Adapt Learning Community: General Technical Information needed

Hello

I have just installed Adapt and confess to knowing absolutely nothing about it. It looks really interesting. I am trying to educate myself by reading the documentation but at first sight, I cannot find what I am looking for. Maybe I have the wrong mindset... For instance, I see where one can insert an MP3 file. But I wonder if there is some way to make it play the file for a fixed number of times e.g. 3 or 15 or... Or would it be possible to play it from point A to point B.

I also have not been able to find information about integrating the system with javascript or php - or sending results to a database, for instance.

Finally, I do not yet have a sense of where and how to enter SCORM information and get it sent to an LMS (I guess through spoor but...).

Information on where to look would be really great - and as I said, my apologies both for ignorance and possibley mindset. I am used to tools like Articulate or Lectora.

Thank you

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

> I do not yet have a sense of where and how to enter SCORM information

If you enable the spoor plugin and click the publish button, you'll get a SCO to upload to an LMS. There are also tracking options to tell the course how to report the score and completion to the LMS.

> For instance, I see where one can insert an MP3 file. But I wonder if there is some way to make it play the file for a fixed number of times e.g. 3 or 15 or... Or would it be possible to play it from point A to point B.

Audio and video do not auto-play in Adapt Framework, nor allow a limited number of plays as we aim to make everything as accessible for as many user's as possible. MP3's would be played using a standard Media player and a play button. If you want to play a section of an MP3 you will need to cut the MP3 using an audio editor and upload it as an asset to play. Adapt Framework and the AAT are not media editors.

> I also have not been able to find information about integrating the system with javascript or php - or sending results to a database, for instance.

What do you mean by integrate "the system" with php or javascript? Do you mean the AAT or the SCO?

The AAT is designed to publish SCOs. The SCO is a package which already integrates with an LMS through the SCORM protocol. An LMS, say moodle/totara, would be written in php, have its own database, learner account management, course <> learner enrolment, learning completion reporting etc. Adapt does not provide an LMS nor the resources to help construct one, only the mechanisms to produce e-learning to be uploaded to an LMS.

There is a live chat at https://gitter.im/adaptlearning/general_chat where other people from the community can answer your questions more directly.

Warm Regards,

Ollie.

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Hello Ollie and thank you for your very generous responses.

I will take your advice and connect to the live chats. However, maybe you can clarify just a couple more things for me.

Yes. I understand the role of the AAT. This is not unlike that of other authoring systems where SCOs are created and then uploaded to an LMS or used standalone.

My questions about databases related as to whether it was possible to use the AAT to produce SCOs that could be made to communicate with databases e.g. to record whether a certain button had been clicked (I know xAPI will enable that but it requires an entire LRS to be effective). So... is there a way that my SCO could use, say, some javascript to talk to a MyQSL database? Alternatively, can I use JS or a built-in function to set a variable inside the SCO?

As a follow-up to that is there some way that I can use the AAT to produce an SCO where a button-click would execute a piece of javascript?

Also, is there some way that I can set the value of cmi.score.raw programmatically and NOT through an AAT-created quiz?

As for repeatedly playing an audio file etc., there are specific pedagogic uses where it may not be possible to place the control entirely in student hands. I hope all of this makes sense.

Thanks ever so much

Andrew

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Hi Andrew,

> My questions about databases related as to whether it was possible to use the AAT to produce SCOs that could be made to communicate with databases e.g. to record whether a certain button had been clicked (I know xAPI will enable that but it requires an entire LRS to be effective). So... is there a way that my SCO could use, say, some javascript to talk to a MyQSL database? Alternatively, can I use JS or a built-in function to set a variable inside the SCO?

Yes, you can, as long as you are able to program / have a programmer to hand / can pay someone to do the work. Building a system like that is complicated, especially give that such a system would typically be hosted on a network, possibly on the public internet, you'll probably want user-management and you'd need good security practises in place to prevent database pollution / data leaks. All of the source code for the AAT and the SCO contents (Adapt Framework) is freely available online and to modify as you see fit.

> As a follow-up to that is there some way that I can use the AAT to produce an SCO where a button-click would execute a piece of javascript?

Yes you can. This isn't the aim of the Framework as it currently stands. The majority of the Framework's behaviour is very specifically related to behaviour of each plugin and we do not as standard practise have a place for custom JavaScript execution on user events. That being said, if you are able to program / have a programmer to hand / can pay someone to do the work, all of the source code for the AAT and the SCO contents (Adapt Framework) is freely available online and to modify as you see fit.

> Also, is there some way that I can set the value of cmi.score.raw programmatically and NOT through an AAT-created quiz?

Without trying to sound repetitive [see above] and yes, `Adapt.offlineStorage.set('score', current, min, max);`
https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt_framework/blob/master/src/core/js/offlineStorage.js#L70
https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt-contrib-spoor/blob/master/js/adapt-offlineStorage-scorm.js#L136
https://github.com/adaptlearning/adapt-contrib-spoor/blob/master/js/scorm/wrapper.js#L217-L232

> As for repeatedly playing an audio file etc., there are specific pedagogic uses where it may not be possible to place the control entirely in student hands. I hope all of this makes sense.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. As yet, no-one I know of has used the Framework for teaching languages. It would be some custom behaviour, probably a custom commissioned component or extension to make your requirements easy to replicate. You would need a good idea of your design requirements before asking someone to construct said plugins.

As a wider point, Adapt Framework and AAT are really the foundations of a product or service if you have the means and intent to produce something more custom or for a specific use-case. For a large cohort of corporate / public service / private education e-learning needs, it is used extensively as is.

I hope that helps some,

Warm Regards,

Ollie.

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Thank you very much Ollie. That helps a lot, I will examine the plugins carefully to see if any of them can be used in my line of work. I have fairly specialized technical needs. I can do some minor coding but I just don't have time for major work. I like the fact that it is a system that I can use freely in courses that I teach in language and technology - although it was a bit problematic to install on my (windows 10) laptop. I had to do a manual upgrade to get the system to work. Maybe I should try and put on my linux server - except installing MongoDB there is a big deal and not guaranteed to succeed (at least not for me).

Thanks again and cheers

Andrew

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