Testing Your Custom Content in the SafetySkills LMS

The SafetySkills LMS

The SafetySkills LMS is SCORM-1.2 and AICC version 4 compliant. This means we follow a set list of guidelines outlined for how our content should operate and communicate with a Learning Management System.

eLearning content is unlike streaming video in the sense that it communicates back and forth from the content, to the user’s computer, to the LMS, and back again to report details such as, but not limited to:

• Lesson Location
  • Where the user is in the course, allowing the user to leave in the middle of the course and return where they left off
• Total Time
  • How long the user has spent in the course overall
• Session Time
  • How long the user has spent in the course during this specific sitting
• Score
  • Has the user properly answered the course questions
• Lesson Status
  • Reports if the course has been Not Attempted, Completed/Passed or Incomplete

The SCORM-1.2 and AICC version 4 guidelines specifically outline what values the course and LMS should send and/or receive for each action. As long as the course and the LMS follow those guidelines, they should “plug and play” seamlessly. However, if the course and/or the LMS are not following those guidelines, and therefore not sending/receiving the proper values at the proper times, users may experience issues with the course not launching, bookmarking or completing properly.

For information on creating or uploading a Custom Course, please visit these help articles: Creating Custom Content for the SafetySkills LMS and How to Upload and Edit a Custom Course

How can you know if your course is communicating properly with the SafetySkills LMS?

Test it! It is essential when you upload any of your courseware into the SafetySkills LMS that you fully test it to ensure it is functioning as you would expect before assigning out to your users.

HOW to test:

• A key item in testing is determining what devices/browsers you are anticipating your users accessing the course from.
• Different devices and internet browsers may interact with the course differently.
  • We have a set list of minimum/recommended requirements for our LMS that can be found here: SafetySkills LMS Minimum and Recommended Technical Requirements
  • Your course may have a different list of compatibility requirements that you’ll need to be aware of and test accordingly.
  • For example, if you anticipate your users needing to take the course on an iPhone 10 using the Safari browser, we strongly recommend testing the course functionality on an iPhone 10 in the Safari browser to ensure it performs as expected. That being said, there are different versions of the Safari browser, so it is up to you how granular you want to get with this testing process.
• It’s not required that you test with EVERY device and browser combo out there (we know how daunting of a task that is) but we do recommend that you test on the devices and browsers that you expect to support before launching to your users.

WHAT to test:

Now that you have identified what devices/browsers you will be testing, we’ll go over what items we recommend testing with your course on each device/browser combo.

• Launch
  • Assign the course to yourself in the SafetySkills LMS and launch it from the “My Training” tab to ensure it launches as expected. Some items you might want to take note of are:
    • Appropriate slide
      • Did it launch on the title screen or do you potentially have a language selector screen, etc.?
    • Visuals/screen size
      • Do you have images/videos on the screen?
      • Do you expect the course to go “full screen”?
      • Did it launch in a pop-up? Was it blocked initially?
    • Course navigation
      • Do you have a status bar?
      • Do you have a next button?
• Audio
  • Do you have audio in your course? If so, you will want to make sure that audio is synced and playing when/how you would expect.
• Ability to skip content
  • Should users be able to skip the content frames or question frames? You’ll want to make sure that ability is disabled/enabled as needed while creating your course.
• Bookmarking
  • If you expect the course to allow users to leave during the course and return to the same spot, at some point you’ll want to close and re-launch the course to ensure you are returned to the slide as expected.
• Time tracking
  • If you expect time to track with each interaction, you’ll want to make sure the time values match your experience in the course both when you exit mid-course and at the very end.
• Test Questions
  • If you have test questions in your course, we suggest answering questions incorrectly and then correctly to ensure the behavior in each instance is expected.
    • What happens if you get all of the questions wrong?
    • What happens if you get a percentage below the passing percentage?
    • What happens if you get a percentage above the passing percentage?
    • Does it kick the user back to a previous frame if they get the question wrong?
    • Should the user be able to try to answer the question again?
    • Is there a limit on how many times a user can get a question wrong?
    • Does the course let the user proceed when the question is answered correctly?
• Completion
  • When you reach the end of the course, does it complete with the values you would expect?
  • Does the course move to the “Complete Training” section?
  • If you did not achieve the passing score percentage, are you able to try again?
  • Did the total time record properly?
  • Did the lesson status record properly?
  • Did the score record properly?

What do you do if you experience unexpected behavior with your course?

If you have performed the above testing and have encountered issues, we recommend uploading your course into a testing engine called “SCORM Cloud”.

Learn more about testing in SCORM Cloud here: https://rusticisoftware.com/resources/test-scorm/

SafetySkills regularly uses the SCORM Cloud online service to test and troubleshoot eLearning code and packages. While SafetySkills develops and maintains its own SCORM-compliant Learning Management System, we find it useful to have a “reference” LMS created by a group that has consistently shown expertise and a commitment to innovation in eLearning.

SCORM Cloud was launched in 2009 by Rustici Software, now a subsidiary of Learning Technologies Group. Rustici’s roots are in SCORM support and consultation. Beginning in 2010, Rustici worked with the U.S. government’s Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) to develop a “successor” standard to SCORM.
While SafetySkills primarily uses SCORM Cloud as a reference LMS to verify our own code behavior, we have also found them to be very helpful and knowledgeable when contacted directly.

Please note that SCORM Cloud will support both AICC version 2 and version 4, while the SafetySkills LMS only supports AICC version 4.