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PSDcreate14
PSDcreate14
Known Participant
October 2, 2019
Question

Captivate and Moodle

  • October 2, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2750 views

Hello, I've recently completed 2 e-learning modules for a client that features quite a lot of animation made within After Effects, and exported as H.264 mp4 files. The animations are then placed within questions related to them. The Captivate project is then published and has to be uploaded to Moodle via SCORM.

 

My client is having 2 issues, the first being the issue with the manifest. I've attached the steps I've taken, with renaming the SCO Identifier to imsmanifest, which I believe to be correct. I've also attached the error that they see. Could you tell me what I could be doing wrong here?

 

The second issue is the file size, which I know is obviously to do with the video sizes. Both clients have said the files exceed their Moodle limits. Module 1 is around 680mb and Module 2 is around 890mb. Apart from going through the individual animations and reducing their quality, are there other solutions? For example, if I were to host the video files on my own server, and have them link and play from there, would this help? 

 

I'd be grateful for any information you could give me, thank you.

 

Paul

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    2 replies

    Stagprime2687219
    Stagprime2687219
    Brainiac
    October 2, 2019

    The default max upload file size is 256MB but you might have a conversation with the Moodle admin about making a modification of the php.ini file to increase that limit - even if only temporary.

    PSDcreate14
    PSDcreate14Author
    Known Participant
    October 2, 2019
    I've put in a request for them to do that if they can, still waiting to here back.
    RodWard
    RodWard
    Community Expert
    October 2, 2019
    Even if you DO increase the maximum allowed upload file size, you are still going to run into issues with huge delays when learners try to access those videos. Your modules are way too large (in my opinion). It's too late now, but I would have suggested you look into using Adobe Animate to create the animations rather than Adobe After Effects. It would have given you OAMs with filesizes that were likely only a fraction of the size you are now dealing with.
    RodWard
    RodWard
    Community Expert
    October 2, 2019

    In your Manifest dialog is not set up correctly. You still have the default Course ID that Captivate starts out with.  Course Title should just be the name of the course that you want to appear by default in the LMS.  

     

    It appears that your LMS probably automatically names the SCORMs based on the actual name of the course.  This is to ensure that the Course Identifier and SCO identifiers are unique on the LMS and avoid potential reporting conflicts with other courses. 

     

    For the Course ID, check with your Moodle LMS Administrator to see if they have any specific naming conventions for course IDs.  If not, just give it a 'complexish' name that is based on the title of the course, but using either CamelCase or underscores instead of spaces. (E.g. MyVeryComplexCourseName2019 or My_Very_Complex_Course_Name_2019).

     

    Similarly, the SCO IDs need to be unique within the course.  What I normally do is prefix the SCO ID with the Course ID to ensure there is absolutely no possibility of conflicting.  (E.g. MyVeryComplexCourseName2019_Module01, MyVeryComplexCourseName2019_Module02, etc.)

     

    It's obvious you misunderstood what the SCO Identifier field should contain. 'imsmanifest' is not a valid SCO ID.  The SCO Title field should just contain the name of the Course Module, or if there is only one module in this course, then you might just put the Course Name there as well.  The important thing is that the Course ID and SCO ID should both be unique, not the same.

     

    And lastly, the error message that you are getting about the imsmanifest.xml file not being found in the root of the zip file is probably because you made the mistake of just zipping up the folder containing all of the course files after making your edits to the manifest.  This puts everything one level too far down and the LMS will reject the SCORM.  The trick is to go INSIDE the folder, select everything there and create the zip file that way, not from outside the folder.  That's the way Captivate zips the SCORM.

      PSDcreate14
      PSDcreate14Author
      Known Participant
      October 2, 2019
      Hi Rod, thanks for your reply, it really helps. So I've renamed the course identifier 'UMH_M1_Ident' and the SCO identifier 'UMH_M1_Ident_ModuleOne' do you think this would work?
      PSDcreate14
      PSDcreate14Author
      Known Participant
      October 2, 2019
      I'm unsure of what to do with the SCORM folder that you've explained. So Captivate produces a zip folder, do I then unpack this, go into that folder and move the contents into a new folder?
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