LINGOs’ Support Strategy for the IntraLearn LMS

Through their participation in LINGOs, member agencies can access hundreds of e-learning courses on a variety of topics of interest to their staff around the world.  The majority of these courses are SCORM compatible and can be tracked via the IntraLearn LMS sub-portals that are provided through LINGOs.  However, for most member agencies, this is the first experience they have implementing a learning management system and there are many questions regarding the design, launch and maintenance of an LMS.

It is normal for agencies to contact LINGOs with a variety of questions regarding all aspects of their IntraLearn LMS sub-portal:   “What orientation resources can they access?”  “Is there training for Administrators?” “What usage reports can LINGOs member agencies access?”  “What if I need help troubleshooting?”  ”Can my agency sub-portal be customized?”  “What if I lose my password?”

The LINGOs Support Strategy for the IntraLearn LMS provides a single location with answers to  all these questions and more.  This workspace will evolve and expand over time, but its current state reflects the existing support structure LINGOs provides to its member agencies.   Please, If there are any points that are not covered in the strategy, add a comment to this blog post and we will address the topic.

Loading Articulate Presenter Courses in the IntraLearn LMS

A previous article  discussed the interoperability of courses generated by Outstart Trainer and the IntraLearn LMS.  Now it is time to examine the same question in the context of LINGOs’ second e-Learning authoring tool – Articulate Presenter. 

Below you will find instructions to access a course that addresses the topic of “Designing Projects in the International Development, Relief and Conservation Sector.”  This course was designed using Articulate Presenter – the flagship application in the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Suite. 

As you navigate the course, be sure to view page 14 of the course – Writing Descriptive Statements.  On that page, you will see an example of the way that Articulate Engage files can be embedded in a course.  Engage provides a quick and easy alternative to developing web-based interactions  – without needing to purchase Adobe Flash.  Furthermore, unlike Adobe Flash, there is no coding to learn when developing interactions through Articulate Engage  If you would like to learn more about  Engage and/or Presenter visit the Articulate website.   

To access the Proof of Concept of an Articulate course loaded in the IntraLearn LMS follow these instructions;

go to http://lingostest.org 

username:  sample

password:  s1mple  (for clarity’s sack that password is s(the number one)mple)

 Select the course entitled “Project Management Fundamentals:  2.1 Conceptual Design”

Loading OutStart Trainer courses in the IntraLearn LMS

Increasingly, LINGOs member agencies are building custom developed courses to deploy to staff around the world.  One of the initial steps in the course design process, is to review course requirements (interactivity, navigation, aesthetics, tracking) and decide which development tool to use. 

This blog post is designed to help designers as they make this decision,  Posted below is a link to a course on Instructional Design that was built using OutStart Trainer and has been loaded in the LINGOs IntraLearn LMS Test Portal.  This course provides a proof of concept of the feature  mix that can be used in Trainer-developed courses and also demonstrates the ability to track course completion of Trainer-built courses in the IntraLearn LMS.

This Proof of Concept Course is especially useful, because it includes an array of interactive features in the course design.  These include embedded video, embedded flash, at least 6 different question formats, embedded scrollable windows, learning games, links to the web, links to Microsoft Office documents and much more. 

Furthermore, the course also demonstrates the ability of Trainer-built courses to report out test scores to users and to “smart jump” test-takers to different pages based on their success with a test. 

To access the Proof of Concept Course follow these instructions;

go to http://lingostest.org 

username:  sample

password:  s1mple

(for clarity’s sack that password is s(the number one)mple)

Testing Custom Made Courses in the LMS

During the last month, LINGOs staff have worked with a dozen agencies as they begin to develop courses using rapid e-learning development tools.   As agencies increasingly adopt these tools, there will be challenges getting courses to work seamlessly within the agency LMS.  Some of these challenges include problems with course completion tracking, questions about video compatability in courses, and problems with SCORM code passing through pop-up windows.  These challenges are to be expected, and as more and more agencies begin to develop e-learning content, LINGOs will be available to support agencies as they work through these challenges.

To facilitate this support process, the first step LINGOs follows is to collect as much data as possible regarding the details of the problem and attempt to replicate it on one of the LINGOs workstations.   For example, if the problem is related to a course that fails to load in the LMS, What is the precise name of the course?  What is the user’s computer configuration?  What exactly is happening on the screen when the course fails to load? 

To collect this information, LINGOs has developed a Course Testing Report Form to document the results of course testing (when opening this link, click cancel if you are requested for a password when opening this document.)   As your agency begins to develop custom-made e-learning content and loading them within in the LMS, LINGOs will provide support to help you through this process.  To ensure that we have the information to provide the best support possible, please use this form to communicate with LINGOs whenever there is a technical support issue where we can help.

Increasing the Quality and Consistency of User Access to LMS Content

As more agencies adopt Outstart Trainer and the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Suite to develop custom-made content for their Learning Management System (LMS), the frequency with which users encounter challenges accessing this content will increase.  This is due to the complexity of the LMS’ task- processing SCORM code, managing interactions, and tracking learner progress through a variety of operating systems, software versions, pop-up windows, browser configurations, firewalls and security settings. 

 

Despite the complexity of the challenge, however, there are some best practices that are highly recommended to increase the quality and consistency of  user access to LMS-loaded content.  These  recommendations are the following:

1. Ensure that end-user workstations meet the minimum requirements for operating the LMS – The best way to ensure that learners’ workstations are configured so as to avoid problems with pop-up blockers, tracking cookies, managing Java applets, and accessing ActiveX commands is to require users to complete a minimum requirements test.  LINGOs provides access to a “Plug-In Test” that checks user workstation configurations to ensure that they are compatible with the IntraLearn LMS and its courses.  All LMS users should check their workstation configurations by accessing the Plug-In Test at the following URL:   http://lingoscatalog.org/vhelpdesk/index.cfm .
2. Ensure that end-users understand how to install the Java plug-in and accept session cookies – While a user might have no problem accessing a course outside the LMS, once a course is embedded inside a sub-portal, the LMS needs to track the user’s progress in the course.  In order for this functionality to work correctly, users need to ensure that Java is installed on their machine and that their browsers are configured to accept cookies.  If the results of the Plug-In Test reveal that the machine does not meet these minimum standards, instructions on how to allow Cookies permissions and install Java plug-ins are found at the following link:  http://lingoscatalog.org/vhelpdesk/docs/browser_settings.pdf
3. Avoid loading custom-developed courses into pop-up windows-  Experienced LMS users might have noticed that the pre-loaded off-the-shelf courses available on LINGOs’ LMS sub-portals generally do not open in pop-up windows.  Instead, they are embedded in a frame of the LMS.  When courses are loaded in pop-up windows, the complexity of the communication between the course and the LMS increases significantly and there is a much higher likelihood of running into access problems.  Given the increased complexity resulting from loading courses in pop-up windows, it is highly recommended that all custom-made courses be loaded as embedded content in the LMS frame.

These three recommendations will not prevent agencies from having any problems with user access to their custom-made courses.  However, they should  significantly improve the consistency with which users can successfully access your content.