Intermittent completions in new LMS

[moyco]

We have recently started using a new LMS called Absorb, and are experiencing intermittent issues with completions. What I mean by intermittent, is sometimes a course will automatically show the completion and sometimes the user either has to refresh their browser or select a "next" button inside the LMS to move to the next course.

We have been doing extensive troubleshooting with the LMS engineers ass well as trying different options in Captivate, but the only "consistency" is that longer courses that have a lot of audio seem to be the ones that don't complete more regularly (but again, this only happens with some users). Also affecting the completions are pauses if the user walks away or does something else in the middle of the course. If they actually exit the course and come back the bookmarking works just fine. However, if there's any lag then the course will not show a completion automatically. I think there's some kind of time out that then "breaks" the commit to the LMS but can't figure out how to force it. 

We are using the built-in "Exit" on a button when they successfully complete a course. Some of them do have quiz questions and they must pass the quiz to complete, but others do not. We are using SCORM 2004 3rd edition and the users have three chances to pass the quiz (there are either 5 questions or a multiple of 5 and they can only miss 1 out of 5 (or 2 out of 10) to pass. 

We have tested the same courses on our old LMS which is still being used by our corporate area and the courses complete with no problem. When we pointed that out to the Absorb LMS people we were told that Absorb doesn't use commits the same way as others but were not given any guidance on how we might force the commit or completion programmatically. 

Has anyone else experienced this issue with an LMS recently and if so, how did you resolve it? If it helps, we seem to have the most completion problems with Windows 10 tablets and Edge (which of course is what our field management staff have to use). Desktop users have fewer problems, Chrome works slightly better, and Mac users don't seem to have any issues with completions. The following screen shots are the current settings. This particular module has 34 screens and per Absorb's suggestion we changed the slide view to be the "Results" screen instead of 100% of the slides. We tried everything from 1-2 slides to every number in between with no success. We originally had the "Success Criteria" as 100% slide view and quiz is passed, but made it the bare minimum. The user cannot skip any questions and must answer them all to continue.

[moyco]

Apologies, I forgot to say we are using Captivate 2019; the latest updates installed. 

[Lilybiri]

Can you verify the full version number under Help, About Captivate? Most recent update is to 11.8.1.

Looking at your screenshots, I see that you have changed the 'Required' field, and that is something which can cause problems. There are other ways to compel the learner to answer every question: take out the playbar (which is possible in Quiz Preferences as you have done it), do not enable the Skip button etc... 

I don't know how many slides you have, but never liked the option to base a completion on having visited a number of slides or completed a % of slides. That is something which is not handled well by some LMSs. To verify, I really would invite you to check the course in SCORM Cloud. All LMS people tend to blame the authoring tool whenever possible. If everything works as expected in SCORM Cloud, the problem is with the LMS for sure.

[moyco]

Yes, we are running 11.8.1. We test in the SCORM cloud and get completions, the LMS people also tested in the SCORM cloud.

We have tried all sorts of combinations with visiting slides, as the client requires the users to see every slide but only see the final slide if they have passed the quiz. We had been using 100% with absolutely no problems until we started using this new LMS. 

[Lilybiri]

Did you also read my comment about the Required field? I would change that back to the default value (Optional) and with your settings you still force the learner to answer all questions.

The fact that it works perfectly in SCORM Cloud is for me an indicator that the problem is within the LMS. The suggestions I made are based on my presence in this forum since 2008 almost daily, and they have helped a lot of users. Why not try a completion set based on Quiz has been attempted? Quiz criteria tend to be a lot more trustworthy in all LMSs than slide percentages.

[moyco]

I have been developing custom training in Captivate for more than a decade. I am aware of your presence on the forums and know you have helped others. I did read your comment and never said I wouldn't try it, so please don't assume I am ignoring anything you suggested. I wouldn't have posted to the forum if I wasn't looking for options and solutions that I haven't already tried. 

[Lilybiri]

You could have overlooked it, often happens even to me. That was not meant to be insulting as you seem to think. I hope you can find a solution.

[moyco]

Question: if I change it back to "optional" doesn't that allow a user to skip the slide if the TOC is turned on? I have it set to only allow people to go to visited slides, but if they fail the quiz the first or 2nd time then they would be able to skip past the questions if they want. We have a custom retake that puts the user back at the beginning of the module, not at the quiz questions (client requirement), so they could skip to anywhere if they wanted evven though they would fail the quiz. I could probably add some programming to check, but I'm trying not to add more than I have if I can avoid it. 

[Lilybiri]

You need to disable the TOC on Enter on first question slide. Enable it
after the quiz.

[moyco]

I tried your suggestion on two courses. One completed automatically and one didn't. The only difference was the number of slides; one has 15, the other 33. The longer one did not complete. Back to the drawing board.

[RodWard]

You mentioned in your first post that when you pointed out to the Absorb LMS people that SCORM Cloud and your old LMS had no similar issues you were told that Absorb doesn't use commits the same way as other LMSs.

I suspect that the root of your problem might be due to whatever this "different way of doing commits" happens to be. 

Try going back to your LMS people and ask them to give you more information about this.  If you are able to replicate the issue fairly easily just by having a given number of slides in a course module, then you should also be able to ask your LMS people how you can get a log file of all interactions with the LMS during that module's failure. 

Every LMS has technically savvy people that they can assign to look into issues like you are experiencing.  You may need to lean on your LMS vendor to get this type of service, but since you have proven other LMSs are capable of handling the same course module, they really have a case to answer, not you.

[moyco]

Yes, I agree Rod. They finally (sort of) admitted the issue is on their end and their engineers are looking into it. I was just hoping to find a workaround in the meantime, because our training goes live in a month. I'll close this out.

[Lilybiri]

I answered from my phone last night (was in a meeting). That is the reason my answer was very short.

Can you explain the 'custom retake' workflow? 

Since the problem seems to be linked to the number of slides, and you tried to take out the completion criterion based on slide visits I have a last possible tip, which may be changed after I have seen your custom retake workflow. Do you use the Results slide or is it hidden? Do you have at least one slide after the Results slide? Although you use the default template which sends data after each question slide, the final transfer of data happens at the last frame of the Results slide. By having at least one content slide after the Results slide you ensure proper transfer even for a large project and lower bandwidth.