Functional and Nonfunctional Specifications

Description of IHRDC’s Stub Courses

Since 2004, IHRDC has offered SCORM courses that are hosted on regional world wide servers. These courses allow administrators to have the most up-to-date content on their systems without having to go through the trouble of making image, video and text re-uploads on a quarterly basis. We call these stub based courses.

The learning system uploads these stub courses as a zip file, but only uploads the portion that communicates with the learning management system (LMS) as well as required manifest files. The effective server size is of the course package is around 21kb. All course and SCORM file functionality updates happen from IHRDC’s regional servers.

SCORM courses communicate with an LMS by using javascript and a set of predefined calls that are required to take place. This communication happens in a file that is included in the course package called learningunit.htm. This file also captures the learner’s completion by an encrypted querystring of SCORM completion runtime calls and redirects that the LMS. Essentially the communication between IHRDC courses and a LMS is a combination of full duplex and half duplex.

Technical Specifications for IHRDC Courseware

1. All IHRDC courses are SCORM compliant with versions 1.2 and 2004 3^rd Edition. 
2. The IPIMS SCORM 1.2 library was certified by ADL
3. Most courses require a minimum of IE7 and work well with modern browsers of Firefox and Chrome. Additionally, courses require javascript and should be able to navigate windows, frames and iframes across domains
4. Operations and Maintenance courses contain macromedia flash and are not well suited to browsers or mobile devices that do not support such plug-ins
5. All IHRDC courses use javascript to communicate with a licensee’s learning management system. No IHRDC courses use java to communicate
6. Because IHRDC courses communicate with another server, the files can be configured to communicate via http or https. This is important if the LMS communicated with the learners browser in a secure protocol
7. All libraries except Operations and Maintenance have SCORM packages that average around 5kb. Operations and Maintenance courses are between 5-250MB in size
8. SCORM courses for IPIMS, Petroleum Online and Business Essentials use a framed approach to display courses that are served from another domain
9. IHRDC Business Essentials and Operations and Maintenance courses support bookmarking, while the IPIMS and Petroleum Online (PO) library do not offer that feature at this time.  IPIMS and PO offer a more sophisticated visual history of the learner’s progress. 

Functional and Nonfunctional Requirements for IHRDC Courseware

1. REQ1. All images, video and audio should be functional in the course, and no errors should be reported by the browser to the learner
2. REQ2. Courseware should report a pass/fail and numeric grade which should match what the learner experienced in the course. 
3. REQ3.  When answering all the documented answers correctly, the course should report a 100% 
4. REQ4. If the pretest is failed, the learner must pass the post-test to pass the course
5. REQ5. If the pretest is passed, the course should report passed the course
6. REQ6. The pretest can only be accessed once
7. REQ7. The content section of the course should bookmark the learner’s last position 
8. REQ8. When exiting part way through a pretest or post test, the course should make an attempt to close the course window
9. REQ9. When exiting the pretest or post test the learner should be able to return to the course and complete the course. Exiting the pretest would bar the learner from reentering the pretest since only one attempt is allowed. Exiting the post test prematurely would force the learner to start from the beginning of the assessment
10. REQ10. Courseware should have no executable or server side file types
11. REQ11. All courses should use SCORM conformant runtime calls

Excel Metadata/Documentation of Courseware

This document can be found from the link below. Additional information like Description, Mastery SCORE and suggested time in course are also included. 

  http://production.ihrdc.com/elearning/catalogs/CatalogExporter/CatalogExporter.asp?m=PO&m=OM&m=BEES&m=IPIMSAL&m=IPIMSBL&codes=&l=ENG&export=true

URLs for IHRDC Courses Running on a Licensee’s LMS

• www.ipims.com (IPIMS Courses Only)
• www.petroleumonline.com (PO Courses Only)
• ihrdc.mindedge.com  (BEES Courses Only)
• ihrdc.mindedgeonline.com  (BEES Courses Only)
• www.ipims.eu (IPIMS Courses on EU Server)
• www.ipims.asia (IPIMS Courses on Indonesian Server)
• eu.petroleumonline.com (PO Courses on EU Servers)
• www.petroleumonline.asia (PO Courses on Indonesian Servers)

Support Sites

http://els-support.ihrdc.com/hc/en-us

https://www.ihrdc.com/els?wtt

Email Address Domain

*@ihrdc.com 

*@ihrdcsupport.com

SCORM runtime API Calls made by IHRDC Courses by Library. 

IHRDC Course Testing Error Severity Indicators

SEVERITY1. The courseware crashes or the defect causes non-recoverable conditions. 

SEVERITY2. A major portion of the course is unusable due to failure or incorrect functionality.  These defects cause serious problems such as a lack of functionality, or insufficient or unclear error messages that can have a major impact to the learner, prevents other areas of the course from being used or tested, etc. These defects have a work around, but the work around is inconvenient or difficult

SEVERITY3. Incorrect functionality of course or process.  There is a simple work around for this defect

SEVERITY4. This defect is minor or cosmetic in nature generally documentation errors 

Recommended Testing Steps on Courses 

Please see this document. Testing_Steps.xls

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why does your learner usage report differ from the reports we generated on our LMS?
   ANSWER: There are a few reason why there can be differences between reports from IHRDC and your LMS. Some of them are listed here:
   1. Most IHRDC reports will show learners that have started a course while most major LMS vendors provide reports on assigned users and those that have completed courses. IHRDC can't tell which users are assigned a course in your on premesis LMS, we can only see when they launch courses.  IHRDC courses are specifically distributed to your organization with a 50 digit unique identifier and we use that ID to match launch request back to you. When the usage comes to IHRDC, we get the users name and learner ID. You should be able to see those users in your assignment reports or general employee lists. Some more detailed records are stored for shorter periods of time which can help your team narrow down where the usage came from. 
   2. Completions: If you notice completion differ between IHRDC reports and your LMS reports or you don't have the same scores. There are a few cases we have identified where this is more likely to happen. Its first helpful to understand the communication flow.
      1. A learner completes the course with the score of an 88. 
      2. This information is communicated to the browser along with the minimum score, maximum score, time in course and the lesson status
      3. The browser then communicated this information to another portion of the browser which is controlled by IHRDC's course player
      4. IHRDC's player communicates this information to a LMS component on the user's browser
      5. The LMS component communicates the info to your LMS, where it is put into a database
         Overall for our recommended specification browser/computer and network, we have timed this process takes on average less than 0.15 seconds or twice as fast as your can blink your eyes. But with slower network conditions, a browser or computer that is bogged down with tasks, we have seen that communication take 2-3 seconds or more. If a user closes the browser before that information has been sent, you will see this discrepancy. In nearly all cases, a user can reenter the course and the information will be resent. Most of our courses will notify the user if we detect that there was a communication error as well.
2. How do you filter out administrators ?
   ANSWER: We can do this by request. It's generally understood that administrators are the first set of folks that start courses, but we don't always know where testing ends and learners start. Giving us a specific list will help us filter out that admin testing. 
3. When you say, we will load the IHRDC courses, what exactly does that mean? Will that for example mean that you will also provide related content such as videos and all?
   ANSWER: IHRDC courses are built to a protocol called SCORM 1.2. The courses are packaged in a zip file that the LMS unpacks and assembles in the system's folders to later display to learners. IHRDC courses have a feature that packages a small amount of content on your LMS while the balance of the course content is hosted on IHRDC Content Servers so these course load faster and when they are updated, your learners get those updates when they are published. 
   
   
4. What are the IHRDC courses? And how many are they? Are they all videos, pdf, face to face or some other formats?
   ANSWER: Your organization can license all IHRDC courses. The browser (HTML) based courses include some videos, text and interactive elements. There are no face to face components related to these courses. Please see a link here. https://www.ihrdc.com/elearning/catalogs/index.asp
   
   
5. What exactly do you track and what is the end result of the courses?
   ANSWER: Specifically, they track, time in course, completion status and score. 
   
   
6. Does IHRDC have curricula or we are just going to load free floating courses?
   ANSWER: The SCORM learning standards do not allow for us to describe curricula without giving you multiple copies of courses, but we can help you organize in such a way once the courses are on your system.
   
   
7. When you say that we will load, we need to understand how this is proposed. Will it be automated, or manual etc? And in what formats?
   ANSWER: IHRDC courses are built to a protocol called SCORM 1.2. The courses are packaged in a zip file that the LMS unpacks and assembles in the system's folders to later display to learners. This process can be very automatic depending upon how user friendly your learning system is.
   
   
8. And exactly what details are we required to load?
   ANSWER: There is course metadata which would include (description, title, length of course, mastery scores etc) which we provide. Some of this may be automatically pulled in from the course package depending upon your learning system. We provide this information in a XLS file which you can also add manually to your system if it is not pulled  from the course package. 
   
   
9. How do you plan to manage periodic updates if and when available?
   ANSWER: IHRDC courses have a feature that packages a small amount of content on your LMS while the balance of the course content is hosted on IHRDC Content Servers so these course load faster and when they are updated, your learners get those updates when they are published. IHRDC also provides new courses on a regular basis. This license would have access to these new courses as well. These would be sent to your team once available. 
   
   
10. How will the usage tracking be done? Is it going to be from the IHRDC side? Or we just give the report of which employees, which courses, completed or not, with dates etc.
    ANSWER: Your LMS will give you some usage reports. IHRDC will also provide these same reports as well. The reports include names, courses taken, start and completion dates. Additional information can be provided upon request. 
    
    
11. How are the charges / subscription / commercials to be agreed and managed?
    ANSWER: IHRDC’s eLS license  provides the complete commercial arrangement for all courses launched by your users along with a standard setup charge for assisting a client with loading our courses onto a client LMS.  This setup charge assumes a dedicated LMS administrator will load and test all e-Learning courses.  Should your organization require more substantial LMS integration then additional charges may be required.  
    
    
12. Do you have any testing procedures we can see to test our courses
    ANSWER: Yes. Please find this excel document here: https://ihrdc.securevdr.com/d-sad65973ddd5436a8 and possibly this document: Testing_Steps.xls
    
    
13. When testing your courses, we need to have our team get all the assessments correct, could you provide us with answer keys
    ANSWER: Please contact us and we can provide that information to you. 
    
    
14. Is there any documentation that our support team can use to aid them supporting your courses?
    ANSWER: Please see this document to see if it helps in supporting your team: https://ihrdc.securevdr.com/d-sa38d182c29a44a6a
    
    
15. Where should we create a ticket if we experience an issue?
    ANSWER: https://www.ihrdc.com/IHRDC-e-LearningSolutions/Contact/wtt.asp?product=LMS
    
    
    
    

Frequently Asked Questions by Learners

Please see this link for other questions related to courses and browser configurations. 
http://els-support.ihrdc.com/hc/en-us/categories/200178603-e-Learning-Support-FAQ-s

Job Aides to Manage Requests by Learners

 If you have an internal support team, this document might be good to review to help them support courses from IHRDC. 

https://ihrdc.securevdr.com/share/view/785583afd8374295

SCORM References