Everything we know about Cornerstone on Demand and Storyline!

This may be a query better suited to CSOD but thought I'd try here as well. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a deep link working inside an iframe to present SL3 content inside a CSOD custom page. I want to include a brief overview (built in SL3) visible on an CSOD custom page so tried adding as a deep link inside an iframe. It sort of works but it registers and opens the actual course in a separate tab rather than it being visible inside the frame.

Any other alternatives to getting SL3 content visible (via the LMS) inside a web page (CSOD or Intranet) would be appreciated.

Thanks Steve, at the moment I'm not bothered about it tracking so I'll have a go at the above (we use IE110 and may come back for some more help.

If this is linked to the version uploaded to CSOD am I correct in assuming the link wil break if the course is reversioned?

Developer tools are launched in IE10 with F12, I think.

Steve

Thank you Steve, this works like a charm. Don't suppose you know a clever way of doing the same but where we can track the course? 

Hey Joseph,

You're running into an issue with a Table of Contents from your LMS as well? Looks like Jason mentioned here that CSOD was able to resolve this for him, so hopefully you'll be able to get that handled quickly as well.

I'm trying to learn a bit more about SCORM and was hoping some nice person out there might be able to point me in the direction of a useful resource (our publish standard at bottom of post). I want to better understand what is sent from SL3 to CSOD and when - I keep reading about terms like .cmi, suspend, normal etc but I'm never quite sure what they actually mean from a practical perspective. I think that a more enhanced fundamental understanding will help me troubleshoot problems better.  

What would be even better would be if I could then understand how the different settings in SL3 affect what is sent and when. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We use SL3 & CSOD and publish as SCORM 2004 3rd edition (Complete/Incomplete). 

Hey, Chris - 

Here's the complete API reference for SCORM 2004. The second link is a printable poster:

https://scorm.com/scorm-explained/technical-scorm/run-time/run-time-reference/
https://scorm.com/scorm-explained/scorm-resources/reference-poster/

One of the easier ways to see what's going on is to register for a SCORM Cloud account at http://cloud.scorm.com

Using this tool, you can see the log of all of the API calls made in a Storyline module. It's one of the best ways that I have found to troubleshoot a module.  I've pasted an example of a debug log below. Here you see:

• Initialization of the API. In CSOD, when you click launch, the window changes state to loading. Then a new window is launched with your content. This window uses a unique identifier for the learning object and the user to tell the API where in the database to look for the user's information and where to put it.
• The first thing Storyline does is get the lesson_mode. This will almost always return as normal. I have seen where some cases returned review but only in older versions of Moodle. This tells the course how to run (browse, normal, or review). I don't think storyline will set anything but normal but I could be wrong.
• Then Storyline requests the lesson_status. Lesson status is how the LMS knows you're done or not. In a new launch, you'll probably see 'not attempted'. If SL receives not attempted, it will respond to the LMS to set it to 'incomplete'. In CSOD, this is translated to In Progress. 
• I expanded the line below at 05:32:772 to show what the SCORM Cloud is doing in response to a request.
• The line you see for LMSGetValue('cmi.core.student_name') isn't something that Storyline requests. I added that in a Javascript trigger. I used that information to display the name of the participant in a text field and also to generate an xAPI agent (another complicated explanation) to report data to an LRS in addition to the LMS and enable a 'trainer's gradebook' of simulation actions that we could not provide in CSOD.
• This module is set to not retain progress and start fresh with every launch. So you're not seeing any suspend_data calls. After each slide change, you should see an LMSSetValue('cmi.suspend_data') call. This sends the "LMS Cookie" to the LMS so when you resume the SL runtime knows how to suss it out.
• When the learner has met the conditions for completion (Quiz result, slide count, completion trigger), the score and lesson status are sent from the SL file. 

  + [00:05:47.364] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.raw', '100') returned 'true' in 0.001 seconds

  + [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.max', '100') returned 'true' in 0 seconds

  + [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.min', '0') returned 'true' in 0 seconds

  + [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.lesson_status', 'completed') returned 'true' in 0.001 

• And finally, when you exit the module, the session_time is recorded with a call from SL to set that value, the exit state is set to "suspend", LMSCommit is called, as is LMSFinish. This cleans everything up, ensures the right values are sent to the LMS, and closes out the API connection. You can't send anything else after LMSFinish (LMS dependent) until you again initialize the API.
  
  [23:52:10.198] LMSCommit('') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
[23:52:10.198] Checking for Commit Error
[23:52:10.198] Call is error free.
- [23:52:10.198] LMSFinish('')
[23:52:10.198] Checking for Finish Error
[23:52:10.198] Call is error free.
[23:52:10.198] Close Out Session
[23:52:10.198] Mode = normal
[23:52:10.198] Credit = credit
[23:52:10.198] CompletionStatus = completed
[23:52:10.198] SuccessStatus = unknown
[23:52:10.198] MasteryScore = null
[23:52:10.198] Score = 100
[23:52:10.198] Sco was taken for credit
[23:52:10.198] Sco is completed so resetting credit to no-credit and mode to review
[23:52:10.198] Next entry is normal
[23:52:10.199] Session Time: PT12M43.35S (76335 hundredths)
[23:52:10.199] Previous Time: PT0H0M0S (0 hundredths)
[23:52:10.199] New Total Time: PT12M43.35S (76335 hundredths)
[23:52:10.199] New Tracked Total Time: PT12M45.98S

Example log from SCORM Cloud

[00:05:29.786] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:29.786] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:29.786] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01_SCO
+ [00:05:32.771] LMSInitialize('') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:32.771] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.lesson_mode') returned 'normal' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.771] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:32.771] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.lesson_mode') returned 'normal' in 0.001 seconds
[00:05:32.772] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:32.772] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.lesson_status') returned 'not attempted' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.772] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
- [00:05:32.772] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.lesson_status', 'incomplete') returned 'true' in 0.002 seconds
[00:05:32.773] CheckForSetValueError (cmi.core.lesson_status, incomplete, cmi.core.lesson_status, , )
[00:05:32.773] Element is: lesson_status
[00:05:32.773] Call is error free.
[00:05:32.774] StoreValue (cmi.core.lesson_status, incomplete, cmi.core.lesson_status, , )
[00:05:32.774] Element is: lesson_status
[00:05:32.774] StatusSetInCurrentSession = false, CompletionStatus=unknown
[00:05:32.774] Allowing status change
[00:05:32.774] RunTimeApi_ImmediateRollup called
[00:05:32.774] Transferring RTE data to Activity data
[00:05:32.774] Rolling up activity data
- [00:05:32.774] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.exit', 'suspend') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.774] CheckForSetValueError (cmi.core.exit, suspend, cmi.core.exit, , )
[00:05:32.774] Element is: exit
[00:05:32.774] Call is error free.
[00:05:32.774] StoreValue (cmi.core.exit, suspend, cmi.core.exit, , )
[00:05:32.774] Element is: exit
- [00:05:32.903] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.student_name') returned 'Flowers, Steve' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.903] CheckForGetValueError (cmi.core.student_name, cmi.core.student_name, , )
[00:05:32.903] Call is error free.
[00:05:32.903] RetrieveGetValueData (cmi.core.student_name, cmi.core.student_name, , )
[00:05:32.903] Element is: student name
[00:05:32.903] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:32.903] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.student_name') returned 'Flowers, Steve' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.903] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
[00:05:32.925] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:32.925] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:32.925] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01_SCO
+ [00:05:36.152] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.student_name') returned 'Flowers, Steve' in 0 seconds
[00:05:36.152] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:36.152] LMSGetValue('cmi.core.student_name') returned 'Flowers, Steve' in 0 seconds
[00:05:36.152] LMSGetLastError() returned '0' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:47.364] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.raw', '100') returned 'true' in 0.001 seconds
+ [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.max', '100') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.min', '0') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
+ [00:05:47.365] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.lesson_status', 'completed') returned 'true' in 0.001 seconds
[00:05:47.516] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:47.516] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:47.516] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01_SCO
[00:05:47.668] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:47.668] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01
[00:05:47.668] Beginning prerequisites evaluation of activity loan_01_SCO
+ [00:06:00.778] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.session_time', '0000:00:28.0') returned 'true' in 0.001 seconds
+ [00:06:00.779] LMSSetValue('cmi.core.exit', 'suspend') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
+ [00:06:00.779] LMSCommit('') returned 'true' in 0 seconds
+ [00:06:00.779] LMSFinish('') returned 'true' in 0.001 seconds
+ [00:06:00.780] Pre-evaluation of exit action
+ [00:06:01.231] OverallSequencingProcess for SCORM 1.1 / SCORM 1.2 returned '' in 0.632 seconds
+ [00:06:01.912] OverallSequencingProcess for SCORM 1.1 / SCORM 1.2

The example above was for SCORM 1.2. You'll see different data model calls in SCORM 2004. For example, lesson_status is completion_status in 2004.

Part 2 of the long explanation. In a conformant LMS, all of the runtime calls listed in the reference model can be called from the browser using Javascript. This means even if the content (storyline) doesn't have it built in, you could use Javascript to access the API to set or get values. 

Example, if you wanted to add something to the comments data field, you could call LMSSetValue on the cmi.comments_from_learner.n.comment and store away some text. You'd need a way to retrieve that within the module since you cannot report this data in CSOD.

Storyline stores quiz responses in the cmi.interactions data elements. This can be reported using CSOD. There are a lot of cmi-interactions... calls when a question is submitted. Not that only questions associated with the results slide used to track completion of your module will be submitted by Storyline. There are neat things you can do to store values using a quiz question.

Another note, Storyline uses a standard API to submit to the LMS. But the player uses an abstraction of functions to reach that end. If you want to communicate with the LMS directly, you can choose to use the standard LMS API calls in Javascript, or use Storyline's abstracted functions.

Example direct call:
LMSSetValue('cmi.core.score.max', '100')

... and all of the other score setting calls (raw, min)

or Storyline's player functions:

lmsAPI=parent;
lmsAPI.SetScore(90, 100, 0);
SetStatus("completed")

I've found the manual calls to be less reliable and subject to change so much of the time, I have been setting them directly using the standard calls. It's more script but I know it's going to go through even if Articulate changes something in their player functions.

Thanks Steve, lots for me to read through. If we allow a learner to take a quiz twice, do you know if there is a way to get CSOD to record both attempts along with all question attempts as I believe the SCO overwrites the records in the LMS as standard?

All of the question attempts will be recorded.There is only one score and status field.