Forum Discussion
RISE 360 and SCORM manifest identifier
Hi - I've been looking through previous reports on the impact of making a course change in Rise 360 and then uploading to the LMS (SCORM 1.2).
Our LMS is Skilljar. I made one modification to a course and upon exporting noticed the manifest identifier was changed. When I updated the course, student history was lost.
Does this mean I need to manually update the manifest identifier each time I update a course so the manifest identifier stays the same? In Storyline the manifest identifier doesn't change unless publishing information is changed.
Thanks,
Shawn
Hi Shawn,
When you update (overwrite) existing course files in your LMS, learners who previously started the course won't be able to resume where they left off. They'll start over from the beginning in the updated course.
I wouldn't recommend manually updating the manifest identifier, as that could negatively impact course behavior in the LMS.
Hi Alyssa,
The problem is that with a new identifier the LMS sees it as a new course. If I overwrite I lose all student data (registration, completion, quiz results). In Storyline the manifest identifier wasn't changed with each publishing of an update, and the LMS considered it the same course. Thanks!
Our LMS behaves differently.
When we update, republish and re-import an exiting Rise course, our LMS asks if this is an update, or if it should be treated as a brand new version of the course.
If you tell it that it's an update, it doesn't care about the identifier being different. As long as the course structure hasn't changed, it will keep all current student progress data.
This is a very useful feature if all you did was fix a typo, update a broken link, etc.
Karl, can you share what LMS you use? We are going to be searching for a new one (currently on Totara Learn 12, quite old.)
We have experienced similar issues in our LMS (Totara learn 12). What happens is our case is that the SCORM package produced in Rise with a new ID get stuck during the launch process for some users who had previous completion attempts. This does not happen to all users though, so we are still running some tests to fully understand exactly in which circumstances the course fails to launch and when is progress data lost.
@Karl Muller and others, out of curiosity which LMS are you using?
My issue is similar to Shawn's.
Similar to Karl, our LMS (Cornerstone) allows us to either modify a course, or create a new version. Modifying is ideal, and can happen if you are simply wanting to make basic edits such as text edits. The "modify" action can not be executed in Cornerstone if changes are made to the manifest file (adding lessons, deleting sections, etc.). If changes are made to the manifest file, you must create a new version.
A new version is not the ideal option because it has a ripple effect (creating new versions of the curriculum it is in, displaying messages to users that there is a newer version, selecting various settings for users at different stages of progress, etc.).
The problem is that republishing in Rise in any way (even just text edits) changes the manifest file in several places. This makes it impossible to ever simply "modify" a course in Cornerstone. This does not happen with Storyline. In storyline I can make my text edits, republish and zip the file, execute the "modify" function in Cornerstone, and my changes are applied in the LMS with no issues.
I wish I had known this to be the case before making the decision to use Rise as our main rapid development tool. Does anyone know of a work around or can someone explain the reason that Rise has so many changes to the manifest file while storyline does not?
I'm experiencing the same issue, Ashley. We have a minor text change that needs to be made, and since we used Rise it's resulting in a big headache trying to update the course in Cornerstone. I communicated with Articulate's support a couple of years back about the issue, and I'm disappointed to see that the course identifier is still changed every time you publish. The solution recommended to me by the support agent was to:
1) Extract the original export file and open imsmanifest.xml in Notepad to take note of the value of the "manifest identifier."
2) When updating the content or course, you would need to do the following:
- Export the contents of the new export file on your local drive
- Open the imsmanifest.xml in Notepad and paste the value of the "manifest identifier" from #1
- Save the changes in Notepad
- Re-zip the file with the change and upload it to your LMS to update the content.
However, following these steps I'm still receiving critical errors, so clearly this identifier is appearing in other places.
I was just talking about this with my team like 5 minutes ago, crazy timing. Yes I tried what you mentioned above and it does not work. It is very frustrating. I am guessing it is both a frustrating issue with Articulate but also with Cornerstone as it seems like Karl's (see above) LMS handles the change fine. I have spoken with support on both ends. Articulate tells me to do the steps you mention (which didn't work) and Cornerstone tells me that it is the issue with the imsmanifest.xml file changes.
We have unfortunately had to make the decision that courses will only be updated when there is a large structural issue or don't function properly as the reversioning process is not worth the time and ripple effect it causes. This gets tricky for us too because we have a lot of policy and data changes that should be updated but we can't do it as often as we would like. I really wish someone could come up with a solution.
- I'm having the same problem as Ashley. Can anyone help with a workaround here?
Hey Kalena, thanks so much for this. I will try this.
Hello everyone.
I am experiencing the same issue. My LMS is moodle 3.11. Is there a rise update that fixes this? I'm going to try Kalena's solution (thanks), but a less "manual" solution would be recommended..
We are also a Cornerstone LMS client interested in the ability to modify Rise courses without having to manually edit the manifest.
Hello everyone, we have a Totara Learn v15 LMS, and some of our Rise 360 content has been provided by external content partners. Can anyone advise if there have been any updates that make this process smoother when updating Rise courses? We are having the issue with SCORM 1.2 courses being updated. Is this also an issue with SCORM 2004 v4 or just 1.2?
We're experiencing similar problems with updates, but uploading to a different platform (IMC). Is this even on the roadmap for resolution in Articulate Rise or should we be looking at alternative solutions? Like Ashley, a new version of each SCORM requires a new course, which has implications across all of the other linked systems. The nature of our content requires regular updates to reflect changes in regulations. Add the fact that our courses operate with open enrolment instead of timed cohorts, and keeping the same courses running indefinitely while making minor updates is a requirement instead of just 'nice to have.'
We chose Rise so we could rapidly develop courses at scale, but not being able to update the SCORMs without releasing a whole new course cancels out the benefits.
