allow P's to skip and come back to ?'s

[I][edited by moderator][/I]

I am trying to make a math test on the computer to be as much like real life as possible- where participants completing the test would have the option of skipping the more difficult questions (if they wish). In addition to this, I would like the questionnaire (of 18 problems) to cycle back through the skipped items (but not the already answered questions) once the original end of the questionnaire is reached. Also, I'd like for p's to work for an entire 20 minutes on the task, but I would also like them to know how much time they have remaining so they can budget their time wisely. I know how to do each of these separately, but I don't know how to do them in tandem (e.g. dXXX or d-XXX in the experiment file for the particular questionnaire, but i can't get dXXX, d-XXX both working together.

In order to do all of this, I am hoping you can show me how to do the following: (1) how I make a "skip and come back later" option; (2) how I can get media lab to cycle back through the skipped questions until time has run out; and (3) how I can put a forced time interval on a specific questionnaire (with multiple questions in it) and still show P's how much time they have left to work.

For the back and forth issue, see:

[URL="http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=400"]www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=400[/URL]

One way around this in your case would be to re-administer the questions--i.e., having the set of questions duplicated within the same questionnaire. When you get to the second set, you could have ML skip over any ones that were answered in the first set. To do that you would need to use the [I]complex skip[/I] functions described in the [I]Advanced Features[/I] of the user's guide.

Another alternative would be to create the test in HTML using HTML forms, and then insert that in your questionnaire as a custom item. You could even have all your items on one continuous page if you like. That way they could scroll up and down answering any questions whenever they like.

I'm not sure why d-1200 wouldn't work in your case. Can you elaborate?

-Blair

I am still having trouble doing the skips. I duplicated the questions (calling them Mxb where the original is Mx. it seems to be very complex- there are 18 questions, and I want the quex to skip to the first one that they skip (after they've gone through the original once). I duplicated the questions (calling them Mxb where the original is Mx. That means if they skip question 15 first, ML will need to search questions 1-14 before detecting that they ahve skipped question 15. I've tried to write a code for this, but It doesn't seem to work past the first skip (e.g. the M1=5, "M1b" skip works but nothing esle). I am pasting it below- can you let me know how I can fix it (I am by no means good with computer code)? I put it in the "skip 1 column":

IF (M1=5, "M1b") IF (M1>5 and M2=5, "M2b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3=5, "M3b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4=5, "M4b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4<5 and M5=5, "M5b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4<5 and M5<5 and M6=5, "M6b")

That was all I could fit in Skip 1 so I put the following into Skip 2 (not that it matters b/c it didn't work past the first skip anyway!)

IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4<5 and M5<5 and M6<5 and M7=5, "M7b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4<5 and M5<5 and M6<5 and M7<5 and M8=5, "M8b") IF (M1<5 and M2<5 and M3<5 and M4<5 and M5<5 and M6<5 and M7<5 and M8<5 and M9=5, "M9b")

Let's try a smaller example first. If we can make that work, then we can apply the logic on a bigger scale. Can you create a test case with just three questions in the questionnaire?

Post or send me copies of that simplified .[I]que[/I] file and the correspondong [I]responses.xls[/I] file and I'll see if I can tweak them to get it working.

I tried to create the amaller questionairre and responses.xls file, but it won't let me type in the equation I want in the responses.xls file. I tried the following, under skipto, but it told me I had an error, and wouldn't let me keep it: =IF(M1=5,"M1b",IF (M1<5 and M2=5,"M2b","cont")). I don't know how to attach the files to this, so I will attach to email.

I think the syntax you were looking for is:

=IF(B2=5,"M1b",IF(AND(B2<5, B3=5),"M2b","cont"))

Will continue to look at it tomorrow to see if we can come up with something simpler. But do let me know if this at least helps with that
error.

[I][edited from support email reply][/I]
[QUOTE]
Thank you so very very much- I put this in (it took a while), but the skips go as I had wanted them to. Thanks again.
[/QUOTE]