How to create a scenario

In this article, you'll learn everything you need to know to create a scenario. Use the links below to jump between different parts of the article.

How to create a new scenario
What kind of content scenarios can include
Scenario editing tools
Scenario settings

Scenarios are not available on individual teacher accounts or standard school accounts. If you are interested in this feature, please contact our team.

Scenarios are still in active development. If you'd like to provide feedback, please use this form.

Select ‘Scenarios’ in the left-hand side menu, then click the blue ‘Create scenario’ button and choose a name for your scenario. Click the empty scenario thumbnail to edit it then click the blue ‘Add content’ button to create the first node.

Note that you can use the ‘Preview’ button to check what the learners will see as they go through the scenario.

What you can create

Scenarios consist of different nodes:

ThingLink scenes
Branching points that change the learner’s path depending on their answer.
Conditions that function as open or multiple-choice questions. If the learner provides a correct answer, they can proceed. If the learner provides a wrong answer, they’ll be redirected back to the previous step.
Text nodes are simple text messages that you can show to your learners to provide feedback or link to other materials without using ThingLink scenes.
Goals that allow you to track which scenes or branches the learner has visited. You can also assign points for each completed goal.
Jump points that allow you to redirect learners to another branch.

In addition, you can add a timer to some scenario nodes. The timer limits how much time a learner can spend on the node.

Scenes

The scenes option allows you to add a ThingLink scene from your account or shared folders. The viewer will be shown the scene you select when they arrive at this node.

This option is useful for presenting learning materials in context.

Branching nodes

Branching nodes present a learner with a question and multiple answers. Each answer creates a new path that the learner can follow.

To create a branching node, hover over any other node > click the plus icon > select ‘Branching’. A new window will pop up:

Use the ‘Title’ field to enter a question or provide context for different choices the learner can make.
‘Options’ are different choices that will be presented to the learner. Each option will create a new path.
Click the ‘Add option’ to add another option/path.

Note: deleting an option deletes the whole path created by that option. Deleting a branching node deletes everything that comes after the branching node.

Conditions

Conditions are open or multiple-choice questions. If the learner provides a correct answer, they can proceed to the next node. If the learner provides a wrong answer, they’ll be redirected back to the previous step.

To create a new condition, hover over any other node > click the plus icon > select ‘Condition’. This will bring up a new window where you can choose between an open question or a multiple-choice question.

For open questions, enter the question into the ‘Question’ field, then type in the answer into the ‘Answer’ field. You can also add a custom message for wrong answers using the ‘Wrong answer message’ field. The answers are not case sensitive.

To create a multiple-choice question, enter the question into the ‘Question’ field then use the ‘Answer’ fields to provide different options. Use the ‘Add answer’ button to add another option. You can mark the right answers using the checkbox next to each answer.

Note that:

If you do not provide a 'Wrong answer message', then the learner will be able to proceed even if they select an incorrect answer or do not select all right answers.
There’s no character limit for questions and answers. However, we highly recommend using short answers if you expect your learners to complete the scenario on mobile devices.

Note that learners can try to answer both types of questions multiple times.

Text nodes

Text nodes are simple text messages you can display to the learner to provide feedback or other information without using ThingLink scenes. Text nodes consist of a title and description text. The description text is what is shown to the user, while the title is the name of the node you'll see in the scenario editor.

You can use markdown to format description text and add inline links:

Putting text between two asterisks (*example*) will make it bold.
Putting text between two underscores (_example_) will italicize it.
You can combine both options by using asterisks and underscores.
You can create an inline link by putting the text inside square brackets and adding the URL in parentheses like this: [learn more](https://support.thinglink.com).
You can create a header using the number sign like this: # Header text.

Note that the description text cannot exceed 800 characters.

Goals

Goals allow you to provide feedback to the user and track their progress through the scenario. Goals are useful if you want to mark a milestone or an important point in the scenario.

To create a branching node, hover over any other node > click the plus icon > ‘select Goal’.

You can also assign points for each completed goal if you’d like to grade your learners based on how they completed the scenario. For example, different paths can contain goals with different point values.

Jump nodes

Jump nodes allow you to redirect the viewer to another node in the scenario. This can be used to direct learners to another path or force them to review a part of the scenario if they made a wrong decision.

To create a jump node, hover over any other node > click the plus icon > select ‘Jump to’. This will bring up a new window where you can enter the text that will be shown to the learner when they reach the jump node. Click the ‘Browse’ button to pick the destination node:

You can jump to all nodes except other jump nodes.

Timers

A timer limits how much time a user can spend on a scenario block. Once the timer runs out, the user will not be able to interact with the node and will be prompted to move to the next node.

Timers can be added to branching, scene and text blocks. Timers cannot be added to conditions. When the timer is added to a branching block and the learner does not make a choice before the timer runs out, they will be moved to the first (leftmost) branch.

Note: if you've enabled the 'Back' button in scenario settings, the learner will be able to go back to the node and restart the timer.

Previewing scenarios

Click the ‘Preview’ button in the upper-right corner if you’d like to see how the scenario will work for your learners.

Editing scenarios

You can go back to the scenario and edit it at any time. Scenarios are updated in real-time, so any changes you make immediately change what the learners will see when they try to go through the scenario. There is no need to change the link or the embed code.

You can add, remove or edit nodes by hovering over the node, clicking the three dots button and selecting one of the options:

You can also use the Edit button to edit any scenes you’ve added to your scenario.

Scenario editor controls

There’re several controls in the upper-left corner that can help you work with your scenario:

Zoom in and Zoom out buttons (plus and minus icons) allow you to zoom out to see the whole scenario on one screen.
‘Undo’ button allows you to reverse the last change. This can be useful if you’ve accidentally deleted a not
The search button allows you to quickly find a node based on its title. Simply enter the name of the node you wish to find and it will be highlighted.

Scenario settings

There are three scenario settings you can change via the ‘Settings’ (cog) button in the upper-right corner:

‘Show back button’: if enabled, your learners will be able to freely move back through the scenario. This can be useful for exploration-style scenarios.
You can test how this works using the Preview button.
‘Show points’: if enabled, viewers will see how many points they’ve received for completing different goals. If the setting is not enabled, the learner will not see that they’ve received points or completed a goal.
‘Use advanced tracking’: if enabled, ThingLink will save detailed tracking data, including routes. Default tracking saves goals only. Note that the viewer has to be logged in. You can learn more about what data is collected here.
'Show results screen': if enabled, the learner will be shown a special screen at the end of the scenario that will state how many points they've received, how many goals they've reached, what % of the scenario they've completed, and a summary of all answers they provided in 'Condition' nodes.

Next steps

Once your scenario is ready, you can share it via a link or by embedding it into your LMS/website. Learn more about sharing scenarios in this article.

Scenarios are still in active development. If you'd like to provide feedback, please use this form.