Help with Desire 2 Learn (D2L)...

[MegElias]

Hi, All. We have adopted D2L and I'm working with Captivate 5.5.

I do not need to put a grade in the gradebook...I just want to be able to bring in a file that shows up correctly.  I have tried publishing as an swf file, and loading the file into content, but I'm getting either a gray screen or a script error.

Does anybody successfully save and post these into D2L?  Help!

Thanks,

Meg

[RodWard]

I just had a quick look at the Desire 2 Learn website but I'm not seeing any obvious mention of complying with SCORM standards.

To your knowledge does D2L comply with or accept SCORM or AICC packages?

[MegElias]

Thanks for answering, Rod...I'm very ignorant about this stuff, so bear with me.

I do not think that D2L is compliant.  But I have been able to take other plain old .swf files (like an animation from a website) and add them in as content just fine.  When I try to publish my Captivate file as an .swf, it makes me save an .htm file also, saying, "if you don't it may not work in a website."  Why is that?  Why can't I just save my file as a plain old animation and drop it into any LMS?

I don't need to keep track of scores...that would be nice, but not necessary. 

Thank you,

Meg

[RodWard]

Captivate is doing its best to comply with recognised international standards (SCORM and AICC) that enable LMSs to track online training courses.

The SCORM standard is the most dominant at the moment.  The way that SCORM courses work with LMSs relies on JavaScript code that is embedded in the HTM file that Captivate outputs with the SWF.  (When you set your quiz preferences in Captivate to output for SCORM there are a whole swag of files that it creates automatically, but suffice to say that the code controlling a lot of the communication between the SWF and the LMS is in the HTM file.)

It sounds to me like Desire 2 Learn is actually a Content Management System (CMS) rather than a Learning Management System (LMS). CMSs are designed to store documents and files so that users can view them easily.  They're not usually set up to accept the kind of content Captivate creates because they typically want to deal with and deliver only one file at a time.  A typical Captivate course module is really a collection of files that have to all be present in the same folder for everything to work properly.

You  CAN output just an SWF file from Captivate, as long as your course is reasonably simple.  However it gets progressively harder to have just one SWF file once you start adding things like skins, playbars, preloaders, widgets, and question pools to your course.  You can embed some of these things inside the SWF, but in other cases you cannot.

If all you really want is ONE file that plays your course module, AND your users are on Acrobat Reader 9.2 or above, I would suggest you output your Captivate modules as PDFs.  That might solve your issue.

[storrens]

If you want to just use the files, no SCORM, do this.  Publish to a zipped foler.  Then go to content in D2L and manage files.  Upload the zipped file into a folder, unzip it.  Then choose the html file,or SWF fiel for a topic in the content.  It always works for me.

Yes you can import a SCORM package into D2L. 

Do the following.  In publish settings  under manifest choose scorm 1.2.

Then when you publish it, me sure to check off "zip files"

Publish.

Now in D2L.  Go into "edit course"  and "import/export/copy components"   You are going to choose, "import Comonents" and browse to the zipped folder.  Then follow the process and your topic will be added to your content.

Steve

[RodWard]

Steve, are you saying that D2L is SCORM-compliant for 1.2 and will track the SCORM uploaded using your method?  Or are you saying that you can upload a SCORM zip to D2L and unzip it to run the HTM file and D2L will only track the fact that they participant has accessed the content because it knows if they clicked the HTM link?

[storrens]

Ron,

Will it track with SCORM?  Yes, but it depends on your D2L set-up.  Because every school has different roles and permissions you may not see it.  The scorm report permission has to be turned on by the D2L admin at your school.  Also,  if you want the scorm to work, you have to go through the import components method of adding the files, rather than upload the zipped folder and unzip it.

[MegElias]

Thanks all, for the help.  Steve, I did try it the way you suggested an it did work, the only thing I didn't like was it put the files directly into content, and created a new module called something like "Captivate Project."  I do not want a new module for every one that I upload, so I did this instead....

I published the file as you instructed.  Under Manage Files, I uploaded the zipped folder then unzipped it.  Then I went to Manage Content and I added the .htm file (generated by Captivate) as a new topic.  This seems to have worked.

I appreciate the time you took to get me on track.

Meg

[BalletMom]

Steve,

I wanted to just display the interactive files and not do SCORM, so I did just what you describe, but nothing loads on the html page. This happens newly created content that I just now uploaded. The published content plays fine elsewhere, but not in my D2L module. I have the same problem with Captivate-created content migrated from our old LMS to D2L. We're in D2L 10.0.

Any ideas?

Renee

[BalletMom]

I re-exported my Captivate with SCORM reporting and successfully imported it into D2L, no errors. Yet when I try to view the html page in the D2L content module, once again I just get the background color and not the swf content.

My Captivate version is 5.0.1.624

Help will be SO appreciated.

srj

[storrens]

We are still on version 9 at our school so I don't know if its a version 10 problem.

When you publish your project, turn off scorn and have captivate save everything in a zipped folder. In manage files, make a new folder, go into to it, then upload your zipped project, then unzip it.

and then try to ... make a topic from Index.html or the .swf file from your project, and see if that works.