cpInReviewMode, both Booleans will not be toggled from the default ‘false’ to ‘true’ when you enter a KC slide. If the KC slide is in between normal question slides, it can be ‘true’ but that is not due to the KC slides.
• Variables linked with scoring are not used: cpInfoPercentage, cpQuizInfoLastSlidePointScored, cpQuizInfoNegativePointsOnCurrentQuestionSlide, cpQuizInfoPassFail, cpQuizInfoPointsPerQuestionSlide, cpQuizInfoPointsscored, cpQuizInfoPartialScoringOn, cpQuizInfoTotalProjectPoints, cpQuizInfoTotalQuizPoints 
• cpQuizInfoAttempts: gives the attempts on Quiz level, as specified in ‘Quiz Preferences, Pass or Fail’. Those attempts have no sense for KC slides, since the user can come back as many times as he wants to retake the KC question which is always reset when leaving the slide.
• cpQuizInfoPassPercent and cpQuizInfoPassPoints: since KC slides have no score, those settings of the Quiz Preferences have no meaning for KC slides.
• cpQuizInfoTotalQuestionsPerProject: contrary to the Pretest questions which are counted in this variable, as are the normal Question slides, the KC slides are not included in this variable. Same for the variables cpQuizInfoTotalCorrectAnswers, and cpQuizInfoTotalUnansweredQuestions

As you see not many variables are used by KC slides, but some are used! Moreover they can be very useful if you want to do more with KC slides:

• cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice: one of my favorites as you could read in this old blog post. It can be used to tweak the work flow with KC slides as you’ll read more later on. One exception: it is not populated when you use Advanced Answer option.
• cpQuizInfoMaxAttemptsOnCurrentQuestion: can be useful as well, although having a similar system variable to cpQuizInfoAttempts for current attempt on question level would be even better. You need a user variable as a counter for attempts on question level. If you keep the default setting of Infinite attempts, this variable will have the value 32767 (no idea why?).
• cpQuizInfoQuestionSlideTiming and cpQuizInfoQuestionSlideType are available for KC slides as well.

For an overview of all quizzing system variables, including a free table to download, check: Creative with Quizzing System Variables

Tweaking tips

Here are some tips, which I tried out with success but will not explain in detail.

1. If you do not want to keep the Attempts set at Infinite, but to a limited number it would be possible to count the number of correctly answered KC slides. Create a user variable v_counter with a default value of 0. Use the Success action of the KC slides to increment that counter. Later on you can show the obtained value for v_counter, and even use that value in a conditional action to offer feedback or navigate the user back to content slides.
2. There is no Review possibility for KC slides as mentioned. If you offer limited attempts on question level, you could show a custom feedback message on the KC slide for the questions answered correctly, something like ‘You have answered this question correctly’. When simulating a ‘Review‘ situation, the user will be invited to answer only the KC questions that do not show that message. Be careful: all embedded question slide objects are always on top of the stack, you don’t want the feedback to be hidden by those objects. That can be done by having a shape before the KC slide, timed for the rest of the project and always on top. This tweaking work flow was described in this article: Buttons on Question/Score slides?
3. The use case described in this thread of the Captivate forums could be solved using the same system variable cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice in conditional actions, combined with a counter to track the number of attemptsl. You cannot leave a normal question slide to a content slide for remediation unless you follow the strict rules for remediation. If you want to limit the attempts to get a correct answer, remediation rules are broken. With a KC slide, the answers are reset every time, which allows a lot more freedom. However: if you need a real score for the slide, you’ll have to use the workaround I described in this blog post: Report Custom Questions – part 2
4. All features of the KC slides are also available in a responsive project developed with Fluid Boxes. Check this blog post about the setup of quizzing master slides in Fluid Boxes