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 limit is exceeded, it can cause issues with SCORM courses, depending on the browser being used.
Altering an existing SCORM course causes data errors
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 a new version of the SCORM course.
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 must restart the SCORM course from the beginning and may encounter issues when trying to launch the course (the user is presented with a blank screen).
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.
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
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
If users are connected to a VPN when taking a SCORM course, especially a SCORM course that is very large, it may cause issues related to suspend data, and the user may be ejected from the VPN session. If issues like this occur, it is recommended that you either extend the VPN session or create shorter SCORM files so that users are not ejected.