Solving technology problems, one at a time
SCORM courses in the SumTotal 6.5 Learning Management System are launched from a page that lists each SCO (lesson) in a list of links representing the course structure.
On clicking the “Enter the Lesson” button next to any SCO, a new frameset window opens. The screenshot below shows the “Enter the Lesson” page, with the course window open in front of it.
(Click to enlarge)
Captivate quizzes are easy to create, but they lack some often-requested features. Even using version 2, it is difficult, if not impossible, to randomize questions within Captivate. The following method will alter the html wrapper generated when you publish a Captivate project so that it chooses from a bank of alternate Captivate SWF files when the page opens.
Download example HTML wrapper file
When you publish to Flash (SWF) in Captivate, Captivate creates an HTML wrapper which contains the SWF file in an object tag. (Usually titled “ProjectTitle.htm”) There is a variable, “strURLFile ,” which determines which Captivate file is launched. In the unaltered file, this variable is set to the project title you set when you published.
Continue readingWhen Questionmark Perception is launched from an LMS using SCORM, Perception’s built-in user management system can’t be used. Perception receives user data from the LMS, and although it stores that data with the results of the quizzes, it can’t use the data for purposes of scheduling and limiting access to quizzes.
Unfortunately, our LMS, SumTotal 6.5, does not have a good way to limit attempts on a learning activity either. There is a rather inflexible option: If you set any learning activity to “allow access upon completion,” after the activity has been completed once, the user will only be able to launch the activity for purposes of browsing, but never take it again for credit. In other words, the user can not enroll again.
This isn’t always the best solution. For example, we wanted to allow two or three tries, depending on the quiz, and we never allow users to browse old quizzes.
Continue readingOur SumTotal (Docent) 6.5 learning management system uses SCORM to launch learning activities and quizzes. We had a case where several Perception Quizzes would not launch using Safari, but any other browser did launch them.
Continue readingReload Editor Tutorial Part III – Adding Attributes
To associate an item with its resource, under Organization, select the item. Its Attributes appear below.
Reload Editor Tutorial Part II -Create course Structure
Reload Editor Tutorial Part I – Create a package and import resources
With an emphasis on use for SumTotal 6.5 and SCORM 1.2
Once you have completed building a single learning module (called a “SCO” or “Shareable Content Object” in SCORM terms), you will probably want to link it together with a quiz or with other learning module SCO’s.
To piece together multiple SCO’s into a single learning module, you will need to replace the manifests created with each SCO with a single manifest that lists all of them. The Reload Editor is a tool which will allow you to create manifests which aggregate all types of learning modules together into a larger package.
Continue readingI’m involved in producing some Captivate-based assessments for use with SumTotal 6.5. There are many settings and variables that must be set correctly to get everything working to our specifications, so it took some serious testing to figure out the best settings.
Hopefully this will shorten the time for anyone with similar needs.
Continue readingThe requirements: We are producing competency-based learning modules and assessments. Users must complete the multi-SCO assessment with a score of 100%. They aren’t that easy, so it is expected that they will need several if not many tries to complete one SCO. Each interaction within any given SCO will allow three tries before the slide moves on.
Each SCO will allow an infinite number of tries.
Disclaimer: This is intended only to provide only the most basic understanding of what SCORM is.
SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) is a world-wide standard set of specifications for communication between elearning content and learning management systems.
A learning module using SCORM version 1.2 can communicate the following:
Additionally, a manifest packaged with the module tells the LMS (Learning Management System)
Sometimes it is necessary to have files or an application on one IIS web server (Server B) appear as if they were in the same domain as another server (Server A). For example, you may want
http://serverB.com/content
to be accessible via the URL
http://serverA.com/content
This is useful in cases where you need to avoid cross-doman scripting issues, or simply want to make everything appear to be hosted under one umbrella domain name.
On an IIS server, this can be accomplished by creating a virtual directory on Server A which points to a directory on Server B.
Continue reading