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.

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 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:

• 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 it, such as being presented with a blank screen.

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.