OxBox SCORM & Frog

[sjatkn]

We have a number of OxBox SCORM packages here and we would like to use them on our Frog VLE. Well I can upload them just fine, but when it comes to running them we get an error:

 

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

 

(Unable to find a value for "message" in object of class "org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBCException" using operator ".")

 

So far I have tried Science Works 1 & 2 and Clic! 1 and all of them fail.

 

OxBox in their usual helpful way said we made the SCORM package but we don't support VLE's, Frog have not yet got back to me.

 

So I was wondering if anyone has OxBox SCORM working on their Frog server?

If so did you do anything special to get it working?

[bwakefield]

Hi, sorry this isn't directly answering your question but I will be interested to see what response you get as I intend to look at importing SCORM content in the future.

 

How long have you been using Frog, we are just about to launch it to our Students, but at the moment staff uptake is slow and staff always blame it on needing more training, would be great to hear how you worked around these things.

 

Many thanks,

Ben

[sjatkn]

I have had a response from Frog and they say that other schools have been issued with updated packages which has resolved the problem. Unfortunately I was not in work today as one of my kids was sick so I could not follow this up with OUP. I will get on to them tomorrow.

 

As for discussing how to improve the uptake of the VLE I would suggest starting a new thread.

[frogdude]

OXBOX SCORM packages can be huge, over 2Gb in some cases. As you can imagine trying to open a 2Gb file over any sort over the web (even internally) is going to cause problems. This is compounded if you have a whole class trying to access the same package at once. I think oxbox can provide you with smaller versions of the packages which should cause less problems when trying to use them on your VLE.

[gavin_savage]

Having exactly the same problem with AS and A2 Science OXBOX. I got the same response from OUP, I also got out e learning person to speak to FROG. They have run some sort of test on the OXBOX file and told me it is a fault with the package. Rather unhelpfully they didn't bother to tell me what they fault was.

 

Has anyone managed to get hold of the smaller packages and tried them?

[Tallwood_6]

To be fair this isnt a frog issue i have the same issues uploading the material to the serco VLE. Serco themselves even went through and repacked a couple of titles which got it up but made it a nightmare to search through. We contacted oxbox and they said the packages where faulty and sent me some newer revisions but i had exactly the same issues and gave up in the end and many of the titles have since been returned.

[sjatkn]

Has anyone managed to get hold of the smaller packages and tried them?

 

After waiting for several 3-4 weeks for the SCORM packages to be split (the only staff member who can split them was on paternity leave) and then spending 5 days 10 hours 43 minutes downloading 15GB of split packs for various OxBox I have just uploaded a couple of them to our server. The results were disappointing.

 

There are two obvious problems, the contents will not show on my home computer because I run Frog over HTTPS and it seems that the SCORM player only works over HTTP. So although I can open a package, when I then click on some of the content I get a web page not available error. The other problem is that a number of the contents page items are duplicated. I shall try again from in work tomorrow over an HTTP connection and see what happens then.

 

It looks like I will need to take another look at Frog and how we access it from home. I really don't like the idea of domain passwords going over HTTP. I shall be calling Frog again tomorrow, I think I should have their number on speed dial given the number of bugs I have found recently.

[sjatkn]

Has anyone managed to get hold of the smaller packages and tried them?

 

As to obtaining the split packs, email their tech support with the ISBN numbers and they will do the rest. They should have Clic!, Elan, Zeitgeist, Science Works 7-9, Biology A2 & A2 and Maths Links already done as they are the ones I asked for. They then pointed me at an FTP server to download them for myself.

[sjatkn]

An update, when used via HTTP the 2 parts of Science Works Yr 7 work fine.

 

The duplicate entries in the contents page are for PDF & DOC versions of the same file. Unfortunately there is no identification of which is which until you click.

 

Now on to Frog to find out how to secure logins.

[sjatkn]

A further update. Now that I have sorted out the HTTP/HTTPS problem SCORM works from home also. All I needed to do was to allow HTTP through the firewall, Frog handles the HTTPS/HTTP switching.

[tdk]

I've had quite a lot of experience with OUP in the past, having had to install their software in a technical capacity in a variety of interesting ways. Good times.

 

Not to make any excuses for them, but the way the VLE disc has been described to me is "as an extra"; the oxbox is what they make, and you can export a large majority of the files from it. Because so many schools want to VLE the oxboxes content they provide a (frankly pretty sloppy) scorm. As scorm is a fairly fixed format they make a relatively general "whole pack" which can conk out on a large majority of VLE's, at least without a bit of twiddling your end. Seriously, there's documents and documents for increasing scorm size on things like moodle...

 

So it's a bit of a "f***ed if you do, f***ed if you don't scenario" for both them and us. You can use the SCORM but that'll probably look sloppy, and have all the drawbacks of scorm, or you can try to upload everything from the oxbox, but that'll take ages. Either way you'll miss out on the "non-vle" content anyway.

 

Anyway, I believe they're operating on an "if they ask for it give it to them" kinda mindset to cut down on their workload with the scorm. So give them a call and they'll get you a split pack, they were actually pretty fast last time I needed a split, and the FTP (bandwidth dependant) is a faster way of getting it than a 2 week cd delivery.

 

All this is a little bit of supposition and guess work from what their techy said to me and my own interactions with them, but it makes sense. You can always give them a call if you're in a rut.

[sjatkn]

Because so many schools want to VLE the oxboxes content they provide a (frankly pretty sloppy) scorm. As scorm is a fairly fixed format they make a relatively general "whole pack" which can conk out on a large majority of VLE's, at least without a bit of twiddling your end. Seriously, there's documents and documents for increasing scorm size on things like moodle...

 

I would agree with you here, but I don't understand why they don't put a bit more effort in to making the SCORM packages so that they are actually usable. I guess it is because it costs money and because they already supply them they can make the a legitimate marketing statement. Only when you have bought it and tried to use it do you find it is not quite what you expected.

 

Anyway, I believe they're operating on an "if they ask for it give it to them" kinda mindset to cut down on their workload with the scorm. So give them a call and they'll get you a split pack, they were actually pretty fast last time I needed a split, and the FTP (bandwidth dependant) is a faster way of getting it than a 2 week cd delivery.

This is my experience, I have contacted OUP on a number of occasions asking for split packs and never had any problems getting them, no asking for invoice numbers or proof of purchase, just here's the FTP password go ahead and download it.

 

Once I got the split packs I discovered that they were not perfect as they contained lessons plans and other stuff that we did not want to put on the VLE. This meant that I had to work out how to remove them, which as it turns out it's not to difficult, but given the number of files involved neither I nor my team have time to do all the files the department wanted to upload. I then had to give the science departments admin support (secretary) a crash course on editing SCORM packages. She still talks to me so I must have done a reasonable job of not scaring her.

 

In the end the head of science it very pleased with the result and will be using SCORM packages where appropriate but will also upload individual files if that makes more sense.

[A_Teacher_Of_Computing]

Would anyone be willing to write a step by step guide for getting OXBox Science VLE resources working in FROG?

 

Thanks!

[beeswax]

Had a similar problem with OxBox Maths and our Moodle VLE. Despite hosting it ourselves and being able to go directly to the server and insert the cdrom to upload the SCORM package, Moodle simply died trying to unpack it. After many emails backwards and forwards the package was split into separate units and I was able to download these from their site. They would have sent them to me on cdrom had I so desired. This did the trick, though it was time consuming going through each individual package.

 

As sjatkn said, quote the ISBN number and they'll get the individual packages sorted, though by now I should imagine they've had so many requests for this that they'll all be ready and waiting. In my case I emailed my complaint in the morning, and after some sparring was directed to an ftp site by the afternoon.

[sjatkn]

As has been said before, contact OUP for split packs. I will do my best to remember to upload a copy of my document on hand editing SCORM files on Monday. It is the document I wrote for the Science secretary, comments on it would be useful.

[sjatkn]

Removing Table of Content Entries

1. Unpack the SCORM zip file.
   
   Right click on the file SCORM_File.zip > 7-Zip > Extract Files to "SCORM_File".

   
   

2. Open the folder "SCORM_File"
   
3. Right click and edit imsmanifest.xml.
   
   You may need to use WordPad as some of these files will be generated using a Unix text file format, CR as apposed to CR+LF.

   
   

4. Locate the title of the contents section you want to remove. Make a note of the identifierref value as you will be looking for this later. Delete the section … inclusive.
   
5. Locate the value from identifierref in 4. Note the value in href=”…“, this is the path a file. We will be deleting this file next as it will make the SCORM package smaller.
   
6. Delete the section … . Where the identifier value matches the identifierref you noted earlier.
   
7. Locate the file from 5 and delete it.
   
8. Repeat from 4 if there are more entries to delete.
   
9. Repackage the files into a .zip file.
   
10. In the folder SCORM_File.
    
    Select all files.
    
    
    Right click. 7-Zip > Add to “SCORM_File.zip”
    
    

    
    

11. Upload the file SCORM_File.zip to the VLE & test.
    

Important things to note.

• imsmanifest.xml must be in the root of the .zip file. If it is in a sub-folder then the SCORM file is not valid and the upload will fail.
  
• As of 05/04/11 there seems to be a bug in Frog. Updating a SCORM package does not seem to work. The upload occurs but the update does not. The work around is to delete the SCORM file and upload again. This is likely to cause problems if the SCORM is published in any form as the URL will change. After a brief test earlier today this bug seems to have been resolved in the latest version / patch.
  

Example imsmanifest.xml

Conventions used here:

Bold – Items to note / search for.

Italics – Items to delete.

… – Snipped out text to shorten the example.

 

Here I want to remove one of the two “1.1 Lesson plan” entries.

 

…

…

…

…

PDF version of the main lesson plan for this lesson.

microscopes

magnification

LOMv1.0

yes

LOMv1.0

yes

Copyright Oxford University Press 2008.

…

…