problem with tracking scores & no imsmanifest.xml

[mnoemi]

Hello,

We're having some troubles with the tracking of scores on an lms called "knowledge4me". The lms cannot track any scores.

Also, I cannot find any imsmanifest.xml file in the folders after exporting. Can this have anything to do with the lack of tracking?

Some important information :

- the project's format is SCORM

- users must be able to repeat the quizzes if they haven't succeeded

- users pass the course only if they get more than 75% at the quizzes

I join two screenshots so you can see the settings of our quizzes. (I'm sorry though, we work with the French version)

Thank you in advance for your help!

[RodWard]

Upload the same SCORM published from Captivate to SCORM Cloud online LMS and test it there. (You can open a free account for testing.)

If the same issue is not present on SCORM Cloud then your LMS is at fault.

The settings you show for Quiz Settings in Captivate should indeed publish out a fully compliant SCORM zip package. The imsmanifest.xml file should be at the root level of the zip file, not in any folder below that level.

You have not shown the settings on the Quiz > Pass or Fail panel.  So, I cannot tell you if that is configured correctly yet.

[mnoemi]

Thank you for your answer, Rodward!

Here's the screenshot of the required window :

I created an account on Scorm Cloud but the platform doesn't let me publish the zipped folder, I have a message saying the folder doesn't have any course in it. Scorm Cloud requires that the folder have the imsmanifest.xml file (that's how I discovered my folder doesn't have it). I suppose it's the lack of this file that causes the problem with publishing, or can it be something else?

What to do in order to have this file? What do you suggest I do?

Thank you in advance!

[RodWard]

Well if SCORM Cloud also says your zip file is not a valid SCORM package because it has no manifest then it definitely MUST be the case.  SCORM Cloud is the gold standard for LMSs.

If the settings you have shown accurately reflect what you see in Captivate for this module, then my only other suggestion would be that something must be wrong with your Captivate installation.

When you publish out from Captivate, do you publish directly to a folder located on your local PC hard drive, or are you publishing to a network folder location somewhere on your company LAN?

Is there anyone else that you know how also uses the French version of Captivate as you have?  Could you try getting them to also publish the same CPTX file to see if they end up with a manifest file in the SCORM?

[mnoemi]

Thank you for your fast response!

We publish it in a folder in our shared Dropbox. Should we try to publish it first on the PC, than copy it to our Dropbox?

I'll definitely ask a friend who also uses Captivate to publish the same project, thank you for the advice!

[Lilybiri]

Definitely first to PC.

[mnoemi]

What do you mean by "problem with our Captivate installation"? Could you please give me some examples of what it can be so that we can verify?

Thank you in advance!

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

First I think you should try publishing to a folder on your PC instead of going direct to DropBox.  It's quite likely that DropBox is stripping off some of the files.

If publishing to a SCORM zip locally still doesn't result in the zip file containing the required imsmanifest.xml file at the root level, THEN worry about looking further at your Captivate installation.

[mnoemi]

Thank you, we will test and if we still have problems, I'll get back to you!

[mnoemi]

We republished a course on our PC first and it actually had the imsmanifest.xml file which let me publish this same training on scorm cloud.

I'd have one more question though: in scorm cloud, what does "Success" really mean? What makes that I have "unknown" in that field?

Thank you in advance for your answer!

[RodWard]

SCORM 1.2 only had one variable to track both completion and success.  SCORM 2004 had separate variables for these different things.

Try changing your settings to SCORM 2004 and republish then test in SCORM Cloud.  See if you then get completion when the learner finishes the lesson and success when they pass the quiz.

[mnoemi]

Hello Rodward,

I tested a couple of times the same scorm 1.2 project with different settings, and in order to have the "success" data, we had to change a setting in the "Communication" window (State> Incomplete: Passed/Failed). So now it works just fine.

I have another issue though: our client wants that users, even if they fail the course, can go and consult another course. Normally, users have only one tentative to pass the quizzes. But even if they fail, they should be able to check another course.

We haven't found any settings which could let us do that. With the settings we talked about, users are blocked in the LMS the client uses.

Would you have an idea of what we could do to solve this problem?

Thank you in advance!

[RodWard]

I'm not sure I understand what you are wanting.

Do you mean that the LMS limits the users to one attempt at passing the module, and that when the learner fails the quiz and submits the failure result, then the LMS will not allow them to relaunch the module?

If so, then you would need to allow multiple attempts at the quiz in the Captivate settings and turn on Resume Data bookmarking so that when the learner closes the session without achieving a passing score, their current status is stored in the LMS as Resume Data, so that they can relaunch the module at a later time (after consulting the other course you mentioned) and make another attempt on the quiz.

Does your course currently have Resume Data bookmarking turned on in the Quiz > Reporting > Advanced settings? (Never Send Resume Data must be unchecked.)

Does your quiz settings in Captivate allow multiple attempts on the quiz with the Retake Quiz button showing on the Quiz Results slide?

[mnoemi]

Do you mean that the LMS limits the users to one attempt at passing the module, and that when the learner fails the quiz and submits the failure result, then the LMS will not allow them to relaunch the module?

Yes, exactly.

Actually, our clients wants that a user responds only once to the quiz BUT that this same user can review the course without passing the quiz another time.

At the same time, this user should be able to view other courses as well and respond to their quizzes (always one time only).

They want to track the score but let the users review the courses as many times as they wish.

I don't think Resume Data would be the solution in this case. What's your opinion?

[RodWard]

I think you may have conflicting priorities.

There's nothing in the SCORM standard that prevesnts a user that has failed one course from then moving on to open and attempt a totally different course.

But you are saying that if they fail one course the LMS is blocking them from being able to open another different course.  That makes no sense unless the two courses are linked in some way. For example, if the courses are set up in the LMS so that the first course is a pre-requisite for being able to attempt the second course, then failing the first course would mean the user is not allowed to do the second course.

Is that the way your courses are set up in the LMS?

[mnoemi]

That's what I thought and explained to the client but they still think that the problem comes from our course.

Apparently the LMS should let the user pass from one course to another. The only thing I can think about is to define to which course arrive by clicking on "next" at the very end of the course - it can be a solution if the courses should be done in a given order...

Do you confirm that it shouldn't have anything to do with the course itself? What do you think?

[RodWard]

The people that supply LMSs or that administer LMSs usually have no real experience or knowledge about actually building e-learning courses themselves.  So their usual rule when something goes wrong is to blame the course rather than their beloved LMS.  However, 95 times out of 100 the LMS will actually be the issue.

I think it's important at this point to clarify what you mean when you use the term "course".  Are you speaking about a single module SCORM course, or a multi-module SCORM course?

It's possible under the SCORM standard to have just one module or Shareable Content Object (SCO) in a course.  But because each SCO can only have one quiz, in larger courses where you need to have multiple assessment components, the more common configuration is for the course to have multiple modules that all share the same Course Identifier, even though each SCO module then has a different SCO identifier.  This is done so that the LMS doesn't get confused.

The SCORM standard firmly states that each SCO module in a course should not be calling any file outside itself, otherwise that module is not a valid SCORM object.  Basically, each SCO should be completely self-contained. Now many developers that build their own SCORMs from the ground up in code have broken this particular rule and still got away with it.  But what they are usually doing is just calling external code or other data located on a separate website to the LMS that is actually delivering the course content.  Each course module must send its scoring and completion data to the LMS before terminating, otherwise the LMS could get confused when it starts of receiving data from one module and then later starts getting data from a totally different module without receiving all the necessary termination call events.

It would be breaking the SCORM standard to have one SCO directly call another SCO module via a link on one of the slides, without going back out and through the LMS navigation or the manifest listing.  The way SCORM LMSs are designed to work is that the LMS itself should be handling all of the initiating of individual modules.  And the same user should not be allowed to have more than one course open at the same time in the same session.  Each SCO module is also only allowed to have one quiz according to the standard.  So there are lots of rules around how SCORM modules and courses work.

What SHOULD happen in a multi-module SCORM course is that the LMS reads the imsmanifest.xml file to find out where all of the starting files for each module are located and then uses this information to build a Table of Contents list of links in the SCORM Player.  The user then clicks one of these links to initiate playback of the SCO.  Normally they would be expected to start with the first module listed and then work their way down the list, clicking each link after finishing a module.  In some LMSs they give you the option to have the next module automatically start as soon as you complete the previous one, but not all LMSs give you this ability.  And if you are building your course with sequencing rules specified in the imsmanifest.xml then you are able to specify that the modules are completed in a given order, so that module 1 must be done before module 2, etc.

[mnoemi]

Thank you for all these information. It's indeed a multi-module training but with independent SCORM courses in it.

My client's concern is that if a user fails one module, for a certain reason, this same user couldn't pass on to view another course (within the multi-module training). I actually don't think that defining an order to view the courses would be the solution.

She has three options in their LMS to publish web trainings - now I'm waiting for the test results, I just sent her a course with the new settings I've tested in Scorm Cloud (with the imsmanifest.xml and the communication of scores & success we talked about higher).

We'll see if the goals (possibility to view another course if failed at the first one & being able to review the same course) are met with these new settings and the options she has in the LMS.