Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Derek Chirnside -
Number of replies: 13

I have a vague sort of question.

Can the theme chosen mess with SCORM display?

I have a problem with SCORM deployment where responsive SCORMs are not responsive on Mobiles.  Does anyone know if it is worth investigating if tweaking themes could help?

I cannot find anyone with a nice deployment of Adapt or Evolve created SCORMs.  It seems that Moodle and these do not work well together.  

Corollaries: Totara seems to have created a new window to solve this problem.  Potentially, could a theme do this?  In fact I cannot find any responsive SCORMs that work well with Moodle.  Is there anything gout there?  Is there a way to solve this problem (that involves anything, including hacking core Moodle)?

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Mary Evans -

Oh come on Derek, SCORM on a Mobile...are you joking?

The problem, if it is the same one I am thinking of, is caused by the iframe that has it's own html body and so makes it virtually impossible to style.

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Derek Chirnside -
Mary I've just had a bit of a look around to see what the internet has to say about iFrames.  There seem to be answers, but how to implement them is not trivial.  


  1. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/02/making-embedded-content-work-in-responsive-design/
    "In this article, we’ll show you how to make embedded content responsive using CSS, so that content such as video and calendars resize with the browser’s viewport. For those occasions when non-coders will be embedding video on your website and you don’t want to rely on them adding extra markup, we’ll also look at a solution that uses JavaScript instead of CSS"
  2. https://answers.squarespace.com/questions/88719/problem-with-iframe-on-mobile-device.html
  3. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5267996/how-to-properly-display-an-iframe-in-mobile-safari
  4. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17223469/how-to-preserve-responsive-design-in-mobile-browsers-iframe
  5. https://benmarshall.me/responsive-iframes/ "How to Make Responsive Iframes — it’s easy!"
  6. Scrollable iFrame: https://coderwall.com/p/c-aqqw/scrollable-iframe-on-mobile-safari
  7. "Here's a few good reasons why not to serve responsive web apps within iframes."
    http://andyshora.com/iframes-responsive-web-apps-tips.html 

Also (in a google search of "moodle responsive iframe")  I found this: https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Iframe
This is about seven years out of date.

-Derek


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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Derek Chirnside -

My second question Mary:

You say: 

The problem, if it is the same one I am thinking of, is caused by the iframe that has it's own html body and so makes it virtually impossible to style.

What controls the styling in Moodle: Moodle theme, the SCORM itself, Moodle core?

And I am still curious why you think responsive SCORM is joking.

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Mary Evans -

Hi Derek,

Moodle styles everything first. Then the theme takes over and customizes lots of things and to some degree can make changes to a page to make SCORM look and work better. I know this because I have have done so.  :

The theme in that instance was Julian Ridden's original version of Essential. I had to reorder the page and restyle it using CSS and it worked a treat after that. But it was not only an older version of Essential but an older version of Moodle 2.5 or 2.6. 

As for my joking reply I was surprised anyone wanting to view such a sytem as SCORM in a mobile phone. Or did you mean another type of mobile device, such as a Tablet or better still an iPad?

I guess that at least you can see the whole of the page better in a larger screen.

From my experience of SCORM I would say it's more a problem with the way the individual packages are made than the device its displayed on, or the theme or the version of Moodle itself.

Hope that answers your question?

Also if you have a MOODLE site where you have a SCORM package that needs fixing can you let me have access to test it out and see if I can help fix it for you?

Cheers

Mary

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Derek Chirnside -

OK, thanks Mary.

There are SCORMS out there that do work with Moodle and are responsive.  In some cases this is a selling point for services.

One random example: http://getbiggerbrains.com/purchase-lms-content/scorm-licenses/  I quote:

Our courses are tested and/or certified for use on HRsmart.com, Halogen Software, Litmos, TorchLMS, Edu 2.0, Moodle, Docebo, and many other LMS platforms which support SCORM 1.2.

SCORM 1.3/2004 or Tin Can compatibility is also available – contact us for details.

Everyone so far that I have found either use an LMS where the problem has been solved. Like Bloom.  I quote:

Works with Evolve and the Adapt Learning Framework

Bloom works seamlessly with Evolve to give you a powerful set of tools to build a great learning experience.

Evolve and Adapt produce responsive SCORMS.

Totara as well, from another provider:

"An example of the optimal interaction of LMS and e-learning content, in this case Totara LMS and Adapt"

Out of interest I have just downloaded the free guide here: http://resources.kineo.com/going-mobile-download_uk_lp

If they do not have their own LMS, somtimes people have in house expertise and an approach to using Moodle where the problem is sorted.  But being then usually a high end provider of some sort, they probably don't frequent these forums, and if they did, they probably don't post.  Lose commercial advantage and all that.

Dan has messaged me and has had some helpful comment, but I may need to find some $$.  Maybe the MUA??  

I'll get back to you soon Mary.  I'll do a little more homework over the weekend.  

  1. I am going to do some playing around with the ideas in this post: https://community.adaptlearning.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=180
  2. I'll check other themes.

Regards

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Ken Farrimond -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Derek and Mary

I will shortly be setting up a new Moodle site primarily to display content from various custom written Scrom packages that are supposed to be responsive. While most users will be on desktops or tablets I do envisage some usage on phones. In response to Mary's point above, while many Scorm packages would be unusable on a screen as small as a phone, some would work perfectly well if their design was suited for a smaller screen.

Please can you give me advice on choice of theme etc to have the best chance of getting things working in terms of responsiveness. I have a free choice over themes. I will probably use Moodle 3.0 unless you think 3.1 has advantages in this area. I need data generated from the Scorm packages, so cannot do a freestanding HTML. I intend using the pop up window for the Scorm package.

Any advice gratefully received.

Ken

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In reply to Ken Farrimond

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Guido Hornig -
Picture of Plugin developers

I think most of the modern themes can handle SCORM well enough.

Please look at the additional CSS in this post:

https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=339966#p1370071


I have good experience with the SCORM in moodles own mobile app,

also for offline answering and sync when you are online again.

But I needed to create the modules with iSpring.

I have no comparison with other authoring systems, like Articulate or captivate, but they offer their own apps to play the content. iSpring can play in any HTML5 browser.


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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Rajnish Rao -

Hi Derek,

Moodle clean theme is responsive itself which you can use unless you are not looking for better branding etc. However to serve better in small devices, you have to check the e-Learning authoring toolkit  whether its produce HTML5 output or flash As flash out can only resize and content may not visually appeal.

Please read this article http://www.ispringsolutions.com/ppt-to-html5


Best,

Rajnish

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In reply to Rajnish Rao

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Ken Farrimond -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Rajnish

Thanks for your response. I am currently trialling the Essential theme which is working better than clean in displaying Scorm packages. Clean seemed to add some white space in the Scorm viewer.

It resizes well. I just wish there was a Scorm viewer that would allow you to go full screen when viewing a Scorm package. That would make things work well on a phone.

Ken

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In reply to Ken Farrimond

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Rajnish Rao -

Hi Ken,

I understand your query, don't think it is available with any eLearning authoring tools and I don't think it is possible by Moodle SCORM module.

Mobile friendly SCORM publisher authoring tool like ispring, not only allow to resize but  change navigation etc as well as per devices. However you may have to play with CSS to manage spaces etc around the player.


Thanks,

Rajnish

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Themes and SCORM and Responsiveness

by Guido Hornig -
Picture of Plugin developers

When you create SCROM with iSpring, it comes with its own behaviour to adapt to small mobile screens - and it works - also inside of the iframe. Even for inexperienced authors it is a solution, that can be handled offline by the newest moodle app. iSpring can create Scorm packages or simple web modules  (moodle file aktivity) based on PowerPoint slides, including quiz, audio sync with animations, video etc.

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