Downright Sneaky Lectora Tricks Part 4: Unlocking the Master Control Panel

If you’re new to the Downright Sneaky Tricks series for Lectora®, be sure to catch up on the previous posts:

• Part 1: How to Build a Backdoor in Your Course
• Part 2: Create a “Hidden Entrance” to devMode
• Part 3: Add a devMode Indicator

If you’ve played video games, you may be familiar with the concept of Invulnerable Mode (a setting which unlocks advanced features like special weapons and abilities and even invulnerability by granting the user access to a master control panel). Developers use this master control panel to make it easy for them to test their games without the inconvenience of dying or having to locate hidden weapons.It can be useful for testing to give yourself special powers, so that’s what we’re going to do in THIS tutorial.We are going to focus on 2 particular superpowers...

• The power to teleport anywhere (in your course)
• The power to KNOW ALL and SEE ALL (of the answers on the quiz)

Best of all, you won’t have to go through the typical methods of getting super-powers... scientific experiments gone wrong, getting bitten by irradiated spiders, getting doused in chemicals, and so on. Ready?The power to teleport anywhere (in your course)This sounds impressive, but you already know how to do this... you will simply create a Table of Contents that connects to every page in the course. It will be hidden by default and only viewable in devMode.How to add a devMenu

1. On the top level of your course, go to the Insert ribbon and click Table of Contents to add a Table of Contents item to your course.
2. On the Properties ribbon, click Type and select Drop down list.
3. Reposition the drop down list where you want it to be in the location and stacking order of the page.
4. On the Properties ribbon, rename it devMenu and select Initially hidden and Always on Top.
5. In the Properties ribbon, add the following action:

• Trigger: onPageShow
• Action: show
• Target: THIS OBJECT
• Condition: if devMode is equal to 1

So when you load a page, IF you’re in devMode, the devMenu will appear. If want it to appear the instant you turn on devMode, then you need to add ONE more action to your devEntrance button.

6. Select the devEntrance button and add the following action:

• Trigger: Mouse Click
• Action: show
• Target: devMenu
• Condition: if devMode is equal to 1
• Else Action: Hide devMenu

Again, this action needs to occur AFTER devMode toggle.

In essence, we activate the devMenu exactly like our devMode indicator: when you click the dev button, it turns on or off, and once it’s on, it stays on until you turn it off.The power to know all and see all (of the answers to quiz questions)When you are testing an online quiz with multiple questions, it can take time remembering all of the correct answers. Even if it only slows you down a second or two, it still takes time. But what if you could quickly see the answer? Better yet, if you need your SME to review your quiz to see if you have the correct answers coded, it can be much faster for them to see it onscreen than to read the feedback form at the end of the quiz.

This magic trick is simple: you just need to provide a visual indicator that identifies the correct answer(s) to the question. These indicators are hidden by default, but devMode causes them to appear! I prefer to use bright orange arrows as my indicators, though some questions like matching or drag and drop require me to get a little more creative. The principle remains… the visual answer indicators are hidden by default and only show up in devMode.How to add a magic answer keyFor the purpose of this exercise, I will use a multiple response question with 2 correct answers as my example.Up to now, everything we have done with devMode has been inherited throughout the course. With the answer key, the answers will change on every question page, so this process requires a little more manual work.

1. Go to your first quiz page with a question and add visual indicator(s) that identify to the correct answer(s). Optional: Add Transitions In and Out as desired. (I like to use a float right and fade out.)

For example, add 2 orange right facing arrows.

2. In the Insert ribbon, click Group to add a new group.

Why are we adding a group? Some questions may have multiple visual indicators. Instead of having to show them each one by one, if you put them in a group, you only need to show the group.

3. Rename the group answers, make it Initially Hidden, and move the visual indicators into the group. For example, move the 2 orange arrows into the group.

Finally, we need a way to trigger these answers to appear.

4. At the page level, add a new action:

• Name: Show ans if
• Action: Show
• Target: answers
• Condition: If devMode is equal to 1.
• Else Action: No Action

In English, what we have programmed is as follows:

“When this Page loads, show the answers group IF devMode is turned on. Otherwise, do nothing.”

Copy the group and action to additional pages as necessary Although you will have to manually add the visual indicators and the page action to every page where you want answers to appear, you can simply copy and paste. Since the page action refers to the answers group, you can add items to the group or take them away without changing the action.

5. Copy and paste the show ans if action and answer group to additional pages as necessary.

Two small points to noteWhile the answer key can be marvelous, there are 2 things to keep in mind:

• Since the answers appear on PAGE LOAD, they won’t turn on immediately when you activate devMode. They turn on AFTER devMode is turned on and you move to a new page.
• Since you are indicating the correct answer manually, it’s up to you to make sure that it is the ACTUAL correct answer and that it matches the correct answer coded into the question.

Go ahead and add answer indicators to your questions and see how quickly you can fly through your quiz!Tune in next time when we make our secret entrance a little more secret.Download the Lectora and Lectora Online files for this course in the Trivantis® Community.John Mortenson is the Online Learning Manager for The Fresh Market. He has been developing online courses for over 10 years and is a member of the Lectora Advisory Board. He is also an Adobe Creative Suite Guru and cartoonist. You can contact him onLinkedIn andTwitter.

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