Can Captivate send user variable values to LMS?

Question

Hello all. My company is running into a challenge.

Say I create a user variable called vRole that captures a learner's role within the company.

Then, on a slide in a Captivate module, learners must choose one of three options (Technician, Nurse, or Pharmacist).

Upon making their choice, vRole gets assigned with the respective word from the three options above, based on their selection.

So at the end of the module, vRole will be one of the following:

vRole = Technician

vRole = Nurse

vRole = Pharmacist

Is there a reliable way to then send the resulting value of vRole to our LMS (Moodle) in order to capture and analyze this data on a large scale (2000+ employees)? We've spoken to Moodle, and were told that it's possible, but with massive limitations.

This ability has GOT to exist. With or without JavaScript, I'm open to anything, as our ability to capture scores/answers/clicks would skyrocket if we could just get Captivate to speak in nice, translatable terms with Moodle.

Has anyone here come up with a solution for this dilemma?

Thanks in advance!

Adam

Erik Lord · Answer

I haven't tried this in a while, but I *think* Captivate already saves the values of custom variables (likely in the 'suspend_data' SCORM field). Have you tried to do this with a SCORM file and LMS yet? It may 'just work'...

If not, it should be possible to do, however:

1. How you do it depends on which version of SCORM.

2. If Captivate is already saving values to SCORM's suspend_data field (but not your custom values), then you have to add it carefully so as not to overwrite what CP is already sending (i.e. in the JS library page, grab CP's suspend_data get/received value and append/parse out your own values. Tricky at best).

3. Alternatively, you could perhaps setup the value assignment as a scored interaction and save the value to interaction_data, but I don't think you can read that back in SCORM 1.2, but you should be able to in SCORM 2004. That read-back-and-value-assign would be custom JS.

Here are some other discussions found on a quick websearch. Some are about storyline but the concepts are the same...

Overall, if CP doesn't do this by default (test it!) then it's likely possible but will require some JS expertise.

Reading SCORM variables

(ignore the 'Flash' part of this, you can do a custom onscreen variable in CP easily these days)

Captivate functions to communicate with LMS api

SCORM, Storyline variables, and suspend / resume - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes

Can user defined variables be saved to LMS via SCORM suspend data - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes

Storyline: Exceeding SCORM Suspend Data Limits - Articulate Support