Course starts a new attempt, or opens in review mode, on relaunch

Fix it, or decide it is fine

A finished course that reopens for review, or as a fresh attempt, is usually the LMS doing what it is set up to do. Decide what finished learners should get, then:

1. Retakes and review are usually LMS settings

   If learners should be able to retake a finished course, or should not, change the LMS's attempt settings (in Moodle, “Force new attempt”). Those live in the LMS, not in the package.

2. Unfinished learners should resume

   If learners who left partway start over, the course is not leaving with “suspend” (“keep my place”), or resume is off. SCORM resume not working walks through it. Storyline has no publish option for its exit values (they are in lms/scormdriver.js), so check the resume option first.

3. Captivate courses

   “Set exit to normal after completion” ends the attempt on completion, on purpose: on, finished learners start fresh; off, they return to where they were. See Captivate course not resuming.

4. Republish and check again

   Drop the new zip into Alder, finish it again, and read “Next time”.

Check the zip before you upload it again (free)

1. Finish the course in the test player

   Open Alder, drop the zip, click “Launch the course” and go to the end like a learner who finished, passing any quiz. Press “I'm done” and read “Next time”: Resumes, Review mode, or Starts over.

   

2. Read why

   Click “Show the technical log”, open “Result details” and read “When the learner comes back”. It says what the LMS will do and why. For a Storyline course, TOOL-006 also explains the exit settings in its SCORM driver, and RUNTIME-010 flags an exit value that doesn't match how the course ended.

   

3. Try the other endings

   Click “Test again” and fail the quiz, or leave partway. For SCORM 1.2, “Compare with” in Result details switches to a strict SCORM 1.2 LMS, which follows the exit value instead of reopening finished courses for review.

   

“Test as a returning learner” always reopens the course for credit, with its saved data: use it to check resume, and “Next time” to see what a finished learner gets.

Why it happens

An attempt is one go at the course, from first launch until the LMS treats it as over; it can span several visits. Review mode (“no credit”) lets a learner look at a finished course, but nothing they do changes their record. The exit value is what the course tells the LMS as the learner leaves: cmi.core.exit in SCORM 1.2, cmi.exit in SCORM 2004. “suspend” means “keep my place”; empty or “normal” means “this attempt is done”.

The course was finished, so the LMS opens it for review. SCORM Cloud has a setting, “Launch Completed Registrations as no-credit”, that is on by default. In our SCORM 1.2 tests, a completed or passed course reopened in review mode however it was closed: the saved data came back, but what the learner did was accepted and then thrown away. That is why “changes are not saved after the course is completed”. Other LMSs may reopen the attempt instead.

The course ended the attempt with “normal” or an empty exit. In SCORM 2004, any exit value except “suspend” ends the attempt. We tested it: after exit “normal”, SCORM Cloud started a second attempt on the next launch. In SCORM 1.2, a strict LMS starts from the beginning when the exit is not “suspend”, while some LMSs resume anyway.

The LMS is set to force a new attempt. Moodle's “Force new attempt” setting has three choices. “No” offers a learner whose last attempt was completed, passed or failed the choice of review mode or a new attempt; “When previous attempt completed, passed or failed” starts a new one; and “Always” makes every re-entry a new attempt (Moodle's SCORM settings text).

A failed attempt is not finished. In our tests SCORM Cloud reopened a failed SCORM 1.2 attempt for credit, so the learner can still pass. Whether they resume or start over again depends on the exit value.

Still not working?

• Some learners' completions vanish after they come back: Completions missing for some learners only.
• Learners lose progress only when they close the tab: closing the course window.