Articulate Online

If a user reports that they received an incomplete status for a content item that they completed or if there is no record that the user attempted the content item, please review the following recommendations for the user, for the content developer, and for the Articulate Online administrator.

For the end-user

1. The user must close the browser window when they complete the content item for the results to be recorded in Articulate Online.  Any method for closing the browser window is acceptable.  They may:
   • Click the Exit tab in the Presenter player.
   • Click the Finish button in a quiz.
   • Click the "X" in the upper right corner of the browser window.
2. If the user tries to close the browser window without an internet connection, they will be notified that their results could not be saved, as shown in the image below:
   If they re-establish their internet connection and click the OK button when asked to "Retry?", their results will be recorded in Articulate Online.  If they do not re-establish their internet connection and click the OK button, their results will not be recorded, and they will need to retake the content item.
   
   Note:  A user will also receive this same "Could not save results" message if the content item is private and an administrator removes their permissions to view the content item while they are viewing it.
3. If there's a system failure while the user is viewing a content item, the attempt will not be recorded in Articulate Online.  This includes:
   • The browser crashed.
   • The computer crashed.
   • There was a power outage.

   If there was a system failure, the user will need to retake the content item.

For the content developer

1. Because results will not be submitted to Articulate Online until the user closes the browser window that is displaying the content, it is recommended that you provide instructions to the user to close the browser upon completion of the content.  This is especially true for quizzes if you include other quiz results features, such as Print Results, and Review Quiz.
   • For a Presenter '09 presentation, you might include a final slide with instructions to close the browser window in order to receive credit for the course.
   • For a Quizmaker '09 quiz (or a presentation that ends with a quiz), you might edit the result slides to instruct the user to click the Finish button to receive credit. You could say something like:"When you click Finish your results will be sent to us. Please be patient while your answers are processed. You will know your results were sent successfully when the browser window closes."
2. To avoid unexpected behavior with your published content, you should not use special characters in the published title.
3. There is a known issue where quiz branching may result in an incomplete status in Articulate Online.  You may need to determine if this scenario applies to your situation.
4. Disable the email results function. We do not recommend that you have the email results feature enabled if you are hosting content in Articulate Online. Email results will only work in very limited scenarios and is not recommended for a broad deployment where you have no control over what web browser or email applications people are using.
5. Slow performance in a large quiz or survey due to limited computer resources and / or bandwidth could cause some of the user's answers to be dropped while the information is being transferred from the user's computer to Articulate Online, which could result in an incomplete status.  Recommendations regarding large quizzes and surveys can be found here.

For the administrator

1. First, be sure to view a report with the necessary parameters to include the specific user and the date(s) they attempted the content item:
   • The best report for viewing all the user's attempts is the User Activity report.
   • Use the Score Results report to get the best score from a user who attempted a quiz more than once.
2. Please be aware that Articulate Online utilizes a 10-minute caching feature for reports.  This means that if you run the same report with the same parameters within 10 minutes of running the previous report, you will be presented with the same data.  If a user has completed a content item within that 10 minute window of time, you may not see the user's attempt or score even if it was successfully recorded by Articulate Online.  In this case, you will need to do one of the following to verify that the user's attempt was recorded:
   • Modify the report parameters (for example, select a different date range or group) to avoid the 10-minute caching feature.
   • Wait 10 minutes before running the same report with the same parameters again.
3. If you are using a guestbook to collect information from your users on Public content items and if you have multiple users accessing your content from the same computer, please review this article, which describes how to avoid caching and tracking issues.
4. If the user claims that their results still are not being tracked, it is recommended that you monitor the user while they attempt the content item to verify that they are completing it successfully and closing the browser properly without receiving any error messages.