Forum Discussion
Everything we know about Cornerstone on Demand and Storyline!
I thought I would start a thread about Cornerstone on Demand so there's a central place for people to read and add to. There seems to be a dearth of information about how CSOD and Storyline interac...
Has anyone else been having "reversioning" issues with CSOD and Articulate?
When we try to update a course on Cornerstone the update takes days and sometimes there are unexplained issues.
For example: 1) a NEXT button won't advance (even though it works perfectly in preview) 2) Fonts change from Futura to Times New Roman 3) zoom picture features will not work.
Do you mean "reversioning" or "replacing"? If replacing, one tip I swear by
is to always "zero out" the files when replacing with new ones. It does
take a while for all the caching to clear out though even then, and courses
can look really wonky for a while.Will,
By reversioning I mean we update the file of an already published course on the LMS.
What does "zero out" mean?Thanks for the help!
There are actually two methods for updating a course which are quite different so that is why I am asking about "reversioning" vs"replacing." For example, you can publish a new online course, and then tell Cornerstone that it should be the new version of an older course. This is "reversioning." Reversioning allows you to avoid any of these file replacement issues, but it does mean that not everyone gets the new version of the course unless you reenroll them in it, which then wipes out their progress.
Replacing is when you just write over the old course. When replacing, what I mean by zero out is that I delete all of the existing course files before uploading the new ones. This prevents Cornerstone from trying to figure out which ones have or have not changed and instead just replaces all the files. My suspicion (which I have no proof of, so maybe I should instead say my superstition) is that Cornerstone's file comparison process doesn't always do the best job at replacing files that need replacing and it leaves ones that should have been replaced. I could be wrong though. I just delete all the files first to rule out this possibility.
[Update 8/2018]: things have changed with the new Content Uploader tool to where you can no longer "zero out" all the files. However, it seems to do better with comparing and replacing the right files now, although CSOD is much more finicky about letting you Replace rather than Reversion. The imsmanifest file has to be almost identical to the previous one.]
We have also experienced delays from the time we published an updated/reversioned course until we are actually able to view it running properly on the server. In every other system I have used, once the updated shows published it is immediately available. We have been told more than once by different CSOD folks that it's "normal for it to take 10 minutes up to a couple of hours before the updated content is accessible by users." So, I don't know about "days" but we certainly have experienced much longer than expected wait times for the new course to "populate" and be available for users and it seems this is normal, expected system behavior. We've had similar "lags" in the length of time it can take for a Learning Assignment to process.
I have, in the past, seen update/replace take days and in the mean time the course looks like someone flipped it upside down and shook it. So, you are not alone in seeing this behavior. As a result I know of some companies that choose to reversion only and not even mess around with update.
Personally, if I have an update I need to do, and by update I mean small tweaks to text or images, not wholesale changes to slide number or order, I tend to push those out the night before a holiday weekend if it can wait that long or at least overnight if it is urgent. A reversion, can be pushed out any time but then you have to decide who is getting the updated version (everyone vs. new registrations, etc).
I haven't "zeroed out" as Will suggests in recent memory Although on one occasion I somehow broke the whole course when "zeroing out" and ended up versioning anyway.
Of note, when updating, I have seen some impatient souls attempt to push out multiple updates when the first one didn't show up. This never goes well. Do your self a favor and put a version.update number on your first slide so you know it at least took (e.g when version 1 is updated the first time I put a v1.1 on the first slide). Also note just because you see your update number change on the first slide, doesn't mean the whole update is complete. Patience is required for update/replace.
Matthew,
Thanks for the additional info. I will keep these tips in mind.
