(Last Updated On: July 12, 2021)

You are struggling to go beyond just text-based questions? Do you want to create visual questions to improve knowledge retention? If you are finding a new way to bring to learners much more fun, Hotspot questions are totally for you. In fact, this is a new question type in ActivePresenter 8 which allows learners to interact directly with images. 

Basically, a hotspot question is an image-based question that can be utilized to make your courses or quizzes engaging and exciting. In other words, a hotspot question asks learners to identify one or more spots on an image as correct answers. This way, a hotspot question allows not only checking learners’ knowledge but also reinforcing what they’ve learned. 

a hotspot question created by ActivePresenter

A Hotspot question created in ActivePresenter 8

In the above question, learners are asked to find the position of Mars in the solar system. Therefore, this question has only one correct answer. However, with some games such as finding the differences between two pictures or finding hidden animals in a picture, they will have more than one correct answer. In ActivePresenter 8, Hotspot is the ninth question type that you can see when opening the Questions tab:

Hotspot question in Question tabs

So, this tutorial will show you how to create a Hotspot question through 6 stages:

Let’s get started now!

Insert a Hotspot Questions

To insert a Hotspot question into your project as a new question slide, perform one of the following:

  • In the Questions tab > Hotspot Hotspot icon
  • In the Home tab > Interactions > Hotspot Hotspot icon.

After that, a new slide with a Hotspot question will appear as follows: 

A Hotspot question slide has 3 parts

As you can see, a Hotspot question slide has 3 parts: 

  • (1) The top text box to add the question title;
  • (2) The answer area allows inserting an image and adding hotspot areas;
  • (3) The Submit button helps learners submit their answers. 

Customize a Hotspot Question

You are free to customize a Hotspot question as you wish. Here are some ways to customize it: 

  • Upload image: Click the image icon Click the image icon, then, select one From File…  or From Project….
  • Insert hotspots: Select the answer area, then click the plus button (4) or right-click the image > Add Hotspot Area. After that, select either Oval or Rectangle and apply it to a specific spot you want. You can add many hotspots for one image. 
  • Resize hotspots: Select a hotspot and drag the anchor points. Otherwise, open the Properties pane > Size & Properties > Transform >adjust or type values in the Width and Height boxes.
  • Change hotspot color, opacity & radius: Click on the answer area then open its Properties pane > Style & Effects > Hotspot > select one from the Color drop-down list, drag the slider, or enter values in the Opacity and Radius spin boxes. 
  • Delete hotspots: Select one or more hotspots and press DELETE on the keyboard. Alternatively, right-click one hotspot and choose Delete
  • Resize the question: Select the answer area and drag the resizing handles. Otherwise, open the Properties pane > Size & Properties > Transform > adjust or type values in the Width and Height boxes. 
Drag the resizing handles to resize the hotspot

Note: In the Properties pane of the question >  Interactivity > General > the Multiple Response check box is selected by default. So, this means learners can give many answers by clicking many spots on an image. Each click they made is considered as an answer. In case you want the last click to be accepted as your answer, deselect this check box. Besides, if you want to limit the number of hotspot touches, you can select the Touch Limit check box and enter its value.

Multiple Response and Touch Limit check box

Tip: After customizing a question and its hotpots, right-click it and select Set as Default Hotspot Question or Set as Default Hotspot if you want to reuse. That way, this question or its hotspots will appear each time you insert a new Hotspot question or a hotspot. Alternatively, you can customize your hotspot question by using Object Settings view to use it later on.

Set Correct Answers

By default, a hotspot that you insert into the image is set as a correct answer. Nevertheless, you can change it into an incorrect answer. To get it done, go to the Properties pane > Interactivity > General > deselect the Correct check box.

Set correct answers

Set Score & Reporting

Firstly, to set scores and reporting for a Hotspot question, select the answer area. After that, go to the Properties pane > Interactivity > Score & Reporting. 

Score & Reporting Hotspot question

As can be seen, this section provides you a lot of useful options to: 

  • (5) measure learners performance (select the Graded mode) or collect learners feedback or information (select the Survey mode);
  • (6) track learners results;
  • (7) set points for correct answers;
  • (8) set the maximum attempts that learners can interact with the question;
  • (9) set a time limit that only allows learners to respond to the question in the given period of time.

For more details, see How to Create Interactive Quizzes.

Besides setting scores for the entire hotspot question, it is possible to set scores for each spot. To get it done, select Partial scoring for question (a). Then, go to the Properties pane of each spot > Interactivity > Score & Reporting > Points and specify the point that you want (b).

Set Partial scoring for hotspot question

Note: In case a hotspot question has many correct answers and Multiple Response is allowed, if learners make even one wrong click, they will get the zero score. Otherwise, if learners click correctly, (even the number of correct answers is not enough) they will achieve the total score from the correct spots.

Add Events – Actions

Basically, a Hotspot question has default events and actions. Particularly, in the Graded mode, a Hotspot question has four events: On Correct, On Incorrect, On Incomplete, and On Time Out. However, in the Survey mode, it just has three events: On Complete, On Incomplete, On Timeout. Here is what you’ll see when you’ve selected the Graded mode: 

Add events - actions for a hotspot question

Despite default events and actions, ActivePresenter allows you to change them, delete them or even make them more advanced as you wish. To do that, click on the answer area. Then, go to the Properties pane > Interactivity > Events – Actions.

Refer to Work with Events – Actions for details.  

Customize Feedback Layers

By default, ActivePresenter automatically adds feedback layers that correspond to the events and actions differentiating from Graded mode and Survey mode. You are free to customize these feedback layers or add more layers as you wish by navigating to the View tab > Feedback Master.

For full details, take a look at Use Feedback Layers

So, that’s how to work with Hotspot questions in ActivePresenter 8. Try it from now on and contact us if you need further help. Many useful articles are available for you on our website and Twitter.

Visit the following links if you want to know more about other question types in ActivePresenter:

True/False
Multiple Choice
Multiple Response
Fill in Text Entry
Fill in Text Entries
Sequence
Fill in Blanks
Drag-n-Drop
Essay
Rating Scale (Likert)