Here is an example of Storyline with Wordpress LMS and Tin Can

Mar 25, 2013

Hello! I've been experimenting with using Storyline and the LearnDash LMS WordPress plug-in over the past few weeks. As I was doing it, I put together an example site and also a downloadable Quick Reference Guide PDF in case anyone else might find it helpful. It seems to work fairly well, but there are a few tweaks I had to make to the WordPress template that I selected to get it to look just right after the courses were embedded. Overall, I found it easy to set up. Links below if you are interested:

You can use the user name and password available on the demo site to log in and view the sample courses (These are just dummy courses I created in Storyline with filler lorem ipsum content, I mainly just wanted to demonstrate how Storyline courses look when embedded in WordPress since I was curious how it worked). If multiple people log in at once, you may need to create your own username/password to view.

A few quick notes:

  • I used the SaltBox LRS that is recommended by LeardDash
  • The Storyline content is loaded into an iFrame on your WordPress page, but you can set the height/width of the iFrame in your plug-in settings
  • The setup was fairly easy, but you will need to spend some time selecting a WordPress template that will work well with your content (But there are plenty of free WordPress templates out there and plenty you can buy if you have the budget)
  • I had to make some minor modifications to some of the CSS in the WordPress template to get the Storyline content to fit correctly
  • I didn't use any of the built in Quiz and Certificate functionality available in the WordPress LMS since this is already demonstrated on the demo site on LearnDash.com
37 Replies
Troy Broas

Hi Joe,

Right now it seems that the LearnDash plug-in actually leverages the reporting capabilities of the SaltBox LRS. The developers at LearnDash say that SaltBox will build custom reporting for you, but I have yet to try it. I've attached a few screen shots of the default view of some the reporting you get out of the box. Hope this helps (It's still fairly empty since there isn't much activity on the demo site).

Justin Ferriman

Also, please note that the GrassBlade integration responsible for launching the Storyline courses is developed and maintained by Next Software Solutions.  They are hard at work building out the functionality of this API viewer, so it's only going to continue to get better (especially once version 1.0 of tincan hits the scene).  They can also help build out specific reporting.

Mike Walters

Hmmmm, there appears to have been some changes...

Can't see anything called "Grassblade" but there is a plugin called "insert-or-embed-articulate-content-into-wordpress" plugin.

Also, there doesn't appear to be Courses > Tin Can Settings menu item anymore so I am a bit stumped as to where to put my Wax LRS credentials.

Anyway, I've emailed LearnDash support so when I work it out I'll let you know!

Mike

Troy Broas

Hi Mike, what versions of the plug-ins are you using? Mine are listed below (Although it's possible LearnDash may have already updated the plug-ins since I wrote this up, so I may need to update my instructions):

  • GrassBlade xAPI Companion - 0.3.1 (This is actually the One Click Upload for Articulate Storyline extension, but it is not named that in the WordPress menu after you install it)
  • LeardDash Learning Record Store - 1.0 
  • LearnDash LMS - 1.1.4

Below are a few screenshots that might help you:

GrassBlade for me is located under Plugins on the Wordpress Dashboard:

Below is where I see the Courses > Tin Can menu:

One last thing, the Courses > Tin Can Settings menu item and The GrassBlade menu item both take you to the same page, the GrassBlade Settings page.

Hope this helps a little (or maybe I made it more confusing?!).

Justin Ferriman

Hi Mike-

Sorry for the confusion here. I'll get to your support ticket.  The GrassBlade extension was located in the folder titled "one click upload for Articulate etc." so LearnDash customers could quickly find what they were looking for.  Inside this folder was a zip file titled: "GrassBlade".

NSS, the makers of GrassBlade requested that we temporarily not distribute GB while they made some updates to the offering.  It will be back in the very near future  - and I have written to NSS to get permission to send you the latest version - I will notify you as soon as I receive word.  

I'll be in touch.

Mike Walters

Well, things are going very well with LearnDash LMS. Easy to install and configure and all the plugins are working well.

I have upgraded to the paid version of GrassBlade so I could try out the upload functions etc. etc.

Everything seems to work okay but the statements that are being generated are completely unreadable. I thought I would post some screenshots here in case anyone else is having the same problems (and because I think it is a Storyline thing)...

A few details first:

It's a Storyline module with an intro screen, 2 multiple choice questions, results slide and end of module slide.

I published to TinCan with the results slide as the outcome. I gave the module the name "Demo Quiz" and the id "demo-quiz" (clever eh?)

In Wax LRS, this is what I am getting...

What on earth is "urn:dummy" and how did it get there? I put activity_id='Quiz Demo' into the Grassblade shortcode, which is why it has eventually turned up in the list.

I actually discovered where all the weird strings of characters are coming from. If you look at the tincan.xml file published by Storyline they are all in there as activity IDs. I'll attach the file so you can take a look...

So, how did Storyline come up with these IDs?

How can I change them to something useful (without editing the xml file)?

How do I get rid of the urn:dummy thing?

Why does a simple 2 question module generate 9 different statements?

And what the heck is http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/Course ?

So many questions to answer and I'm getting older by the minute...

Cheers,

Mike

Pankaj Agrawal

Mike Walters said:

Well, things are going very well with LearnDash LMS. Easy to install and configure and all the plugins are working well.

I have upgraded to the paid version of GrassBlade so I could try out the upload functions etc. etc.

Everything seems to work okay but the statements that are being generated are completely unreadable. I thought I would post some screenshots here in case anyone else is having the same problems (and because I think it is a Storyline thing)...

A few details first:

It's a Storyline module with an intro screen, 2 multiple choice questions, results slide and end of module slide.

I published to TinCan with the results slide as the outcome. I gave the module the name "Demo Quiz" and the id "demo-quiz" (clever eh?)

In Wax LRS, this is what I am getting...

What on earth is "urn:dummy" and how did it get there? I put activity_id='Quiz Demo' into the Grassblade shortcode, which is why it has eventually turned up in the list.

I actually discovered where all the weird strings of characters are coming from. If you look at the tincan.xml file published by Storyline they are all in there as activity IDs. I'll attach the file so you can take a look...

So, how did Storyline come up with these IDs?

How can I change them to something useful (without editing the xml file)?

How do I get rid of the urn:dummy thing?

Why does a simple 2 question module generate 9 different statements?

And what the heck is http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/Course ?

So many questions to answer and I'm getting older by the minute...

Cheers,

Mike


So, how did Storyline come up with these IDs?

They just randomly made them

How can I change them to something useful (without editing the xml file)?

Cannot be changed, even if you change xml file. Either Articulate has to fix it, or we might need to do some funny reporting trick, to replace the ids with user defined string (or string imported from xml)

How do I get rid of the urn:dummy thing?

This is WAXLRS method of making the ID's a url. For compatibility with Tin Can 0.95 and later, all IDs need to be a URI. Probably you should use URI's there.


Why does a simple 2 question module generate 9 different statements?

Statements are different for different things. Generally every module has a Course, and then a quiz inside it, so Course starts (attempted) and completes, Quiz starts and completes, and questions are answered. So at times one action triggers multiple statements.

And what the heck is http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/Course ?

Its Tin Can way of saying "Course"



Ali Shahrazad

Hello,

Ali here from Saltbox. I would +1 Pankaj's reply on this topic. Since Articulate is 0.90 Tin Can compliant and 0.95 compliance requires a valid URI for an activity, we have no way to change this and had to manually create a URI as an activity ID when the data was reported/stored in Wax LRS.

Once Articulate Storyline is 0.95 and hopefully soon 1.0 spec compliant, you should have more readable activity descriptions/names. Please feel free to reach out to us directly with any other questions or feedback at support@saltbox.com.

Thank you,

Ali Shahrazad

Mike Walters

Great replies and awesome explanations! Sorry if anything I said in the earlier post sounded grumpy (just about everything I type is with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek - I really need an emoticon for that).

I posted it here as I knew everyone was reading this thread and I didn't have much of an idea which bit of the puzzle was causing the issue. That and the Articulate Heroes are really good at responding to forum posts quickly (especially when you cross-promote on Twitter!).

At least now I have something to go on and some things to try out. TinCan is still in its infancy and I am only just paddling in the shallow end.

It's all very exciting and interesting!

Cheers,

Mike

Troy Broas

Steve Lee said:

Hi all. I'm totally stumped, I don't see these plugins anywhere. Forgive my (insert adjective here: example "stupidity") but where can I access the one click uploader and the LearnDash LRS plugins? 

Think I may be having a LearnDash issue so need to wait till Monday for support, but any help appreciated. 

Steve


Hi Steve, 

I believe Justin Ferriman from LearnDash mentioned that Next Software Solutions, the developers of the GrassBlade plug-in asked him to temporarily not distribute that plug-in until they update it. It is still listed as a plug-in on the site, so I am not 100% sure, it may be available again. Did you check your the zip file you received after your received your LearnDash download? 

http://www.learndash.com/extensions/

See his post above. Hope this helps.

Steve Lee

Hey,

Thanks for the replies.

Justin kindly got back to me on the weekend. There was a problem with my activation and I received another code which works now.

I see the plugins, but the Storyline one click uploader no longer appears. Justin suggested it was part of Grassblade. I think it's part of the paid version rather than the free, though not 100% sure.

Slowly trying to put all these things together, thanks for the help.

Steve

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