Rise Learning Journal / Notes

Update (04 June 2025)

This project is now available open source at GitLab. I've included a quick glance at the License (Same as Moodle).

• License: GNU GPL v3
• Type: Strong copyleft license
• Implications:
  • ✅ You can use, modify, and distribute Rise Learning Journal freely.
  • 🔁 If you distribute a modified version, you must also release the source code under the GPLv3.
  • ❌ You cannot make it proprietary or incorporate it into closed-source software.
  • ✅ You can use it commercially, but the GPL applies to any distribution.

 

Instructions for implementation further down the page under the heading BETA Version Release.

I've been working on a Learning Journal for Rise. I have an BETA version I'd like to share on SCORM Cloud.

The features we have included so far are:

1. Comments persisted between sessions (SCORM 1.2 & SCORM 2004 3rd and 4th Ed)
2. Save comments, associated with blocks individual blocks
3. Comments are organised into topics/pages
4. Edit existing Comments
5. Delete Comments
6. Print comments (to printer, or PDF is you have the required software installed)
7. Export comments to Word (*.doc)
8. Pagination (If comments exceed a defined number, they are split into pages)
9. Add the functionality to individual blocks, or globally.

There are some things that needs to be finalised which will not take a great deal of work to complete.

1. Mobile compatibility
2. WCAG 2.2 AA

What I'm looking for is a bit of community input, as I know people have wanted this feature for quite some time. This is my best guess of how somebody might use a learning journal, but would love to hear any other examples of how it could function, or additional useful features that could be included.

If you would like to check it out on SCORM Cloud. You can visit this URL: Rise Learning Journal on SCORM Cloud

Update (3rd December 2024)

I have continued to work on this project and it is now SCORM 2004 compatible. Again, it is using the cmi.comments_from_learner. Unfortunately I found a significant issue with the Articulate implementation of the SCORM 1.2 and 2004 comments. I am in communication with support after logging the issue. I am hoping I can convince them that the implementation is incorrect, and the base script is updated. In the meantime, I am applying a patch to the Articulate "WriteComment" function to ensure comments are stored correctly for SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004.

I have also made some cosmetic changes and updated the CSS for the HTML to ensure the application picks up the current Rise module theme (colours, fonts etc).

I've fixed a few bugs I have found along the way with regards to deleting journal entries, and editing journal entries when not on the page they originated from. This all appears to be working really well now.

My next priority will be working on the CSS to ensure it is mobile compatible. Once all of the HTML and CSS is finalised, I'll then work on the accessibility. I've been implementing aria attributes as I go along, but there is still some testing and development to be done on that side of things.

I will be looking to release this as a BETA to a handful of people early in the new year.

Update (9th December 2024) Accessibility

Started work on accessibility. Currently implementing and then will be looking to test using JAWS 2024 and NVDA over the xmas holiday period.

On track for BETA release Jan 2025.

Update (09 January 2025) Accessibility & refactoring

Still working on accessibility and refactoring. There is a little more work than first forecast. Yes, I know, you've never heard that from a developer before. I'm 50/50 as to whether I can get this out in January. It will depend on other work commitments, but I will keep this post updated.

I have decided to simplify the colour scheme and move away from using the defined "branding" colours inherited from Rise, as I was finding this a bit unpredictable with colour contrast, and so in the interest of ensuring the content has the best colour contrast, I'll be hard coding the CSS rather than using the CSS variables defined in Rise. I'll re-visit this in future.

Looking at the code, I need some serious refactoring as I think I found some redundancies and so need to delete any unused code that I added and then abandoned.

Oh, and Happy New Year.

Update (24 January 2025) Accessibility & refactoring

Almost ready for BETA release. Should be ready for release next Tuesday. Accessibility just about completed. I think I could spend another few days improving things, but I think this will be a good first release.

BETA Version Release

Contact: notes@rebusmedia.com

Minimum requirements:

• Rise course published SCORM 1.2 or 2004 (xAPI not currently supported)
• LMS Support for cmi.comments (TalentLMS cmi.comments implentation is not supported as the comments are not persisted between sessions).

Release Notes:

This is a BETA release, and is provided as is without any warranties and It should be used with caution and fully tested for your use case before considering for production.

If you do find bugs, please report them to notes@rebusmedia.com (include browser, LMS, device) and I'll release a fix as quickly as possible. This is a side project and so does come second to our day job which can be busy, and so you may need a certain level of patience. Fixes can be expedited for your use case through engagement of our services for time critical projects. 

It has been tested on mobile, but not extensively (Google Pixel + iPhone).

Win/Chrome has been the browser used for development, and testing has also been performed on Win/Firefox and Win/Edge.

Features requests:

If you require any features that deviate from the BETA version, they will be considered on their merit, but can only be guaranteed for your own implementation through engagement for our services.

We have a long list of features that we would like to add if there is enough interest in the application and if it is viable.

Accessibility:

We made the decision to remove colors from the modal window theme to keep it simple and generic and accessible (high color contrast). The application has been tested with JAWS 2024 and is fully keyboard accessible and keeps assistive technology users informed of what is happening when interacting with the modal window. I'm always willing to make improvements to accessibility as a priority. Accessibility issues are treated as a bug and not a feature request.

Implementation:

1. Publish your Rise course to either SCORM 1.2 or 2004
2. Download the two files note.min.css and notes.min.js files to your computer.
3. Extract your published Rise course to your computer and then copy the note.min.css and note.min.js files to the scormcontent\lib folder
4. Open the scormcontent\index.html file in a simple text editor such as notepad and paste the following text just before the closing head element, which looks like this </head>. 
   
   

   <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="lib/notes.min.css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="lib/notes.min.js" data-notes-per-page="5"></script>

   It will look something like this:
   
   

   // Excerpt of scormcontent/index.html starts window.__loadEntry = __loadEntry window.__loadRemoteEntry = __loadRemoteEntry window.__loadJsonp = __loadJsonp window.__resolveJsonp = __resolveJsonp window.__fetchCourse = __fetchCourse })() </script> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="lib/notes.min.css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="lib/notes.min.js" data-notes-per-page="5"></script> </head> <body> <div id="app"></div> // Excerpt of scormcontent/index.html ends

5. You can adjust the data-notes-per-page="5" attribute to determine how many notes should be listed in the viewer, before the pagination (note navigation) kicks in.
6. Save the scormcontent/index.html file
7. It's important to get this bit right, as the LMS expects the imsmanifest file in the root of the zip file you are about to create. Navigate to the folder containing imsmanifest.xml and then select all (CTL+A) and then select archive/zip/compress depending on the software you use the terminology can be different. It must be a zip file though and the imasmanifest.xml file must be in the root of the zip file.
   
   

    

Update (28 January 2025) Print functionality improvement

After some user feedback, I have adjust the print functionality so that there is less chance of the student losing the course window during printing. When print is completed or cancelled, the print page closes and the user is return to the course window.

Update (30 January 2025)

Fix: Added functionality to handle learn.riseusercontent.com cmi.comments implementation. The cmi.comments implementation is incorrect on the LMS and requires the application to retrieve all comments and save to the LMS rather than appending to existing comments. This could cause memory issues if users add multiple long comments over time.

CSS: Improved CSS for mobile view (using full height of the screen to display the application.

Update (31 January 2025)

Bug: There is a known issue with TalentLMS. TalentLMS does not persist SCORM 1.2 cmi.comments between sessions. All comments are disregarded at the end of the session. For this reason, we cannot support TalentLMS unless TalentLMS changes the functionality of the SCORM 1.2 cmi.comments.

CSS:  Improved CSS for mobile view. Supporting devices with a minimum screen width of 355px wide.

Update (07 March 2025)

New configuration option: I have added a configuration option that allows you to determine where the note button should be inserted (instead of globally).

In order to determine where the note button should be inserted, you need to follow these steps:

1. Grab a copy of the latest version of the JS and CSS files. 
2. Wherever you would like to insert the note button, within the Rise authoring environment, simply add {RM.NOTES} to the top of the block, for example:
   
   
3. Follow the Implementation instructions, outlined earlier in this post.
4. When you come to add the script to the HTML file, you will need to add an extra data attribute to the <script> tag called data-notes-global and set the value as false.
   
   

   <script type="module" src="lib/notes.min.js" data-notes-global="false"></script>

Update (12 March 2025)

BETA Distribution files, including the README.MD document, are available to download.

This will be the last feature addition for a while now. Bug fixes and stabilisation will continue, but any new features will have to wait or can be requested via notes@rebusmedia.com.

Prompt

You can now add a prompt to the note when defining a notes button using the {RM.NOTES} directive. The prompt is defined as a configuration option in the following way {RM.NOTES PROMPT="Prompt text goes here."}. It would look something like this in the Rise author environment.

This would ensure that a notes button is inserted on this block, and when selected, will display the text input, preceded by the prompt "What should you include in your clinical notes?".

In order to use the prompt, you must set the global flag to false using the <script> tag as follows:

<script type="module" src="lib/notes.min.js" data-notes-global="false"></script>

Note button position

The note button default position is the top right of the target block. The button can now be positioned at the centre bottom of the target block. The position configuration can be used with the global flag set to true (buttons inserted automatically on blocks) or set to false (buttons only inserted where the {RM.NOTES} directive is present within the block.

<script type="module" src="lib/notes.min.js" data-notes-button-centre-bottom="true"></script>