Unblock test navigation: 5 Action Builder use cases

Simplifying assessment navigation should always be a priority for product owners and content creators. Learnosity’s Action Builder makes it easy to guide the way for learners across a range of contexts.

When learners sit for a test, the last thing they need to worry about is how they get from one question to the next or input their answers. The former is the intrinsic cognitive load (i.e. the effort that goes into actually answering the questions presented), the latter is extraneous (dealing with how the questions are presented). In other words, the assessment content itself is what learners need to concentrate most on. A finicky or confusing user experience risks diluting learner focus and impacting test performance.

Imagine taking a driving test in a car where the core controls aren’t where they should be. Would you be able to still drive well while struggling to find the indicator switch or the gearbox? Most likely not. Having to continuously switch focus from the task at hand to the means of completing it puts you on the slippery slope to failure.

To address this, our Action Builder makes it easier for learners to concentrate on content rather than assessment mechanics. Here are some use cases to give you an idea of how it works.

1. Language learning

To measure language competency effectively, digital assessments need to be audio- and video-enabled. But beyond that, they need a seamless interactive flow.

The Action Builder lets content creators set up autoplay and auto-record actions in questions (or alongside them). These are triggered by events that the content author has full control over defining. 

Say you want to record students reading a passage of French text, but only after the students have had a chance to read through the material. The Action Builder lets you select how much time they have before the recording begins. You can also choose the recording’s duration, how many attempts they get, and whether or not they can progress to the next question without submitting an answer. 

"The Action Builder lets content creators set up autoplay and auto-record actions in questions. These are triggered by events that the content author has full control over defining."  Share on X

The Action Builder can also be used to create a more conversation-like experience by automatically playing audio questions,  recording a response and progressing to the next question after the student finishes speaking.

2. Corporate training

From health and safety procedures to diversity awareness – compliance training is key in supporting employee development and business efficiency.

To give this kind of training the attention it deserves, the Action Builder lets content creators set the pace by enabling/disabling a range of options.

For example, say a question relates to a piece of embedded video content. You can use the Action Builder to ensure that the test taker watches the entire video by auto-playing the video while disabling further test navigation or input entry.  You can also disable the video once it’s finished playing so that the test taker can’t rewatch it. You can then re-enable navigation once the test taker enters a response.

3. Early learning

To accommodate younger learners, the Action Builder makes it easy to embed audio content in place of text or an image, as well as within the traditional audio player interface. 

You can also reduce possible friction for learners of a pre-reading age by automatically playing audio content so that they’re not required to control audio players themselves.

"To accommodate younger learners, the Action Builder makes it easy to embed audio content in place of text or an image, as well as within the traditional audio player interface."  Share on X

Say, for instance, that you need young learners to answer a multiple choice question and want to ensure all levels of reading ability are catered for. You can use the Action Builder to do this by embedding an audio stimulus alongside the text stimulus. You can even take this a step further by setting your audio to autoplay to eliminate any unnecessary confusion with controls. 

4. Multi-part math

In math questions with multiple parts, the Action Builder lets you determine how long a student spends on a particular section before moving to the next section. This means that each student has a uniform assessment experience and is being measured against the same set of conditions (the same questions, period of time per question, and assessment time) as their classmates.

5. High stakes assessment

Because high-stakes testing can often be stressful for students, it’s vital to get the test conditions right. To do so, you can combine the features we’ve talked about so far. 

In certain scenarios, you might need to be strict about how much time a student spends per page. You can use the Action Builder to ensure they stick to this by progressing them on after a certain amount of time has passed. Along with this, you can also disable navigation for a period of time so that the student cannot move on from the current page. This gives you control over how long your students are spending on each page in the test. 

"The Action Builder makes it easier for learners to concentrate on content rather than assessment mechanics." Share on X

As with navigation, questions can be disabled for a specified amount of time. You may wish to do this for questions in which students need time to read a passage of text, watch a video, or listen to audio content before answering. Additionally, you can set audio and video to autoplay or auto-record when certain conditions are met.

For assessment environments with tighter parameters, you can even disable questions so that only the first response is accepted and the question cannot be attempted again.

Take it for a test drive

We’ve included a set of demos below that deal with 4 of the use cases listed above: language learning, corporate training, early learning, and multi-part math.

Action Builder Demo

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Feature image courtesy of Tayla Kohler|Unsplash.