Storyline "Report status to LMS as": which option to pick

Which option to pick

Articulate recommends Passed/Incomplete or Passed/Failed, as the options most likely to record both completion and success, and adds that each LMS can read statuses differently, especially for SCORM 1.2 (Articulate: reporting completion and success status).

• A scored quiz decides, and a fail should be recorded as a fail: Passed/Failed. Note that a SCORM 1.2 “failed” can still count as finished: we tested this on SCORM Cloud, which recorded a course that sent “failed” as completed, with success “failed”.
• A scored quiz decides, and learners who fail should stay “not done” until they pass: Passed/Incomplete. On SCORM Cloud, a Storyline quiz set to this option and failed at 16% stayed incomplete.
• The course is completed by viewing slides or by a trigger: Completed/Incomplete. A “Passed” option without a quiz records “passed” with no score behind it, so reports and certificates show learners passing an assessment they never took.
• Your LMS counts only “completed”: Completed/Incomplete, or change the LMS rule (see the Moodle note). With a quiz, the LMS then never shows passed or failed: a learner who passes is recorded as completed, one who fails stays incomplete, and reports that filter on passed won't find them.

Change it in Storyline

Storyline 360 offers four options (Passed/Incomplete, Passed/Failed, Completed/Incomplete, Completed/Failed), only for SCORM and AICC, not for xAPI or cmi5.

1. Open Reporting and Tracking

   Publish → LMS / LRS → Reporting and Tracking, then the LMS tab. The drop-down is under LMS Reporting.

2. Pick the option

   Set “Report status to LMS as:” to the option you chose. If a quiz should decide, also check the Tracking tab: “When the learner completes a quiz” should be ticked, with your results slide listed.

3. Republish and check again

   Publish for the LMS, drop the new zip into Alder, and test it once more before you upload it.

Rise and Captivate. Rise 360 has the same four options under Publish → LMS → Reporting, labelled “Report completion status as:”, though Articulate says some options are missing for microlearning courses. Captivate Classic has a shorter version, “Status Representation”, with “Incomplete ---> Complete” and “Incomplete ---> Passed/Failed” (SCORM 1.2 and AICC only).

Check the zip before you upload it again (free)

1. See which option was published

   Open Alder and drop the published zip. Under “Make other changes”, open Tracking settings. For a Storyline or Rise course, “Publish settings we found” shows “Report status to LMS as” and the file Alder read it from.

2. Try another option

   Click “Change…”, pick another option and click “Check this change”. Alder runs every check on the changed package and tells you whether it would cause a new problem, such as a Passed option on a course tracked by slides viewed.

   

3. Test it as a learner

   Apply the change, launch the course in the test player, pass or fail the quiz and press “I'm done”. “What an LMS would record” shows the result, and choosing your LMS under “Uploading to” shows whether it would record something different.

Storyline and Rise packages changed this way reported the new option when we uploaded them to SCORM Cloud. Editing and testing are free. Downloading the edited zip needs Pro; on the free plan, make the same change in Storyline and republish.

LMS notes

• Moodle: a new SCORM activity completes only on “Completed” by default (Moodle's activity form), so the Passed options never complete it unless an admin also ticks Passed under Require status. More in LMS shows incomplete after passing the quiz.
• Workday Learning: course authors report that courses set to Completed/Incomplete get a grade of “failed”, even when the learner passed (E-Learning Heroes thread). If learners take a scored quiz, a Passed option gives Workday a pass result to record.

What each option sends

Each option is a pair of words. For a course tracked by a quiz, the first is sent for a pass and the second for a fail. This matters most in SCORM 1.2, the older version of the standard, where the course has only one status field and the pair decides which word goes in it. SCORM 2004 keeps completion and success apart, which Articulate says makes them easier for an LMS to read.

Still not working?

• Courses that complete before learners finish, or after a failed quiz: Course marked complete too early.
• Every cause of a course that never completes: SCORM course not marking complete.