Gremlins in the backend: Uploading a new version of a SCORM Causes In-Progress Users to lose access

Did you change anything that involves the course structure? If yes, that is likely your issue...It’s been a while but I seem to recall we went through this a while back and we landed on these rules…

If the updates Do NOT affect the course structure and mainly superficial like spelling, grammatical fixes, etc., we then OVERWRITE the existing package.

If the updates require the removal or additional of a new page, section, module, or anything that affects the course structure, we load this update as a new object and unpublished the old one. Testing is always a good idea (you can always make a copy o the course so you can test the date process without affecting your users already enrolled).

hopefully this will be helpful...

Just to add, there’s a knowledge base article regarding this: Uploading / Updating SCORM content
 

There’s a specific warning regarding your issue:

“Please Note! When updating SCORM content, by changing the structure of the SCORM, where users have already interacted with the content or completed it, users whose status is 'In Progress' or 'Completed' will lose their progress in the training material. These users will have to start the content from the beginning.”

It sounds like what happened to your users, except that your users seem to be unable to access the new content at all. The article also recommends to upload the SCORM content to the central repository and add/update it from there. I haven’t tried that myself yet, so I can’t tell if that helps. But maybe it’s worth a try.

​@sfrost - did you ever hear back from Docebo about this? We are experiencing the exact same issue --- blank screen (but new learners can load it fine). The updates in the new SCORM file were very minor (typos).

Hi ​@jessica.lunan - that blank screen can be common when the course loses its state.

Let me guess - is it a course authored in Rise?

​@dklinger ha yes, in Rise. We reverted back to the older version to fix the issue at least in the short-term, and Docebo said we should always use ‘versioning’ with CR updates even if the changes to the course are very minor. So we’ll try that next...

I definitely read what you said - it was just some typo changes...that seriously stinks.

Heres the thing - any structural change in Rise causes a fast demise and will trigger that white screen for you. We maintain some Rise courses (that are more like “manuals”) where we need to add a page on occasion. Adding a page = a structural change...and it can be enough to not have bookmarking land back at the right place. Even a change in text on the page that was bookmarked by users (well it is technically the LMS doing the bookmarking) can be finicky enough….especially if it brought in any interactive changes.

To support these types of changes? And not lose training history? We typically add a new training material all together and hide the old one.

WARNING - there is a downside to that approach - and consider it an implementation choice/calculated risk for the type of course that it is.

If it is a course that has many people in progress with it? The bookmarking will NOT be honored because it is a new training material - they all will be forced to start again.

And thats why for something like an “e-manual” - it works out reasonably well.

​@dklinger thank you. Yeah, the in progress bookmarks are a bit of a bummer but our Rise courses are usually fairly short so it’s not the end of the world. And better than a blank screen! Adding a new training material to a completed course though would still keep the course marked as completed, right?