upload the URL of the HTM AICC file to LMS

Melden · Oct 01, 2012

We(company) have introduced LMS and trying to figure out how to link training material with test which are located in local server and outside LMS.

We refer to a sentence in adobe help below;

‘If you are using an AICC-based LMS, publish the Adobe Captivate project and upload it to an HTTP location (your content server). Then, upload the URL of the HTM file to LMS.’

Abr http://help.adobe.com/en_US/captivate/cp/using/WSc1b83f70210cd1015881ff7211c9893458a-8000.html

We saved published AICC file which is included training materials with test created by Captivate in local server, and then linked the URL to training course in LMS which is outside LMS server.

We opened a file( located in local server) through the link and received the test with passing score. We expected that the result would be reflected to LMS transcript right after taking the test, but it wasn’t.

Do you think this is feasible method what we want to do?

If so, please let us know what is wrong with noted above and exact way to make it work.

Incidentally, we do not want to upload the zip file which is published by Captivate into LMS server because of security reason.

With this way, we confirmed that the result was reflected to LMS transcript correctly. Thanks.

Melden · Oct 02, 2012

Are you certain you have published the course as AICC compatible and NOT used SCORM?

Melden · Oct 02, 2012

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean "AICC compatible and NOT used SCORM"?

Melden · Oct 02, 2012

AICC and SCORM are two different integration standards for LMS. Captivate allows you to configure a course as either one of these standards, but not both at the same time. AICC allows you to have the course content reside on a different server to the LMS, whereas SCORM requires that the content IS located on the same server as the LMS. Since your content is NOT working when you have it on a different server, I'm wondering whether you have perhaps set the course for SCORM instead of AICC.

So my question is: If you go into the Quiz > Reporting settings in your course modules, are they set for AICC or for SCORM?

Additionally, when you set this course up in your LMS, did you ensure that the LMS was expecting the course to be AICC or SCORM? Whatever your course is configured to be, the LMS config for that course must match, otherwise they won't work together.

Melden · Oct 03, 2012

Hi RodWard,

Your comment helped our understanding very much. Thank you for your explanation.

We think the setting in Captivate has been set correctly for AICC by selecting “AICC” on “Standard” field. Please have a look at attached screenshot below.

This is what we set.

And also, our LMS is Sum Total’s Geo Learning Maestro. It supports both SCORM and AICC config. (we’re going to make sure this again to our contact personnel) If they are right setting, are there any possible causes?

Meanwhile, we would like to understand the mechanism how the test result which is located in local server and taken through a link on course in LMS, send to LMS server. To make it happen, do we need to set any further settings (like gives LMS domain information to the file created by Captivate which is located in local server)?

Melden · Oct 03, 2012

With SCORM the LMS and the course content modules communicate via a Javascript API. Due to the way ths JavaScript API works, the content needs to be located on the same server as the LMS. It really needs to be stored in the LMS's own content area.

With AICC the data is passed back and forth between the LMS and the course via HTTP GET calls. This means the scoring data is being passed to the LMS via name/value variable pairs encoded in the actual link. You see these types of links everywhere on the internet. They generally look like this:

http://www.mywebsite.com/mypage.htm?myname=Rod&mycity=Perth&myhobby=sleep

This is what gives AICC the ability to have content reside on servers outside the LMS. If you want to learn more about AICC, try these links:

http://aicc.org/joomla/dev/

http://aicc.org/docs/tech/cmi001v4.pdf

AICC is now regarded as an antiquated standard. It makes SCORM look like a new kid on the block. So most of the information about it is now many years ago.

There's really no place to add the LMS domain information in the Captivate settings for AICC. And this is as it should be since the entire idea of standards like AICC and SCORM is that the learning content should be platform agnostic. You should (in theory) be able to pick it up and dump it anywhere. This doesn't usually work that well in practice, but that was the original intent.

Melden · Oct 05, 2012

Hi RodWard,

Let us ask two questions below,

1. >With AICC the data is passed back and forth between the LMS and the course via HTTP GET calls. This means the scoring data is being passed to the LMS via name/value variable pairs encoded in the actual link.

You means, LMS server should have any application(HTTP GET) to get the scoring data from other server? If we prepare any application you mentioned, is LSM available to get data from other server?

2. You mentioned ‘AICC is now regarded as an antiquated standard’, are there any other methods like AICC which resides course content on a different server to the LMS? We don’t want to upload zip file for training content to the LMS because of security reason. If there are, we would like to know them very much.

As for SCORM, we understood that training content must be located on the same server on the LMS. On the server, is it possible to make NOT SEE our uploaded zip file to LMS from NO ONE except accessing from our domain? (actually want to block even from LMS vendor.)

Melden · Oct 05, 2012

My answers:

1. No you don't need an "application". If your LMS already claims to be compatible with AICC it should be already able to understand the scoring information that the course will be sending back to it via the encoded URLs. Check with your LMS provider or administrator if you are unsure whether the LMS is AICC compliant. Almost all LMSs are SCORM compliant, but since AICC is quite a bit older (in internet terms) it's possible that yours might not be.

2. I believe the new Tin Can API, which some say will be the successor to SCORM, can possibly do this. However, it is still very new and almost no LMSs support it. If you want to check it out, go to this link:

http://scorm.com/tincanoverview/

I'm not sure I understand your concerns about not wanting to load content to the LMS for "security" reasons. The truth is that since AICC uses encoded URLs, that information is really exposed for all the world to see. One of the reasons SCORM was invented was that its API hides the information in JavaScript calls to the server that are much more difficult to intercept. AICC is nowhere near as "secure" as SCORM.

It sounds a bit like your LMS is some kind of hosted solution that your organisation buys in from another provider and you don't trust them. Is that correct? If so, then you need to discuss with them about your security concerns. If you're handing your content to another party so that they can load it onto the LMS, then you need to be sure that party can be trusted.

If all of the questions you've been asking relate to this fact that the LMS is outside your company firewall, then why not look into installing your own LMS internal to the firewall? You can install a Moodle LMS very quickly and easily. It's a free open-source LMS used by thousands of universities around the world.

Melden · Oct 06, 2012

might be worth pointing out that Moodle only supports external AICC HACP from Moodle 2.2 and higher. Moodle 2.2 also includes a feature called directaiccurl that allows you to paste the url of the external AICC package instead of creating an AICC package/zip with the url and uploading that.

Melden · Oct 09, 2012

Hi Dan.Marsden,

Though we haven’t heard about Moodle, surely your information will be helpful for us.

Thank you for your comment.

Melden · Oct 09, 2012

Hi RodWard,

Thank you very much for your answer with detailed explanations.

We will discuss with our IT team using your comments as a reference.

We trust our LMS vendor and there are no one between us and them. But this is the first time for us to use cloud system to such a high sensitive information, so we’re bit cautious for it.

Anyway, we’re going to find the best way for us to handle course content.

Thank you once again.