The Secret to LMS Debugging

Unraveling the chatter between your learning management system (LMS) and the content you’ve produced in your authoring app can be frustrating.

What should you do when learners do one thing but the LMS says they’ve done something else? How do you handle it when the score or status isn’t recorded as you’d expect or when the course doesn’t suspend or resume the way you’d like?

An important first step is to test your project in SCORM Cloud, but what should you do when your course works properly in SCORM Cloud but not in your LMS?

That’s where LMS debug mode comes in! It’s an easy way to see exactly what your AICC, SCORM, or cmi5 content is sending to the LMS and how the LMS is responding. By default, LMS debug mode is disabled in your published output, but it’s easy to turn on.

In this article, we’ll walk you through that process step by step. If you prefer, you can watch this video instead:

Step 1: Locate Your Published scormdriver.js File

First, publish your course in cmi5, SCORM, or AICC format (this debug process does not work for xAPI/Tin Can API). 

If you’re using Storyline 360, Presenter 360, Quizmaker 360, or Engage 360, the next thing you’ll do is click Open in the publish success window. 

From there, double-click on the lms folder.

If you’re using Rise 360, export your Rise 360 course as a cmi5, SCORM, or AICC package and save it to your computer. From there, extract the zip file containing your course and open the scormdriver folder.

From there, no matter which app you’re using, you’ll want to find the scormdriver.js file.

Step 2: Enable Debug Mode

Open the scormdriver.js file in a text editor, such as Notepad, and locate the following line: var SHOW_DEBUG_ON_LAUNCH = false;

Replace the word false with the word true, as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, save and close the scormdriver.js file.

Step 3: Zip Your Content and Upload It to Your LMS

Next you’ll need to zip your file so you can upload it to your LMS.

If you created your course in Storyline 360, Presenter 360, Quizmaker 360, or Engage 360, simply go back to the publish success window and click the Zip button. This creates a zipped file of the published output in the same location where you published your course.

If you created your course in Rise 360, you’ll need to do this manually. To do that, go back to the top-level folder of the published output and zip the files. Make sure not to zip the folder that contains your course, just the course files. 

Once you’ve zipped your file, upload it to your LMS.

Step 4: Launch Your Course and Save the Debug Log

When you launch the content in your LMS, it’ll open in one window, and the debug log will open in another.

After reproducing the issue you’re troubleshooting, copy and paste the text from the debug window into a document for further investigation.

Step 5: Review the Debug Log

Your LMS provider is most qualified to interpret the contents of your debug log, so we recommend opening a support case with them. However, if you’re familiar with AICC, SCORM, or cmi5, feel free to take a look at the log. Sometimes an issue is obvious and jumps off the page.

If neither you nor your LMS provider is able to spot the cause of the problem, submit a case to our support team and we’ll take a look. Be sure to include a copy of your project file so we can try to reproduce the problem.

Need more help troubleshooting your LMS? Check out these other resources:

• How to Troubleshoot Your LMS with SCORM Cloud
• Learning More About Your LMS: Suspend Data and Resume Behavior

Want to avoid the hassle of course and LMS miscommunications? Try out Reach 360—our frictionless LMS. It’s integrated with Articulate 360 apps, so you can publish directly and be confident that everything will work as expected. It’s fast and hassle-free!