States and revisiting projects

Jan 05, 2021

I have some questions about session states, so I can understand the best way to make things work. I dont really know anything technical about LRS or statements sent to LRS, other than they must be data stored with a username in a database.

So firstly, I see that states will work even if just using the course as a guest, i.e. with no login or username. So if you set a variable, or get to a slide in the course, and then revisit later, you can potentially get storyline to restart at the same place I believe? Now, I am guessing that uses cookies to store the state? Which means it is not user dependent but browser dependent, so anyone restarting in the same browser will get a continue point (I think with a prompt asking if the course should resume?) That is until the cache is flushed of course.

If I am correct, what limits are there to what can be saved and resumed in terms of variables, quiz answers, start time, object states, current slide, visited slides etc?

Next question - using an LRS. So here I presume that a user will create a username and then save data such as above will be stored in a server database, e.g. quiz answers, timings, current slide?

So would other state information such as variables be stored in the LRS, or would that continue to be stored locally e.g. in a cookie? In which case it strikes me that if a user continued on a new machine, or browser session, they would not continue from the same state they finished on?

Thanks in advance

3 Replies

Judy Nollet
Hero

over 3 years ago01/05/21 at 1:46 pm (UTC)

Hi, Sam,

Storyline remembers states and variables while a person is going through a course. However, what happens when exiting and relaunching varies based on where the course is loaded.

If the course is in an LRS or LMS, Storyline stores what's known as suspend data (also referred to as resume data) in the LRS or LMS.
- The suspend data contains the info about states and variables. That allows the person to resume where they left off (assuming the course was published with a setting that allows someone to resume).
- The LRS or LMS stores the suspend data, so that Storyline can read it when the course resumes. That means the user can revisit from a different browser or device.
- The limits to suspend data vary based on how the course was published. The details are here: https://articulate.com/support/article/exceeding-scorm-suspend-data-limits
If the course is just on the web, Storyline has no definite place to store the suspend data.
- Depending on the browser settings, Storyline might sometimes allow the user to resume where they left off. But that's not reliable.

For more info, refer to this Articulate article:

https://community.articulate.com/articles/learning-more-about-your-lms-suspend-data-and-resume-behavior

Sam G
Author

over 3 years ago01/06/21 at 5:07 am (UTC)

Hi Judy

Happy new year, and thanks for your great reply.

Do you have an technical info about resume when not using an LMS? I assume this uses cookies, hence why you say browser settings are important? So as long as cookies are enabled, it should work? Can you direct me to any example of what is written in a cookie?

Also I am wondering how new attempts are stored in the LRS. If for example a user answered question one - answer A, and that was stored in the LRS. And then they restarted or continued later, and changed their answer, or took the whole course again. Would the LRS keep a table of data with answers, connected to different dates they took the course? Or would it always over write the last entry for that question?

over 3 years ago01/06/21 at 2:16 pm (UTC)

Hi, again, Sam,

I'm not involved in the LMS/LRS side of things, so I don't have any details to share about exactly what is stored. And I don't have technical details about what cookies will and won't track.

Perhaps someone else in the Forum with more knowledge will provide more insight.