Performance and report issues with a SCORM

Hi Eveline,

Yep - basically it was a database connection issue on our moodle server causing the problem. Dug out my write up in the post project docs from the time, hope makes sense:

Essentially, the SCORM package that the modules were exported to from the authoring software (Storyline 3) is uploaded to Moodle, and when a user opens the module, there is fairly constant back and forth communication between the package and Moodle whilst the users interacts with the module.

At the time, our Moodle was undergoing an intermittent database timeout error issue, where communications between Moodle and the database that sits behind it were taking a long enough time to occur that the moodle assumed the database could not be accessed. In relation to the SCORM packages, when a user was going through the package (and therefore a SCORM was communicating with moodle) this issue could occur, with the effect that the SCORM could not pass on users marks or progress back to moodle. The outcome was that when this happened (in approx. 1/3 of times accessed – more if using a slower connection/devices) the package would not allow users to progress, and not capture their full results (or capture the same question results multiple times).

Our database team looked into this, identifying the issue and putting a piece of code in to moodle that essentially said ‘if you experience this timeout, stop and try again, up to ten times’. This workaround solved the issue, as anytime it occurred, rather than stopping, our moodle would try again until it could get a connection (and therefore allow the SCORM and moodle to communicate).

The longer term solution was to fix the database error - couldn't tell you how that was solved through!