As
you can see in the example below, objects fall
and are dragged by the user into the appropriate
category. There are three degrees of difficulty
and the aim is to drag a given target number
to the correct destinations.
Start
by thinking of a quiz relevant to your own subject.
The instructions below take you through how to
adapt the Flash document to your own context.
Changing
the number of the answers
The
quiz template is set up as a true / false quiz
i.e. with two answers, however, you can have
as many as you like (until you start to run out
of room on the screen).
The code deals with any answer targets on the
stage automatically so go to the library (F11
toggles the window on and off) and duplicate
one of the existing target movie clips (e.g.
answer1). Make sure that you rename the duplicate
(e.g. answer3) and that the movie clip behavior
is selected before you click on OK.
Edit the new answer movie clip in the library
by double-clicking on it in the library list.
Alter
the text layer to display the answer it represents.
You might need to alter the size of the text
box or font.
You might find that the clip isn't
big enough to contain the answer text or that
a ball shape isn't appropriate. Don't change
the background in the
movie clip. Instead, edit the background movie
clip in the library so that all the bouncing
answers are consistent.
Back in the answer movie clip, you can alter
the colour of the background individually by
clicking on the movie clip on the
background layer and then editing its tint property
in the color section of the
properties window.
Drag the new answer movie
clip onto the stage. It doesn't matter where
you put it since its starting position will be
set by the code. Name the instance using the
same convention (e.g. answer3) so that the code
can find it.
In
the code on frame 1 of the scripts layer, scroll
down to find this bit of code.
Find
this bit of code. It defines an array of variables
containing the question text and the answers.
var item1
= ["The moon is made of cheese","false"];
var item2 = ["Pluto is a planet","false"];
var item3 = ["Jupiter is a gas giant","true"];
var item4 = ["Mercury is the nearest planet
to the sun","true"];
var item5 = ["Jupiter has the biggest gravitational
field","true"];
var item6 = ["Mars is bigger than the earth","false"];
var item7 = ["There is water on Mars","true"];
var item8 = ["The moon is a satellite","true"];
var item9 = ["Venus has an atmosphere","true"];
var item10 = ["Our nearest star is Betelgeuse","false"];
var items = [item1,item2,item3,item4,item5,item6,item7,item8,item9,item10];
Edit
the items between the square brackets. The
first part (e.g. "The moon... ")
is the question or statement displayed in the
text box at the bottom of the screen and the
second part (e.g. "false") is the answer corresponding
to one of the bouncing answer objects.
If
you want to add more objects, add them to the
bottom of the list, making sure that you name
the items properly (item11 etc). You can have
less items by deleting from the bottom (item10
upwards).
If
you have added or removed items you must finish
by editing the final part of the statement
e.g.
var items = [item1,item2,item3,item4,item5,item6,item7,item8,item9,item10,item11,item12];
or
var items = [item1,item2,item3,item4,item5,item6];
Note
that these questions are selected randomly
by the movie and so some will be repeated as
it runs.
Altering
the comments
If
you scroll down through the code, you will find
the various pieces of text that provide feedback
as the game runs.
Each has the format - variableName
= "Piece
of text to be displayed";
The variables are given in the
list below.
var
openingComment = "Click on True or
False";
var correctComment = "Well Done!";
var wrongComment = "Hard Luck!";
var readyComment = "Get ready...";
var finishComment = "Well Done - You have
completed the game.";
Put whatever you like between the quotes and
it will be displayed in the dynamic text box
at the top of the playing area. This is probably
the best way to find out the job that each does
in the movie.
Editing
the three levels of difficulty
Look for the function called setLevel().
It has three sections, each between a pair
of curly brackets ({}). These sections contain
sets of variables that determine how the level
runs. You alter the values of the variables to
change the level of difficulty.
Here are the variables and what they do in
red.
intervalTime
= 2000; the time delay before the next
question is displayed in milliseconds
swapTargets = true; if the bouncing answers
swap positions during play
swapTargetTime = 1000; the time delay before
the answers swap places in milliseconds
speed = 500; the speed that the bouncing answers
move inside their bounding box
maxQ = 20; the number of questions that are
asked each game
subtract = true; if the
movie should subtract 1 for a wrong answer
Try some different settings and test the movie
to see their effect. The settings in the template
are definitely not appropriate and need testing
with a real whiteboard on some real students!