Resume Presentation in LMS not always working

Hi Steven.

The only time I have seen the suspend data be different from what we sent to it is if the data exceeds the limit set in SCORM 1.2 for that field. Here's an article which outlines this issue and how to resolve it:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=2617

We needed to address this issue as well.

However, when the inability to resume is a result of the data string size limit, the presentation generally resumes on a slide where that character limit has been reached or exceeded and not back on slide 1. So, for example, if your students are experiencing the issue with resume and all students seem to be resuming at slide 75 not matter how far beyond that slide they viewed, the character limit is is likely the issue. If some students are being resumed back at slide 1 and others are able to resume correctly where they left off (including the final slide of the course) then this would not be the issue.

Hi Aaron.

We have seen this issue where the symptom is that you are returned to slide 1 and the issue was caused by the character limit so I wouldn't dismiss the solution out of hand.

The other possibilities that I could see of the LMS not sending back what it would receive would be:

• If we sent a character in the suspend_data that the LMS didn't handle, but that should provide a consistent repro case, it wouldn't be random.  For example, the LMS didn't like the # character.
• Saw another custom LMS where they were trying to parse our suspend_data to find slides viewed stats, and they based their logic on what we were doing in Presenter 5, and when the logic changed for our suspend_data in Presenter '09 it caused them to store it incorrectly. This was also consistent, and not random.

-Dave

Hi Justin,

Thanks for your reply, but my LMS removed any character limitations they imposed for the suspend_data file so this would not be an issue.  I was hopeful that when they did that it would fix the problem with students not always being able to resume from where they left off.  However, it did not fix the problem and that's why I continue to search for additional information so that I can come up with a solution.

Thanks,

Steven

Hi Steven.

Do you know how many folks are having an issue versus the number of folks who are trying to view the content? Just trying to get a sense of how often this is happening. Also, if a person does have a problem can they then go through and view the content and receive a completion?

Do you know when they are exiting? Like are they all exiting on the same exact slide. If there is someway to reproduce this, that would be helpful in trying to find an actual solution.

I would expect that unless all of your users are taking the course in exact lockstep, clicking all of the same links and viewing all of the same content in the same order, the suspend_data strings would be as different as fingerprints for the different users. Knowing what I've learned about how data are tracked within the SCORM system, I'd be rather surprised to see two users finding themselves seeing exactly the same resume error behavior, unless it's the Slide 1 error.

Hi Steven,

Re: Articulate debug log for a course that exhibits the issue of resume presentation not working. 

I am also not able to reproduce the issue to provide a debug log. What I do know is this...

• This issue occurs randomly with some students and not with others.
• Once it occurs, I'm able to start the course back at slide 1 for the student and manually work them through to the slide last viewed.
• When I exit after getting to student's slide last viewed, student can then re-enter and resume from this point.
• We do not have an issue with the 4000 character limit.
• The issue does not present itself on a particular slide.
• Our SCORM files where this typically occurs are large (about 50+MB)
• This does not occur only after a Quizmaker Quiz.
• The data string captures the slidelastviewed= but changes all of the slides completion status in the string from "7" to a "1"
• This occurs no matter which compatible browser is being used (IE6 - IE9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) though due to popularity of IE in the workplace, IE has the majority of the occurrences.
• If a student experiences a course freeze, I can login as that student, have the student exit and re-enter (since I'm logged in as them on the slidelastviewed) and they can continue where they left off. However, most students do not call immediately - they exit the course (CTRL+ALT+DEL; hardboot, close browser, etc) and then find themselves back at slide 1 despite slidelastviewed representing further progress.
• This does not only occur during a course freeze.

I hope there's some helpful information in there or information that you can at least confirm your issue is identical in nature.

Thanks,

Aaron

Hi Justin,

Do you know how many folks are having an issue versus the number of folks who are trying to view the content? Just trying to get a sense of how often this is happening. Also, if a person does have a problem can they then go through and view the content and receive a completion?

I don't have exact numbers because I'm only made aware of the cases where someone complains to me about it.  Some users will just start all over again and never report the issue to me.  But I can tell you it happens with a enough regularity that I receive several complains about it on a daily basis.  Regarding the completion issue, I see many examples where someone will then complete the course and they do NOT receive a completion for it.  In these cases, I have to manually go in and mark the course complete for them.  In these situations, even if the student does the course all over again, they still will not receive a completion.

Justin,

I have  a question for you that I've heard different responses to . . .

Normal 0 false false false oNotPromoteQF /> EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

When someone answers 'No' to theresume presentation prompt, what should the 'viewed=' portion of thesuspend_data file do?  For example, ifsomeone has viewed 6 slides of a 9 slide restricted presentation, exits thepresentation, and then answers 'No' to the resume presentation prompt, whatwill happen with the 'viewed=' in the suspend_data file?

Suspend_data prior to existing course:

viewed=1,2,3,4,5,6|lastviewedslide=6|5#1##,7,7,7,7,7,11,1,1,1###-1

After answering 'No' to the resume presentation prompt,will is look like this? ('viewed=1,2,3,4,5,6')

OR

Will it look like this? ('viewed=1')

Which is the correct way for Articulate to respond in this situation?

Thanks again,

Steven

When you say no, the suspend data is not relevant. You are starting over. When you begin the course again it will show you the slides you have previously visited and then it will communicate that you are on slide 1 once you start viewing the presentation again.

The problem we are having is that we need reproducible steps, preferably outside of your LMS so that we know there is a content issue. Without that, we are kind of spinning our wheels. If the LMS has logs or something that would positively identify what is happening then we have something to go on. Right now we have a course that appears to work properly everywhere except in your LMS with no specific way to reproduce. I'm not sure how we can go about troubleshooting that beyond what we have already done.

I know that our debug logs are very specific about what communication is sent back and forth to the LMS so if we could get a debug that shows us this issue actually happening then perhaps we can look into it further.

If you can find someone who can consistently reproduce this behavior after reporting it to you and they were willing to work with us to see what was happening, that would probably be the best way to find a resolution.

Justin,

Okay . . . then after answering 'No' to the prompt and viewing the 1st slide of the presentation again, what will the suspend_data file look like?

'viewed=1,2,3,4,5,6'

OR

viewed=1'

Which is the correct way for Articulate to respond in this situation?

Does Articulate "bookmark every single slide" in LMS usage? I just heard a Taleo technical CSR say that she didn't know if it did or not, but that other Flash courses didn't. She also said that "Articulate courses are accused of talking too much" (her words) and that's why they overrun SCORM 1.2 suspend data fields.

Incidentally, we're now in a SCORM 2004 3rd Ed. setup, but we're seeing a different, intermittent occasional failure to resume correctly. Trying to get the Taleo CSR to address that but she's basically said that if we can't get a specific debug log for a specific time when it happens (e.g. catch it in the act), they can't say what's going on.

Hi Aaron & Jeb,

So it sounds like our only hope of figuring this problem out is to be able to get our hands on a two debug logs:

- The first debug log showing a course being accessed and exited;

AND

- A second debug log showing the same course being accessed again and the user answering 'Yes' to the resume prompt, but the course forcing the user to start over again.

I've activated the Articulate debug log in some of my courses and wanted to let you know that you're more than welcome to access them for testing or have some of your end users who have this problem access them as well.  Just remember to always copy and save the debug logs and be sure to document which course was being accessed so we have the details that Articulate will ask for. 

If you decide to use my courses for testing, here's how to access them:

1.  Go to www.upwardboundtraining.com

2.  Click on 'Log In' in the upper right corner

3.  Username = debug@yahoo.com

4.  Password = debug

5.  Click on 'Debug Mode G1 - G10'

6.  Click on the title of one of the 10 courses in the list and then click 'Open Course'

(Note:  Be sure to have your popup blocker turned off or else the course may not launch)

I know if we all work together we'll figure out what is causing our problem with the resume presentation.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Steven

It will initially show you what you did, then it will show you what you are currently viewing.

Articulate does send information to the LMS every time you view a slide. 

Thanks! We seem to have licked the problem for real now...our sys admin changed a "commit" setting (her words, I just try to keep up) that somehow resolved the latest resolve error. We've gone back to UAT for the first time since we abandoned SCORM 1.2; hopefully we'll get to go live on the 15th as scheduled.

Hi Jeb. Glad to hear you were able to resolve your issue! Good luck!

Hi Jeb,

For the benefit of Steven and I (and others following this or having the same issue), can you get clarification on what exactly was changed that resovled the failure to resume issue? I'm not sure that simply knowing that the change of a "commit" setting is enough for me to go on to attempt to duplicate the success that you've had. We are still SCORM 1.2 so not sure if your success will be duplicated on our end, but I'm willing to try if you can provide me detail.

Thanks,

Aaron

She writes:
Within the course setting, we "forced" Auto-Commit Completion/Bookmarking Elements to "Yes." My understanding is that this forces "commits" more often.

Thanks, Jeb.

A few more questions for you.

1) Confirm that no changes were necessary in the Articulate file during publish and that the only changes made were in your LMS.

2) What LMS are you using?

3) Now that you have "forced" the commit, does your LMS show that a student has completed the SCORM ("forced complete") upon exiting at any time during the SCORM or only when the student has reached and completed the last slide?

The way that I'm reading what you've done indicates that the LMS would force the completion of the SCORM activity after it has been accessed and exited by the student regarless of whether or not the student has actually completed the entire SCORM.

1. We also opened the manifest file and changed this:

to this:

Apparently the former was what was keeping us from being able to use the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition. Changing to the latter allowed it to work.

2. Learn.com (aka Taleo)

3. No. All this does is forces the LMS to commit the last accessed/viewed slide. Not the whole schmear.

Hi... 

What about if always resume does not work even when you test it in Chrome, out of any LMS platform?
I have two courses with more that 60 slides and a quiz and the two courses does not work the always resumen, neither flash ot html... "prompt to resume" works fine

Hi Juanjo.

For resume to work properly you must view it in the LMS you are publishing for. I tested your project here and it works fine. That was published for SCORM 1.2. I viewed in Google Chrome and Safari and it restarted on slide 2 after viewing until slide 2. Can you provide exact steps to reproduce this issue?