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Some of the following issues related to SCORM courses can be caused by suspend data:

Suspend data upper limit

It should be noted that the upper limit for suspend data is 64,000 characters. If this Occasionally, learners may encounter issues with SCORM courses, caused by suspend data. Below we have included some common scenarios that relate to suspend data and how to resolve them.

What is suspend data?

Suspend data is used to store temporary information about a user’s interaction with a SCORM course, including: 

  • How much progress a learner has made

  • Any assessment/quiz results

  • If a learner has completed the SCORM course

Issue 1: Exceeded upper limit for suspend data

Fuse currently supports SCORM 1.2, which permits a maximum character limit of 4096 characters for suspend data. This is a SCORM-specific limitation that Fuse cannot change. If the upper limit is exceeded, it can cause issues with SCORM courses, depending on the browser being used.

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Best practices for designing SCORM with minimal suspend data

Below we have listed some recommended best practices to help you avoid issues with suspend data. This list isn’t exhaustive and therefore may not include all  scenarios you have encountered in the past:

  • Reduce the number of larger audio and video files included in the SCORM course, as these take up a lot of space.

  • If your SCORM course includes a quiz that learners must complete,try limiting the number of quiz attempts in order to conserve memory.

  • Break larger SCORM courses into smaller chunks.

Note: Some authoring tools offer compressed suspending. This is when multiple pieces of information are packed into one small piece of code, significantly shrinking file sizes and ensuring courses run smoothly without sacrificing engagement.

Issue 2: Overwritten SCORM courses 

A SCORM course holds data about a user's progression, and when it loads, it validates this data against the imsmanifest.xml file. If the data does not match, an error will occur. For example, if you originally had 14 slides in a SCORM course and you remove 1 slide, the data will no longer match, as the expectation is, there are 14 slides in the SCORM course.We do not advise overwriting SCORM courses within Fuse. Instead, we advise you to upload this is validated against a document called a manifest file. The manifest file is essentially a summary with instructions on how to read the SCORM file, and if the data does not match, the learner is presented with a blank screen.

We strongly advise against overwriting SCORM courses in the Fuse platform. Instead, we recommended uploading a new version of the SCORM course altogether

If you choose to overwrite a SCORM course, you can select the relevant option in Articulate Storyline and other WYSIWYG authoring tools, which ignores suspend data. However, before doing so, please ensure that assigned users are completed or not started; there should be no users currently in progress (incomplete) - this ensures there are no issues when the SCORM file is overwritten. Any users currently in progress when the SCORM file is overwritten :

  • The Fuse content ID for the SCORM course will remain the same, meaning any previous completion records for learners that have already completed it will also remain intact.

  • Learners who have not started the SCORM course will be unaffected.

  • Any learners that are currently in progress must restart the SCORM course from the beginning and may encounter issues when trying to launch

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  • it, such as being presented with a blank screen

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If you choose to overwrite a SCORM course, any previous records for users that have already completed the SCORM course will remain, as the Fuse content ID of the SCORM course stays the same.

Info

If you have overwritten a SCORM file and encountered issues with the suspend data, we recommended uploading a brand new version of that SCORM course to Fuse, for users to take from scratch, or contact Fuse Customer Support.

Users cannot progress or complete a SCORM course

Suspend_data is used to store temporary information about a SCORM course, such as:

  • How much progress a user has made

  • Any assessment/quiz results

  • If a user has completed the SCORM course

Info

For more experienced developers, suspend_data can be used to store more granular information about the status of a SCORM course.

Fuse supports SCORM 1.2, which allows up to 4,096 characters in the suspend_data variable. If the course tries to write more than this, issues related to the loading or completion of SCORM courses can occur. As this is standard when using SCORM 1.2, there is nothing that Fuse can do to resolve this.

To resolve these issues:

  • If you have developed the SCORM course internally then changes can be made in-house. We strongly advise that you break larger SCORM courses into smaller chunks or disable the resume functionality.

  • If the SCORM course comes from an external supplier, we recommend contacting them, as the SCORM course is not designed to work with SCORM 1.2 and the supplier must make the necessary changes for you.

SCORM session interruptions due to unstable connections

Sometimes an unstable internet connection can cause a SCORM session to become interrupted, which in turn can cause issues related to suspend data. To avoid this, you can create shorter SCORM courses, as well as request that users only take SCORM courses while using a stable internet connection. For example, it is not recommended that users take SCORM courses while on a device that is connected to mobile data.

SCORM assets are stored remotely on a server

Most SCORM courses reference and display various different assets, such as images or videos. If all or some of these assets are stored remotely on a server and the SCORM course needs to constantly reference them, it may cause issues with suspend data. Therefore, it is recommended that all the necessary assets required for SCORM courses, such as files, videos, and images, are included in the uploaded SCORM package if possible.

SCORM courses are left open for extended periods and the suspend data limit is reached

Sometimes, if a SCORM course remains open for extended periods of time, the suspend data limit will be reached. To help avoid this, it is recommended that users know how long the session should typically last, and that you instruct them to close and then reopen the SCORM course if they overrun and need to pause before resuming.

Users are ejected from a VPN session whilst taking a SCORM course

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Issue 3: Loss of internet connectivity

If there is an issue with internet connectivity, for example, because the internet connection is weak and learners become easily disconnected, the Fuse platform will stop collecting data interactions, and the learner will lose their current progress. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended that you design SCORM courses with a lost connectivity alert (if your authoring tool has this functionality) so that learners are made aware. We also strongly advise that learners have access to a strong and reliable internet connection when taking SCORM courses, so that they do not become disconnected.

Session timeout

Sometimes learners may experience session timeouts. Depending on the authentication methods and configuration of your platform, learners may be logged out from the Fuse platform or from the SSO session if they have been inactive for a certain period of time, and when a session is closed, learners might also lose their current progress. To prevent this from happening:

  • Ensure that the SSO/VPN session timeout and user inactivity settings give an adequate amount of time for users to progress through SCORM courses.

  • Ensure that learners do not leave the SCORM course page open for extended periods while inactive - it is recommended that they close the session and then reopen the course later on in order to resume.