Articulate Quizmaker '09

Introduction

Articulate Quizmaker is a simple application that lets you create quizzes and surveys without any programming knowledge -- all you need to do is walk through some simple wizards -- and let Quizmaker output your quizzes as rich media Flash files. These Flash outputs can be hosted online, used in presentations, or combined with Articulate's other products.

Quizmaker comprises 20 question types, including drag-and-drop and hotspot styles. You can add a number of rich media objects, add design themes, include a wide range of effects for your images and text without tedious manual formatting, and also implement a customizable player.

Articulate Quizmaker ’09 is the newest version of this program -- we already reviewed the older version nearly two years ago.

About Articulate Quizmaker ’09

Articulate Quizmaker ’09 is from Articulate, a New York based company that also creates the Presenter and Engage products. You can learn more about Articulate and download a free trial version of Quizmaker ’09 from their site.

My contact at Articulate for this review was Gabe Anderson -- thank you, Gabe.

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Download and Installation

You can download the installer for the full or trial version. Run the setup routine and follow the instructions.

For the first time when the application is launched, you will be asked to activate the product, or use it in trial mode (“Activate Later”).

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Using Articulate Quizmaker ’09

Follow these steps to get started with creating your first quiz in Quizmaker ’09:

1. Go to your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs | Articulate | Articulate Quizmaker ’09.
2. This opens the Articulate Quizmaker ’09 interface, as shown in Figure 1. Opt to create a new quiz by choosing Create a new quiz.
   
   
   Figure 1: Articulate Quizmaker
3. This opens the New Quiz dialog box, as shown in Figure 2. Here you can choose from either a Graded Quiz or a Survey. For this tutorial, I choose the Graded Quiz option, and clicked OK.
   
   
   Figure 2: Create a graded quiz
4. You will now see the Articulate Quizmaker ’09 work interface, as shown in Figure 3. Initially, the interface appears empty -- to remedy that, click the option to add a graded question.
   
   
   Figure 3: Articulate Quizmaker ’09 interface
5. This brings up the dialog box that you can see in Figure 4. You can find several tabs representing the types of questions you can add -- I selected the True/False option, and clicked OK.
   
   
   Figure 4: Add your quiz questions
   
   
   Note: Every question tab has a different interface.
6. This opens a True / False dialog box, as shown in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Add your True / False quiz questions
   
   Here you can type in your question, and add optional images related to question. Since this is a simple question type, all you need to do is choose if the correct response is true or false, but for other question types, the choices are more elaborate. You can also choose the feedback responses, and set individual points for each response.
7. You can do much more than just add questions and responses if you choose to view the open question in Slide View rather than the default Form View -- to access Slide View, click the button of the same name in the Home tab of the Ribbon (refer to Figure 5 above) -- this brings up the Slide View, as shown in Figure 6.
   
   
   Figure 6: Slide View
   
   Slide View will be intuitive to anyone used to PowerPoint 2007 -- the Design, Animation, and View tabs work just like in PowerPoint. These tabs provide options to make text edits, insert media elements, apply designs's, add animations, etc.
8. When you are satisfied with the open question, click Save and Close. Repeat the same procedure and add as many questions you want.
9. Even while you are working, remember to save often -- once you're done adding all the questions, you can click the Publish button (refer to Figure 3 earlier in this page) to summon the Publish dialog box (see Figure 7).
   
   
   Figure 7: Publish your quiz
   
   The publish window enables you to choose different options for various output formats. Choose as required, and click Publish.

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Publishing from within Articulate Presenter 09

If you have Articulate Presenter ’09 and Microsoft PowerPoint installed, then Quizmaker provides more options. You can also access the entire Quizmaker application from within the Articulate Ribbon in PowerPoint 2007.

1. Open any presentation in PowerPoint, choose the Articulate tab of the Ribbon and then choose Quizmaker Quiz, as shown in Figure 8 below.
   
   
   Figure 8: Articulate Presenter Ribbon Tab in PowerPoint
2. This opens the Quizmaker and Interactions dialog box, choose the Add Existing option as shown in Figure 9 -- this adds an interactive slide within PowerPoint. If you already have created a quiz earlier in Quizmaker, you can also insert that quiz straightaway.
   
   
   Figure 9: Insert Articulate Quizmaker Quiz
3. If you click the Create New button, you'll find that this opens the same Articulate Quizmaker interface as explained in the preceding section on this page.
   
   
   Figure 10: Articulate Quizmaker ’09 placeholder in PowerPoint

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Pricing and Support

Articulate Quizmaker ’09 is priced at $599 -- and it's also part of the Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio ’09 Standard and Pro suites of e-learning products.

Support options include e-mail support, an online knowledge base, community forums, and extensive documentation. Articulate also provides custom on-site and web-based training for a fee.

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Conclusion

Quizmaker ’09 builds upon the capabilities in earlier versions of Quizmaker to create a more compelling program -- it's the easiest way to create good-looking quiz and survey interfaces -- and it also plugs right into your Articulate Presenter projects.