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Errors importing learning objects



  • 2007-03-05 05:49:24

    Errors importing learning objects

    I've been trying to import LO SCORM1.2 and 2004. But I get into trouble, two things:
    1. The imported names of the learning objects is wrong. Strange suffixes like "MD1_2.xml" are added to the names...
    2. Images within pages are broken even though they exist within the scorm package.

    We have been using our own ATutor installation, but since we didn't get it to work we tried Your demosite. And what, You got the same problems!

    It's nothing wrong with the packages as we think, they work fine in both Moodle 1.6 and Fronter 6.x. In some earlier versions, (don't remember the exact version, but it was about one year ago) it wasn't any problems regarding images within SCORM packages...

    So, any suggestions??

    Best regards Henrik


  • 2007-03-05 08:21:38

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Where are the packages being authored?

    Is it a content package or is it a SCO?

    Are you using import content, or are you using import package to import the SCORM content

    ATutor does not support 2004.

    Attach one of the problem packages here.

    ATutor is SCORM 1.2/ IMS CP 1.3 compliant, so if the packages a not importing, it is almost certianly a problem with the package itself. We have seen many packages authored by other systems that claim to be compliant, but are not. Content may import into other systems that do not require packages to be compliant. Most other systems just copy the SCORM content as static files. ATutor integrates SCORM content into its own content, rather than just display static pages in a frame.


  • 2007-03-05 10:48:48

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Its scorm1.2 package.. See attached image... As you can see there's a broken image and also if you look to the right in the navigation cell, there's strange chars ("MS.xml" in the pages names) that shouldn't be there. In Moodle and Fronter this very same package works fine. In an earlier version of ATutor the image worked fine also, but not now and the strange chars in the pages' names has never worked really.

    If you like I can send you the package ofcourse.


  • 2007-03-05 12:30:32

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    We need to see the actual package.


  • 2007-03-06 01:35:39

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Ok, here it is...


  • 2007-03-06 01:40:46

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    It looks like this in Moodle...


  • 2007-03-06 08:51:46

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    As far as I can tell the package is fine. I had no trouble importing it into 1.5.3.1, and the coming 1.5.4. It does not show images because the paths to the images are incorrect. they point to the image in the root directly of the package, when the images actually exists in a sub directory within the package.

    The export from SharePoint creates sub directory names such as "{3976800D-71D2-40FE-A14C-81F5F9E21FBB}". The MD1_2.xml files are part of the package, not something ATutor creates. You could go into the ATutor content edit and makes a few adjustment to the to correct the paths to images.

    The strange characters are probably the result of exporting the package in the utf-8 character set, then importing it into a system that is displayed in some other character set. You might try installing a utf-8 version of your language pack. If it does not exist, use the utf-8 conversion utility on the atutor.ca translation site.

    http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/translate/iconv_packs/language_iconv.php

    This is the reality of interoperable content. Depending on how the developer has interpreted the package specifications, you will get packages of different degrees of compliance from different products. There are many so called compliant tools, that are in fact not compliant. We generally recommend using the Reload SCORM editor. It does produce compliant packages.

    Once you have made your adjustments to the image paths, you can then export a fully compliant package from ATutor which should work in all other compliant systems. Or you can import your package into Reload, fix it there then export it.


  • 2007-03-06 09:09:11

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Strange, when I check the package I see that the html file and the image are in the same folder, ("{3976800D-71D2-40FE-A14C-81F5F9E21FBB}"), not in the different folders. See attached dump of the structure..

    And in the corresponding html code (from the file "vyer.htm") the image tag is:
    <img src="clip_image001.gif" alt="Vyflt" height="132" width="155">
    that confirms that html document and the image file are in the same folder... So the image should show as it does if you unzip the package and browse it using Firefox or similar...
    Both Moodle and Fronter shows it. They also have correct names for the pages..

    Any ideas?


  • 2007-03-06 10:01:40

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Try a different editor. Or, author your content in ATutor.

    As I mentioned, Moodle only imports packages as static content, and does not require the package to be valid. Which is why you can't modify content in Moodle after it has been imported. I don''t know about Frontier.


  • 2007-03-07 03:08:22

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Ok, this content is exported from a Swedish learning object repository called The Course Hub. The package is not created using Reload or similar, it's exported from the repository as a scorm 1.2 compliant learning object package.

    If you're right you/we have found a major flaw in this repository! It's been running for 4-5 years. You find it at http://kursnavet.cfl.se, login: testuser pw: cfl but you see the guest/demo login at the starting page. It's free to use as you wish, the only limitation is that you are not allowed to get payed for material from it. So it's free to use and contribute to... It's not a copyrighted dead end as most of the repositories are, or at least were...

    But before we take actions regarding a potantial flaw in the exporting function complying to scorm, I need to understand this a bit better.

    I'm not that into scorm/ims things as You seem to be. Probably I misunderstood your answer earlier as I thought that the image should be handled as usual in the html file, or? As I understood this, I create and do whatever I do with the html, flash, images files and so on using webstandard (preferable). These files are not connected to any xml files from the scorm. Then when I create learning objects using those files, several files is created mostly or only xml datafiles for metadata, structure and so on. But they are not mixed with the files that creates the objects. Metadatafiles are separate from the content I think I'm trying to say here...

    So, for making it easier for me to understand what you're saying:
    Which file is wrong? (or files)
    What in it is wrong? ("why" would be great to have an answer to also)
    How to correct it?

    I'm using Dreamweaver for html stuff and the repository for making learning objects and exporting them as scorm compliant packages. But I also got Reload installed.

    Fronter is a Norwegian lms that is used a lot in Scandinavia.

    A bit off topic, but it's all about ATutor so...
    I really like the possibility to edit the imported learning objects in ATutor. It makes the whole idea using learning objects so great, take what you need and change it so it fits your needs. Any other lms I've seen are way behind ATutor in this.


  • 2007-03-07 08:42:36

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    We are a little backed up at the meoment preparing for the 1.5.4. release, so it will be a few weeks before we can look into this.

    One thing I did notice is that he subdirectories in the package are missing after they are unzipped into ATutor. I'm guessing its because of the directory names, which contain the "{}" characters. I'm not sure that this is the problem, but I will mark this for investigation when we are freed up.

    In the meantime, try your packages with Reload, and potentially with the SCORM complaince test suite from ADL.net, to see if these packages are valid.


  • 2007-03-07 09:06:25

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    Ok, thanks for the link to the compliance test, I'll try it.

    Best regards Henrik


  • 2007-03-07 11:32:18

    Re: Errors importing learning objects

    This issue has been added to the bug tracker:
    http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/mantis/view.php?id=2963

    ATutor can't currently support packages where each resource is in its own directory.

    the problem is that each resource has its own base path. instead of copying all the content into the same directory, each page must have its own base path recreated in the content directory, with the `content_path` field set to package_path + base_path. meaning each resource in the content package will have a different "Content Package" path (viewed when editing the page).

    base_path must only be recreated if the pages don't share it. most times it would be called something like "resources", which is removed as the greatest common path. will have to keep track of all the base paths used in the package, then figure out if a greatest common path can be generated or if each page should preserve its own base path.