This might seem like a silly question, but I have an LMS Admin. that gives me grief if I publish an SL2 title with spaces in it.
Example: My Training Course
She wants no spaces: My_Training_Course
I'd like some guidance about this. I don't want my title in the Player to have "_" between words. Yet, is there another location when publishing where I should be following certain requirements to avoid LMS problems?
Hello Terra, your question doesn't have a straightforward answer unfortunately, as almost every LMS is different. We use SumTotal and do not have any issues with spaces in the course titles, but that doesn't mean that they don't legitimately cause problems in others.
I would recommend hitting some discussion boards for the LMS you're using and ask other users of that LMS if they have the same issue and, if so, is there a way to work around it.
Thank you for your reply. I do not see anything on the forum about this --- and the tutorials do not mention this at all from what I can tell. I just don't want my title on the LMS to look like this: My
One more note --- we use Cornerstone on Demand. From what I know this request is more about being cautious, rather than it being a requirement of Cornerstone.
I'm an LMS admin and I prefer file names themselves not to have spaces. Maybe this is what she's referring to?
My naming convention for files also includes some coding we use to organize our collection. We don't recommend the use of underscores in names as a matter of habit and prescribe all lowercase for all file names.
tla-ms-16-title-of-the-course.zip
Why no underscores? Sometimes we add items to systems and send along as hyperlinks. The underscore can get lost in the link underline, making it difficult for a user to troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Dashes are visible / clearer.
Might want to clarify if she means the course titles themselves or the filenames. If she means the course title, maybe she can explain the logic behind the preference? Seems silly to not have spaces in the name of the title, as much of the time these are ingested into the system and are displayed to the user. Can't think of any reason to exclude spaces from user displayed titles.
Thanks for your reply. I agree with your thoughts about avoiding underscores. I guess I'm in a bit of a learning curve about the behavior of LMS's -- I tend not to get too involved since I work more on the design side.
What I am now a little confused about is that when setting up to Publish to the LMS, under the Reporting Tab, it is asking for specific info. under "Lesson Scorm Info." -- Such as the title and then the Unique Identifier. I am not sure what should be entered here other than the course title? and TBH, have left it blank in the past. But maybe I should be better informed about it.
Thanks for your added thoughts about the LMS Scorm Info. Section.
I also tend to not use spaces and will either look at underscores or leading caps, so a file name like: MyTestStorylineProject.story
I do that for the .story file prior to publish and when looking at publishing I let Storyline handle the file name of the published output based on the title.
The title that appears when someone views the course is the one you enter in the Player. You could enter a different title (or the same title with underscores instead of spaces) into the title field of the Reporting Tab when publishing. That might be enough to satisfy the LMS.
I typically put the title_with_underscores (or hypens) as the Unique Identifier, too. I'm not sure how that field is used, but I find it's usually best to avoid special characters (including spaces) in names.
12 Replies
Hello Terra, your question doesn't have a straightforward answer unfortunately, as almost every LMS is different. We use SumTotal and do not have any issues with spaces in the course titles, but that doesn't mean that they don't legitimately cause problems in others.
I would recommend hitting some discussion boards for the LMS you're using and ask other users of that LMS if they have the same issue and, if so, is there a way to work around it.
Thank you for your reply. I do not see anything on the forum about this --- and the tutorials do not mention this at all from what I can tell. I just don't want my title on the LMS to look like this: My
Brian,
One more note --- we use Cornerstone on Demand. From what I know this request is more about being cautious, rather than it being a requirement of Cornerstone.
Terra
It does seem unusual, but I'm not familiar with Cornerstone. Good luck!
Thank you Brian! I would love to hear from others about this matter, if you have additional information.
Terra
Hi, Terra -
I'm an LMS admin and I prefer file names themselves not to have spaces. Maybe this is what she's referring to?
My naming convention for files also includes some coding we use to organize our collection. We don't recommend the use of underscores in names as a matter of habit and prescribe all lowercase for all file names.
tla-ms-16-title-of-the-course.zip
Why no underscores? Sometimes we add items to systems and send along as hyperlinks. The underscore can get lost in the link underline, making it difficult for a user to troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Dashes are visible / clearer.
Might want to clarify if she means the course titles themselves or the filenames. If she means the course title, maybe she can explain the logic behind the preference? Seems silly to not have spaces in the name of the title, as much of the time these are ingested into the system and are displayed to the user. Can't think of any reason to exclude spaces from user displayed titles.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your reply. I agree with your thoughts about avoiding underscores. I guess I'm in a bit of a learning curve about the behavior of LMS's -- I tend not to get too involved since I work more on the design side.
What I am now a little confused about is that when setting up to Publish to the LMS, under the Reporting Tab, it is asking for specific info. under "Lesson Scorm Info." -- Such as the title and then the Unique Identifier. I am not sure what should be entered here other than the course title? and TBH, have left it blank in the past. But maybe I should be better informed about it.
Thanks for your added thoughts about the LMS Scorm Info. Section.
Terra
I'm guessing that cookies for the admin is your best option here :)
Hi Terra,
I also tend to not use spaces and will either look at underscores or leading caps, so a file name like: MyTestStorylineProject.story
I do that for the .story file prior to publish and when looking at publishing I let Storyline handle the file name of the published output based on the title.
Terra,
The title that appears when someone views the course is the one you enter in the Player. You could enter a different title (or the same title with underscores instead of spaces) into the title field of the Reporting Tab when publishing. That might be enough to satisfy the LMS.
I typically put the title_with_underscores (or hypens) as the Unique Identifier, too. I'm not sure how that field is used, but I find it's usually best to avoid special characters (including spaces) in names.
Hi Judy,
Thank you for your suggestions. This was helpful to me.
Terra
Ha! Thanks, Walt. :)
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