QuikAuthor

Custom Interactions

Custom Interactions: Describe the Activity, Get the Activity.

Describe the activity you want and QuikAuthor's AI builds it as a bespoke interactive element, scored and tracked like any other question, in your published course and your SCORM export.

Every authoring tool hands you a library of activity types, and every library ends one activity short. The thing you actually wanted was a calculator the learner has to get right before the lesson moves on, or a block of code they have to fix, or a sorting task using your own categories rather than the ones somebody shipped. It is not in the list, so the lesson gets a multiple choice question about it instead, and everybody quietly agrees that will do.

QuikAuthor removes the list. With Custom Interactions you describe the activity you want and the AI builds a bespoke interactive element for you, from an interactive code block for technical training to calculators, sorting activities or branching scenarios. Each one is fully self-contained and runs safely inside your course, can be scored and tracked like any other question, and works in both your published courses and your SCORM exports.

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Why the Activity You Wanted Never Gets Built

Because the cost of a bespoke activity is almost never the idea. It is everything the idea drags behind it: somebody to build it, somewhere to host it, and a way to make the result count towards the learner's score. Three jobs for one screen is enough to make a multiple choice question look sensible, so that is what the lesson ships with.

Having It Built Outside the Course

  • A brief, a developer and a review cycle before anybody sees a first version
  • The finished widget lives somewhere other than the course and has to be kept alive there
  • The learner's answer sits outside the lesson, so it does not count towards the score
  • Your LMS receives a completion that says nothing about whether the task was done correctly
  • A change to the content means going back to whoever built it
  • On a phone it was never really tested, because testing it was somebody else's step

Describing It in QuikAuthor

  • You write what the activity should do, in the same sentence you would use to explain it to a colleague
  • The interaction is part of the lesson rather than a thing bolted to the side of it
  • It can be scored and tracked like any other question in the course
  • Per-question results come back with everything else you report on
  • Wanting a different version means describing a different version
  • It travels with the course into your SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 export

What a Custom Interaction Actually Is

Five things are true of every one of them, and the first is the one people come looking for.

Built From a Description

You describe the activity you want and the AI builds it. The input is a sentence about what the learner should do, not a configuration screen and not a file somebody hands you afterwards.

Self-Contained

Each interaction is fully self-contained and runs safely inside your course. It is a part of the lesson, not an embedded window into something else that has to stay up for the lesson to work.

Scored Like a Question

An interaction can be scored and tracked like any other question. That matters more than it sounds: an activity that cannot be scored is an activity nobody can prove anybody did, which is why bespoke work usually ends up decorative.

It Survives Export

Custom Interactions work in your published courses and in your SCORM exports, so the activity does not quietly drop out of the version your LMS actually serves. SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 export is included on every plan.

Beyond the Template Library

The 70+ interactive templates cover the shapes most lessons need, from multiple choice and hotspots to word games, memory matching and swipe decks. Custom Interactions are for the lesson where none of them is the right shape.

How Do You Add a Custom Interaction?

Four steps, and the only one that takes real judgement is the first.

1

Decide What the Learner Does

Not what the screen shows. What the learner has to do to get it right. "Work out the correct dilution for a twenty litre tank" is an activity; "a page about dilution" is a slide. The difference is the whole of the brief.

2

Describe It

Write the activity out: the task, what counts as a correct answer, what the learner is given to work with, and what should happen when they get it wrong. If you can describe it, you can add it, and a vague description is the one thing that reliably produces a vague interaction.

3

Score It

Decide whether the activity counts. An interaction can be scored and tracked like any other question, so an activity you care about should carry marks and an activity you do not should not. Half-scoring everything is how a pass mark stops meaning anything.

4

Run It Yourself, Then Publish

Open the lesson and do the activity as a learner would, on a phone as well as a desktop, and get it deliberately wrong once to see what the learner sees. Then share the course by link, assign it with due dates and automated reminders, or export it as SCORM for your LMS.

Describing an Activity So It Comes Back Right

A generated interaction is only as good as the description it was built from, and most weak descriptions fail in the same handful of ways. These six edits do most of the work.

Name the Verb

Start with what the learner physically does: calculate, order, correct, select, build, fix. A description that opens with a topic produces a screen about the topic. A description that opens with a verb produces something the learner has to act on.

Say What Correct Looks Like

The activity needs a definition of success, and it has to be the one you would defend in a review. An exact figure, a particular order, a specific line of code. If you cannot state the correct answer in a sentence, the activity is not ready to be built yet.

Give the Learner the Raw Material

Say what they start with. A set of values, a list of items to sort, a snippet to repair, a scenario to read. An activity with nothing to work from becomes a recall question wearing a different jacket.

Decide What Happens When They Are Wrong

A wrong answer is the most useful moment in the activity, and it is the one most descriptions leave out. Say whether the learner retries, sees why it was wrong, or is routed elsewhere. Branching logic handles the last of those, on quiz results, confidence ratings, choices or a decision to skip.

Use Your Own Content, Not an Example of It

The categories your business actually sorts things into, your real thresholds, the system your people really use. A generic version of the activity is easier to describe and is the reason bespoke training so often reads like somebody else's.

Keep One Activity to One Idea

An interaction that tests three things at once tells you nothing when a learner fails it. Build the three separately and you can read the per-question results and see which of the three is the problem.

When to Describe One, and When to Use a Template

A custom interaction is not an upgrade you apply to a lesson. It is a different kind of work, and the honest default is that most screens should still be templates. The 70+ template library exists because the shapes in it are the shapes most training needs, and a template is a known quantity: it is already responsive, already brand customisable and already behaves the way the last course that used it behaved.

Describe a custom interaction when the activity is the content. Technical training where the learner has to repair something rather than recognise it, a calculation your people get wrong in the field, a sorting task that only makes sense against your own categories, a judgement call whose consequences you want to play out in front of them. In those cases the template version is a compromise and everybody involved knows it. This is also where a well-described activity earns its keep for years, because the thing being tested is a real task rather than a phrasing.

Reach for a template when the shape already exists. If the activity is "pick the right one of four", "put these in order", "find the thing in the picture" or "recall the term", the library has it, it has been through every browser you care about, and describing a bespoke version buys you nothing but another thing to check. The same goes for the lesson you are building at speed: our guide to rapid authoring makes the same argument about the wider build, which is that production time is worth spending in a few places rather than spreading evenly.

One rule holds for both. Whatever the lesson is made of, read the per-question results afterwards. Learner management reports completions, pass rates and individual question responses, and the question people keep getting wrong tells you whether the activity is hard or just badly described.

Where a Custom Interaction Is Not the Answer

If a template already does it.

QuikAuthor ships 70+ interactive templates covering content, quizzes, games, scenarios and media, with configurable timers, attempt limits, passing scores and retry options. If one of them is the right shape, use it. A bespoke version of an activity that already exists is work you have to check rather than work you have saved.

If you are simulating another piece of software.

Software simulation and interactions built from triggers and variables are Articulate Storyline's ground, and we say so on our Articulate alternative page rather than pretending otherwise. If the requirement is recording an application and having learners click through a replica of it, that is a different category of tool.

If the learner has to speak.

QuikAuthor does not score spoken answers, so practice here is written. A scenario, a set of possible responses and a consequence for each, built with branching logic, is the form that question takes in QuikAuthor. Software that listens to someone speak and grades them is a different product.

If you need the same facts drilled over weeks.

QuikAuthor does not offer spaced repetition. A custom interaction is a better activity on one occasion, not a schedule that returns a learner to it on a curve. If repeated, timed recall is the mechanism you are buying, that is not what this is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I build my own custom interactions, like an interactive code exercise?

Yes. With Custom Interactions, you describe the activity you want and our AI builds a bespoke interactive element for you, from an interactive code block for technical training, to calculators, sorting activities or branching scenarios. Each interaction is fully self-contained and runs safely inside your course, can be scored and tracked like any other question, and works in both your published courses and your SCORM exports.

What is a custom interaction in a course authoring tool?

It is an activity that is not one of the tool's existing templates. Most authoring tools give you a fixed set of question and activity types, and anything outside that set has to be built as a separate piece of software and bolted on. A custom interaction is the same idea built inside the lesson instead, which is what lets it be scored with everything else rather than sitting beside the course as a link.

Do I need to write code to build one?

No. You describe the activity you want in words and the AI builds the interactive element. The description is the work, which is why the useful preparation is deciding exactly what the learner does and what counts as a correct answer, rather than learning any part of the tool.

Can a custom interaction be scored and tracked?

Yes. A custom interaction can be scored and tracked like any other question in the course. Results come through with everything else QuikAuthor reports on, which includes completions, pass rates and individual question responses, so you can see how learners did on that specific activity rather than only whether they finished the lesson.

Do custom interactions work in a SCORM export?

Yes. Custom Interactions work in both your published courses and your SCORM exports. QuikAuthor exports SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 packages on every plan, with 10 lifetime exports on the free plan and unlimited export on Pro and Team, and individual lessons can be exported as standalone packages as well as whole courses.

How is a custom interaction different from one of the 70+ templates?

A template is a shape that already exists. You choose it, put your content in it, and set things like the timer, the attempt limit and the passing score. A custom interaction is a shape that does not exist yet, described rather than chosen. Templates should still be the default, because a template has already been built and tested, and a described activity is the right answer only when none of the existing shapes fits what the learner needs to do.

What kinds of activity can I ask for?

The examples QuikAuthor names are an interactive code block for technical training, calculators, sorting activities and branching scenarios, and the principle behind them is that if you can describe it, you can add it. The practical limit is your description rather than a list: an activity you can state precisely, including what a correct answer looks like, is one that comes back close to what you meant.

Will a custom interaction work on a phone?

QuikAuthor uses True Adaptive Design, so a lesson fills the screen it is on rather than shrinking to fit a smaller one, and there are native iOS and Android learner apps with push notifications and offline access. Because a custom interaction is generated rather than drawn from the tested template library, treat it as you would any other generated output and do the activity yourself on a phone before you publish it.

Is a custom interaction the same as a software simulation?

No. A software simulation reproduces another application so a learner can click through it, and that work belongs to Articulate Storyline, which is the benchmark for it and which we do not claim to replace. A custom interaction is a self-contained activity inside a QuikAuthor lesson, which is a smaller and more specific thing.

Are Custom Interactions included on the free plan?

Yes. The free plan includes every AI authoring feature and all 70+ interactive templates, with unlimited AI prompts, 25 courses, up to 50 active monthly learners, 500 MB of storage, custom branding and 10 lifetime SCORM exports, and it needs no credit card and does not expire. The one AI feature metered separately is AI Avatar Video, at 2 credits per month on free and 10 per month on Pro. Email support is included on every plan and chat support begins on Pro at $69 per author per month.

How do I tell whether learners are actually getting the activity right?

Read the per-question results rather than the completion rate. QuikAuthor reports completions, pass rates and individual question responses, and Team adds segmented reporting by team, location or department along with a full report export that includes individual question responses. An activity everybody passes first time is not testing anything, and an activity almost nobody passes is usually described badly rather than genuinely hard.

What should I check before I publish a custom interaction?

Do the activity yourself, as a learner, on a phone as well as a desktop. Get it wrong on purpose once and confirm the learner is told something useful rather than only that they failed. Check that the score it awards is the score you intended. If the course is going to an LMS, run the SCORM package in that LMS before you assign it, because the export is the version your learners will actually meet.

Build the Activity You Actually Wanted.

Describe what the learner should do and let QuikAuthor build it, scored and tracked like every other question in the course. Included in the AI feature set on every plan, the free one included.

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