When do the different products within the 09 suite send LMSCommits. My lms times out after 5 minutes because my scorm 1.2 articulate package is not sending an lmscommit. What can I place into a course to send that info to the LMS?
I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing difficulties with the '09 suite. It may be that the LMS is timing out before it has a chance to save the data.
If you use the "X" in the upper right corner of your Web browser to exit a SCORM content item you may find that your LMS does not properly record or update the course status. This issue can occur when the LMS is not correctly saving the data on the LMSCommit call. Articulate Presenter and Articulate Quizmaker will call LMSCommit before unloading the content, which tells the LMS that the data should now be "saved" by the LMS.
If you find that your LMS is not updating the status correctly, you may be able to workaround this LMS limitation by using one of the following methods:
* If you are tracking a quiz in a presentation, add an extra slide after the quiz. Closing the browser window in some Learning Management Systems will cause the LMS to terminate communication before the data can be saved. By adding an extra slide after the quiz, it will give the LMS more time to process the LMSCommit call, which should alleviate this issue.
* Instruct your users to click the Exit tab in a Presenter presentation or the Finish button in a Quizmaker quiz to close the content item rather than clicking the "X" in the upper right corner of the Web browser. This will ensure that the LMS exits and saves the data properly.
If you've tried the steps above, but you're still experiencing the same issue, please let me know!
If you're experiencing issues with LMS content, please refer to the following article, which outlines common issues pertaining to viewing and tracking content in an LMS:
Thanks for the quick response. I am not sure I am explaining my issue correctly. I am in a regulated industry, and one of the technical specifications I must follow is a student must be logged out for 5 minutes of inactivity. The LMS I use has a timer built in that checks for this. I am using the 09 suite of products to create my courses, and they are a mixture of reading, quizmaker quizzes, and interactions. The problem I am experiencing is that while my students are advancing through some of the reading slides, the scorm content is not sending an LMScommit. Therefore, the LMS is kicking them for inactivity, even though I have them manually advancing the slides. So what types of activities would cause a scorm 1.2 package to send an LMSCommit. I really don't want to have my students closing their browsers every 4 minutes.
Thanks for responding so quickly. You may need to test the content in SCORM Could, to see exactly when the LMSCommit is being called.
David Fair posted a helpful blog about troubleshooting LMS issues here. In section 7, the blog explains how to test your course. Please take a look at his post and try testing your content.
Have you found an answer for this one? I have a course in the same industry as Chuck but have not been able to develop it in Storyline due to this 5 minute timeout requirement. Is there a way to have Storyline shutdown the course after 5 minutes of inactivity?
There isn't a way to force Storyline to close or "shut down" a course after a specific amount of time. If your course is being hosted in an LMS, the LMS would need to support this type of feature.
I'm not sure how this turned out with Chuck - looks like this was quite some time ago. However, if he was able to find a way to resolve this, hopefully he'll be able to share some information.
In the meantime, you may wan to try testing your course in SCORM Cloud. This would help us determine if the issue is Articulate related or if it's on your LMS's side. If you're using AICC content please take a look at the article below for testing information:
If it appears in SCORM Cloud as well, we'd be happy to take a closer look (you can attach the .STORY file on the second page of the form) at what might be going on.
If you can't replicate the issue in SCORM Cloud, it's probably an issue that you'd want to take to your LMS team.
The articles here and here may also help clear up common LMS issues.
We are experiencing the same problem and have done some debugging with both Storyline and Presenter 2009. Both tools behave the same way and only send an LMS Commit upon exit of the course. After each slide is advanced both tools will send a call to Suspend_data, but no LMS Commit.
This can be confirmed by using the built in IE debugger by clicking F12 and setting breakpoints in the ACP_Scorm_TopApi.js file on the function _Commit and the function _SetValue with watches on the p_strKey and p_strValue variables. You will see as you progress through the course that advancing the slides only sends a SetValue call to cmi.suspend_data but no other calls. What we are looking for here is an LMSCommit(); call in as well and if there is a way to add that. I believe the prior to posters in this thread were looking for the same thing.
To that end I also just found this while continuing to search and it looks like it may be an answer to the issue from another thread: http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/22517.aspx. In this thread someone shows how to use a trigger to add an LMSCommit(); as needed.
I am also somewhat mystified that we can't seem to get a straight answer to this question. I have read several scenarios where customers are asking the same question and expressing the same need but what they are getting is, "your LMS should take care of that, or "Storyline will take care of that", or "check with your LMS vendor".
Does Storyline have a predetermined frequency when, during a single session, it will trigger an LMSCommit so that learner suspend data is actually written to the LMS database--not just stored in the browser?
If Storyline does have a predetermined LMSCommit frequency what is it and can it be modified?
Good morning Mark, I have looked all over the place, have you received a response yet? I completely agree so far from what I have seen many have had this issue.
As far as the LMS Commit, Storyline communicates course completion to an LMS (LMSCommit) when the user meets the completion requirement, either when they reach the appropriate result slide or when they have viewed the required number of slides. BUT communication is continually going back and forth so it may be that your LMS is reading things differently. Perhaps it would help if you could see the actual communication that is happening? You could enable LMS debug mode or look at testing it in SCORM Cloud, as that's an industry standard for LMS output.
Thanks but the course I've design takes about 3 hours to complete by
itself. And 376 slides with a 52 question test at the end. The timeout
error from the LMS is stopping the learners from progressing after 20
minutes.
Did you reach out to your LMS team to see if they had thoughts in regards to the timeout that you're experiencing? I'd suggest looking at testing the course as well outside your LMS in a site such as SCORM Cloud as it's an industry standard for LMS testing. You can read this article here to help walk you through testing.
I have contacted my LMS techs and they suggested adding a SCORM call that periodically submits data to the LMS. This is where I'm having the problem I don't know how to add a SCORM call. Each instance I have come across with the same issue everyone continues to say LMSCommit(); which doesn't do much to my product. I would try and submit it on the SCORM Cloud but my product is well over the size limit.
Here is my dilemma, the students take the course within twenty minutes the LMS times out. When this happens there is no notification to ensure the student understands their progress is not being tracked. The LMS seems to only identify when the course is initiated and completed, no in-between. With 376 slides to complete, you can imagine getting even a quarter of a way through and having to start over once they are signed back in. All slide are set to resume on the actual software. Thanks for the help in advance.
I've seen individuals put an LMSCommit call into a Javascript trigger - but that's a bit over my head. You could search the forums for some code that you could use, but you'd have to have some expertise with coding.
Storyline 2 will send a keep-alive message to the LMS every 10 minutes by default, and this keep-alive message includes Suspend Data that will help the LMS recover from a learner's session that has been suspended for any reason. A great way to verify that this keep-alive message is happening is to enable LMS Debug Mode so that you can watch the communication flowing across the wire.
Although we can't support the modification of published output, Gerry hints here at how you might go about modifying the frequency of that keep-alive message.
You'll also find another conversation here on how you might configure a JavaScript Trigger to invoke an LMSCommit() upon the load of every slide, but this feels like overkill to me, and Storyline's default keep-alive message should be more than enough.
I'd recommend enabling LMS Debug Mode and using the resulting debug log to show the keep-alive message to your LMS Admin. If you need any help interpreting those logs, please feel free to send us a copy for a closer look.
Please let us know if you need anything else, and have a great day!
I have been looking for the past week of a possible solution. On one end I was being told it was the LMS on the other I was told it was the software. This last post definitely have me more concise information as to what the problem is.
16 Replies
Hi Chuck! Welcome to E-Learning Heroes!
I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing difficulties with the '09 suite. It may be that the LMS is timing out before it has a chance to save the data.
If you use the "X" in the upper right corner of your Web browser to exit a SCORM content item you may find that your LMS does not properly record or update the course status. This issue can occur when the LMS is not correctly saving the data on the LMSCommit call. Articulate Presenter and Articulate Quizmaker will call LMSCommit before unloading the content, which tells the LMS that the data should now be "saved" by the LMS.
Hi again Chuck!
Here's some additional information:
If you're experiencing issues with LMS content, please refer to the following article, which outlines common issues pertaining to viewing and tracking content in an LMS:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/troubleshooting-lms-issues/
Also, be sure to package your published content properly for your LMS:
Storyline:
http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/publishing-a-project-for-lms.aspx
Studio '09:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/publish-to-lms-with-studio-09/
If the issue persists, open a support case with your LMS provider, since they're your primary source of support for LMS tracking and reporting issues.
Thanks!
Christine
Thanks for the quick response. I am not sure I am explaining my issue correctly. I am in a regulated industry, and one of the technical specifications I must follow is a student must be logged out for 5 minutes of inactivity. The LMS I use has a timer built in that checks for this. I am using the 09 suite of products to create my courses, and they are a mixture of reading, quizmaker quizzes, and interactions. The problem I am experiencing is that while my students are advancing through some of the reading slides, the scorm content is not sending an LMScommit. Therefore, the LMS is kicking them for inactivity, even though I have them manually advancing the slides. So what types of activities would cause a scorm 1.2 package to send an LMSCommit. I really don't want to have my students closing their browsers every 4 minutes.
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for responding so quickly. You may need to test the content in SCORM Could, to see exactly when the LMSCommit is being called.
David Fair posted a helpful blog about troubleshooting LMS issues here. In section 7, the blog explains how to test your course. Please take a look at his post and try testing your content.
Also, you can upload your published and packaged files, so we can take a look.
Thanks!
Christine
Hi Christine,
Have you found an answer for this one? I have a course in the same industry as Chuck but have not been able to develop it in Storyline due to this 5 minute timeout requirement. Is there a way to have Storyline shutdown the course after 5 minutes of inactivity?
Welcome to the community, Jacob!
There isn't a way to force Storyline to close or "shut down" a course after a specific amount of time. If your course is being hosted in an LMS, the LMS would need to support this type of feature.
I'm not sure how this turned out with Chuck - looks like this was quite some time ago. However, if he was able to find a way to resolve this, hopefully he'll be able to share some information.
In the meantime, you may wan to try testing your course in SCORM Cloud. This would help us determine if the issue is Articulate related or if it's on your LMS's side. If you're using AICC content please take a look at the article below for testing information:
Articulate Support - Testing AICC content at SCORM Cloud
If it appears in SCORM Cloud as well, we'd be happy to take a closer look (you can attach the .STORY file on the second page of the form) at what might be going on.
If you can't replicate the issue in SCORM Cloud, it's probably an issue that you'd want to take to your LMS team.
The articles here and here may also help clear up common LMS issues.
Let us know how it turns out.
Thanks!
We are experiencing the same problem and have done some debugging with both Storyline and Presenter 2009. Both tools behave the same way and only send an LMS Commit upon exit of the course. After each slide is advanced both tools will send a call to Suspend_data, but no LMS Commit.
This can be confirmed by using the built in IE debugger by clicking F12 and setting breakpoints in the ACP_Scorm_TopApi.js file on the function _Commit and the function _SetValue with watches on the p_strKey and p_strValue variables. You will see as you progress through the course that advancing the slides only sends a SetValue call to cmi.suspend_data but no other calls. What we are looking for here is an LMSCommit(); call in as well and if there is a way to add that. I believe the prior to posters in this thread were looking for the same thing.
To that end I also just found this while continuing to search and it looks like it may be an answer to the issue from another thread:
http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/22517.aspx. In this thread someone shows how to use a trigger to add an LMSCommit(); as needed.
I am also somewhat mystified that we can't seem to get a straight answer to this question. I have read several scenarios where customers are asking the same question and expressing the same need but what they are getting is, "your LMS should take care of that, or "Storyline will take care of that", or "check with your LMS vendor".
Good morning Mark, I have looked all over the place, have you received a response yet? I completely agree so far from what I have seen many have had this issue.
Hi Deandre,
As far as the LMS Commit, Storyline communicates course completion to an LMS (LMSCommit) when the user meets the completion requirement, either when they reach the appropriate result slide or when they have viewed the required number of slides. BUT communication is continually going back and forth so it may be that your LMS is reading things differently. Perhaps it would help if you could see the actual communication that is happening? You could enable LMS debug mode or look at testing it in SCORM Cloud, as that's an industry standard for LMS output.
Thanks but the course I've design takes about 3 hours to complete by
itself. And 376 slides with a 52 question test at the end. The timeout
error from the LMS is stopping the learners from progressing after 20
minutes.
HI Deandre,
Did you reach out to your LMS team to see if they had thoughts in regards to the timeout that you're experiencing? I'd suggest looking at testing the course as well outside your LMS in a site such as SCORM Cloud as it's an industry standard for LMS testing. You can read this article here to help walk you through testing.
Thanks Ashley,
I have contacted my LMS techs and they suggested adding a SCORM call that periodically submits data to the LMS. This is where I'm having the problem I don't know how to add a SCORM call. Each instance I have come across with the same issue everyone continues to say LMSCommit(); which doesn't do much to my product. I would try and submit it on the SCORM Cloud but my product is well over the size limit.
Here is my dilemma, the students take the course within twenty minutes the LMS times out. When this happens there is no notification to ensure the student understands their progress is not being tracked. The LMS seems to only identify when the course is initiated and completed, no in-between. With 376 slides to complete, you can imagine getting even a quarter of a way through and having to start over once they are signed back in. All slide are set to resume on the actual software. Thanks for the help in advance.
Hi Deandre,
I've seen individuals put an LMSCommit call into a Javascript trigger - but that's a bit over my head. You could search the forums for some code that you could use, but you'd have to have some expertise with coding.
Hey, Deandre!
Storyline 2 will send a keep-alive message to the LMS every 10 minutes by default, and this keep-alive message includes Suspend Data that will help the LMS recover from a learner's session that has been suspended for any reason. A great way to verify that this keep-alive message is happening is to enable LMS Debug Mode so that you can watch the communication flowing across the wire.
Although we can't support the modification of published output, Gerry hints here at how you might go about modifying the frequency of that keep-alive message.
You'll also find another conversation here on how you might configure a JavaScript Trigger to invoke an LMSCommit() upon the load of every slide, but this feels like overkill to me, and Storyline's default keep-alive message should be more than enough.
I'd recommend enabling LMS Debug Mode and using the resulting debug log to show the keep-alive message to your LMS Admin. If you need any help interpreting those logs, please feel free to send us a copy for a closer look.
Please let us know if you need anything else, and have a great day!
Thank you all,
I have been looking for the past week of a possible solution. On one end I was being told it was the LMS on the other I was told it was the software. This last post definitely have me more concise information as to what the problem is.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.