Best way to keep the course from Timing Out
Aug 04, 2014
So I have a course that was licensed to a client who uses an LMS that times out after 30 minutes of "inactivity". Unfortunately, I also have a slide in the course that has and embedded video (hosted on vimeo) that runs over 30 minutes. What is the best way to keep the LMS from thinking the user is inactive, while they are passively watching the video?
I saw some threads that recommended the use of js trigger - LMSCommit(); Only problem with that is where would I put it? The whole timeline for the slide is only 1 second long. Would i have to extend the slide to 30 minutes to just add the trigger in the timeline?
Is there a better way to accomplish this that I'm not thinking of. The client is working with the LMS to see if they can increase the timeout window on their end, but I'm not holding my breath for that.
Thanks for any help!
2 Replies
Hi Matt,
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with how to execute Java Script so I'm unable to answer your question regarding where to put the LMSCommit() trigger.
Whilst having the LMS team look to extend the timeout window beyond 30 minutes will solve your issue, I'm wondering whether having a user passively watch a video for this length of time is a good idea?
Would it be possible to break the video up into sections and insert an ungraded knowledge check or activity that tests their understanding of what they are watching?
Thanks for the reply.
The LMS is Mzinga which has a 30 timeout window that cannot be changed apparently. So I had to build the course to ping the LMS and let it know that the user was still active to prevent the timeout.
I ended up extending the timeline on that slide out to 20 minutes long. Storyline automatically sends a Commit to the LMS every 10 minutes on the timeline. Initially I was worried this would increase file size of the output or something, but it did not. I also added the LMSCommit(); as a javascript trigger using the directions i found here. That one was really just for good measure, but it worked in my testing also.
As for breaking up the video, in this case it wasn't ideal. I was working with a 23- minute 'feature film' (hosted on vimeo) that needed to be viewed in one sitting then subsequent modules referring back to it. I agree passive video is not necessarily the best e-learning pedagogy, but sometimes we have to work with what we inherit
Anyway, thanks for the reply. Hopefully this thread will help someone else at some point.
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