Saving SCORM progress
Jan 30, 2021
Hello all,
I am setting up a new LMS, and after creating a simple test module in Storyline (graded pre-check, content, final assessment), I'm finding an issue getting this to save learner progress. I'm using the ILIAS LMS and tried experimenting in several formats: SCORM 1.2 and 2004 (3rd and 4th editions).
When launching the course in Firefox, the progress saves upon simply closing the tab, and the course prompts the learner to resume the next time they launch it. In Chrome/Edge (which most of my learners are running), this tracking doesn't happen - the course simply restarts when launched in subsequent attempts. Using the optional native frame from the LMS player, the exit button doesn't seem to save progress in either browser. I should mention that I've already attempted running the course in the same window rather than launching a new window, but that didn't change the outcome.
The SL file itself seems to be setup correctly as it's working in Firefox. I verified resume is set to prompt in SL. I uploaded the course in SCORMCloud and tracking seemed to work in both Chrome and Firefox, so I'm at a loss as to what's happening.
I did find a manual workaround, by using a link in the player topbar for the exit course trigger - but this could turn out to be unintuitive for some learners as most people simply close the tab. Is there another way to change when or how SL sends tracking data?
On another note, I tried to add a "complete course" trigger to the player topbar, but it wasn't recognized in the SL tracking options (complete triggers was still greyed out) and so when clicked didn't do anything. Perhaps this is a bug?
5 Replies
Hello Ryan and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! I'm sorry that's happening. Since your course works properly in SCORM Cloud but not in your LMS, you may need to open a support case with your LMS provider to troubleshoot the issue. They’ll know how to help with LMS-specific problems. Or hopefully, someone here in the community that has experience with ILIAS LMS can help.
Hi Sarah and thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, most of their updated documentation and community sites are in German. I don't think it's too widely used outside of Europe but was surprised to hear of it's acclaim and use by the U.S. DoD/NATO ADL initiative (the group behind the SCORM standard).
In testing, I've also found the LMS incapable of manually resetting or removing learners' saved progress to allow them to restart a course - can you believe that?
So, it looks like I may be searching for a new LMS - and I'm open to ideas. SCORMCloud seems to work okay for testing, but for mass attendance and score reporting requirements, I think a proper LMS would be better suited. I'm wondering what the community uses and what tends to work well with Articulate content. Is there a good (preferably free/OSS) LMS that keeps up with the times in terms of SCORM and browser updates these days?
Hey Ryan! I'm sorry it's not working as one would hope. I did a little search and found a few articles that might fix the issue:
I hope that helps. If not, maybe the community has some LMS recommendations. You may want to start a new thread to get more traction on which LMS is best.
Hi Ryan, I am having a similar issue (only tested on Edge). When users click the Exit button I have placed on the Results slide, the score/completion is passed on to the LMS. However, if they simply close the browser, the score/completion is NOT recorded.
Wondering if you were able to find any other workarounds or resolutions to this problem. Thanks in advance.
Hi Deblina, I'm glad to hear this isn't just me. So far, the best workaround I've found with this particular LMS is to add a "Save & Exit" button in the player settings, so it's available globally throughout the course. I also have a slide near the beginning reminding learners to save their progress before closing the module. At least until a more permanent fix is added by the LMS dev team, I think this is the most reliable way to accurately save progress.
Are you using ILIAS as well by chance? The Storyline projects themselves appear to be working fine - completion saves automatically upon closing the tab when tested on both SCORMCloud as well as my Moodle development server, so I suspect the LMS itself is dropping a piece of data that it shouldn't.
If you're on ILIAS, I know they just recently released version 6.7. I didn't see a mention of the specific issue in the release notes, and I haven't had the time to upgrade my own server yet, but it may be worth installing the updated version to see if a fix has been implemented.