Course marked complete too early (before finishing, or after failing the quiz)

Several tracking options are ticked

Storyline 360 lets you tick “When the learner has viewed”, “When the learner completes a quiz” and “Using triggers (e.g. 'complete course')” together. The learner is marked complete by whichever one they meet first. So with slides viewed and a quiz combined, a learner who views the slides is complete without taking the quiz.

1. Keep only the option that should decide

   In Storyline, open Publish → LMS / LRS → Reporting and Tracking, Tracking tab. Untick the options that should not complete the course on their own. If the quiz must decide, leave only “When the learner completes a quiz”.

The target is lower than the whole course

“When the learner has viewed” takes a number of slides or a percentage. We tested a five-slide Storyline course set to three slides on SCORM Cloud: it was complete, and passed, at slide three. Rise works the same way with its completion percentage, and a quiz counts as a lesson. A Rise course with three lessons and three quizzes, set to 80%, was complete on SCORM Cloud after five of its six parts, so a learner could skip one of them, even a quiz.

1. Raise the target

   Set “When the learner has viewed” to the slides every learner should see. In Rise, raise the percentage under Publish → LMS → Tracking, or choose “Track using quiz result”. In Captivate, the targets are under “Success/Completion Criteria” (Captivate Classic) or “Completion Criteria” (Captivate 12 and later) in the reporting preferences.

A fail, or a pass with no quiz, counts as finished

With Passed/Failed, a learner who fails the quiz is sent as “failed”. We tested this on SCORM Cloud: a SCORM 1.2 course that sent “failed” was recorded with completion “completed” and success “failed”. A report or certificate that looks only at completion then counts the learner as done. Course authors also report Rise courses showing complete after a failed quiz (E-Learning Heroes thread). And a course tracked by slides viewed or a trigger but set to a Passed option records “passed” as soon as the learner meets that goal, with no score behind it.

1. Stop a fail counting as done

   If a failed quiz must not complete the course, set “Report status to LMS as:” (Rise: “Report completion status as:”) to Passed/Incomplete. A fail then stays incomplete; we saw this on SCORM Cloud with a learner who scored 16%. If there is no quiz, use Completed/Incomplete.

Complete as soon as it opens

The course sends no status at all. We tested this on SCORM Cloud: a SCORM 1.2 course that connected and closed without setting anything was recorded as completed. For SCORM 2004, SCORM Cloud's dashboard also showed it complete. This is a common reason for “complete as soon as it opens” in a hand-built course, or in one whose tracking never fires.

A low completion threshold (SCORM 2004). The manifest can set a completion threshold. If the course also reports its progress, the LMS decides complete or incomplete itself by comparing the two, whatever the course says.

Check the zip before you upload it again (free)

Learners marked complete too soon? Check your course for this. Alder puts the matching problems first and gives you a short test script. Run it again on the new zip after a fix.

1. Drop the zip and read the notes

   Open Alder and drop the published zip. Alder reads the tracking options from the package: it lists combined options in order, warns when learners will show as “passed” without taking a quiz, and notes a completion threshold.

   

2. Do less than a learner should

   Launch the course in the test player, view only the first few slides, skip any quiz, and press “I'm done”. If “Finished?” says Yes, the course completes too early. Try a failed quiz too.

   

3. Try a stricter setting

   In Tracking settings, change the slides-viewed number (Storyline), the completion percentage (Rise) or the reporting option, check the change, and run the same test again. This is free; downloading the edited zip needs Pro.

LMS notes

• Moodle: on its default completion rule (“Require status: Completed”), “failed” does not complete the activity, so the same course can be complete in SCORM Cloud and not in Moodle (Moodle's completion rules).

Why it matters

Learners show as complete after opening the course for a minute, or after failing the quiz. For compliance training that is worse than a course that never completes, because nobody notices. As the cause is nearly always in the publish settings, it can be found before anyone else takes the course.

Still not working?

• Choosing the reporting option: Storyline “Report status to LMS as”.
• Learners marked failed after passing: see Mastery score vs quiz passing score.
• The opposite problem: SCORM course not marking complete.