Connect Learn functionality is erratic

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

All:

I am hanging Captivate 8 content on Connect as stand-alone asynchronous training. Problem is, I'm getting erratic completion results.

I set the completion parameters in Cp8 and publish using the Adobe Connect settings to a zip file on my desktop, then uploading the file to Connect. Once in Connect, I create a curriculum, add the content,and set up the enrollments.

When I test the curriculum, I do the following:

1. Open the course, allow it to load, then close it. On the Curriculum Information page, I should see the icon change to in progress and the button change from "open" to "Continue"

The functionality here works about 85% of the time, the other 15%, the icon and button remain in the initial state, showing the course as not being accessed.

2. Open the course, take it and fail the test. Inside captivate, the correct feedback shows up on the test results page. The icon should to change to "failed", the button should change to "Continue" and the failing score should be posted.

Erratic as hell. Randomly shows as still in the initial state prior to opening, opened without having taken the test, or failed. the test score will show as 0/0 in all three states, or show the failing score in the failed state and the initial state. When you re-open the course, it resets to allow you to re-take the test consistently.

3. Open the course, complete it and pass the test. The icon should change to completed, the button should change to "Review" and the score should update from the failing score to the passing score.

A bit less erratic than #2 above, but still problematic. The course will show complete inside Captivate, but when closed, Connect will report that it has not yet been opened about 50% of the time. when it shows as complete, the score will report as 0/0, or correctly, or as some strange combination (e.g. 75/350 instead of 80/100) When you re-open the course, it will open to the bookmarked page with the completed test and passing score every time, regardless of what the curriculum information page shows.

My hunch is, the scorable objects are causing Connect to freak out (my highly technical term for this behavior). The reason for this hunch is that, when a Captivate course is published that does not contain any scorable objects, none of the above aberrations are present. Alas, since I expect my users to interact with my content and record a viable score indicating a level of competence, this is  not an option.

thoughts?

Justenuf

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Sadly, this may take looking at the log files for Connect to get any solid answers about what Captivate is reporting and why, but here are my $.02.

2. Make sure the reporting for both Captivate and Connect are set to allow only one attempt at a quiz. Changing the number of attempts on the Connect side should still allow for accurate reporting while chaning the number of attempts in Captivate will change when it reports a failure (after the X attempt). So you can end up with Connect just seeing incomplete because Captivate never reported the answers. Not saying this is your problem, but something to be aware of and worth checking.

3. This sounds like a reporting issue. I think this needs to be looked at by Adobe, especially if you can have one exmple with the odd reporting availble to show.

It may be worth asking in the Captivate forums as well to see if the users there are aware of an issue with how Captivate reports and any solution to it.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

Jorma:

Got it regarding failure and the unlimited number of quiz attempts - that makes perfect sense with regard to not showing the course as failed - but would the last attempt at the quiz still show up as the score, even if the attempts are unlimited?

None of the courses have a limit on how many times the user can take the quiz. If I set the attempts at one, doesn't that require the administrator to re-enroll the user if they fail?

I have been in contact with both the site admin folks and their Adobe support people on this - they keep focusing on re-examining the courses and trying to re-create an error - but the errors are random. I do have feelers out in the Captivate forum (same post over there) but I can't see how the course design would cause the reporting anomalies.

Thanks for your insights - I'll try to get somebody to look at the log files - I don't really care why it isn't working, I just want to know what needs to be done to get it stabilized and operational.

Justenuf

[Jorma_at_CoSo · Accepted solution]

Brett Helm wrote:

Got it regarding failure and the unlimited number of quiz attempts - that makes perfect sense with regard to not showing the course as failed - but would the last attempt at the quiz still show up as the score, even if the attempts are unlimited?

If the number of attempts is left unlimited on Connect, then you should see everything. If you make the number of attempts (failures) unlimited in Captivate then it will never report a failure to the server, so you will never see that information. Think of setting the number of attempts in Captivate as setting the reporting limits. Captivate will only report when those limits are reached, i.e. if the user passes the quiz or fails it the number of times you allow. But it only reports at those limits. So, if you set the number of attempts to 3 in Captivate, then the user must fail the quiz 3 times, while having that instance of the presentation loaded. So if they fail it once and close it, you get no information. If they fail it 3 times, then you get the report of their 3rd failure, but not their 1st and 2nd. If you have a report of them passing, then you know they passed it on their 1st, 2nd or 3rd attempt but you don't know which it is and any failures that they may have had. So in short, leave the failure/retries for Captivate at 1 and let the server allow multiple accesses to the content.

Brett Helm wrote:

None of the courses have a limit on how many times the user can take the quiz. If I set the attempts at one, doesn't that require the administrator to re-enrol the user if they fail?

On the server side, yes. If Connect will only allow a single attempt on a course then the admin (or Training manager) would have to reset the users transcript. Leaving the number of attempts at unlimited is fine on the server side and should not affect reporting.

I'm not trying to blame Captivate (I think it is the least likely culprit), but I figure it can't hurt to ask. If you can point Support to a specific individual with bad reporting, they should be able to see when they took the training and pull the appropriate logs. Just be the squeaky wheel and don't be afraid to ask for an escalation.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

OK - just to make it clear in my somewhat muddled brain - go ahead and set it at 1 time in Captivate, but leave the Connect setting at unlimited. This should cause the score to be reported and the icons to change, but the course should reset when the user re-enters because Connect allows unlimited attempts, correct?

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Yes, that is correct.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

fixed the test score reporting issue.

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Great! What was the fix?

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

your suggestion regarding setting the Captivate project to one test attempt and leaving the Connect setting at unlimited test attempts. The Curriculum infomration page shows the most current score every time and the completion certificate only populates when the course is passed. Will stress test it with several more courses, but it looks good right now.

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Awesome. Glad it was helpful information, just wanted to make sure there wasn't something else that was done to get you to a solution.