Scenario settings & editor tools

You can go back to a 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.

If you have not used the scenario builder before, check out this article to learn about what kind of content you can include in scenarios.

• Scenario editor controls
• Editing blocks:
  • Edit
  • Timer
  • Label
  • Clone & attach
  • Move & attach
  • Delete
• Scenario settings

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.
• The ‘Undo’ button allows you to reverse the last change. This can be useful if you’ve accidentally deleted a block. Note that there's no action or version history yet, so you cannot reverse more than one change. 
• The search button allows you to quickly find a block based on its title. Simply enter the name of the block you wish to find and it will be highlighted.

Editing blocks

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

Edit

The Edit option allows you to change any property of an existing block. Simply select Edit, change any value, and click Save. Be careful when editing Branching blocks as deleting one of the options will delete all content in that branch.

Edit scene is a special option that allows you to edit ThingLink scenes you've added to your scenario.

Timer

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 block and will be prompted to move to the next block. 

Timers can be added to branching, scene, and text blocks. Timers cannot be added to questions. When a 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 block and restart the timer.  If the learner restarts the scenario, all timers will reset.

Label

You can use customizable labels to make it easier to keep track of how your scenario is set up, e.g. by labeling the best options with a certain color. Note that labels are not visible to viewers - they'll appear only in the scenario editor.

Preview from this block

This option allows you to preview the scenario starting from the selected block. Use this feature if you want to test or preview specific changes instead of previewing the whole scenario.

Clone & attach

The 'Clone & attach' option allows you to copy a block and attach the copy to a different block:

This can be useful if you'd like to reuse the same content in different branches. 

Move & attach

The 'Move & attach' option will move the block to a different place in your scenario. Simply select this option and select the new location for this block:

Delete

This option will simply delete the block. Note that it functions differently for branching blocks - see below for more details.

Special actions for branching blocks

Some actions function differently when used with branching blocks:

• 'Clone & attach' will clone the whole tree if you clone the branching block, or the whole branch if you clone one of the answers. 
• 'Move & attach' will move the whole tree/branch respectively.
• Branching blocks can be attached only to other branching blocks.
• Branching blocks cannot be attached to subsequent (or 'child') blocks. 
• 'Delete tree' option will delete the branching block will all branches that follow it.
• 'Delete branch' option will delete the whole branch.
• 'Delete block' option will delete all branches in a tree except the first (leftmost) branch.

Remember that you can always undo the latest action if something did not work as you expected.

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. This setting is on by default.
  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. This setting is on by default.
• ‘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. This setting is off by default.
• '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 viewed, and a summary of all answers they provided in 'Question' blocks. This setting is off by default.
• 'Show 'Restart scenario' button': if enabled, the learner will see the option to restart the scenario once they reach the end of the scenario. This setting is off by default.

Scenario timer

In addition to block timers, you can limit how much time a learner can spend viewing the scenario. To set a timer for the whole scenario, click the Cog icon in the top bar to open scenario settings, select the Timer tab and enter the time limit in minutes:

The learners will be warned that they have limited time to complete the scenario, and the countdown will be shown in the upper tab. 

Note that the timer will refresh if the learner restarts the scenario or reloads the page. 

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.