LMS Bookmarking Problems (help!!!!)

[Batmanso]

Does anyone know how to make Articulate API send the bookmark information directly to the LMS instead of creating a Flash cookie that is written on the viewers' machines?

Imagine that...

If a course is accessed by several users through a single public machine, the bookmark thing is a huge problem... ("I don't remember leaving the course on this page...")

...and if a course is accessed by a single user through different machines, the bookmark thing is also a huge problem... ("oh no, I have to start all over again because it did not save the last page where I left off...")

...oh, and if you want to loose all your bookmark tracking information, don't forget to clean your cookies... (why didn't it start from the last point I left off?...")

Did anyone found a solution to this problem?

I believe that this is a common problem between Articulate Presenter and all LMS's...
...and my clients are complaining about this issues. (help!!!)

By the way, our LMS is the last one from IBM's (WPS), but I'm facing these same problems on my clients different LMS's...

[dmozealous]

Hello Batmanso,

You can disable the use of the Flash cookie for resume by doing the following:

1. Open up PowerPoint
2. Go to Articulate>Player Template Builder
3. Naviation
4. Deselect option to 'Prompt to resume on presentation restart'

This will disable the use of the Flash cookie in all instances.

You will still be prompted to resume on presentation restart if the presentation is in an LMS however, but it will use the resume data sent from the LMS, not from the Flash cookie.

This should solve all your problems :-)

[GerryWaz]

Hi, David!

Not to be argumentative but some of this depends on how the LMS is storing your AP bookmark information when you turn off cookie bookmarking.

For example, for AICC, AP does not send bookmark info to the AICC LESSON_STATUS field where this bookmark data is normally stored. You folks use the AICC CORE_LESSON group and your bookmarks tend to be rather long when you do this, especially in courses with many, many slides. I'm not an AICC expert but I'm assuming the LMS needs to be able to successfully record CORE_LESSON data in its tables with the bookmark info you send.

In our Saba 3.5 SP1 LMS, this data gets stored in an AICC table for vendor info and the field that contains these bookmarks is only 255 characters long. Any bookmark longer than that gets truncated.

I'm looking at the table right now and I'm seeing a lot of Articulate bookmarks being truncated.

So, unless I'm daft on all this , just turning off the AP bookmark cookie may or may not work for your learners in an LMS. Check your LMS data model.

All the best.

- Gerry

[dmozealous]

Hey Gerry,

Yeah, there are some issues with bookmarking and resume data getting truncated in some LMS's. In my post I was just trying to explain how to turn off the use of the Flash cookie resume.

Also was just trying to clarify that turning off "Prompt to resume on presentation restart" doesn't turn off the prompt in LMS environments.

There can potentially be other issues with LMS based resume as well, such as in AICC cross-domain environment.

[Batmanso]

Thank you Dmozealous and GerryWaz for your feedback.
I'll try to send again the content to our IBM LMS with Presenter settings configured like you said to see if the problem is fixed.
I'll also try the same in my clients LMS to see if the same happens...

Cross your finger folks, because if my problem is solved, i will invite you all to drink an "e-Beer"!!!...

I'll bring more news later about all testings.

Thanks.

[GerryWaz]

Originally Posted by dmozealous

Hey Gerry,

Yeah, there are some issues with bookmarking and resume data getting truncated in some LMS's. In my post I was just trying to explain how to turn off the use of the Flash cookie resume.

Also was just trying to clarify that turning off "Prompt to resume on presentation restart" doesn't turn off the prompt in LMS environments.

There can potentially be other issues with LMS based resume as well, such as in AICC cross-domain environment.

Hi, Dave!

Not trying to hijack the thread but my "tired old brain" seems to recall we talked about this a while back. Is it my imagination or did you mention the possibility of you folks possibly re-doing your bookmarking to the LMS so it wasn't so long?

All the best!

- Gerry

[dmozealous]

Hey Gerry,

We are looking at redoing the bookmarking in order to compress the data. This will most like happen in the next full version of Articulate Presenter.

Out of curiosity, and looking to solve your immediate issue, are you able to increase the size of of the database field so it didn't truncate the data?

[GerryWaz]

Hi, David!

Not right now but we're just kicking off moving from Saba 3.5SP1 to Saba 5.3SP2 (launch 4th quarter) and I'm going to see if it is addressed there.

The 5.3 data model indicates that with Oracle (which we use as our backend db) the field where your bookmark gets stored can be 2000 characters long in the db. Just need to be sure now that the application doesn't truncate that down. We've seen Saba do that before.

All the best!

- Gerry

[tpmevec]

Originally Posted by GerryWaz

Hi, David!

Not to be argumentative but some of this depends on how the LMS is storing your AP bookmark information when you turn off cookie bookmarking.

For example, for AICC, AP does not send bookmark info to the AICC LESSON_STATUS field where this bookmark data is normally stored. You folks use the AICC CORE_LESSON group and your bookmarks tend to be rather long when you do this, especially in courses with many, many slides. I'm not an AICC expert but I'm assuming the LMS needs to be able to successfully record CORE_LESSON data in its tables with the bookmark info you send.

In our Saba 3.5 SP1 LMS, this data gets stored in an AICC table for vendor info and the field that contains these bookmarks is only 255 characters long. Any bookmark longer than that gets truncated.

I'm looking at the table right now and I'm seeing a lot of Articulate bookmarks being truncated.

So, unless I'm daft on all this , just turning off the AP bookmark cookie may or may not work for your learners in an LMS. Check your LMS data model.

All the best.

- Gerry

Is there a workaround for using AICC_LESSON_LOCATION to track lesson location? We are using an Oracle PS ELM 9.x LMS and their data model is very very basic and only stores LESSON_LOCATION and LESSON_STATUS.

[GerryWaz]

Originally Posted by tpmevec

Is there a workaround for using AICC_LESSON_LOCATION to track lesson location? We are using an Oracle PS ELM 9.x LMS and their data model is very very basic and only stores LESSON_LOCATION and LESSON_STATUS.

Well, I suppose one could edit the AP aicc.js file and see if the bookmark can be sent to the AICC Lesson_Status field itself instead. Not being a JavaScript programmer, I have no idea if this is possible or how it works or how hard or easy this is. Maybe someone else has . . .?

Best!

- Gerry