Lectora Disable Seek Ahead on Media

Lectora Online allows the author to disable seek ahead on an audio or video object so the user cannot skip ahead in the media object and has to watch the whole media file.

With this feature, you can prevent Learners from seeking ahead using the media progress bar. They can still seek back if they need to review something.  You can also enable seek if the student has already viewed the content so they can move around in the content.

You turn on the Disable Seek Ahead on the media’s properties ribbon after selecting the media object:

To Re-enable Seek

Option 1 - Using Page Tracking ( Preferred )

The preferred option is to use the built-in Page Tracking feature. In this case, the author has to handle the setting of the page to an in-progress and completed status. Then the EnableSeek property will be set conditionally if the page is completed.

• Add an action to the page, On Show → Set Tracking Status → This Page → In Progress, and set a condition of This Page - Is Not Completed.
• Add an action to the media object, On Show → Run JavaScript → %HTMLNAME%.EnableSeek = true; and set a condition of This Page - Is Completed.
• Add an action that will set the page to completed. One such place could be on the media object, Done Playing → Set Tracking Status → This Page → Completed.

Note: VideoXYZDone is just an example variable name for video XYZ. You can name it whatever you want.

Option 2 - Using a Variable

If the Learner has played a media to completion the Learner should be allowed to seek ahead to any place the next time they visit the page. This can be done through the use of a special property EnableSeek on the media object and a variable to track the media’s Done Playing status. Use the following steps:

• Add a new variable for the media (needs one variable for each media object) : 

Variable Name: VideoXYZDone | Initial value: 0

• Add an action on the media object:

Done Playing → Modify Variable → VideoXYZDone → Set Equal To → 1

• Add another action on the media object:

On Show → Run Javascript →  %HTMLNAME%.EnableSeek = true;
Condition: VideoXYZDone → Equal To → 1