Lotus LearningSpace R5.01 Deployment Guide

218 Lotus LearningSpace R5.01 Deployment Guide

Figure 15-7 Assessment usage by the courses in the Planner module

15.3.4 Tracking

Tracking student progress is one of the major advantages of e-Learning

solutions. Tracking stores data on student activities for the following areas:

򐂰 Time spent on browsing an activity

򐂰 Interactions made during an assessment, including the answer and the time

spent on giving the answer

LearningSpace works with content built to meet the two most widely used Web

learning standards: AICC HACP and ADL SCORM. It also works with the original

AICC CMI standard for LAN-based content. You do not need to know these

guidelines in depth, but you can go to http://www.aicc.org and

http://www.adlnet.org for details.

The tracking functionality is determined by several factors:

򐂰 Tracking options in the activity properties sheet

򐂰 Global setting of tracking server

Activity and Assessment properties

Use the following fields to enable tracking in the activity properties sheet:

򐂰 Tracking (options are: Standard, User sets Completion, Set As Completed

After Launch, and Set As Started After Launch)

Chapter 15. Populating with content 219

򐂰 Launch Tracking API

򐂰 Remote Tracking API URL

򐂰 Scored

򐂰 Save responses in the database

򐂰 Create new progress record for each access

See Figure 15-8 for an overview of these properties.

Figure 15-8 Tracking-related activity properties

Select Standard in the Tracking field to let LearningSpace know that it should

expect progress information from the content. The Tracking field determines

whether either of AICC or SCORM is used for tracking user interaction. If you

specify Tracking as Standard, then LearningSpace use the AICC HACP tracking

mechanism by default and LAN content is tracked using AICC file-based

tracking. If you check Launch Tracking API, then SCORM is used instead of

AICC. This property activates the SCORM-based tracking mechanism.

If your SCORM-based content is on a separate server (not on the LearningSpace

Core server nor on the Tracking server specified in Core Settings page of Home

module), you must select the Launch Tracking API option for this method to work.

220 Lotus LearningSpace R5.01 Deployment Guide

If you specify any option in the Tracking field other than Standard, then standard

tracking is disabled. In this case, LearningSpace saves user progress by the

selected method in the Tracking field.

For details on these topics, see the online help and Chapter 3, “Creating Courses

in the Planner” in the LearningSpace 5.01 Course Administrator’s Guide.

Global settings

When LearningSpace launches an activity, it sends a URL that tells the content

where to send tracking information. If you do not name a specific tracking server

on the Core Settings page in the Home module, the tracking server host defaults

to the LearningSpace server hosting the student's session. Sites with multiple

servers and a load-balancing device need to define a tracking server if the

servers in the load-balancing group can not be accessed directly from the

students' machines.

Figure 15-9 Registry setting for server specific TrackingHostName

15.3.5 Custom assessments

Unfortunately, LearningSpace 5 is not shipped with any tool for exporting its

question pool or assessment pool. It can be a good practice to develop

Important: If you select the wrong standard, the content will not track. Check

your content’s specification for determining the proper standard.

LearningSpace assessments and live session materials use the AICC HACP

tracking mechanism.

Tip: In a topology with multiple Core servers sharing one database, changing

the TrackingHostName value of the LearningSpace database registry key

allows you to define a tracking server for one server without changing the

default setting for the others (see Figure 15-9 for details).