Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Publishing Lectora and Lectora Online titles to CourseMill

Set up a Lectora or Lectora Online title so it publishes to CourseMill with correct status and scoring.

You can publish AICC and SCORM titles directly from Lectora and Lectora Online to CourseMill. This article describes how to set up your title, configure scoring for the test, create an Exit button, and configure Lectora for CourseMill. The steps are the same for Lectora and Lectora Online, aside from some noted minor details.

For a seamless end-to-end knowledge platform solution, you can consolidate CourseMill with ELB Learning's other eLearning solutions, Lectora and Lectora Online. Lectora and Lectora Online provide the tools needed to develop, share, and publish course content: create, import, manage, search for, and reuse the assets that make up your catalog of training, and modify and republish as needed to adapt to multiple audiences. Once complete, content can be transferred directly to the CourseMill server for delivery. Together, these technologies provide a centralized management solution that saves development time and increases productivity when assembling, maintaining, and delivering learning content.

Before you begin

  • These steps apply to Lectora (Lectora Inspire and Lectora Publisher) and Lectora Online. For details about completing individual tasks, refer to the Lectora and Lectora Online Help.

Publish from Lectora to CourseMill

1. Design your title

For your title to comply with AICC and SCORM standards, enable AICC and SCORM for LMS under Title Type in Title Options. (In Lectora Online, the option is labeled AICC and SCORM for LMS Published Title.)

2. Set the AICC/SCORM-required lesson status

To be AICC/SCORM compliant and send the proper data to CourseMill, you need either a test that passes a completion status at the end, or you need to set the lesson status elsewhere, generally using an action on the last page of your course (or the page on which you want to tell the LMS that the course status has changed).

Important: Once you set the lesson status, no new information is saved to the LMS. Choose the proper location in your course to set the lesson status. It must come after any test or survey that will report to CourseMill. In CourseMill, the managed property RetainHighestScore can override this issue: setting it to No allows CourseMill to retain all scores passed from the course, but still no interactions after the lesson status.

It is recommended that you guarantee that the user will see the page on which you set the lesson status:

  • You could place the setting of the lesson status on the pass or fail page of a test.
  • If you have a survey positioned after the test and you want that survey to report information to CourseMill, let your users know that the survey is a requirement. Place the setting of the lesson status on the page the users land on after they complete the survey.
  • If you do not have a test or survey, place it on the "Thank you for taking this course" page.

Set the action on the page as follows, leaving everything else at defaults:

  • On: Show
  • Action: Modify Variable
  • Target: AICC_Lesson_Status
  • Value: completed (without the quotes; use lower-case letters)

Note: The Mastery Score automatically sets the completion status if the student scores above it. For example, if the user has one test with the passing score set at 80% and the mastery score set at 80%, the completion status is set automatically as long as the student scores 80% or above, without the need to modify the AICC_Lesson_Status variable.

If the user has two or more tests and each test has Include Test Score in Overall Score selected, the course averages these grades. For example, if the user scores 90% on one test and 70% on the other, the average of 80% also sets the course to completed, assuming the mastery score is set to 80%. If the Include Test Score in Overall Score check box is not selected, that test score is not averaged into the overall grade.

3. Set up scoring the test

  1. With the test selected in Title Explorer, click the Results tab. Make sure Grade The Test and Include test score in overall score are enabled, and Lowest passing score is properly configured.
  2. Create a Submit/Done button (only if the test is not randomized):
    • Make sure the Submit/Done button has only Submit/Process Test/Survey on it and nothing else.
    • Make sure this button is visible only on the last page of the test.
    • Make sure the last page of the test does not have a Next button.

Note: When the Process Test/Survey action fires, the test is graded at that moment and the score, along with the interaction data (if checked when publishing), is sent to CourseMill. Navigation (as set in the Test Behavior ribbon) then occurs based on whether the user passed or failed the test.

4. Create an Exit button

You need an Exit button in your title to make it AICC- or SCORM-compliant. Choose one of the following options.

Using a custom button

  1. On the Insert tab, open the list under Button and select Image Button.
  2. In the Add Image Button pop-up window, select the image for the Normal state of the button. The other two states are optional for the button to work.
  3. Move the button to the desired location.

Using a stock button (if you do not have an Exit button)

  1. From the Insert tab, select the list from the Button icon.
  2. Select Stock Button.
  3. Choose your color and Exit button.
  4. Move the Exit button to the desired location.

You can also create the button as a simple text button: select the list under Button and select Text Button.

Note: If you prefer to use an image for your button, you can place the image and then cover it with a transparent button (Insert > Button > Transparent).

5. Adjust assignable unit properties

On the Information tab for the assignable unit, make sure the Mastery Score matches the Lowest Passing Score (in Test Properties > Results tab) if you have only one test. If you have multiple tests, change the mastery score to the value you want your averaged score to be. See step 2 for more information.

6. Configure Lectora and Lectora Online for CourseMill

  1. In Lectora, select Lectora Preferences from the File menu. (In Lectora Online, select Preferences from the File menu.) The Preferences dialog box opens. Click the CourseMill tab.
  2. In the CourseMill Host field, specify the Web address of the CourseMill server. Default: www.coursemill.com.
  3. In the Path to CourseMill on Host field, specify the location on the CourseMill server where the CourseMill system resides. Default: /cm. If CourseMill was installed with the default settings, enter /cm or /coursemill.
  4. Click OK to save your changes.

Examples of CourseMill site URLs and how the two fields should be set:

  • URL http://299.278.44.110/cm/home.html# – Host field: 299.278.44.110; Path to CM: /cm
  • URL https://compliancetrng.elblearning.com/cm/home.html# – Host field: Compliancetrng.elblearning.com; Path to CM: /cm

7. Assign an instructor or administrator

To publish directly to CourseMill, complete the three CourseMill Information fields on the CourseMill Options tab of the Publish CourseMill Location dialog. (This dialog opens after you click Publish during publishing to CourseMill.)

The Course ID, Instructor ID, and Password must match your CourseMill settings. See Viewing the course list and Editing course details to add or edit a course with the proper instructor. If Lectora does not find a matching course in CourseMill, you get an error. You can also use an administrator's ID and password.

8. Set up test/survey interactions

Enable the appropriate check boxes in the LMS Information section on the AICC Options tab (or the SCORM Options tab when publishing to SCORM). This dialog opens after you click Publish.

  • The published course will report Test/Survey Question interaction to the LMS – Enable this to record interaction data for the questions in the graded test being submitted. An example of an answer might be A. CourseMill is the best LMS in the industry. This is optional and is not supported by all learning management systems. If your LMS supports interaction data, at the end of the test Lectora (or Lectora Online) sends all the interaction data for each individual question (for example, question ID, question type, user's answer, correct answer, time, latency, and so on).
  • Append timestamp to interaction to create unique ID – Enable this to ensure the interaction ID is unique.

Interaction data includes the following for each graded question:

  • User's answer
  • Whether the user's answer is correct
  • Time the question was answered
  • Amount of time the user spent on the page containing the answer

Note: If the Course Description box is completed (other than Course Description Goes here), it overrides the course description in CourseMill when uploaded using either method.

Related articles