[New Quizzes] Moving from one Question to Another

[john_williamson]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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When a instructor selects show one question at a time  option the cursor should  automatically appear in the answer section of the question.    Currently when a student moves from one question to another they must move the cursor into the answer area. #quizzes.next_new

[James]

By cursor, do you mean the pointer that moves around when you move your mouse or do you mean the cursor that appears in text while typing (often a blinking vertical line)?

If you mean the mouse pointer, I'm pretty sure automatically moving the mouse cursor is a pretty big no-no for accessibility reasons (and usability ones as well) and doesn't translate well across devices.

If you mean the text cursor, that only make sense when you're typing in a textbox or text field and possibly only when there is one (no fill-in-multiple-blanks questions). The technical name for this is setting the focus on the element and can be done with JavaScript, so it's something that your institution could implement if they agreed. It would have to be at an account or subaccount level, though, not for an individual instructor. Consistency of use is good and it would be bad for the textbox to gain focus in one course and not another.

Before they rush off to do that, I would consider the accessibility concerns there as well. I don't know the answers, but I wonder things like if the focus is set to the textbox for the answer, will a screen reader read the question that came before it?

[ronmarx]

Past and current versions of browsers seem to have disrupted the GUI standard that I think  @James ‌ is referring to in his comment. In pre-internet applications, cursors would only move to and from editable (text) fields using the keyboard. From the earliest (Lotus 1-2-3, Excel) spreadsheets, to later popular databases (like FileMaker Pro), cursor movement via the keyboard was restricted to editable cells/fields.

It seems to me that internet browsers broke that convention. Now the Tab key moves from one HTML element to another regardless of its function. Some buttons, once selected in this manner, for example can be clicked by using the Return key. No mouse is needed.

I think I know why James is puzzled, as I am now having reread your post. I agree that in fill-in-blank and short answer questions of the quizzes.next_new https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas/quizzesnext beta, the cursor should be automatically inserted in the answer cell. It would save the user one click, and for younger users, avoid typing into space instead of the answer cell. (Younger users may be watching their fingers as they improve their typing proficiency, after all.)

If what you mean to suggest,  @john_williamson ‌, is that the cursor insertion bar is placed in the answer field by default once the user navigates there from a preceding question, then I agree. Of course, this presents another usage issue: How should those questions act when the user navigates back to the question and some answer text already exists. Standard GUI convention says that existing text is selected for editing. I don't know if there's a routine that would simply place the insertion point before the first or after the last character of the existing text so the user doesn't inadvertently delete it.

[john_williamson]

James,

Sorry for the confusion I am referring to the cursor that appears in the text while typing when  students are answering fill in the blank, multiple fill in the blank, numeric answer questions, and formula questions.  I am currently only using the free for teachers edition of canvas so i don't believe the JavaScript option is feasible. 

[James]

Pre-internet applications?  You caught me. I was the one who whispered "internet" into Al Gore's ear.

[disclaimer] I didn't really whisper it in Al Gore's ear, I whispered it in Ben Franklin's, but he was too busy flying kites to care.

[john_williamson]

My idea is for the cursor insertion bar be placed in the answer field by default once the user navigates there from a preceding question.  I think that the insertion point after the last character of the existing text would be the most logical option when the user navigates back  to a question and some of the answer text already exists.  

[James]

I agree with putting the cursor at the end if you're going to add focus. You definitely don't want to highlight the entire text as it would be too easy to accidentally delete it.

I'm still not sure what a screen reader is going to do if the focus is placed in a field that comes after the question or if there are other implications of setting the focus. When I took an accessibility course changing the focus was a concern. Of course, that was 15 years ago, and while we had internet back (it used string between two tin soup cans), there have been a lot of changes since.

[jbrady2]

 @James ‌ How this might function with or impair the function of a screen reader would be my biggest concern.  Unless screen reading software is already programmed to compensate for the few websites that do employ some sort of focus, I would think this could be confusing to the student having to employ a screen reader.

[scottdennis]

"50% of the facts stated on the Internet are wrong."

~ Benjamin Franklin

[ncrisosto]

I believe that your concerns about accessibility are well founded.  If the cursor is placed in the answer edit field, a user of screen reading software would need to move out of the edit field in order to read the question.  Making the label for the edit field the entire text of the question could also create an issue if it is long or incomplete.