New extension - Adapt Block Branching
April 14, 2020Creating interactive scenarios: A new branching extension from Adapt
I am today releasing a new open source extension that will help all Adapt users to create engaging interactive scenarios, born from a project to train GPs in London through interactive roleplay. Simon Date shares more about the inspiration behind it and the solution he has developed.
The inspiration
I had a client approach me a couple of months ago with a brief. The client - a large General Practitioner (GP) surgery based in London - were looking to train their GPs in how to consult remotely with patients.
The client wanted to replicate the experience of delivering a patient consultation for their learners (the GPs). This would involve creating a scenario that presented the GP’s with information for them to review and presenting choices of actions to take, subsequently showing them the outcome of their decision. This would allow the learners to practice the scenario in a safe environment where they can experiment with their approach and see possible outcomes of their choices.
I've always enjoyed non-linear storytelling, whether it's by reading Goosebumps books as a kid, or more recently playing video games like Telltale's The Walking Dead. I've wanted to make Adapt able to support this kind of non-linear approach to create engaging and interactive scenarios for learners.
The solution
I was aware of a few open source extensions that already offered this functionality, such as the simple branching extension. However, when I tried them myself I realised that they were quite basic, hadn’t been well supported and didn't properly support the Adapt Authoring Tool. It seemed like a great opportunity for me to reimagine what a branching extension would look like in Adapt and create it for my client, as well as the rest of the Adapt Learning community.
Having branching set up as an extension rather than as a component works out much better, as it allows you to utilise other Adapt components and extensions. You can use multiple choice, graphical multiple choice, sliders, or matching questions. You can use the Trickle extension to automatically jump from block to block and use components in half width to show additional information or feedback.
The extension works on the Article and Block level. Each Block that has the extension enabled hides all the future blocks in the Article. Once the question Component in the Block is answered it will unlock the corresponding Block which reveals a further question for the learner.
Explaniation video and download links
I've created a video which highlights how the extension works and shares a bit more detail about how to successfully use it.
The extension along with the accompanying Scenario outcome component can be downloaded for free on Github.