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Using Quandary to Add Interactive Learning Objects

Last updated: 03 June 2009
Published in: Finding and using digital media
Tags: e-learning

Summary

This advice document will introduce you to the Quandary interactive decision software. We will demonstrate how Quandary exercises can be enhanced using digital media to support your teaching material.

What is Quandary?

The Quandary software allows the rapid creation of interactive activities for use by the learner. It enables you to create ‘Action Mazes’ or interactive case studies for web-based delivery. In an ‘Action Maze’, a learner is presented with a situation and a number of choices to select correctly. The learner chooses an option, the resulting situation will provide correct/incorrect supporting feedback to the learner created by the you, the subject expert. Digital media can be included to support the decision making of the learner and increases the flexibility of adding context to each decision.

Quandary creates the web pages for you that can then be uploaded to a website or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The content produced is generated using HTML, CSS and JavaScript code but no knowledge of these technologies is required. Once a Quandary activity has been designed it can be revisited at any time to be developed further. When completed, Quandary exercises make effective reusable learning objects.

An unregistered version of Quandary allows 12 ‘Decision Points’ or steps to be made for each exercise, the registered version has no restriction. There is also no limit to the amount of exercises that can be created making it usable for many teaching and learning needs.

In what ways might you use Quandary?

Quandary is very flexible and can be used in a variety of ways to stimulate learning and create effective learning objects. Quandary allows the creation of scenarios that requires the learner to make decisions. Different decisions made by the learner, will lead to the differing outcomes you have created. Engagement is a key part in producing successful learner experiences. Possible uses could be to:

Create an exercise to measure the ability to make a diagnosis. This could make the learner think about the steps involved in solving a particular problem, and the impact that the wrong decisions would lead to (e.g. a medical diagnosis)
Create an interactive journey where each decision a learner makes will take them further. If correct decisions are made, the student will complete the journey successfully. Wrong decisions can result in a lower score or a loss of ‘items’ they may collect on their journey through a maze. These objects are referred to as Assets which test subject knowledge.
Create an image/video based survey or questionnaire that will measure a student’s competency on a subject (e.g. learning a language or computer literacy)
Create a tutorial that uses media to signpost the learner and help aid their comprehension

Tip

Planning a flow diagram structure on paper for the exercise beforehand will be a good way of determining the Quandary structure you will need.

Where you can use digital media in Quandary

There are a number of places in Quandary where you can use media. Utilising digital media can enhance a learning object’s effectiveness. In many cases using the appropriate media will support effective learning: (example: http://beyondwellbeing.com/herbs/tongue-diagnosis.shtml). In the example in the given URL the use of images adds context to support the question related to a healthy coloured tongue! Media such as audio and video can also be used in similar ways to add context along with any other kind of file into your Quandary mazes quite easily. The main content entry areas are:

Quandary title
Decision Point title
Decision Point content boxes

All allow the insertion of media into them, either by directly inserting HTML code or via the Insert menu. Media can be inserted from a local file or by inserting a web URL link. All files used must be uploaded when making your final version available online. Whilst a ‘Decision Point’ may often only contain text, digital media can be inserted into each decision or answer that is posed to the student. Digital media can also be used in Quandary ‘Assets’ which are items that can be acquired and lost while working though an exercise or ‘Action Maze’. Assets can be defined as objects such as keys or weapons in games, invisibly tracking where a learner goes in a maze or hiding options from a user based on their previous choices. Loosing an ‘Asset’ during your journey could impact upon a student’s score or their ability to progress through a maze effectively.

Do you need to prepare media before use?

The digital media should be prepared before inclusion into Quandary as editing tools are not provided. Preparing media ensures good design and usability of the resource which maximizes its effectiveness for teaching and learning. Making content work for the end user means paying attention to quality, size, layout, alignment and positioning. It is therefore necessary to decide upon an appropriate size best fits the exercise.

Tip

Make archive copies before making any changes to an image, and name appropriately
Save and name the piece(s) of media appropriately so that the filename(s) relate to the activity. This will help others understand the file structure should you not be available and for sharing the learning object with other teaching staff in your department.

Where will resources be accessed?

Learners may be accessing content from places other than institutional computers, such as at home using slower internet connections. To make resources efficient for the online environment and different internet connection speed’s it is necessary to consider how file type and size will impact on load time.

What size should media be?

Quandary exercises will normally comprise of more than one piece of digital media and therefore you will need to take into consideration the total number of media to help decide the optimum file size. The optimal size of media will also depend on the screen resolution used by your students. A common screen resolution is 1024x768 pixels and the following recommendation is based on this. An image of 300 pixels in width is large enough to be seen on its own but might be too small to see details. You could provide a larger image in a separate web page and then edit the HTML that Quandary produces to include a link to the larger image. This may be appropriate on occasion, but larger media will take longer to download. When using video use a short and relevant clip that illustrates a concept possible see our advice document on using video for teaching and learning purposes.

IPR issues

Copyright is an intellectual property right and arises automatically whenever a work is created. It gives the owner of the copyright the right to exploit their work or control its use.

If using other people’s media, it is important to be aware of copyright issues and respect the creator’s rights. Therefore when any media is made available online or published through a VLE, you may need to clear copyright.

Here are a few pointers to consider when selecting media:

Copyright is something to take seriously but it need not be an obstacle When finding media online you will need permission to reproduce them in your materials and you should always carefully read the terms and conditions. For further information on finding media online: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/finding.html
If you make your own media you or your employer will have the copyright depending on the type of contract you have
Some FE and HE institutions may be able to use a CLA scanning license to produce media. For further information please refer to: http://www.cla.co.uk/
Asking permission seems like a chore but it may bring unexpected reward such as a higher quality version

If you have been granted permission to use somebody else’s media it is helpful to put clear copyright information with the media. It is also important that you keep a copy of the permission given and this should be stored safely.

What are the special features of Quandary?

HTML can be added into most areas of Quandary either by hand or by using the insert menu. The insert menu allows the easy inclusion of media, hyperlinks and tables, which can be used to improve the layout of information you provide for your learners.

Using the Options/Configure output dialogue box allows settings to be changed in preparation for web delivery. The options allow introductory text, appearance and an overall timer for an exercise to be set.

By using the Options/View outline screen, you are able to view the overall structure of an exercise and navigate to different parts easily by clicking on a chosen area (Diagram below).

Diagram below: Viewing the structure of a maze

You can check how a Quandary exercise will look in a browser by using the File/Quick Export option, which will create a temporary HTML version and immediately open it in a new web browser window on your computer.

The Assets and Transactions features of Quandary enhance complexity of exercises. Transactions allow the value of an asset to be changed during the course of a quiz. A wrong decision for example could be made to impact on the overall time allowed for the student to take the exercise. This could be used in a learning situation, where the time it takes to make the right decision is vital, such as the decisions that need to be made by a First Aider at the scene of an accident.

Quandary comes with pre-made exercise files to open and use which are helpful in understanding the workings and structure of an exercise. These are located in your Quandary installation folder under “quandary_examples”.

Quandary outputs web pages that are XHTML 1.1 compliant and compatible with most modern browsers. Dublin Core Metadata can also be added to exercise files, which enables others to find and use your exercise more easily through an Internet search.

How does file management in Quandary work?

It is worth remembering to backup and store your data files for your Quandary exercises as you may wish to revisit and further develop an exercise at a later time. These could be stored in a private folder on a VLE, or other backup device.

It is not until you have completed structuring an exercise that it will need to be published as a finished web page. Using the File, Export to XHTML option converts your exercise into an HTML file with appropriate CSS and JavaScript included (unless otherwise specified). This file can then be uploaded for online use.

It is important before creating exercises that you set up a folder on your local computer where your work will be created. If you use media in exercises, it is important that you place all media inside that folder or in a subfolder named appropriately. The folder structure you use on your local computer needs to be reproduced on a web server so that media contained in an exercise remain intact. As you embed media in Quandary, a path link to the image is recorded in the HTML. If you get a missing media symbol in an uploaded exercise this means your media has not been placed in the correct location when you uploaded it.

Diagram: A missing image symbol in an uploaded exercise

Further considerations for using media in Quandary

It is possible to adjust the HTML created by Quandary so that smaller media will link to a larger version in a separate browser window (Requires HTML knowledge)
Adding a title or description to the media provides immediate contextualisation for learners
Adding a URL link to a higher quality image/video making it clickable to further information or other related media (requires HTML)

Conclusion

Quandary is useful for rapid creation of interactive activities that utilise mixed media in order to support the learner on a given topic without using complicated creation tools. It can be used as a blended learning tool to support your face to face sessions or as standalone exercises. Learners will be given the opportunity to further understanding and build on knowledge using an engaging approach that can be quick and simple to create and use.

For more information and to download for Mac and PC visit the Half-Baked Software website

Further examples of Quandary in action

Last updated: 03 June 2009
Published in: Finding and using digital media
Tags: e-learning

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