SCORM Quiz Maker is an application that lets you easily create quizzes that can be uploaded into your SCORM compatible LMS.  It also allows you to make Microsoft Word compatible printed quizzes and answer keys as well.

It shares the same authoring interface as our other quiz maker products (like Easy Quiz Maker and PowerPoint Quiz Maker) and shares a common import/export format for multiple-choice questions (so you can, for example, use your questions across all products).

As a preview of what can be published using SCORM Quiz Maker, I’ve published an example SCORM compatible quiz and a sample printed quiz.

Example 1:

To preview this SCORM compatible quiz example, click here.

Note that not all features will be available when you run the quiz locally as opposed to on your LMS. If you are using Internet Explorer, you may need to click the top bar on the browser, and then choose ‘allow blocked content’ — note that this will not appear when the quiz is delivered from your LMS.

Example 2:

This is an example of a printed quiz created with SCORM Quiz Maker. I’ve printed the quiz to a PDF document so that you can download and open the example locally and see how SCORM Quiz Maker can also be used to deliver your questions in a classroom setting. To view the printed example click here.

For more information on SCORM Quiz Maker and it’s features, please visit the SCORM Quiz Maker page located under the Products section of this website.

One of the most frequently addressed questions we come across is on the topic of importing questions into our Quiz/Test software and Weblearning application.  More often than not, the trouble lies within the formatting for the text file itself.  In this article, I’m going to show you how to properly format your questions and load them into the Import Utility so that they can easily be imported into our software.

Before we get started, it’s important to note that the Import Utility only allows you to import Multiple Choice/Response style questions. Any other types of questions (Fill-in-the-Blank, Essay, Pick List, etc.) will need to be added in manually.

The first step is to launch the Import Utility itself. Depending on the type/version of the software your using the process for doing this may vary. In most cases, you can launch the Import Utility by going to the Questions area of the quiz/test you are currently working on and locating the Import link, bringing up the Import Wizard. On the first step of the Import Wizard, where you would normally select the .txt file you would like to import questions from, there is a link that reads Launch the Import Utility (click here).  In some cases, you can launch the Import Utility by going to the Tools menu at the top and selecting Question Import Utility. In Weblearning, you can launch the import utility by following the instructions in the Import section of the Questions & Slides tab.

This will launch the Import Utlity, which allows you to open the text file containing the questions you would like to import, and format the text file into the proper format for importing.

Each question that you import should follow the 11-line import format. The first line must contain the question text, followed by a Hard Return, then a blank line (if your question or answer text contains line feeds/carriage returns, replace then with the following markup prior to importing:  [br] ). The next 5 lines are answers A-B-C-D-E, each followed by a Hard Return.  If a question has less that 5 answers, enter a blank line (Hard Return) for each missing answer. After the 5 answers, another blank line should follow. Next, the explanation should follow, then followed by a hard return, and then 2 blank lines.

Each question immediately follows the previous question. Here is the format (the prefixed numbers are there for example only):

01: QUESTION 1 TEXT
02:
03: ANSWER A
04: ANSWER B
05: ANSWER C
06: ANSWER D
07: ANSWER E
08:
09: EXPLANATION
10:
11:
12: QUESTION 2 TEXT
13:
14: ANSWER A
15: ANSWER B
16: ANSWER C
17: ANSWER D
18: ANSWER E
19:
20: EXPLANATION
21:
22:

So let’s assume I already have a text file with a few of my questions, answers, and explanations already saved and I would like to import those questions. My text file will more than likely look something like this:

First, I’ll need to open my file using the Import Utilty. To do this,  select File > Open Existing Text File from the top menu and then browse your hard drive until you find the .txt file you would like to import. When I open my text file in the Import Utility for the first time, it’s going to look like this:

As you can see, the questions from my text file do not match the 11-line import format. To verify that the lines are off or to view what types of errors I may have in my text file, I can click the Preview tab at the top to get  a question by question analysis of exactly what (and more importantly how) questions will be imported.

As you can see I have multiple errors in the layout of my .txt file, but just in case if I couldn’t tell immediately, the Import Utility will notify me with a popup alerting me to any glaring errors it might detect.  In my case. here are the errors:

First and foremost, both of my questions are using more than one line, when they should only be using one line.  In my second question, the explanation is also using more than one line when it should be only using one line. Also in the second question, I only have four answers (which is OK) but I have not left a blank line where the 5th answer would normally be. In fact, I’m missing a second blank line after both explanations as well. All of these things together are causing my question errrors.

For instance, the importer is looking for the first choice on my first question on line 5. However, it’s finding the last word of my question instead. After I go back and correct the formatting (moving all question text to one line, making sure I have the proper number of blank lines including blank lines for items I won’t be using, and making sure my explanations are only on one line) my format will look like this:

As you can see I have corrected all my errors, and now the data on the right (in white) lines up correctly with a blue rows to the left.  From this view it looks as though I’ve managed to remove all the errors in formatting. However, just to make certain I’ll click on the Preview tab again to see what errors might be found:

This time around, I did not recieve any popups notifying me of any errors, and I only see one warning sign.  In this case, the warning sign is alerting me that I have not entered any text for the 5th answer of my second question - which I did intentionally so it appears all is well.

The last thing I’ll need to do is denote which answer is actually the correct answer. To mark an answer as correct, I’m going to prefix it with [*]. Once I return to the software and actually import my formatted text file, that’s the prefix I will use to denote the correct answer in the Import Wizard. If my question has more than one correct answer (in the case of a Multiple Response style question), I only need to prefix all of the correct answers with [*]. Once I’ve prefixed my answers, my Import Utility screen will look like this:

Note: This step can be skipped, however if no prefix is found the Import Wizard will automatically use the first answer as the correct answer.

Now that my text file is in the correct format, it’s time to save my text file again so that it may be used by the Import Wizard. To do this,  select File > Save This File to Disk from the menu at the top and select the location and filename where you would like to save your formatted text file.

Once my .txt file is saved, I’m ready to return to the software and follow the steps of the Import Wizard, using my newly formatted text file to easily import questions, answers, and explanations directly into the software.

Atrixware’s suite of Weblearing Tools makes it easier for course administrator’s to use Mircrosoft Powerpoint presentations, import questions, and enroll students into the Weblearing system. The Student Mass Enrollment tool makes it easy for administrator’s to enroll any number of students in just a few easy steps. In this article I’m going to discuss how to mass enroll students from a list of students you have in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

To begin, start the Student Mass Enrollment application. The first thing you’ll be prompted to do is enter the Server URL, Login, and Password. For the Server URL, you’ll want to enter the url where you’re Weblearning system resides. In the Login and Password fields you should enter the username and password you use to log into the course administrator account that corresponds with the course you would like to enroll your students into.

You’ll only need to enter this information the first time you run the Student Mass Enrollment tool, from this point forward that information will be saved for you. Once you’ve entered each item, click the Next button to continue. The next screen you’ll see contains some basic instructions for enrolling students via Microsoft Excel along with manually entering and enrolling students.

In this case we want to enroll students that we have in an existing spreadsheet, so click the either the Paste from Excel tab at the top, or the Paste from Excel button located to the left of the instructions for Microsoft Excel.

This will bring you to the Paste from Excel tab.  The first thing you’ll need to do is enter the name of the course you would like to enroll the students into. If you would like to enroll your students into an existing course, you must make sure to type the course name in exactly as it appears in the Weblearning system (the same spacing, capitalization, etc).

You can also enroll your students into a course that does not yet exist (though doing this will add the students, it will not create the course). Once you’ve enrolled the students in the course, you can log into your Weblearning system and create that course as a new course (again, it must be exactly as you entered it in the enrollment application). All of the students you enrolled using the enrollment tool will already be added to that new course.

If you haven’t already done so, you should download the Excel Template by clicking the download button on this screen. When you click the Download Excel Template button, an Internet Explorer window should open presenting you with the option to Open, Save, or Cancel the Excel Template. I would recommend clicking the Save button and saving the template somewhere convenient to access so that you can easily use the template now and in the future.

Once the template has finished downloading, open the template file using Microsoft Excel. You’ll notice that there is a column available for each piece of data that you can use when enrolling students in the Weblearning System. Simply enter your student data in this spreadsheet or copy and paste from another existing spreadsheet into the appropriate columns.

Once you’ve finished entering your student data into the spreadsheet, highlight all of the rows and columns that contain student data, right-click on the selection, and select copy from context menu.

Once you’ve copied your student data from Excel, you can switch back to the Student Mass Enrollment tool and click the Paste from Excel button to start the enrollment process.

After you’ve clicked the Paste from Excel button you’ll be brought to the Verify Students screen. Here you can see if there are any errors in the data you’ve entered and verify that all the student information that you’ve entered is going into the appropriate fields. If there any major errors (such as either the username or password field is missing for a student) you’ll be alerted at the top of the verify screen and that student record will be highlighted in red.

If the data matches up, click the Enroll Students button at the end of the student listing. If you need to make changes, click the Go Back button and make any changes you might need following the steps above.

The last screen you’re presented with will notify you if the enrollment was successful or not for each student (If you’re enrolling a large number of students, there may be a delay while the enrollments are processed). For each student that was successfully enrolled a checkmark and blue Success message. For each student that received an error during the enrollment process, a error symbol and a red error message (with a brief explanation of the error) will be displayed.

If you’d like to enroll some more students into this or another course, click the Enroll More Students button at the bottom of the Enrollment Results screen to start the process again.

Atrixware’s suite of Weblearing Tools makes it easier for course administrator’s to use Mircrosoft Powerpoint presentations, import questions, and enroll students into the Weblearing system. The Student Mass Enrollment tool makes it easy for administrator’s to enroll any number of students in just a few easy steps. In this article I’m going to discuss how to mass enroll students by manually entering them into the Student Mass Enrollment tool.

To begin, start the Student Mass Enrollment application. The first thing you’ll be prompted to do is enter the Server URL, Login, and Password. For the Server URL, you’ll want to enter the url where you’re Weblearning system resides. In the Login and Password fields you should enter the username and password you use to log into the course administrator account that corresponds with the course you would like to enroll your students into.

You’ll only need to enter this information the first time you run the Student Mass Enrollment tool, from this point forward that information will be saved for you. Once you’ve entered each item, click the Next button to continue. The next screen you’ll see contains some basic instructions for enrolling students via Microsoft Excel along with manually entering and enrolling students.

In this case we want to enroll students that we’ll enter into the Student Mass Enrollment tool manually, so click the either the Enter Manually tab at the top, or the Manual Entry button located to the left of the instructions for entering a student manually.

This will bring you to the Enter Manually tab.  The first thing you’ll need to do is enter the name of the course you would like to enroll the students into. If you would like to enroll your students into an existing course, you must make sure to type the course name in exactly as it appears in the Weblearning system (the same spacing, capitalization, etc).

You can also enroll your students into a course that does not yet exist (though doing this will add the students, it will not create the course). Once you’ve enrolled the students in the course, you can log into your Weblearning system and create that course as a new course (again, it must be exactly as you entered it in the enrollment application). All of the students you enrolled using the enrollment tool will already be added to that new course.

The next step is to enter the student data for each student that you would like to enroll into the Weblearning system.  The only two required pieces of information are the student’s username and password. Below is a listing of all the available fields:

Username, Password, Email Address, First Name, Last Name, Middle Initial, Start Date, Expiration Date, Address, City, State, Zipcode, Phone Number, Custom 1, Custom 2, Custom 3, Custom 4, Custom 5, Custom 6, Notes

Each student should be entered on one line with each field seperated by a comma. To skip a field, enter another comma without entering any data for that field. Once you’ve entered all the fields you would like to use for a student, press the Enter key to move to the next line and start entering the next student. For example of different ways you can enter data, click the Load Sample Data button at the bottom of the screen and the Students box will be populated with some sample data.

The sample data consist of five different types of student entries that are valid to use when entering students manually.

Line 1: This student will be enrolled with only a username and password (which are the two required fields to enroll any student).

Line 2: This student will be enrolled with a username, password, and email address.

Line 3: This student will be enrolled with a username, password, email address, start date, and expiration date. As you can see we skipped over the first name, last name, and middle initial fields by entering no data for those fields (,,,,).

Line 4 & 5: The last two students illustrate what your manual entries will look like if you choose to enter most or all of the data the can be used by the Student Mass Enrollment tool.

Once you’ve entered all of your students, click the Submit Students button to start the enrollment process.

After you’ve clicked the Submit Students button you’ll be brought to the Verify Students screen. Here you can see if there are any errors in the data you’ve entered and verify that all the student information that you’ve entered is going into the appropriate fields. If there any major errors (such as either the username or password field is missing for a student) you’ll be alerted at the top of the verify screen and that student record will be highlighted in red.

If the data matches up, click the Enroll Students button at the end of the student listing. If you need to make changes, click the Go Back button and go back to the Enter Manually tab to edit your students. All the information you entered before will still be there for you to edit and align the student data the way you would like it.

The last screen you’re presented with will notify you if the enrollment was successful or not for each student (If you’re enrolling a large number of students, there may be a delay while the enrollments are processed). For each student that was successfully enrolled a checkmark and blue Success message. For each student that received an error during the enrollment process, a error symbol and a red error message (with a brief explanation of the error) will be displayed.

If you’d like to enroll some more students into this or another course, click the Enroll More Students button at the bottom of the Enrollment Results screen to start the process again.

Weblearning 9.5 has really expanded the way you can view reports on your courses, quizzes, students, and overall server activity.  Not only have most of the reports been re-designed and re-organized to make them easier for you to use, Weblearning 9.5 has also added the feature to optionally create a Reports only account that allows you to let your proctors to login into the Weblearning system and view the same reports that you do, without making any of your quizzes, questions, or settings available to them.

When your first click on the Reports tab, the first thing you are presented with is your Course Reports. Here you’ll see a listing of your courses that your students have taken quizzes in. If you click on any of the quizzes, it’ll bring up the reports page for all quizzes and students within that course.

The first thing you see when viewing the Course Report are two bar graphs with the overall statistics for that course.  The graph to the left shows the highest and lowest average score for the course, along with an average of all your students’ averages for the entire course.  The graph to the right displays the number of passing averages vs. the number of failing average.

Below the two bar graphs you’ll see the Range, Median, and Mode for the course. The Range is the shows the difference between the highest and lowest scores for that course. The Median displays the average score for all of your students who have taken that course. The Mode shows the highest score a  student has achieved for that course.

The last piece of information you’ll find in the Course Report is a listing of all the students who have taken the course, along with the number of quizzes they’ve taken from the course, their course average, and whether they passed or failed the course. Clicking on the View Detail button to the right of the student will take you to the Student Report page for that student, displaying information only relevant to that course. More information on the Student Report can be found later in this article.

The next are of the Reports we’re going to look at is the Quiz Reports. When you click on the Quiz subtab under the Reports tab, you’ll be presented with a listing of all your quizzes that have been completed by one of your students. Clicking on any of the Quiz titles listed will bring up the Quiz Report for that quiz.

The Quiz Report page is very similar to the Course Report page. At the top of the report you’ll see the bargraphs containing the highest, lowest, and average scores for that particular Quiz along with a graph displaying the number of times the Quiz has been passed vs. failed.  Below the bargraphs you’ll see the Range, Median, and Mode for that quiz.

Below the statistics portion of the report, you’ll see a listing of every student who has taken the quiz, along with both a numerical and bargraph representation of their score, and whether or not they passed or failed to quiz. Note:  If a student has taken a quiz more than one time, there will be a seperate listing for each time they took the quiz, along with their score and pass/fail status for that particular time they took the quiz.

To the right of the student are two buttons, View and Delete. Clicking on the Delete button will delete that particular record from the reports section altogether. That students score and information will no longer be factored into the Course or Quiz averages once the score has been deleted.

Clicking on the View button will up a Summary Report, containing a full report of the student’s results for that quiz. On the Summary Report page, you can view the total time it took the student to complete the quiz, along with all the questions contained in that Quiz and whether or not the student answered correctly or not.

You can also change the score for the student in the Summary Report page. This is particular useful if you use Essay Questions in one of  your quizzes, since they cannot be graded by system. After the student has submitted their quiz you could read reponses to any Essay Questions and then adjust the score accordingly on this screen.

The next area we are going to look at is the Student subtab, which will bring up a listing of all students who have submitted a reponse to any of your quizzes across any of your courses.  The Student subtab usually a similiar navigation system as you’ll find under the main Students tab. You can click on a particular letter to view only students whose usernames start with that letter or you can click the All tab to list all of your students on this screen. Clicking on any student will bring up the Student Report for that particular student.

As with both the Course Report and the Quiz Report, the Student Report displays the two bargraphs at the top of the page along with the Range, Median, and Mode for that student. By default, when you first arrive at the Student Report page, you are viewing the data for that student across all courses. That means the data in the bargraphs and statistics applies to all quizzes taken under all courses. That also applies to the Quiz listing found on the lower half of the report. In the Quiz listing you’ll see all the quizzes that student has completed, along with both a numerical and graphical representation of their score, and their pass/fail status.

Just like we saw in the Quiz Report page, there are two buttons located to the right of the course, View and Delete. Clicking the View button will take you to the Summary Report for that quiz, just like the one we saw above. Clicking the Delete button will  delete that record from the reports page, as well as remove that score from the course, quiz, and student averages.

Another thing you can do on the Student Report page is view student data for a particular course, as opposed to all courses. To do this, simply click on the dropdown box located in the top left corner of the report and select the course you would like to view a report on.

The next section of the Reports tab we’re going to look at is the Question subtab.  When you click on the Question subtab, you’ll see a listing of all the quizzes that have currently been completed by one of your students. Clicking on any of these quizzes will bring up the Question Report for that quiz.

The Question Report lists all the questions contained in the quiz you are viewing. Next to each question, you can easily view the number of times that question has been viewed by a student, the number of times that it’s been answered correctly, and the number of times it’s been answered incorrectly.  To the right of each question you’ll notice the View Details button. When you click on that, you can view a breakdown of what choices have been selected for that question when a student answers, along with the correct answer highlighted in blue. Clicking on the View Details button a second time will hide that extra information for the question you had previously been viewing.

The last area of reports we’re going to work with are the Activity Logs.  The Activity Logs allow you to view successful/unsuccessful login attempts by students, the times when students logged into a course/quiz, the time a quiz was started by a student vs. ended, and the IP address of the computer the student was accessing your materials from. The view can be broken down by time (Today, This Week, This Year, or All-Time), by Course (which displays each successful/unsuccessful login attempts for each course/student), or by Module Access (which displays the student access to your quizzes, including the start, pause, resume, and end times for each quiz).

That covers the bulk of the reporting features available from within Weblearning 9.5. The last thing we’re going to talk about is enabling a Reports Password, so that your proctors can login to the system and view reports without gaining access to your full administration system.

To do this, click on the Accounts tab and about halfway down the page you’ll see a section entitled Reports Password. Simply enter the password you would like to use (it should be different from your Course Admin password) and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit Changes button to save your changes.

To access the reports, direct your proctors to the login page for your Weblearning Course Admin. The username they enter will be the same as your Course Admin Username. For password, provide them with the password you just set up as the Reports Password in the step above. When they login, they’ll only be able to view and delete course, quiz, and student reports.

After our users have created a package with Package Wrapper, many of our users to choose to distribute there packages via CD-Rom.  A question we’ve been asked in the past is how to burn the CD-Rom so that the packaged EXE file will start automatically.

Depending on what burning software you use (Roxio, Nero, etc.) it is possible to set a specific file to ran automatically.  However, for the purpose of this tutorial I’ll be going over a different method that can apply to any burning software, including the burning fuctionality that is included in Microsoft Windows.

Autorun.inf is a file that is stored in the root directory of your CD-Rom.  It tells the computer the location and name of which file to run when the CD-Rom is inserted into the drive.  What we’re going to do is create our own autorun.inf using a text editor such as notepad that we will be burning to CD along with our package EXE file.

The first step is run Notepad from either inside of the Start menu or via the Run Dialog (notepad.exe) in Microsoft Windows.

We only need to place two lines of code inside of the text file in order to create our autorun.inf file.  Place the following into notepad (or the text editor you are using):

[autorun]

open=filename.exe

Where filename.exe is the name of the executable file that you created in Package Wrapper and plan to burn to CD-Rom.

In the example above, the name of the package I created in Package Wrapper would be mytest.exe.

Once you’ve entered the lines into notepad, simply save the file to the same folder where your package EXE file is stored with the filename autorun.inf.  When you are ready to burn your software to CD, all you need to do is burn both your packaged executable file and the autorun.inf file.  When your user inserts your CD-Rom into there computer, your package should start automatically.

NOTE:  Microsoft Windows allows the user to disable the autorun feature.  That means that even if you create the CD-Rom so that your package will start automatically, it will only do so on systems where the feature has not been disabled.

For more information on creating and using the autorun.inf file, you can view Microsoft’s How-To for a wealth of information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818804.

Package Wrapper is a powerful tool for easing the distribution and install process of Elearning software for you and your users.  While some of you might have used Package Wrapper in the past, you might not realize the amount flexibility that exists in customizing what your end user sees. In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you the different ways you can customize your package in Package Wrapper.

Once you’ve gone through the first four steps of creating the package (for more information on creating a package, you can view this tutorial or the video tutorial located on the Package Wrapper support page) you’ll get to Step 5: Visual Styles, which is the area I’ll be working in for this tutorial.

The first thing I can modify in the Visual Styles is what the user will see when they first run my package.  By enabling Show a Yes/No message box at the beginning , the user will be prompted on whether or not they want to continue the installation of the package.  You can change the wording of the display by entering your own text in the Question field.

The next option is Enable password protection.  Enabling password protection allows you to require the user to enter a password before they continue installation of the package. You can define the password in the Password field.  If you do not use any form of piracy protection on your Elearning packages, this might be one way to give your packages a small amount of protection.

Next you have the option to Show a license agreement before extracting. Most software has some sort of extended copyright information or terms of use that they like to display. By enabling this option and clicking on the Edit Text of the License Agreement button, you can enter your own license (up to a maximum of 2,040 characters long).

If you’re package is of considerable size, you might want to enable the Show progress while extraction option to display a progress bar to the user that alerts them that the software is still actively installing.  Even if your package isn’t all that sizeable, this may be an option you would choose if some of your users might be installing on older, slower systems.

The last option we have on this screen is Show a messagebox after finishing. After your files are done extracting and prior to executing the file that you may have set up to run after extractiong, this message will be displayed to your users.  You can edit the text of the popup message in the Message field.

Clicking on the Adapt more visual elements and preview dialogs button on the Visual Styles will bring up the Language Editor. From here you can change the text for the rest of the elements of your package, as well as get a preview of what they will look like when compiled.

From the General tab, the first thing you can do is set the caption that is displayed in the titlebar of all your popup dialog windows. Underneath that you can edit the text displayed on the various buttons within the package.  By entering the & character before a certain letter indicates that letter being the keyboard shortcut for that button. For example, by default the Yes button is set as &Yes, and in my package it would display as Yes, with Y being the shortcut key.  If I were to set the Yes button to Ye&s instead, my packages would display Yes, with S being the shortcut key.

The Welcome Message Box tab of the Language Editor edits the same text that is set when you enable the Show a Yes/No message box at the beginning option from the Visual Styles screen.  By clicking on the Test Dialog button, you can see exactly what the dialog will look like when it is in action.

The Password Protection screen allows you to edit what is displayed to the user if you have required them to enter a password prior to extracting files.  The Bold Heading is what is displayed at the very top of the dialog, in a white heading bar.  The Heading Subline is displayed in a smaller font, directly underneath the Heading in the same white heading bar.  Finally, the Text above password field is the main message of the Password Protection dialog, displayed directly above the box where the user enters a password.  Clicking on the Test Dialog button will show you a preview of what this dialog looks like in action.

Under the License Agreement tab you can edit what is displayed to the user when viewing your license agreement (if you’ve enabled the option to display it on the Visual Styles screen).   The Bold Heading is the text that is displayed at the very top of the dialog, in a white heading bar.  The Heading Subline is displayed in a smaller font, directly underneath the Heading in the same white heading bar.  The Text below license agreement is what is displayed underneath your license agreement (which you can set on the Visual Styles screen).  Again, clicking on the Test Dialog button will give you a preview of what this dialog will look like in your completed package.

The Select Extraction Path tab allows you to configure the text displayed if you allow your users to choose a path where your package will be extracted.  The Bold Heading is the text that is displayed at the very top of the dialog, in a white heading bar.  The Heading Subline is displayed in a smaller font, directly underneath the Heading in the same white heading bar.  The Text above path name is the text that instructs the user what to do next, displayed directly under the white heading bar and above the folder selection bar.  The Text on folder select dialog is the text that is shown at the top of the folder navigation dialog that is displayed when the user clicks the Browse button to select an install folder.  Clicking the Test Dialog button will display a preview of what this dialog will look like (including when the user clicks the Browse button) in your package.

The Progress Dialog tab allows you to configure what is displayed to the user if you selected to display a progress bar during extracting.   The Bold Heading is the text that is displayed at the very top of the dialog, in a white heading bar.  The Heading Subline is displayed in a smaller font, directly underneath the Heading in the same white heading bar.  The Text above progess bar is the text displayed directly below the white heading bar and above the progress bar.  The Warning Messagebox when pressing the Cancel button configures what Yes/No popup that is displayed to the user if they click the Cancel button while the package is still installing.  As always, click on the Test Dialog button will show you a preview of what your completed Progress Dialog will look like.

The last tab we come across is the Finish Messagebox tab, while is displayed to the user when the package is finished extracting (if you enabled the option in the Visual Styles tab).  The text that you can edit here in the Finished message field is the same text that you can edit in the Show a messagebox after finishing section of the Visual Styles screen.

Once you’ve completed configuring the text for all your dialogs, simply click the Close button and you can proceed to finishing up with wrapping your package.  With Package Wrapper it is possible to customize what is displayed to the user during installation, whether it be consistent with your Elearning packages or in the language of you or your end user.

When creating an ELearning Package with Test Pro Developer, the end result is a bunch of files that some users might have difficulty installing.  To make installation easier for your end user, as well as add an additional sense of professionalism to your final product, you can wrap your files with Atrixware’s Package Wrapper.  In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to wrap a package using Package Wrapper that is compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, & Vista.

The first screen I see after launching Package Wrapper is the Welcome screen, where I can see what Package Wrapper I am using and modify the global settings.  By click on the Program Settings button, I can set the default path where my project files, output files (this is the final package .exe file), language files, and icon files are stored.  For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going to leave all of these as the default settings.

Click the Next button will bring me to Step 2: Create or open a project file.  When creating a package I have the option of saving my settings as a project file so that if the need arises to create the package again, I can create it with the same settings I used before.  In this example I’m going to allow Package Wrapper to create a new project file.  I can also choose or edit the Project Language by either selecting one of the pre-defined languages from the dropdown or by selecting and clicking the Edit button for any of the languages.  For this example I’m just going to leave the Project Language as English.

Clicking on the Next button will take me to Step 3: Source Files.  This is where I want to add the files for the package I created in Test Pro Developer.  Clicking the Browse button will bring up the Browse For Folder window where I can select the folder that my Elearning package has been saved to.

To find the folder  where my files have been saved, I can run Test Pro Developer, go to the Build and Deploy (or Packaged Tests if you’re using Test Pro Developer 8) section, and find the option to View Files.  This will bring up a Windows Explorer window with a view of the all the files we’ll be adding into Package Wrapper.

By default, the path for a Windows XP installation should look like this (NOTE: This will vary slightly depending on the version of Test Pro Developer being used):

C:\Documents and Settings\{computer name}\Application Data\Atrixware\Developer 9\projects\{project name}\Package\{package name}\

In Windows Vista, the default path should look like this (NOTE: This will vary slightly depending on the version of Test Pro Developer being used):

C:\Users\{computer name}\AppData\Roaming\Atrixware\Developer 9\projects\{project name}\Package\{package name}\

Once I’ve found the folder where my files are stored, I’m going to click the OK button.  All the files from my project should now have been added into the Source Files List.

Click the Next Button will take me to Step 4: Extraction Mode.  The first thing I want to do is select Normal mode (extract files) for the mode of the package.  By default most people use %programfiles%\MyApp as their Default Installation Directory.  However, to ensure that the package installs properly in Vista I want to change this to %temp%\MyApp.  I also want to make certain that Automatically Extract Files is selected, rather than have the user select the folder where the package files will be stored to make the process as easy as possible.

The other option I want to make sure I have selected is Execute a file after extraction.  This tells the package that as soon as it’s decompressed it’s files, to run the the Elearning software install.  If I did not select this option, the program would end after the files were extracted and my users would have to browse through their computers until they found the Elearning software install file.  Using the dropdown, I want to select the file %appfolder$\setwiz_i.exe as the File to be executed after extraction.

Clicking the Next button will take me to Step 5: Visual Styles.  In this section I can choose what you want to be displayed to the user during extraction of my package.  Not only can I choose what dialogs I would like to display to the user, but I can customize the text for them either directly within this window or by click on the Adapt more visual elements and preview dialogs button.  For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going to leave everything as the default setting.  If you would like more information on customizing your packages, you can find more information via the online manual or by reading the Package Wrapper blog article on customization.

Click the Next button will take you the final step, Step 6: Create the EXE file.  By default, the path where my package is saved might be difficult for me to find later.  By clicking the Browse button, I can select to save the final EXE file anywhere on my hard-drive.  Once I’ve found the folder where I would like to save my package all I need to do is enter a filename and click the Save button. This will place the path I have chosen and filename into the Self-Extracting exe file location box.

Clicking the Next button one last time will create my package and save it to the folder and filename I specified above.  Now all I need to do is distribute the package to my user, whether by burning the exe to CD, emailing it to my users, or placing it on my website for my users to download.

In a previous article, I talked about how to manually create PowerPoint Quizzes. In this article, I am going to show you an easier way - how to automatically make PowerPoint Quizzes using Atrixware Test Pro Developer.

Quick Note: Since this article was originally written, we have released a new version of Developer which has an export-to-PowerPoint option built in, and also have released PowerPoint Quiz Maker - a product that is designed to create PowerPoint Quiz Questions.

Lets Get Started

1. You will need to have both Atrixware Test Pro Developer, and Microsoft PowerPoint already installed on your system (I tested this PowerPoint Quizmaker module with PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 successfully).
2. Download the PowerPoint Export Script I wrote just for this article - click here to download.
3. Run the PowerPoint Export Script Installer (double-click on the dev_to_ppt.exe file) - it will add the Publish as a PowerPoint Quiz option to Test Pro Developer.
4. Start Test Pro Developer (if you had it running already, close and restart it).

The PowerPoint Quiz Maker module works properly with multiple-choice and true/false style questions - more specifically, questions that have one or more choices, and where a single choice is correct - this is due to the fact that when a user clicks on an answer, it will immediately be evaluated (as opposed to checking some boxes and clicking NEXT). Also, there is no ‘scoring’ in the PowerPoint Quiz - just correct/incorrect feedback each time an answer is selected.

So, from inside Test Pro Developer, click the Develop Tests, tab, highlight the test you would like to publish as a PowerPoint Quiz, click the PUBLISH button, and choose CUSTOM.

From the options window, choose PowerPoint Quiz, and click PUBLISH. The following configuration window will appear:

There are a handful of options you can configure here - most which are self-explanatory. Fill out the parameters as desired, and click Continue. A progress screen will come up and keep you posted on the progress:

Once complete, open up the PowerPoint Quiz inside of PowerPoint, and start the PowerPoint Show:

Here is something else that’s pretty cool you can do - turn your PowerPoint Quiz into an Online Quiz — Here is how:

1. From inside PowerPoint (with your PowerPoint Quiz open), click FILE > Save as Web Page:

On the “Save As” Dialog, you have two choices - save as “single file web page”, or “web page”. The ’single file web page” will produce a single .mht file you can upload to your website. The ‘web page’ option will create a traditional .html page, with any images external to that file. Either way, the end result is an online quiz.

This is a basic example of making PowerPoint Quizzes. I will actively work on this PowerPoint Quiz Maker module to make it do more, and provide more options. I envision having various ’skins’ you can pick from, and more control over text fonts, sizes, colors etc. Have other suggestions - please email them to me at anthony@atrixware.com.

By the way - you can use this PowerPoint Quiz Maker module with the Free (trial) edition of Test Pro Developer (which works for up to 5 questions), or any commercial edition - including the basic/academic edition (our lowest-priced edition).

Anyone who has something to say about elearning may find the below ( L thru Z ) collection of elearning terms and definitions helpful. (compiled by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson on behalf of ASTD (American Society for Training and Development)) 

Click here to view the ( A thru K ) definitions.

LAN (local-area network): A group of personal computers and/or other devices, such as printers or servers, that are located in a relatively limited area, such as an office, and can communicate and share information with each other.

LCMS (learning content management system): A software application (or set of applications) that manages the creation, storage, use, and reuse of learning content. LCMSs often store content in granular forms such as learning objects.

Learning: A cognitive and/or physical process in which a person assimilates information and temporarily or permanently acquires or improves skills, knowledge, behaviors, and/or attitudes.

Learning environment: The physical or virtual setting in which learning takes place.

Learning object: A reusable, media-independent collection of information used as a modular building block for e-learning content. Learning objects are most effective when organized by a meta data classification system and stored in a data repository such as an LCMS.

Learning objective: A statement establishing a measurable behavioral outcome, used as an advanced organizer to indicate how the learner’s acquisition of skills and knowledge is being measured.

Learning platforms: Internal or external sites often organized around tightly focused topics, which contain technologies (ranging from chat rooms to groupware) that enable users to submit and retrieve information.

Learning solution: 1) Any combination of technology and methodology that delivers learning. 2) Software and/or hardware products that suppliers tout as answers to businesses’ training needs.

LMS (learning management system): Software that automates the administration of training. The LMS registers users, tracks courses in a catalog, records data from learners; and provides reports to management. An LMS is typically designed to handle courses by multiple publishers and providers. It usually doesn’t include its own authoring capabilities; instead, it focuses on managing courses created by a variety of other sources.

M-learning (mobile learning): Learning that takes place via such wireless devices as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or laptop computers. Multimedia: Encompasses interactive text, images, sound, and color. Multimedia can be anything from a simple PowerPoint slide slow to a complex interactive simulation.

Online: The state in which a computer is connected to another computer or server via a network. A computer communicating with another computer.

Online learning: Learning delivered by Web-based or Internet-based technologies.

Online training: Web- or Internet-based training.

Scalability: The degree to which a computer application or component can be expanded in size, volume, or number of users served and continue to function properly.

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model): A set of specifications that, when applied to course content, produces small, reusable learning objects. A result of the Department of Defense’s Advance Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative, SCORM-compliant courseware elements can be easily merged with other compliant elements to produce a highly modular repository of training materials.

Soft skills: Business skills such as communication and presentation, leadership and management, human resources, sales and marketing, professional development, project and time management, customer service, team building, administration, accounting and finance, purchasing, and personal development.

Synchronous learning: A real-time, instructor-led online learning event in which all participants are logged on at the same time and communicate directly with each other. In this virtual classroom setting, the instructor maintains control of the class, with the ability to “call on” participants. In most platforms, students and teachers can use a whiteboard to see work in progress and share knowledge. Interaction may also occur via audio- or videoconferencing, Internet telephony, or two-way live broadcasts.

TBT (technology-based training): The delivery of content via Internet, LAN or WAN (intranet or extranet), satellite broadcast, audio- or videotape, interactive TV, or CD-ROM. TBT encompasses both CBT and WBT.

Teaching: A process that aims to increase or improve knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or behaviors in a person to accomplish a variety of goals. Teaching is often driven more toward the long-term personal growth of the learner and less toward business drivers such as job tasks that are often the focus of training. Some people characterize teaching as focused on theory and training as focused on practical application.

Training: A process that aims to improve knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or behaviors in a person to accomplish a specific job task or goal. Training is often focused on business needs and driven by time-critical business skills and knowledge, and its goal is often to improve performance.

Tutorial: Step-by-step instructions presented through computer or Web-based technology, designed to teach a user how to complete a particular action.

WBT (Web-based training): Delivery of educational content via a Web browser over the public Internet, a private intranet, or an extranet. Web-based training often provides links to other learning resources such as references, email, bulletin boards, and discussion groups. WBT also may include a facilitator who can provide course guidelines, manage discussion boards, deliver lectures, and so forth. When used with a facilitator, WBT offers some advantages of instructor-led training while also retaining the advantages of computer-based training.

Webinar: (Web + seminar) A small synchronous online learning event in which a presenter and audience members communicate via text chat or audio about concepts often illustrated via online slides and/or an electronic whiteboard. Webinars are often archived as well for asynchronous, on-demand access.