Just curious if any one has done some work with Storyline and Tin Can and what you learned. Where you successful? Have learners successfully accessing Tin Can courses?
Any implement it with their LMS successfully? Did your LMS add native support or did you do something like integrate it with the SCORM Cloud?
I've implemented Tin Can using the Rustici SCORM Cloud. I needed to use Tin Can for iPad delivery. The Tin Can experience has been mostly positive. One difference is that Tin Can does not include the concept of sessions. That means when a course is launched and exited without completion, it does not show In Progress. It does show Completion when completed. This may be true only for the Storyline implementation of Tin Can and how it interacts with the SCORM Cloud.
The HTML5 version of the course resulted in several issues, one being the troublesome user experience with the repainting of screens when layers were made visible, the other being that the course unexpectedly ends the SCORM session. I've worked with Articulate support and Rustic on the SCORM issue. Both are able to duplicate it, but no resolution yet.
Testing w/SCORMCLOUD and publishing for use on the mobile player with the LMS set to "Tin Can API" because I have to host the content on a different server.
Thing is I get an error from scormcloud about my package that says "The given tincan.xml was incompatible with latest version of the Tin Can API specification. Error was: Activity ID '5yXigWshKaT_course_id' is not an absolute URI"
Does anyone have any experience with this or know how to resolve this?
Just had my first "Tin Can" conversation with client this afternoon.
Will be gradually switching-on more and more functionality with new LMS, and this (and associated learning-experience based tracking) will be more and more important over the next few years.
Starting small at the moment, (short SL modules and Certification), then gradually adding in more and more "experience" and "doing" events.
Gerry, Rustici SCORM Cloud has a Dispatch option that lets you use Tin Can with an LMS that does not yet support it.
Thanks again, Garry. That was just the lead I needed.
Just did a quick test and published a test SL course to Flash, iOS, and HTML5. Uploaded to my SCORM Cloud account and used the Dispatch option to generate a a zip for use in a LMS.
(Looks like the zip is for for SCORM 1.2. Is that the only option?)
Anyway, imported the zip into my client's Saba 5.5 SP1 testing LMS. The course launched--both in Flash and with the Mobile Player on the iPad. Seeing good communication with both versions between the content and the LMS.
Good start, IMVHO, and pretty easy to do once I got the hang of the SCORM Cloud interface. Only issue so far is the content does not complete. (May be the same thing as discussed here with Saba and SCORM 1.2).
I made a TinCan and put it in the Scorm Cloud and I must say it is great how it works. The LRS turn out fine. I even "programmed" I learned this button in Chrome on my laptop and the same button on my Android SmartPhone in Dolphin. When I click these buttons a extra line is added in my LRS.
SUPERB so much better than SCORM,
My next step is export the LRS from the SCORM cloud and import it an other LMS. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a LMS with TinCan. Anyone wants to help me out?
I made a TinCan and put it in the Scorm Cloud and I must say it is great how it works. The LRS turn out fine. I even "programmed" I learned this button in Chrome on my laptop and the same button on my Android SmartPhone in Dolphin. When I click these buttons a extra line is added in my LRS.
SUPERB so much better than SCORM,
My next step is export the LRS from the SCORM cloud and import it an other LMS. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a LMS with TinCan. Anyone wants to help me out?
LearnDash for Wordpress will be launching this Monday, January 28 according to Justin Ferriman who heads up LearnDash. LearnDash supports Tin Can API.
Loading Tin Can content into the SCORM Cloud as your LRS and then exporting out a dispatch package (as SCORM 1.2) for use with your LMS has one drawback currently.
While the course loads and plays with the LMS, and then is some communication, progress data is not yet sent, so you can't complete the course, as SCORM 1.2, with the LMS.
Confirmed this with Rustici and Associates with a ticket I filed with them on this. Nice folks and great response. They actually called me up to talk about our plans for Tin Can.
In regards to the LMS communication, this is what they sent to me: "Thank you for your message. So, this one is a little tricky. While you can absolutely launch and view Tin Cans via dispatch, the progress information will not be sent back to the host LMS. The Tin Can is programed to have an end point of the Cloud LRS, so all of the statements will be sent there. Currently, Dispatch is not set up for Tin Can Statement --> SCORM runtime element conversion, but I am going to put this on our white board of things to look at in the future..."
In a later exchange, they thought looking at this in the spring or summer of this year might be possible.
Loading Tin Can content into the SCORM Cloud as your LRS and then exporting out a dispatch package (as SCORM 1.2) for use with your LMS has one drawback currently.
While the course loads and plays with the LMS, and then is some communication, progress data is not yet sent, so you can't complete the course, as SCORM 1.2, with the LMS.
Confirmed this with Rustici and Associates with a ticket I filed with them on this. Nice folks and great response. They actually called me up to talk about our plans for Tin Can.
In regards to the LMS communication, this is what they sent to me: "Thank you for your message. So, this one is a little tricky. While you can absolutely launch and view Tin Cans via dispatch, the progress information will not be sent back to the host LMS. The Tin Can is programed to have an end point of the Cloud LRS, so all of the statements will be sent there. Currently, Dispatch is not set up for Tin Can Statement --> SCORM runtime element conversion, but I am going to put this on our white board of things to look at in the future..."
In a later exchange, they thought looking at this in the spring or summer of this year might be possible.
Hi Gerry,
I'm just referring to publishing a Storyline course to Tin Can API and uploading the Tin Can course directly to the LearnDash LRS. I'm not interested in converting SCORM if I can simply re-publish my content.
Thanks, Frank. I wasn't replying to you as much as I was updating the thread with my experiences and needs.
I think many LMS makers won't be updating to Tin Can soon, and if they later do, many LMS owners may then not be able to update their LMS's for some time. So I'm curious how existing LMS's not yet supporting Tin Can might possibly use Tin Can with an external LRS.
This may not be possible technically but if a LMS not supporting Tin Can, via use of an external LRS, could have Storyline content in the Articulate Mobile Player launch and then have learner progress/completions recorded, that'd be cool.
I made a TinCan and put it in the Scorm Cloud and I must say it is great how it works. The LRS turn out fine. I even "programmed" I learned this button in Chrome on my laptop and the same button on my Android SmartPhone in Dolphin. When I click these buttons a extra line is added in my LRS.
SUPERB so much better than SCORM,
My next step is export the LRS from the SCORM cloud and import it an other LMS. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a LMS with TinCan. Anyone wants to help me out?
The entire idea of TinCan is to bring content out of complicated LMS to simple platforms. GrassBlade xAPI Companion plugin can be used to host TinCan content on Wordpress
Hi, I'm finding that when I try to publish content to scormcloud from Storyline, using the tincan api output setting, I get the following error - The given tincan.xml was incompatible with latest version of the Tin Can API specification. Error was: Activity ID '696lbcV1xNT_course_id' is not an absolute URI
Thanks Sam - this seems a fairly basic kind of error, given that scorm cloud is being touted as a good way to test this tincan content. I'm struggling to figure out if my stuff is working or not!
I had the same issue as mentioned in this thread, regarding the error "Error was: Activity ID '696lbcV1xNT_course_id' is not an absolute URI" from a Tin Can course tested on SCORM Cloud. SCORM Cloud upgraded from .9 to .95 of the Tin Can specification, and I believe that is why this error started showing up. I opened a ticket with them and here is the reply (which I've edited slightly for brevity):
"This is a new validation we're doing to make sure data coming in is valid according to 0.95 of the specification.
- Sometimes this message will occur when activity ID is OK, but other fields that also must be absolute URIs are not (such as activity type or verb). - An absolute URI contains the protocol and full path. http://tincanapi.com/developers/tech-overview/ is an absolute URI, /developers/tech-overview is not.
Once the [Tin Can] spec hits 1.0 (sometime in April), this may become an issue. I would do a search for "Activity ID '6KdKFQInI5n_course_id' [in your Tin Can XML file] and make sure it is an absolute path...in this case it shouldn't matter if it resolves or not. Something like activity id="http://tincanapi.com/test/6KdKFQInI5n_course_id"..."
So it seems that the error at this point should not prohibit content from running, but in the near future this will become an issue.
In a follow up e-mail, SCORM Cloud did confirm that -- at least until the update to 1.0 in April -- the URL does not have to be "real:" Here's what they said:
"...for Storyline, they don't provide a path, but it is something that will be coming. In the meantime...you can just use something like this for the activity id and it should fix the parser warning.
Technically it does not have to resolve to anything."
I agree with others previously posting on this thread who desire some simplified Tin Can API documentation. From what I can tell, the resource documents out there are highly technical and geared more towards LMS developers, not e-learning developers. I realize this is an evolving specification and I'm sure it will become easier in the future. For now, I'm experiencing various glitches when publishing for Tin Can.
I have been successfully launching and tracking Storyline as Tin Can packages on the iPad using the Mobile player and Moodle.
I have an ongoing project where I've built an LRS that lives in Moodle as a local web service plugin and combined it with a modified SCORM plugin.
The purpose of this project was to host Storyline and launch and track it on the iPad. I wanted to fully utilize the tracking and protected content. So far it's been a great success, although I do have a pretty decent wish list for features in future versions of the mobile player.
I am using Moodle 2.4.1 as my baseline for development. I have repositories for the plugin and the modified SCORM module on Git. If anyone would like to test drive the code it's under my username jgsmitty.
I still have a fair amount of documentation, cleanup, and debugging. However, it seems to do a good job of at least being able to launch, track, and report on the Storyline Tin Can packages.
BTW. This solution does not rely on SCORM Cloud but is a stand alone solution that collects Tin Can statements and translates them to traditional SCORM tracks. So, your reporting is just as if it were a SCORM!
The goal of this project was to not only be able to host and track the Tin Can packages but build a fully functioning LRS utilizing the Experience API. Naturally, priority to date has been to build in enough functionality to track the Storyline Tin Can packages. However, a roadmap is in place to eventually have it built to full ADL specs.
No modifications to the Articulate packages is necessary since the Moodle module and plugin conform to the Experience API standards and provide not only the launch criteria but also the LRS communications. It's as simple as drag-and-drop of a zipped Tin Can package, click to launch, and you're off and tracking. The hosting and reporting are all accomplished through a modified version of the Moodle SCORM module. Tin Can statements are collected and interrogated at the LRS for relevant information that is then passed into the native SCORM track tables so that all reporting can be accomplished using the built-in Moodle functionality. It's quite simple from a user perspective.
The greatest challenge to date is the constant evolution of the Experience API and the Storyline reporting. Since it's still a Beta project, many changes in the way data is reported take place which are somewhat undocumented. So, I'm still chasing specifics that have not found their way into official documentation yet.
Once again, if you're a 'Moodler' or just want to experiment, feel free to visit my repository on Git for more information. Search for the Experience API under my account 'jgsmitty'.
Thanks to all here, I have made some progress. I now have Articulate Storyline quizzes running as downloaded local packages in a headless browser on an iPad - not the Articulate player - and communicating result statements via an LRS using tincan. My next goal is to enable offline work - to store tincan statements when the iPads are offline, then relay them when connections are restored. Does anyone have experience of getting this working?
53 Replies
No experience here... still trying to find some 'talk to me like I was a 6 year old' explanation for TinCan on what it is and how it works...
I get that it tracks my content and I do not need an LMS. And that is supports any activity but that is as far as I get....
I'm about the same. I'm more curious about getting it to work when your current LMS doesn't support it yet. If I read it right, it's possible.
I have a client who may need to look at that. Hence, my big interest.
I've implemented Tin Can using the Rustici SCORM Cloud. I needed to use Tin Can for iPad delivery. The Tin Can experience has been mostly positive. One difference is that Tin Can does not include the concept of sessions. That means when a course is launched and exited without completion, it does not show In Progress. It does show Completion when completed. This may be true only for the Storyline implementation of Tin Can and how it interacts with the SCORM Cloud.
The HTML5 version of the course resulted in several issues, one being the troublesome user experience with the repainting of screens when layers were made visible, the other being that the course unexpectedly ends the SCORM session. I've worked with Articulate support and Rustic on the SCORM issue. Both are able to duplicate it, but no resolution yet.
THANKS, Garry!
So no progress indicator. Am I right you get something like:
Jeff Enrolled/Started/Completed Course X
Hey,
Testing w/SCORMCLOUD and publishing for use on the mobile player with the LMS set to "Tin Can API" because I have to host the content on a different server.
Thing is I get an error from scormcloud about my package that says "The given tincan.xml was incompatible with latest version of the Tin Can API specification. Error was: Activity ID '5yXigWshKaT_course_id' is not an absolute URI"
Does anyone have any experience with this or know how to resolve this?
Thanks!
Just had my first "Tin Can" conversation with client this afternoon.
Will be gradually switching-on more and more functionality with new LMS, and this (and associated learning-experience based tracking) will be more and more important over the next few years.
Starting small at the moment, (short SL modules and Certification), then gradually adding in more and more "experience" and "doing" events.
Bruce
Thanks again, Garry.
Just did a quick test and published a test SL course to Flash, iOS, and HTML5. Uploaded to my SCORM Cloud account and used the Dispatch option to generate a a zip for use in a LMS.
(Looks like the zip is for for SCORM 1.2. Is that the only option?)
Anyway, imported the zip into my client's Saba 5.5 SP1 testing LMS. The course launched--both in Flash and with the Mobile Player on the iPad. Seeing good communication with both versions between the content and the LMS.
Good start, IMVHO, and pretty easy to do once I got the hang of the SCORM Cloud interface. Only issue so far is the content does not complete. (May be the same thing as discussed here with Saba and SCORM 1.2).
All in all, I'm very encouraged so far.
I made a TinCan and put it in the Scorm Cloud and I must say it is great how it works. The LRS turn out fine. I even "programmed" I learned this button in Chrome on my laptop and the same button on my Android SmartPhone in Dolphin. When I click these buttons a extra line is added in my LRS.
SUPERB so much better than SCORM,
My next step is export the LRS from the SCORM cloud and import it an other LMS. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a LMS with TinCan. Anyone wants to help me out?
LearnDash for Wordpress will be launching this Monday, January 28 according to Justin Ferriman who heads up LearnDash. LearnDash supports Tin Can API.
Quick update on my experiences . . .
Loading Tin Can content into the SCORM Cloud as your LRS and then exporting out a dispatch package (as SCORM 1.2) for use with your LMS has one drawback currently.
While the course loads and plays with the LMS, and then is some communication, progress data is not yet sent, so you can't complete the course, as SCORM 1.2, with the LMS.
Confirmed this with Rustici and Associates with a ticket I filed with them on this. Nice folks and great response. They actually called me up to talk about our plans for Tin Can.
In regards to the LMS communication, this is what they sent to me: "Thank you for your message. So, this one is a little tricky. While you can absolutely launch and view Tin Cans via dispatch, the progress information will not be sent back to the host LMS. The Tin Can is programed to have an end point of the Cloud LRS, so all of the statements will be sent there. Currently, Dispatch is not set up for Tin Can Statement --> SCORM runtime element conversion, but I am going to put this on our white board of things to look at in the future..."
In a later exchange, they thought looking at this in the spring or summer of this year might be possible.
Hi Gerry,
I'm just referring to publishing a Storyline course to Tin Can API and uploading the Tin Can course directly to the LearnDash LRS. I'm not interested in converting SCORM if I can simply re-publish my content.
Thanks.
Thanks, Frank.
I wasn't replying to you as much as I was updating the thread with my experiences and needs.
I think many LMS makers won't be updating to Tin Can soon, and if they later do, many LMS owners may then not be able to update their LMS's for some time. So I'm curious how existing LMS's not yet supporting Tin Can might possibly use Tin Can with an external LRS.
This may not be possible technically but if a LMS not supporting Tin Can, via use of an external LRS, could have Storyline content in the Articulate Mobile Player launch and then have learner progress/completions recorded, that'd be cool.
The entire idea of TinCan is to bring content out of complicated LMS to simple platforms. GrassBlade xAPI Companion plugin can be used to host TinCan content on Wordpress
You can get it for Free at
http://www.nextsoftwaresolutions.com/grassblade-xapi-companion/
Hi, I'm finding that when I try to publish content to scormcloud from Storyline, using the tincan api output setting, I get the following error - The given tincan.xml was incompatible with latest version of the Tin Can API specification. Error was: Activity ID '696lbcV1xNT_course_id' is not an absolute URI
Anyone know what to do to fix this?
That was the same exact issue I was having. I wish I had a solution for you...
Thanks Sam - this seems a fairly basic kind of error, given that scorm cloud is being touted as a good way to test this tincan content. I'm struggling to figure out if my stuff is working or not!
I had the same issue as mentioned in this thread, regarding the error "Error was: Activity ID '696lbcV1xNT_course_id' is not an absolute URI" from a Tin Can course tested on SCORM Cloud. SCORM Cloud upgraded from .9 to .95 of the Tin Can specification, and I believe that is why this error started showing up. I opened a ticket with them and here is the reply (which I've edited slightly for brevity):
"This is a new validation we're doing to make sure data coming in is valid according to 0.95 of the specification.
- Sometimes this message will occur when activity ID is OK, but other fields that also must be absolute URIs are not (such as activity type or verb).
- An absolute URI contains the protocol and full path. http://tincanapi.com/developers/tech-overview/ is an absolute URI, /developers/tech-overview is not.
Once the [Tin Can] spec hits 1.0 (sometime in April), this may become an issue. I would do a search for "Activity ID '6KdKFQInI5n_course_id' [in your Tin Can XML file] and make sure it is an absolute path...in this case it shouldn't matter if it resolves or not. Something like activity id="http://tincanapi.com/test/6KdKFQInI5n_course_id"..."
So it seems that the error at this point should not prohibit content from running, but in the near future this will become an issue.
Thanks for that quick reply Rebecca - so the activity ID absolute url should be set to the host url, plus the id?
I'll try that. Just getting started with tincan - I have the API working okay on its own, but have had no success with articulate content so far.
In a follow up e-mail, SCORM Cloud did confirm that -- at least until the update to 1.0 in April -- the URL does not have to be "real:" Here's what they said:
"...for Storyline, they don't provide a path, but it is something that will be coming. In the meantime...you can just use something like this for the activity id and it should fix the parser warning.
http://tincanapi.com/test/6KdKFQInI5n_course_id
Technically it does not have to resolve to anything."
I agree with others previously posting on this thread who desire some simplified Tin Can API documentation. From what I can tell, the resource documents out there are highly technical and geared more towards LMS developers, not e-learning developers. I realize this is an evolving specification and I'm sure it will become easier in the future. For now, I'm experiencing various glitches when publishing for Tin Can.
Hi.
I have been successfully launching and tracking Storyline as Tin Can packages on the iPad using the Mobile player and Moodle.
I have an ongoing project where I've built an LRS that lives in Moodle as a local web service plugin and combined it with a modified SCORM plugin.
The purpose of this project was to host Storyline and launch and track it on the iPad. I wanted to fully utilize the tracking and protected content. So far it's been a great success, although I do have a pretty decent wish list for features in future versions of the mobile player.
I am using Moodle 2.4.1 as my baseline for development. I have repositories for the plugin and the modified SCORM module on Git. If anyone would like to test drive the code it's under my username jgsmitty.
I still have a fair amount of documentation, cleanup, and debugging. However, it seems to do a good job of at least being able to launch, track, and report on the Storyline Tin Can packages.
BTW. This solution does not rely on SCORM Cloud but is a stand alone solution that collects Tin Can statements and translates them to traditional SCORM tracks. So, your reporting is just as if it were a SCORM!
Jamie
Sounds quite involved Jamie - did you find any particular issues to take note of? Were any modifications required to the Articulate published files?
The goal of this project was to not only be able to host and track the Tin Can packages but build a fully functioning LRS utilizing the Experience API. Naturally, priority to date has been to build in enough functionality to track the Storyline Tin Can packages. However, a roadmap is in place to eventually have it built to full ADL specs.
No modifications to the Articulate packages is necessary since the Moodle module and plugin conform to the Experience API standards and provide not only the launch criteria but also the LRS communications. It's as simple as drag-and-drop of a zipped Tin Can package, click to launch, and you're off and tracking. The hosting and reporting are all accomplished through a modified version of the Moodle SCORM module. Tin Can statements are collected and interrogated at the LRS for relevant information that is then passed into the native SCORM track tables so that all reporting can be accomplished using the built-in Moodle functionality. It's quite simple from a user perspective.
The greatest challenge to date is the constant evolution of the Experience API and the Storyline reporting. Since it's still a Beta project, many changes in the way data is reported take place which are somewhat undocumented. So, I'm still chasing specifics that have not found their way into official documentation yet.
Once again, if you're a 'Moodler' or just want to experiment, feel free to visit my repository on Git for more information. Search for the Experience API under my account 'jgsmitty'.
Thanks to all here, I have made some progress. I now have Articulate Storyline quizzes running as downloaded local packages in a headless browser on an iPad - not the Articulate player - and communicating result statements via an LRS using tincan. My next goal is to enable offline work - to store tincan statements when the iPads are offline, then relay them when connections are restored. Does anyone have experience of getting this working?
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