I have a piece of content that will be deployed on an LMS and on a web server. At the end of the module users on the LMS will see one page giving completion instructions via the LMS whilst those viewing the web version will see a different page of instructions - essentially a button with a mailto: trigger on it.
Would anyone be able to tell me how I set it up so that on the previous page the next button will take the user to the relevant page depending upon whether they are viewing the version on our LMS or on the web? We publish to AICC.
I imagine it is a fairly straightforward thing to do but I have not been able to track down the solution. Any help would be much appreciated!
Hey there Stephen! Are you publishing one course to LMS and then loading that single published output to both your LMS platform and your web platform?
We only recommend viewing/hosting your content on the platform for which it was published. So my piece of advice would be to do a Save As for your project, and just tweaking that one slide in the new version (for either Web or LMS), publish them separately, and loading each into their respective environment.
I hope that isn't too burdensome on you, but I wouldn't want any features of your course to fail in the "improper" platform!
Yes, ideally we would have liked to have published one course to both platforms, especially as there is a slight risk that having two versions mean that updates aren't made to both versions.
But thank you for your response. I'll try your solution.
I generally only publish to one platform, but nearly every course I publish has two versions of content. I agree, having two versions of the source files is a pain, as that means you have to update both versions of your content, and it is easy to miss something.
I get around this by creating both versions of published content in the same source file. All you need to do is create a variable to control your output for the correct version. For slides that have different content, you can place the different content on different layers. Then display the appropriate layer when the slide starts based on the value of the variable.
Now all you have to do is set the variable to publish version 1, and change the variable to publish version 2. If you have set everything up correctly, then appropriate content will display based on your variable, and the common content will always update in both versions.
I also create a layer on slide 1 of my course with developer notes. This layer is never used in the course, but provides me with a place where I can put any additional details about what I need to do to publish my course correctly. For example, some of my courses have different tests, and I need to update which results slide to use.
So as I understand it, I would have one file, the content that needs to appear in one version would be on a separate layer, and I would have a variable the value of which I would manually change prior to publishing, Set one way, for the LMS, it would hide the layer specifically for the non-LMS version. upon publishing. I would then reset the variable and republish for non-LMS and it would then show the relevant layer.
If I have understood you correctly that sounds like it should be a good workaround and save me having two versions of the title.
Yes, pretty much. I usually use two different layers, on for each content type, but that is optional. You can also set the layer to hide the contents of the base layer and have the same affect. Set a trigger to show the layer when the timeline starts if your variable is set, (I usually use a true/false variable). I generally only put the content that is common to both versions on the base layer. Before you publish, go into the variable menu and set the default condition for the layer, and then publish.
Some of my courses might include extra slides for the supervisor version. You can also use that variable to skip slides when needed by setting the appropriate trigger.
We've created a custom player layout for our courses, and the title of my course is displayed from a master slide from the variable. I set the initial title in the title variable when I create a new course. Then, when needed, I set an additional trigger to change the title of my course to a different text string then my control variable is true. for example, "My Course" might change to "My Course - Supervisor" That way my course title changes automatically as well.
6 Replies
Hey there Stephen! Are you publishing one course to LMS and then loading that single published output to both your LMS platform and your web platform?
We only recommend viewing/hosting your content on the platform for which it was published. So my piece of advice would be to do a Save As for your project, and just tweaking that one slide in the new version (for either Web or LMS), publish them separately, and loading each into their respective environment.
I hope that isn't too burdensome on you, but I wouldn't want any features of your course to fail in the "improper" platform!
Hi Crystal.
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
Yes, ideally we would have liked to have published one course to both platforms, especially as there is a slight risk that having two versions mean that updates aren't made to both versions.
But thank you for your response. I'll try your solution.
Best wishes
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
I generally only publish to one platform, but nearly every course I publish has two versions of content. I agree, having two versions of the source files is a pain, as that means you have to update both versions of your content, and it is easy to miss something.
I get around this by creating both versions of published content in the same source file. All you need to do is create a variable to control your output for the correct version. For slides that have different content, you can place the different content on different layers. Then display the appropriate layer when the slide starts based on the value of the variable.
Now all you have to do is set the variable to publish version 1, and change the variable to publish version 2. If you have set everything up correctly, then appropriate content will display based on your variable, and the common content will always update in both versions.
I also create a layer on slide 1 of my course with developer notes. This layer is never used in the course, but provides me with a place where I can put any additional details about what I need to do to publish my course correctly. For example, some of my courses have different tests, and I need to update which results slide to use.
I hope this helps
Thanks for this, Dave.
So as I understand it, I would have one file, the content that needs to appear in one version would be on a separate layer, and I would have a variable the value of which I would manually change prior to publishing, Set one way, for the LMS, it would hide the layer specifically for the non-LMS version. upon publishing. I would then reset the variable and republish for non-LMS and it would then show the relevant layer.
If I have understood you correctly that sounds like it should be a good workaround and save me having two versions of the title.
Cheers
Stephen
Yes, pretty much. I usually use two different layers, on for each content type, but that is optional. You can also set the layer to hide the contents of the base layer and have the same affect. Set a trigger to show the layer when the timeline starts if your variable is set, (I usually use a true/false variable). I generally only put the content that is common to both versions on the base layer. Before you publish, go into the variable menu and set the default condition for the layer, and then publish.
Some of my courses might include extra slides for the supervisor version. You can also use that variable to skip slides when needed by setting the appropriate trigger.
We've created a custom player layout for our courses, and the title of my course is displayed from a master slide from the variable. I set the initial title in the title variable when I create a new course. Then, when needed, I set an additional trigger to change the title of my course to a different text string then my control variable is true. for example, "My Course" might change to "My Course - Supervisor" That way my course title changes automatically as well.
That sounds like what I am looking for. I shall have a go. Thanks for your help, Dave!
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