Exit Course Trigger vs. Closing Browser Window

Jul 30, 2021

I have a course that's experiencing weird issues where participants will try the exam multiple times and not pass (it's pretty difficult) and then when the do pass our LMS is not recording the passing grade. 

We have done extensive research trying to understand why this might be. We think it may have to do with people clicking to close their browser window vs. clicking the Exit button.

Has anyone else experienced this? I don't believe there is any way for me to prevent people from closing the browser window, so other than a message saying not to do that, any thoughts or options? Thanks!

8 Replies
Becca Levan

Hi Kristin,

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm happy to help troubleshoot why passing scores aren't being tracked!

  • Have you tried testing your course in SCORM Cloud to see if things work as expected?
  • How do you have your LMS tracking set up?

Without seeing how your course is set up, it's hard to say what's causing the passing results not to be recorded, so if you're comfortable sharing your file, I'd be happy to take a look. Feel free to share it publicly here or privately here, and we can continue working together!

Kristin Hatcher

Hi Becca, Thank you for the response. I have tried SCORM Cloud and have verified that there is nothing wrong with the settings in my course. We got one of the LMS developers involved, and she also confirmed that the course is set up correctly, and thinks that the problem is that users are not clicking the Exit Course button but are simply closing the browser. So my assumption is that it is not a problem with either our LMS or Storyline, but is a user issue. 

The solution may be to have a message asking participants to be sure to exit the course by using the "Exit" button in the player. I just wondering if other Storyline users have run into this issue, and how they handled it. 

The course is set to track the final assessment in the course, and that is the only thing it tracks. I have verified it's the right quiz and that the right questions are included in that quiz. It reports a status of Passed/Failed to the LMS. 

 

Becca Levan

Thanks for those additional details, Kristin!

I created a sample quiz with a reporting status of Passed/Failed to the LMS. I passed the course, closed the browser, and saw my results recorded in SCORM Cloud. I've attached my test sample for you to take a look at.

Another option is to add a course completion trigger with a button on the last slide to send a completion status to Your LMS.

Here's an article showing how to set that up:

📚 Related Resources: 4 Ways to Help Learners Exit Your Storyline Course.
Kristin Hatcher

Hi Becca,

I tried my course in ScormCloud and confirmed there was nothing wrong with the course and that the passed/failed status is sent. I am being told by our IT department the pass/fail is not being recorded because users are closing the browser window rather that using the exit button. I'm not concerned about settings within the course itself. I am concerned about my users' behavior. I am told that if they don't click the Exit button within the course, the LMS won't record what they did in the course. Have you heard of this happening?

Ren Gomez

Hi Kristin,

Thanks for sharing the troubleshooting steps you've taken!

It sounds like your settings are correct, and everything works as expected in SCORM Cloud, but when testing in your LMS, your scores aren't being recorded unless the Exit Course button is triggered?

To help clarify, the Submit Results trigger usually defaults to occur when the timeline starts on the results slide, and not when the user exits the course, so it sounds unusual for the two to be related.

You may consider creating the end of the course, including the exit trigger, on a separate "Thank You" slide and see if that helps? Hopefully other users can chime in with their suggestions as well!

Kristin Hatcher

Thank you Ren and Becca. I think what's happening is that we are just experiencing a weird bug with our LMS. I keep thinking I've done something wrong in the course for this to be happening, but part of the beauty of Storyline is that there are only so many settings, and I think I've checked them all. At this point there isn't much left for me to do! Thank you!

Cassandra  Toscano

I'm having the exact same issue. If a user closes the browser window before they select the Exit course button (containing the exit trigger), the course will close but not record in the LMS. This happens with those who are time-poor or for whatever reason, do not read the instructions to select the exit button to mark this course as completed

I imagine many designers experience this issue, so I'd like to know if Articulate have created a solution such as 'Exit course' 'when the user closes the browser window'. 

Any assistance is much appreciated.

Kelly Auner

Hi Cassandra,

Thank you for reaching out!

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue when users close out the browser window. Have you tried testing your course in SCORM Cloud to see if things work as expected, and to rule out anything else that could be causing this? Ren suggested a workaround above to add the exit trigger to an additional slide, for example, a "Thank you" slide.

Hopefully others in the community may have some different ideas! We appreciate your feedback and I'll share your comments with the team.