Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

by Barry Smith -
Number of replies: 4

We are using Moodle 2.9.  I post SCORM quizzes on a weekly basis for students.  An example of the SCORM package it attached.

Within a short period of time of the start of the semester, a number of students were reporting back that they would partially complete a quiz and when returning to it at a later date would find it already marked as completed as a result of which they were unable to attempt any further questions.

Their grades would also be recorded as zero even though they got some questions right.  I could see in the Moodle tracking details that some questions were answered correctly but still recorded a zero grade.

After some investigation, my conclusion is that the Chrome browser appears to be problematic.  Every one of the students who reported the issue was using Chrome.  None of the students who used a different browser reported this issue.

Having said that, I cannot reproduce the issue on demand when I use Chrome.  It has occurred for me on occasion but I cannot identify with certainty why it has happened on these occasions

One suspicion is that where the network connectivity is in any way weak, this issue can arise with Chrome.  On occasion, the network alert message has appeared in Chrome.  Oddly, the network alert would not appear in Firefox even though I would be open the SCORM quiz on Firefox at the same time.

Further, once this issue arises as a result of Chrome, the SCORM player does not function properly in Firefox (41) for the particular SCORM package, i.e., it does not render the quiz.  Internet Explorer 11 does to appear to be affected.

Needless to say, the inconsistent behaviour in different browsers, which based on my observations, has its root in Chrome, is highly undesirable.

I'd be thankful to receive advise or suggestions on this.

Thanks.











Average of ratings: -
In reply to Barry Smith

Re: Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

by Barry Smith -

Further to previous post, see attached screenshot.

Note the fact that the student attempted numerous questions and got a lot of them right.  However, there is no grade recorded - all calculates weights are zero.

Could someone explain why this occurs?

Thanks.


Attachment CalculatedWeight.JPG
In reply to Barry Smith

Re: Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

the weighting column comes from the cmi.interactions_X.weighting var which is usually passed by the SCORM package itself - it's likely that your particular SCORM package doesn't actually set this variable.

If there's a new version of the tool you used to create this SCORM package you should update it and try exporting a new version of your package to see if that helps. It's likely the issues relate to the way your SCORM package is authored.

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

by Barry Smith -

Thanks Dan,

The cmi.interactions_X.weighting var is understood.

On a related but separate matter, I find on occasion that when I return to a partially completed SCORM quiz, the SCORM player does not initialise on screen.  I get the message 'activity loading please wait...' which then times out after about 90 seconds.  

The solution is to clear the browser cache at which time the SCORM player initialises and the partially completed quiz is reloaded without problem.

However, as you can imagine, asking students to repeatedly clear caches is not feasible.

Is there a problem that someone could point me to that is causing this problem of player not loading until cache is cleared?  Is it more likely to be server side, is it more likely to be the SCORM package?  

I'd be thankful to receive some direction on this.





In reply to Barry Smith

Re: Undesirable SCORM behaviour with Chrome browser

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

I'm not aware of a Moodle bug that would result in that behaviour - I have seen some issues with Lectora based content and the way it sets/clears it's own cookie data from within the SCORM package itself but I don't think you were using Lectora here. Good luck!