pipwerks: home

pipwerks

Standards-friendy eLearning and Web development (HTML 5 version)

Posts tagged ‘e-learning’

Complete List of Variables for Adobe Captivate 5

While updating my CaptivateController script I noticed there have been some changes to the Captivate variables available to Captivate developers. I figured I should document them for future reference.
Note that some variables available in CP3 and CP4 are no longer available. The following list should be exhaustive for CP5; variables for previous versions of Captivate [...]

CaptivateController Updated to Support Adobe Captivate 5

By popular demand, I’ve updated my CaptivateController to work with Adobe Captivate 5 (CP5). Since this is an open-source project, there’s no upgrade fee. (What? “Adobe” and “no upgrade fee” in the same paragraph?!) I kid, I kid… I’m a kidder.

Adobe Captivate: What the heck is g_intAPIType?

If you do spend any time using Captivate to create SCORM-conformant courses, you’re bound to have run into an issue or two that caused you to read some Captivate forum posts. Almost without fail, someone will mention that the solution to their problem was changing the value of the magical g_intAPIType JavaScript variable from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.

So what the heck is g_intAPIType, and why does changing it make a difference?

SCORM Tip: Use an onunload handler

What happens if the browser window containing your course is closed by the learner before the course finishes sending data to the LMS? If you’re not careful about how you’ve coded your course, you can lose some of the data.

SCORM Tip: Don’t forget to commit!

A number of people have recently asked me about the scorm.save() function in the pipwerks SCORM wrappers. What is it, and when should it be used?

Speaking of IMS…

The IMS wants your personal information before they’ll let you read their public standards.

IMS issues press release for new e-learning interoperability standards

If the new standards are written as poorly as this press release, it’s going to be 1,000 pages of useless spec.

What feature is missing from your e-learning development tool?

I have some simple questions I’d love to get feedback on.
I’m curious about what people are looking for in their e-learning authoring tools, specifically:

What feature is your current tool missing that you would love to see implemented? Support for team collaboration? Support for themes or custom CSS styling? Support for language localization? A [...]

DevLearn 2009 Recap

(Okay, I admit it… this post is WAY overdue.)
Let me begin by saying this is not a rant, but rather an honest account of my impressions regarding this year’s DevLearn.
Nearly two months have passed, and when I think of DevLearn I think of two things: Social media gone wild, and hallway conversations.
Social Media Gone Wild
DevLearn [...]

Best Practices in E-Learning

Someone recently posted a blog entry ranting about the use of the term “best practices” in our industry. I understand the frustration with thoughtless pronouncements about best practices, especially coming from people who may not know any better; it will often sound a lot like how like mom used to say “eat this, it’s good for you” without really knowing whether it’s true. However, there is a big difference between best practices in terms of learning theory — something that’s difficult to quantify and/or prove — and technology.