Clearing "Resume where you left off"

Jan 18, 2023

Hi Heroes,

My organization creates some e-learning which learners take and then must "refresh" on every year. Sometimes the refresher course is different from the initial one and sometimes it isn't. Either way, though, the "Resume where you left off" creates an issue for us. Let's say I take the course today and complete it. Then, next year, I need to refresh by taking it again. When I go to take it this second time, I'm asked if I want to resume where I left off. If I answer yes--BAM--I'm taken right to the end of the course, which could be sort of confusing to someone who hasn't taken the course for a year.

I'm posting to ask if there is a way to clear the cookie (if that's what this feature uses) or otherwise reset the "where you left off" page back to the start so that after someone COMPLETES a course for the first time, a button on the last slide can reset the "where you left off page" back to the start of the course so that next year, the learner either won't be asked if he or she wants to resume or if asked, the course will resume from the start rather than the end.

Does that make sense?

If so, and if it's possible, how do I do it?

Thanks!

19 Replies
Jürgen Schoenemeyer

Normally, when a course is updated, the player's resume is automatically reset.

(because the resume data from the previous version don't fit to the new version*)

did you checked resume & updating a course on your LMS ?


* this is very often a problem, if you want to correct an error of the course

Ray Cole

Our problem is that our course catalog size exceeds our tiny 3-person team's ability to update every course every year, so sometimes it is literally the same course that someone takes this year that they will take again next year. This is the situation in which the "resume" feature takes the learner right to the end of the course (since they completed it already last year).

What I'm looking for is a way to reset the page where the course will resume to, or maybe a way to check how long ago the course was completed and disable the "resume" or reset the page where it will resume to, if the last completion was, say, more than 9 months ago.

Ray Cole

Phil, that would be awesome. Thank you!

One more bit of info that might be relevant: we don't use a SCORM LMS here. Everything is published for "web" and there is a "Get Credit" button at the end of each course that records the completion into a homebrew training/tracking system.

This means two things:

1. We could potentially put a trigger on this Get Credit button to reset the resume feature or resume-to page.

2. For any solution to this problem to be useful to us, that solution must involve only Storyline or maybe JavaScript features; it can't require LMS features.

Jürgen Schoenemeyer

there is no method to reset the resume feature by a trigger (javascript)

if you don't use a LMS, the resume values are stored in "Local Storage" of the user browser

if the Key has changed (it is enough to change one char/image in the course) or the "Local Storage" is cleared (e.g. by the user or by Group Policy) -> resume is not available

Ray Cole

Hi Phil,

I'm inferring from your post that it is the Player that presents the "Resume where you left off?" question. Is that right?

If that's so, then a trigger at runtime to check whether or not to present that question is not going to work, but perhaps a trigger at the end of the course that clears the resume data could work, so that when the course loads next year, the player no longer thinks there is a reason to ask the "Resume?" question.

But I still would need to know how to clear the resume data. Jürgen's post suggests it's stored in local storage as the value of a particular Key. Is there a way to change either the key itself or its value via a trigger? Jürgen seems to be saying "no." Yet when the course is updated and republished, that does somehow change the Key.

If it's truly not possible to clear or change the criteria for when the "Resume?" prompt appears, it could be a feature request for Articulate. Maybe we could have a setting in the Player menu that sets a time limit for the "Resume?" question--if the course was last attempted within the specified time, the "Resume?" prompt is active; if the course was last launched longer ago than the specified time, then the "Resume?" prompt is turned off and the course begins at the start again. 

Jürgen Schoenemeyer

yes, local storage is persistent until the user cleans it

or with a firefox addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clear-storage-button/

more infos for local storage

some more tests - here are the result a a small example

 - create a course with 5 slides
 - publish and start (on localhost)
 - visit the first 3 slide
 - close course
 - start course -> resume available

 - change on char on one slide
 - publish (same domain 'localhost') and start -> no resume available
 - visit the first 3 slide
 - close course
 - start course -> resume available

result:

-> two different keys, same values (the first three slides visited)

the current ID (local storage KEY) is stored in html5/data/js/data.js

 

Jürgen Schoenemeyer

Storyline creates for every publish a new Resume-ID, even if nothing has changed

so all resume infos are lost, when you publish an old course - without any changes - with the current version of storyline*

(tested with Storyline 3.6.3 & 3.7.1)

* e.g. to fix the Firefox start error, which is fixed with Storyline 3.66.28355.0

Alison  L.

Dear Ray Cole, (raises hand). I'm just wondering if you ever got this issue resolved, and why you didn't just Player>Other>On restart: Prompt to resume?

On Restart: Prompt to Resume, Always, Never..

And then somewhere around the link to the course just say "If you get a 'Prompt to Resume?' click NO."

? - Thanks!

SORRY if this brings back bad memories, and you want to ignore it completely. Any/All Good here.

Alison 

 

Ray Cole

Hi Alison,

In order for someone to see anything in the course, they would already have had to answer the "Resume where you left off?" question. So it won't work to put instructions in the course to answer "No" to this question; by the time they see the instructions, it'll be too late--they'll have already answered the question, possibly with "Yes."