Everything we know about Cornerstone on Demand and Storyline!

Sep 04, 2013

Jason Chan
By Jason Chan

I thought I would start a thread about Cornerstone on Demand so there's a central place for people to read and add to. There seems to be a dearth of information about how CSOD and Storyline interact with each other as well as the unresolved issues surrounding it. I've spent many hours scouring the web and speaking with Cornerstone trying to find a solution. Hopefully this thread will serve as a resource for others going forward.

On a side note, I love Articulate Storyline. I started with Adobe Captivate with limited success. It was a very steep learning curve, but I was able to get some basic functionality out of it. I tested out Storyline with it's 30 day trial, and I will say that time-to-effectiveness was drastically reduced. It really IS like using powerpoint. Granted there is less complex functionality and interactions available than Captivate, but so far it's given me everything I've needed to use. The benefit is that the learning curve is much less steep too. Think of it as the difference between iMovie and Final Cut Pro. The latter can do some crazy effects, but the former gives you 90% of what you need and can get you comfortable in 1/4 of the time.

It's nice to have a properly-working content creation tool when you're in an LMS like Cornerstone. I have enough trouble in CSOD as it is.

So some of the nuggets of wisdom that I've found are :

  • Cornerstone does not track SCORM 1.2 content properly. You cannot pull a lot of the reports if they are not in SCORM 2004 format. You don't have the option to select that course in the reports.
  • If you export into SCORM 2004, there will be an extra section on the left with text links to the module. This takes up 30% of the screen, and on smaller laptop screens may crowd out the module window. Cornerstone says this is a Storyline exporting settings issue. I couldn't find any settings that shows/hides that section. The workaround is to resize the module to the screen, which doesn't get rid of the section, but at least fits the module.
  • When reporting, you can get the completion status for a course based on quiz result or last slide viewed. You can also get a final grade for course. Storyline passes the results information for each question (including short answer) but you cannot pull a list of the answers for an individual. Therefore, it may not be advisable to administer any testing where you'll need to review individual answers
  • You can get a list of aggregate answers for a module. e.g. I can see how 100 employees answered this multiple choice question. This is helpful to determine if learners are absorbing the course information correctly.
  • Web objects (such as websites, or links to sharepoint documents) work in modules if your IT has added csod.com to the trusted sites
  • Popup windows that open up the articulate module in CSOD will work if you add csod.com to the allowed list for popup blockers. Your IT dept can also add this to everyone's computer. Otherwise when learners click the "launch" button, the module does not show up.

I'll post more as I think or find them, but feel free to add to this list!

906 Replies
Renee Frisk-Jones
over 5 years ago10/15/18 at 6:06 pm (UTC)

I think I solved this.  CSOD for some reason likes to have all of the SCORM content contained within an individual folder for each course.  But Rise just exports the content into a zip file, without the interior folder to consolidate.  So I had to extract all the files, then re-zip that folder an now it seems to be working.

Katherine Murphy
over 5 years ago11/20/18 at 11:35 pm (UTC)

I'd like to customize the Load Screen in Cornerstone.

I have looked through much of this great and helpful thread and seen some interesting javascript/API access info posted, but I cannot figure out where to start for this :
When a learner hits "Launch" from their Cornerstone Transcript, a new, white window pops up with the animating circle/lines shape and it does that for QUITE A WHILE.  Like too long.  Like, long enough that many people quit the show and email us saying "that training didn't load". 

I'd like to replace this Microsoftian bit of terrible UX with something more user-friendly - like "Your learning content is loading!  It won't be long now!" or something just a tad more informative.

I cannot control that with Storyline - so hopefully it's a Cornerstone thing?  Anyone know how/where I could influence a little Experience Engineering in this way?  Anyone done it?

David Rosenfeld
over 5 years ago12/06/18 at 3:12 am (UTC)

Hi All, 

I'm trying to use JavaScript to pull in User Name and User ID into a Storyline 360 Module. I've successfully pulled in Name, but ID has been odd.  It doesn't pull in the "User ID" or "Employee ID" that's in everyone's User Record.  After a bunch of toying around, and reaching out to CSOD, we found out it's pulling in something called the "Target User ID", which is a unique identifier found in the URL of each user's transcripts. It's something generated on the back end?

I'm using the SCORM2004 3rd Edition. Any thoughts on why it pulls this ID, and not the User ID in the system? I'm waiting right now to hear back from CSOD about it, but I thought I'd ask on here as well.

See JS below. Thanks!

var player = GetPlayer();
function findLMSAPI(win) {
// look in this window
if (win.hasOwnProperty("GetStudentID")) return win;
// all done if no parent
else if (win.parent == win) return null;
// climb up to parent window & look there
else return findLMSAPI(win.parent);
}

var lmsAPI = findLMSAPI(this);
var myName = lmsAPI.SCORM2004_GetStudentName();
var array = myName.split(' ');
var newName = array[0] + ' ' + array[1];
player.SetVar("newName", newName);

var player = GetPlayer();
UserName=player.GetVar("newName", newName);

var lmsAPI = findLMSAPI(this);
var myID = lmsAPI.SCORM2004_GetStudentID();

var array = myID.split(' ');

var newID = array[0];

player.SetVar("newID", newID);


var player = GetPlayer();

UserID=player.GetVar("newID", newID);

 

Will Findlay
over 5 years ago12/06/18 at 2:47 pm (UTC)

Interesting - it looks like this is a sequential ID number that goes up by one for each new user. I noticed I am 16 and another administrator is 17, which sounds about right since we were probably the 16th and 17th users of the system.

My guess is that they use it for security reasons because they don't want it to be the same as the user's company ID number where it could potentially expose this online. But it may just be a pragmatic reason like, "that's how the programmer coded it."

Crystal Horn
over 5 years ago12/18/18 at 6:06 pm (UTC)

Hey folks. I'm excited to let you know that we just released update 23 for Storyline 360! It includes new features and fixes - check them all out here.

We fixed some modern player issues, including bars that cut off the tops of slides on Android devices.

Here’s how you can update Storyline 360 to take advantage of everything the latest release has to offer. Let me know how you make out!

James Bonney
over 5 years ago01/21/19 at 2:55 pm (UTC)

Hi All,

Do we have a document or URL anywhere which shows us which data/variables which can be pulled from Cornerstone?

We're building a leaderboard into a course and want to pull the following from Cornerstone:

First and Last name fields
Location field
Position

if anyone can shed any light on this, that would be great.

Thanks
James

Jamie Wenzel
over 5 years ago01/24/19 at 5:14 pm (UTC)

I have read through most of the Cornerstone threads here, and I am wondering if anyone ever was able to get Cornerstone to report more then 1 attempt on a SCORM quiz.  The courses work fine in other LMS's and SCORM Cloud, and it seems to be a Cornerstone only problem.  The standard reporting seems to be broken in Cornerstone.  Cornerstone has no answer and says it is a Storyline problem.  In my testing, standard reports only capture the first attempt score.  In later attempts, the report will update the pass/fail, but the score and attempt date remain the same.  If I reversion a training, it will add another line item to the report and do the same thing.  I can never get it to adjust number of attempts, and the score is always locked into whatever their first attempt was.  If I use reporting 2.0 and the field "SCORM 2004 Quiz Data - Quiz Score", I can get the most recent attempt score, but I still can't get all attempts and scores, and I can't get it to say the user had more then one attempt. Since the 2.0 report is capturing the last attempt the user does, I know the SCORM file is pushing the data to Cornerstone correctly.  I just think Cornerstone reporting is incorrect.  Anybody experience this problem and find a solution?  

Chris Undery
over 5 years ago01/25/19 at 11:08 am (UTC)

I spent quite a lot of time trying to get 'trustable' question level data reported in CSOD. Unless I limited the quiz in Storyline to one attempt I could never be sure the results being displayed in CSOD were correct. We still really want to be able to get question data out but are currently not using as the data is not accurate. I would love it if someone worked out how to do it. I know this isn't an overly helpful response but its kind of reassuring that I'm not alone and not just going mad. :) 

Victoria Sublette
5 years ago02/26/19 at 1:16 am (UTC)

My client is using Cornerstone and I am creating eLearning in Storyline v 3.0. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago and now audio files aren't starting, graphics are greyed out and all sorts of malarkey.

I tried saving in both SCORM 2004 and 1.2, but the LMS is having the same problem. She experiences NO problems when running the course locally on her computer.

Any suggestions or insight on what might be going on? Did Cornerstone have a recent update? Also, what of this compatibility button. Click or not?

Thanks heroes!

Steve G
5 years ago02/28/19 at 1:23 am (UTC)

We're having an issue launching an HTML5 course in IE11 from CSOD.  When one of our users launches the course (with CSOD compatibility mode set to 'None') they see a blank pop-up. Nothing there but a grey screen. However, if we change the compatibility mode to "IE10" then the course launches fine HOWEVER the course then loses focus at the end of each slide (basically, it hides behind other open windows when the timeline reaches the end of a slide).

We've tried playing with publishing settings, played a bunch with the compatibility mode. Nothing seems to address this. Everything works fine in Chrome and if we run from another LMS (like SCORMCloud).

Any ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Pierre-Baptiste Grenier
5 years ago03/06/19 at 11:39 am (UTC)

​Hello!

We are French users of Storyline 360 and we create modules for a customer who has a Cornerstone LMS. We would like to share with the community a solution that we have found to solve this issue: extra section on the left with text links, generated when we publish SCORM 2004 export on Cornerstone LMS.

Here's what we do:

  • Open the imanifest.xml in a text tool (we recommend Dreamweaver or Notepad ++)
  • Identify the tag "title" using the search function "Ctrl+F" (most often the tags are lines 10 and 12)
  • Replace the title of the module with a space " "
  • Identify the tag "<imsss:controlMode>" using the search function "Ctrl+F" (most often the tag is line 21)
  • Change Choice = "true" in Choice = "false"
  • Save and then zipper the export

We attach the final version of the file "imanifest.xml".

We have used this method many times, and for now it seems to work!
We hope it will help you!

Stéphanie

Gemma Wells
5 years ago03/20/19 at 2:56 pm (UTC)

Aplogies if this has been asked before but I need some help! We have been given a Zipped SCORM 1.2 file from Storyline 360 that we need to upload on Cornerstone. The way it has been built is a series of scenarios, the learner is posed a question at the end of the scenario, if they get it wrong they are given another question to answer, if they get that one wrong they get a third on. If they fail all 3 questions they fail the scnario. The learner has to pass all the scenarios in order to complete the module. They are offered a reset option at the end of the module - this is then done via the LMS (they use Unicorn) this then resets the questions for the user to then try again to pass the scenario they failed. As far as I know this isnt an option in Cornerstone - Unless anyone can tell me different. Doesn anyone know if a way round this for Cornerstone?

James Bonney
5 years ago03/20/19 at 3:37 pm (UTC)

Hi Gemma, as far as I'm aware, Cornerstone doesn't record a 'failed' status.

The user would just need to request the course again, or load it up again and try to complete it. Once passed, the learning record status will change to completed/passed.

If you had the 360 files, I would just reset the course in the module itself.

Thanks

James

Deborah Schultz
5 years ago03/27/19 at 8:32 pm (UTC)

We are having the same problem.  HTML5 is the required playback.  No flash fallback.  We can't change the compatibility mode due to networking constraints.  I'm surprised that the only options offered on this thread after all these years is to use flash or to change compatibility mode.  There are a lot of corporate clients that do not allow flash anymore on CSOD and that want to continue using Storyline.  

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