LMS Quirks, Issues, and Work- Arounds : SkillPort LMS

The SkillPort LMS by SkillSoft supports AICC, CTT, Dialogue 2.0 and 3.0, e3, LOT Passive, SCORM, SCORM 1.2 RTE 2, SCORM 2004, SkillStudio, LCMS input, and NLO+. This blog entry will be concerned with SCORM 1.2 RTE 2.

First off, SkillPort does not support all of the mandatory and optional RTE data model elements for the SCORM 1.2 package. It only supports a subset listed below:




You will also need to get on the SkillSoft Community site http://community.skillsoft.com/Products/sct/ccps.asp "SCORM 1.2 Authoring Guidelines" AKA(scorm_auth_doc_v_1_2 (2).pdf). This document (pg 9-11) will explain to you what SkillSoft means by completion, passing score, and failing.

Also, you will need to download the SkillSoft Compatability Toolkit (SkillPort_Compatibility_Toolkit.exe) from the SkillSoft community site. Run your content package throuth this application for 2 reasons. 1) to verify that it is compatible with the SkillPort system and 2) to create the appropriate sppub.ini metadata file and the correct SkillPort input file which is a .par file.

A NOTE ABOUT THE SCT:
[edit] Since you will need IE 6 for this task I suggest you go to spoon.net and use the run anywhere browsers http://spoon.net/Browsers/. It will stream the app to your PC so you dont have to install it. That way you can run all the IE versions side by side if you like.

The SCT is only usable in IE 6.0 and is unusable in IE 7, 8 because the use type=file on all of their input boxes so you can not copy and paste the path to your folder into the input area AND if you press the browse button it makes you select a file when the application wants a folder. I tried to get around this by using FireFox, however, when you complete the run-time compatability test the next button never displays so again you are dead in the water.

Create your own sppub.ini file. Name it "sppub.ini":

# [ SP Publishing Settings formatversion="1.0" ]
window top=0
window scrollbars=no
window resizable=no
default ids=no
enable download=no
content version=0.5
course code=001
prerequisites=Unknown
window height=768
target audience=Unknown
course duration=2
publish version=1.0
window toolbar=no
window width=1024
language=enUS
description=BP Alpha Course
company code=regis
vendor=Regis Learning
title=BP Alpha
window left=0

The SkillPort Course Completion Criteria
The issue was that not of our courses were completing and we were sending cmi.core.lesson_status and setting it to completed. Well the answer was in the way courses are administered within SkillPort. More below....


"SkillPort provides a capability that allows the client to set their Course Completion Criteria (CCC)
either globally or on a per-course basis. These settings set the criteria, which determine whether a
course is marked complete.
SCORM 1.2 courses report two different values - a score and a lesson status. The following list of
elements is a setting or checkbox in the SkillPort Administrator page and describes how the SkillPort
CCC uses the two values to determine the completion status of the course:"


This paragraph above is an excerpt from section "Completion Criteria" in the SkillPort document "SCORM Authorizing Guidelines.pdf"

It is a good idea to discuss this with the LMS admin. Also, if you can have them provide a screenshot of the CCC page and what is selected that is always very helpful.