A course that I developed and already published in our LMS needed to have a title change. I changed the title on the first page and when I re-published the course, I also changed the identifier to the new title (Reporting and Tracking Options > LMS Lesson SCORM Information > Identifier).
This changed the manifest file so we are unable to swap the courses. We only wanted to swap the courses so there will be the least impact to the learners (a direct link has been communicated to them. If we can't swap, we will create a new activity with a different link).
I am looking for an advice on how I can preserve the manifest file when changing the course title.
If you have only made changes to objects within a course (e.g. text changes, swapped an image out, etc...) and have made no changes to the course structure, navigation or rules, then technically no changes are needed to the "imsmanifest.xml" file.
This is because your lms (assuming it is built to scorm guidelines) doesn't care about flat/static assets within a course or sco.
For me, I always notice something small that I want to change "word-wise" or a tweak to an image to make it clearer right after I publish. Usually, RIGHT AFTER I upload!
I publish it locally, as normal. But instead of uploading the whole package, including the xml files, I just drop the individual course pieces that I changed (i.e. everything except imsmanifest.xml and meta.xml if you are unsure) into the directory and overwrite the old files one-for-one. I do this via ftp. If you do not have ftp or directory access, you may need to ask your lms admin to drop the updated files in for you.
Then if you also need to change the course title that shows (in your lms catalog), do it through the normal lms interface. Once published, it is safest to keep hands off the manifest files unless you know what you are doing, otherwise you may run into validation/versioning rules and/or decisions and risk "interrupting" your learners.
Just to reiterate, this is not at all recommended if you have made ANY changes to course structure, navigation or sequencing rules. But it sounds like that is not the case for you in this instance.
Anyway, that's what I do, but I have been working with and teaching scorm since 2001. Note if any of this makes you or your IT people uncomfortable, then don't do it. Better safe than upsetting your audience.
How do you ensure that you haven't made any changes to the imsmanifest.xml or meta.xml, do you use some type of DIFF tool to compare the files? I'm also interested if anyone has any suggestions on identifying the only the assets that have changed. I'm really interested in this solution but a bit weary making guesses about what did or didn't change.
2 Replies
If you have only made changes to objects within a course (e.g. text changes, swapped an image out, etc...) and have made no changes to the course structure, navigation or rules, then technically no changes are needed to the "imsmanifest.xml" file.
This is because your lms (assuming it is built to scorm guidelines) doesn't care about flat/static assets within a course or sco.
For me, I always notice something small that I want to change "word-wise" or a tweak to an image to make it clearer right after I publish. Usually, RIGHT AFTER I upload!
I publish it locally, as normal. But instead of uploading the whole package, including the xml files, I just drop the individual course pieces that I changed (i.e. everything except imsmanifest.xml and meta.xml if you are unsure) into the directory and overwrite the old files one-for-one. I do this via ftp. If you do not have ftp or directory access, you may need to ask your lms admin to drop the updated files in for you.
Then if you also need to change the course title that shows (in your lms catalog), do it through the normal lms interface. Once published, it is safest to keep hands off the manifest files unless you know what you are doing, otherwise you may run into validation/versioning rules and/or decisions and risk "interrupting" your learners.
Just to reiterate, this is not at all recommended if you have made ANY changes to course structure, navigation or sequencing rules. But it sounds like that is not the case for you in this instance.
Anyway, that's what I do, but I have been working with and teaching scorm since 2001. Note if any of this makes you or your IT people uncomfortable, then don't do it. Better safe than upsetting your audience.
I hope that made some sense.
How do you ensure that you haven't made any changes to the imsmanifest.xml or meta.xml, do you use some type of DIFF tool to compare the files? I'm also interested if anyone has any suggestions on identifying the only the assets that have changed. I'm really interested in this solution but a bit weary making guesses about what did or didn't change.
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