Combining Captivate modules in one SCORM course

I generally create lessons in individual Captivate files and then combine them with Manifest Maker in Dreamweaver (a free downloadable plug-in on the Adobe Exchange). We use SumTotal as our LMS and it does a nice job in creating a menu of the files in the order you tell it in Manifest Maker. This way, you do not need to combine your projects and end up with a file that is just asking to crash in Captivate.

The assessment is correct, in my understanding.

The easiest way to fix that may be to just copy/paste all the source CP
files into one big CP file then publish that to one big SWF. Why chain
them together as separate ones?

Otherwise...
One approach to fix this may be to change the javascript code in the
parent HTML page. Captivate needs to tell the LMS API when it is
complete. A quick look at the javascript in a published Captivate SCO
indicates this might be via the Finish() function.
If you could change that so it does not commit the data to the API but
instead saves it to a form on that page...you could then populate that
form with the results from all the Captivate files (perhaps one field
per Captivate topic?).
Then, when you do want to commit the data to the LMS, you setup your own
button in the Flash shell which calls a differently-named function, like
maybe FinalFinish(), that actually pulls the data from the form and
submits it to the API.

Now, of course, that's all very complex stuff. If you've got smart
javascript folks available and understand the scope of SCORM values
(suspend.data could be a tricky one), they might be able to figure out
how to do that for you.

More direct to your problem is that you are not using a Flash shell but
linking all movies together (linearly, I imagine). The problem is still
a result of the same issue though - the first Captivate signifies it is
done by calling the Finish() (I think) function, committing the data to
the LMS, which then closes the course. So the above could still apply...
What you could do in addition is perhaps add a 'You finished the course'
Captivate to the end of your chain of lessons which calls a custom
javascript function when an 'Exit' button is clicked, which then pulls
the data from the form and passes it to the original Finish() function...

There are other potentials as well. Somewhere there's a list of all the
function calls which Captivate (1.x) movies make - they're all prefaced
with 'rd' - and I think you can also see them by tracing a Captivate SWF
inside Flash. you can't intercept the actual javascript functions, but
if you can get at the internal variables, you could publish without
tracking, grab all the interaction data from the Captivates to the
player, then send those to the API with a custom function...

Again, however, this is complex and requires an understanding of Flash,
SCORM, and javascript.

I know that probably doesn't help much but I don't see an easy solution.
Erik

KP EEF wrote:
> Erik,
> We are finding ourselves in a similar position as Charlotte except we do not
> have another LMS option at this time.
>
> We spent about 3 hours on the phone with GeoLearning and Adobe yesterday.
> What we tried to do was link the movies together and then package the .swf and
> .htm into the package we upload to our LMS. The problem seems to be after the
> first movie finishes, it sends a message to the LMS that it is done and sends
> completion info to the LMS and closes the window. GeoLearning says that it is
> because Captivate is sending a "call" message to the LMS.
>
> Any ideas on how we can fix this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
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Erik,
We are finding ourselves in a similar position as Charlotte except we do not have another LMS option at this time.

We spent about 3 hours on the phone with GeoLearning and Adobe yesterday. What we tried to do was link the movies together and then package the .swf and .htm into the package we upload to our LMS. The problem seems to be after the first movie finishes, it sends a message to the LMS that it is done and sends completion info to the LMS and closes the window. GeoLearning says that it is because Captivate is sending a "call" message to the LMS.

Any ideas on how we can fix this?

Thanks,

Eric

Not to knock the GeoLearning LMS itself, but are you sure you want to
use them?

The first hassle, from my limited experience with them, is you cannot
upload the courses yourself. Having to submit your SCOs and have them
test then load them into your instance is very aggravating as it can
take a couple days to happen. But maybe that's just something unique to
the clients I've worked with.

In addition, what you state sounds crazy. Why should they care if your
lessons are individual or packaged as one? Or, worse, why would they
insist your lessons be packaged as one? The way you currently do it is,
IMO, the 'correct' method - allowing the LMS to be the Main Menu. We've
had other clients who want to present their courses in the way
GeoLearning is asking and we generally recommend NOT doing that as it
makes updates and delivery a much bigger hassle.

Those issues aside;
To do what you're being asked, the approach we would take is to create a
Flash 'shell' which has the Main Menu and perhaps other controls
(Next/Back, volume, etc.) which loads the individual Captivate movies
via loadMovie. This isn't necessarily an easy thing as the LMS tracking
provided with your current Captivate movies then would not work - the
scoring would need to be passed to the Flash shell, which would then
pass the data on to the LMS. It's not an easy conversion.

There are players out there which may help. Jesse Warden has a free
Flash shell player which can load individual Captivate SWFs, though I
dunno if it is SCORM-compliant. ICS Learning Group (whom I work with
often) also has such a shell which is packed with features and is
SCORM-compliant, but it's not free. You can Google both, or email me
direct if interested in the ICS solution (erik at capemedia dot net).

Another approach could be significantly modifying one of the HTML pages
which the published CP file creates - keep the API and such functions
present and add a menu to it so it loads the appropriate SWF file... But
you can't have each CP file then tracking itself as a lesson - or when
you complete the first module, the entire lesson will be marked complete
in the LMS. You could try to change it so as each CP file is complete,
it tracks to the objectives SCORM field but, again, that's not an
insignificant rewrite, especially if you're not very comfortable with
SCORM...
HTH
Erik


Charlotte C wrote:
> Hello All,
> Hopefully someone can help out with this one. We have an elearning course
> consisting of 7 modules, these modules are Captivate SCORM1.2 compliant SCO's.
> Presently the course is hosted in an LMS where each module is loaded
> individually and the LMS provides a main menu from which the user accesses the
> course/modules.
>
> We are looking at changing our LMS hosting to GeoLearning, but they require
> that the whole course with all 7 modules be compiled in ONE SCORM 1.2 compliant
> wrapper. One of the problems I see is that our modules .cp files are very
> large, they range from 46 to 80 mg. So, combining these modules into ONE
> Captivate file would most likely crash. I've looked at MenuBuilder, but all it
> does is create an HTML or SWF menu page but doesn't package the whole course
> into a SCORM wrapper.
>
> Can anyone help out with this problem? Any ideas about what could be done to
> make this work?
>
> Thanks for any help,
> Charlotte
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
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