Types of Actions

ANGEL Actions - Adapted from the Cyber-learning Labs Quiz Creation Guide

Add Variable
Alert
Announcement
Calendar
Email (External)
Go To
Lock
Mail (Internal)
Message
Redirect
Replace Variable Text
Set Variable
Team Enroll
Team Unenroll
Unlock

A brief description of each action type follows. All actions allow you to specify optional Criteria for which they are triggered.

Add Variable

The Add Variable action allows the course editor to add (or subtract) to the value of an existing environment variable.

In the Variable Name textbox, type the name of the variable you wish to edit.
Enter your desired increment amount (use a negative number to deduct from a variable's value, e.g. -1) in the Amount to Add textbox.

The Add Variable, action could be used to increment a variable called Quiz_Competency that would increment by 1 for every quiz a student received 70% or higher and decrement for every quiz a student received 69% or lower. A unique Quiz_Competency value would be stored for each student in the course – the results of which could be printed to a page for instructor review.

Alert

The Alert action presents a popup message to the user when triggered by a specified event.

In the Alert Message Text area, type the text you wish to be displayed in the popup message.

Announcement

The Announcement action posts a personal announcement to a user’s course announcements page.

In the Announcement text area, type the text you wish to be displayed as the personal announcement.
You may optionally type a numeric value in the Duration textbox to specify the number of days the personal announcement should remain posted.
You may optionally type a numeric value in the Days Offset textbox to specify the number of days to offset (wait before displaying) the personal announcement.
You may optionally type a time value (e.g. 10:30 PM or 22:30) in the Start Time textbox to specify the time of day to display the personal announcement

Calendar

The Calendar action posts a personal calendar event to a user’s course calendar page.

In the Title textbox, type the text you wish to be displayed as the title of the personal calendar event.
In the Category textbox, type the category for the personal calendar event.
In the Notes text area, type any additional viewable notes that you wish to be associated with the personal calendar event.
You may optionally type a time value (e.g. 10:30 PM or 22:30) in the Start Time textbox to specify the time of day to display the personal announcement
You may optionally type a numeric value in the Days Offset textbox to specify the number of days to offset (wait before displaying) the personal calendar event.
You may optionally type a numeric value in the Duration textbox to specify the number of minutes the personal calendar event should remain posted.
You may optionally type true or false in the Editable by User textbox to allow or disallow the student to edit the personal calendar event.

Email (External)

The Email action sends an Internet email message when triggered by a specified event.

Type a valid Internet email address in the From textbox to specify who will appear as the sender of the message.
You may optionally type a valid Internet email address(es) in the To textbox to specify who should receive the Internet email message. If no value is specified, ANGEL will attempt to send the message to the Internet email address (if known) of the user submitting the quiz.
Note: More than one email address can be added to the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, however they must be separated with \; (not simply a semi-colon). This escapes out the semicolon character that has additional programmatic uses in the Action editor.
You may optionally type a valid email address(es) in the Cc or Bcc textboxes to specify who should also receive the Internet email message, but in the Cc (carbon copy) or Bcc (blind carbon copy) fields.
Type a subject for the email message in the Subject textbox.
Type your message text in the Message Text text area.
You may optionally choose a Message Format: either HTML, Plain, or Smart text

Go To

The Go To action redirects the user to another content item (in the same course) when triggered by a specified event. Be sure to set a delay if you are using other actions along with Go To.

In the Match Text textbox, type the exact Entry ID¹, password, or title of the item you wish to redirect the student to. Note: If more than one item exists with the title or password provided in the Match Text textbox, then the user will be redirected to a list of the matching items.

¹ To copy the Entry ID for an item into the Go To Action Editor, right-click on the title or icon of an item, select Copy Shortcut (or Copy Link Location if using Mozilla Firefox), paste the copied link into the Match Text textbox, and delete the entire pasted link except the last 15 (or so) alpha-numeric characters following “ENTRY_ID=” (without the quotes).

You can combine partial titles with an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to locate multiple items with similar titles. For example, to search for all items with the words “Lesson 1” as part of the title, type lesson 1 * in the Match Text textbox. In this example, when triggered, the user might be redirected to a list of items with the following titles:

Lesson 1 Homework
Lesson 1 Lecture Notes
Lesson 1 Quiz
You may optionally type a value (in seconds) in the Delay textbox to specify a period of time to display the confirmation/results page before redirecting to the specified URL.
IMPORTANT Note: If you do not set a delay, your Go To action will occur, but any other actions you may have specified will not. I recommend setting a delay of 1 second. Leave the Delay textbox blank or type 0 if you wish the redirect to take place immediately. Type a very high number, such as 10 minutes (600 seconds) to allow the user to view the confirmation/results page for as long as they wish.
You may optionally provide an item type in the Item Type textbox to restrict the Go To action to a particular type of item. For instance, to redirect the user to a list of all quiz items, type a * (wildcard) in the Match Text textbox and type QUIZ in the Item Type textbox. When the action is triggered, the user will be redirected to a listing of all quiz items.
You may optionally configure an additional action to be performed on the resulting page. For example, if you are redirecting to a quiz or form, typing TAKE in the Action textbox will direct the user into the quiz or form, bypassing the intermediate “Take the Quiz” page.
Additional advanced functions or sub-events can be triggered using the Action and Subevent options. For more information, see your ANGEL Administrator.

View Example linking between ANGEL Lesson Items with the Go To Action

Lock

The Lock action locks existing content from the user when triggered by a specified event. The Lock action can only lock content that had previously been locked and is still associated with a particular password.

Type the password(s) of the item(s) you wish to lock in the Password(s) textbox(es).

Note: When an event locks a password, all items that use the password become locked. If you give the same password to more than one item and an event occurs that locks the password, it will lock everything within the course with that password.

Mail (Internal)

The Mail action sends a course mail message when triggered by a specified event.

Type a valid ANGEL username in the From textbox to specify who will appear as the sender of the message.
You may optionally type a valid ANGEL username(s) in the To textbox to specify who should receive the course mail message. If no value is specified, ANGEL will send the message to the user submitting the quiz.
Note: More than one valid ANGEL username can be added to the To field, however they must be separated with a comma.
Type a subject for the course mail message in the Subject textbox.
Type your message text in the Message Text text area.
You may optionally specify an Internet Address which the message will be sent From or users can Reply To
You may optionally choose to Hide Recipients of a message
You may optionally Forward the message to Internet Mail
You may optionall select a Message Format, either HTML, Plain, or Smart text

Message

The Message action presents an inline message to the user when triggered by a specified event.

In the HTML Message Text area, type the text (in plain text or HTML format) you wish to be displayed in the inline message.

Redirect

The Redirect action redirects the user to a web page when triggered by a specified event.

In the URL textbox, type the fully qualified URL of the web page you wish to redirect the student to.
You may optionally type a value (in seconds), in the Delay textbox, to specify a period of time to display the confirmation/results page before redirecting to the specified URL.
Note: Leave the Delay textbox blank or type 0 if you wish the redirect to take place immediately. Type a very high number, such as 10 minutes (600 seconds) if you wish to allow the user to view the confirmation/results page for as long as they wish.

Replace Variable Text

The Replace Variable Text action replaces a string within a variable value with another string.

In the Variable Name textbox, type the name of the variable you wish to edit.
In the Find Text textbox, type the text you wish to edit.
Type your new text in the Replace With textbox.

This action could be used to update a list of ‘items to be completed.’ As the student completes the items, an image of a checkbox (next to the list item) could be replaced with the image of a selected checkbox.

Set Variable

The Set Variable action sets or updates the value of the specified variable.

In the Variable Name textbox, type the name of the variable you wish to create.
You may optionally type a value in the Variable Value textbox to give your variable a value.

This action could be used to change the starting point (welcome page) for each student based on the last quiz they had received a passing score for.

Team Subscribe

The Team Enroll action enrolls a user in an existing team.

In the Team(s) textbox, type the team(s) the user will be enrolled in.

Team Unsubscribe

The Team Unenroll action unenrolls a user from a team they currently are enrolled in.

In the Team(s) textbox, type the team(s) the user will be unenrolled from.

Unlock

The Unlock action releases password-protected content to the user when triggered by a specified event. The Unlock action can only unlock content that had previously been locked and is still associated with a particular password. For detailed steps regarding the Unlock action, see the section of this document titled, “Using the Action Editor to Unlock Material Based on a Student’s Quiz Score.”

Type the password(s) of the item(s) you wish to unlock in the Password(s) textbox(es).

Detailed example of how to use the Unlock Action

Important Note: When an event unlocks a password, all items that use the password become unlocked. If you give the same password for more than one item and an event occurs that unlocks the password, it will unlock everything within the course with that password.

Hint: When password-protecting Lessons items (that will be unlocked using an action on an assessment, dropbox, etc.) begin your password with an exclamation point (!) to cause the password protected item to be hidden for non-Course Editors until the password-protected item has been released.