Passed/Failed vs Passed/Incomplete Reporting

Feb 10, 2016

I've been trying to find someplace that specifies the difference between LMS Reporting for Passed/Failed and Passed/Incomplete. None of the articles I am finding seem to actually tell me what the difference is between them.

Would someone please explain? 

59 Replies
Christie Pollick

Hi, Melissa -- Thanks so much for your question! Have you had a chance to take a look at the information below? How to Report Completion Status and Success Status to an LMS

When publishing Articulate Storyline content to a learning management system (LMS), you have four reporting options from which to choose:

Passed/Incomplete

Passed/Failed

Completed/Incomplete

Completed/Failed

Many LMSs track both a completion status and a success status. To report both statuses, choose either Passed/Incomplete or Passed/Failed when publishing Storyline content. Completed/Incomplete and Completed/Failed report only the completion status.

Hope that helps, but please let me know if you still have questions! :)

Christie Pollick

Hi, Melissa -- It can vary depending on the LMS, and although I am not sure what LMS provider you are using, you may find the explanation offered by Brian Allen (one of the Heroes here in the community) to be helpful. Referring to the SumTotal LMS, Brian shared the following over here in this similar post:

Here are the LMS reporting options we mostly use when publishing from Articulate for SumTotal LMS, and the scenarios for which we use them -

  1. Completed/Incomplete: We use this for any unscored content where we are tracking completion based on slide views. If the minimum number of slides are viewed, then the user is marked as completed. If not they are left in progress.
  2. Passed/Incomplete: We use this for scored content where we want the user to be left in progress if they do not achieve the minimum passing score. If the user achieves the minimum passing score they are marked as completed/passed with score, if not they remain in progress and no score is passed to SumTotal, allowing them to try again.
  3. Passed/Failed: We use this on a limited basis, primarily for things like compliance or certification activities where we want to record a failed status. If the user achieves the minimum passing score they are marked as completed/passed with score, if not they are marked as completed/failed with score. This is especially useful if you want to limit number of attempts through a learning activity for the purpose of assigning remedial training, etc., in the event of someone failing.

My guess is that these reporting options will function fairly similarly for any LMS.

Susan Keehley

What would you use the Incompleted/Failed option for?  For a particular course I'm using question slides for learning and I want them to see their score, but not report as failed to the LMS. I encourage them to return to the learning and try again.  Should I publish using incomplete/complete?  If I change the percentage to pass to zero will it still show a score?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Susan, 

When publishing Articulate Storyline content to a learning management system (LMS), you have four reporting options from which to choose (ask your LMS which one they require/request):

  • Passed/Incomplete
  • Passed/Failed
  • Completed/Incomplete
  • Completed/Failed

Many LMSs track both a completion status and a success status. To report both statuses, choose either Passed/Incomplete or Passed/Failed when publishing Storyline content.

Completed/Incomplete and Completed/Failed report only the completion status. 

If you don't want to show a user a score, have you looked at tracking by number of slides viewed instead of a results slide? That will only show the user as completed once they hit that number of slides. 

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Susan, that's a great question. 

If your course contains a quiz, and you're tracking the quiz score, use Passed/Incomplete or Passed/Failed. 

If your course does not contain a quiz and you're tracking the number of slides viewed, use Completed/Incomplete or Completed/Failed. 

Let me know if that clears things up! Also, it looks like your email signature came through when you replied via email! No worries, this Peek video will show you how to remove it. :)

Alyssa Gomez

Sure thing, Susan! 

For example, let's say you have a course without a quiz, and you want to track completion based on the number of slides viewed. If you set completion at viewing 20 slides, anyone who leaves the course before viewing 20 slides will see a Failed status in the LMS. Anyone who leaves the course after viewing 20 slides or more will see a Completed status. 

Does that answer your question?

Soren J Birch

Did you by any chance change how this behaves recently? We have courses now where Passed/Incompleted results in "Incompleted" state even if the score is 96 out of 100 and the pass threshold is 80. 

The LMS used is developed by a company called TicTac, and not one I have encountered before. However tests run on your Articulate Online yields the same results.

We have opened a case with Articulate support (case 01138931), but I want to keep this thread active as well until we've figured out what is going on, to share what we find out with you guys.

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Renuka! Thanks for sharing your file. ☺️

I tested it in SCORM Cloud, which is industry standard for LMS testing. It looks as if the quiz data is reporting correctly there!

Could you also test the course in SCORM Cloud using this link and let me know if it works correctly for you? 

I'll be standing by!

Katherine Murphy

This is so helpful!  One small question, you mention (in the Passed/Failed section) "...This is especially useful if you want to limit number of attempts through a learning activity"...

We have a certification and we want to say "Fail it once, try again, Fail it twice - mark as completed (no retaking) and you're out".  But I don't see a way to set Storyline to define that, so is that an LMS setting?  We use Cornerstone - if anyone knows specifically!

Thanks so much!

Karen Clements

I'm using Articulate Quizmaker 13 and SumTotal.  My articulate settings call for Pass/Fail, and SumTotal is also set to 85 minimum percent, and Contribute to parent activity is checked.  I'm finding that when users fail the quiz, it stays in their activity to do list, even though the roster reports "completed."  Any thoughts?  Getting questions from people who passed the remedial - the original (first attempt) is still showing as required. 

MindGym Resourcing

Hi there - I'm struggling to understand how we can have a Rise course be solely marked as Complete/Incomplete without a quiz. Please find photos attached. If I track by course completion, I can't select what type of data I want. My courses never have quizzes or scoring but there is still a "Satisfaction" score pulling in SCORM Cloud. I don't know what information that is gathering.

Thanks!