At Rustici, we take the sales approach that if we have the right technical solution for you, you will license our software when it makes the most sense for you. For many organizations, that moment comes when they need to share their content with another system, and they discover that handing over their full course packages causes massive administrative headaches and loss of control over their intellectual property.
In our latest webinar, Andy and I explored four different Rustici tools that help you establish a single source of truth on your own terms, while sharing lightweight proxy files in place of the full course packages. We were thrilled that our live audience asked so many excellent questions, but unfortunately, we ran out of time and weren’t able to get to all of them on air. As promised, we are answering them now to help you navigate the nuances of content dispatching, tracking and cross-domain training delivery.
The full webinar recording of Beyond the ZIP file: A smarter way to share eLearning is available to watch, and here’s a breakdown of the questions we received during the session, along with our answers.
Content compatibility and authoring tools
Q: We have a program made up of multiple SCORM files and HTML apps bound together into a seamless experience. Is there a way to deliberate that inside a package so that a remote user on a client’s LMS is actually operating the program on our platform from their own LMS?
A: If I’m understanding correctly, this sounds like the kind of thing that Rustici Cross Domain (RxD) can help with. RxD is a developer’s tool designed to help distribute server-side content that can’t easily be wrapped in an eLearning package. The content remains on remote servers, and is distributed using tiny proxy packages that can be deployed out into standards-based LMSs. When an RxD package is launched, the learner will have content streamed from your servers, rather than from within the .zip file itself. This is a fully-headless, self-hosted solution that must be integrated with your content and platform.
Q: We use D2L Brightspace and their native course authoring tools. Anything we would need to do to prep the content files for this?
A: This will likely depend on how D2L can publish courses. If it can be published in a learning standard like SCORM, then you’re in great shape. You can upload the published SCORM packages to Content Controller or SCORM Cloud and share them wherever you need to. The same is true if D2L can give you PDFs / MP4s (though these may not be ideal formats for your courses, as they’re not interactive). On the other hand, if D2L doesn’t export content, or does so only in their own proprietary format, there may not be much you can do.
Q: Who can we speak to to learn more about the multi-language solution, or do we need to already have created the program as standalone languages first?
A: You can reach out directly to our team to walk through how our multi-language features work. As for your files, you do need to have the localized content packages created first. Once you have your standalone language files (like French, Spanish and English), you upload them to Content Controller, where you can map them together into an Equivalent (a single package that contains all language versions). The tool then automatically serves the correct language to the learner based on their browser settings or an on-screen language picker.
Tracking and analytics
Q: Will clients still be able to track status/score/completion data through the proxy file in the same way as a full SCORM on the LMS would report?
A: Yes! We will share all collected course data with the 3rd-party LMS, except when sharing via LTI, which can only pass back a final grade/score.
Q: Is the Dispatcher the key tool that allows you to maintain control of the file, share it with 3rd parties, but still receive those learning analytics while the 3rd party also does and has grade passback?
A: Our dispatching products, primarily SCORM Cloud Dispatch and Content Controller, are the key tools that allow you to maintain control of your course files while sharing them with 3rd-party (and even multiple internal) LMSs. Our dispatching solution is your system of record for your content. This means we collect all your course data and provide reports for you and your team. We also automatically share this data with the 3rd-party LMSs.
Q: Are the Content Controller dashboards for reporting configurable in any way?
A: Content Controller includes robust built-in dashboards that provide high-level insights into account usage, course popularity and learner completions. While the visual widgets within the default user interface are not customizable, Content Controller features a full reporting API. Most users who need bespoke reporting configurations pull this data programmatically to feed their own internal business intelligence tools.
Security and firewalls
Q: How have you anticipated firewall issues at all? I.e. the proxy package will hit IT security measures when redirecting learners out of the organization’s network.
A: We don’t typically run into firewall issues because Dispatch involves no server-side communication. We do, however, occasionally run into a situation where our application’s domain cannot be accessed from the 3rd-party LMS. In this case, we need to add our application’s domain name to an authorized list. If you’re on a network that is “deny all,” then whitelisting would definitely come into play and then everything should work fine. There are also self-hosting options to keep everything in-network.
Q: Is Rustici Cross Domain the only solution that we would self-host?
A: RxD is the only solution out of the four that must be self-hosted. Dispatch and Content Controller can both be privately hosted by Rustici or self-hosted if necessary. SCORM Cloud is a SaaS cloud platform that can’t be self-hosted.
Pricing and platform differences
Q: Cost is key. What is the pricing structure for Content Controller? It seems like an essential cost if I want to aggregate my content. How does Content Controller pricing differ from SCORM Cloud or is it the same tiering?
A: Content Controller has an annual license fee that scales with the total number of unique end users (learners) who launch one or more courses during the license year. Do you have a specific learner population in mind? If so, talk to us! We’re happy to share what pricing would look like for a license that fits your population.
Q: Can Rustici Dispatch also facilitate RxD being available via LTI, like Content Controller can?
A: Unlike Content Controller, Rustici Dispatch does not have RxD built into it. However, Rustici Dispatch does support LTI, which is helpful if you have standards-based files (or media files, like MP4s and PDFs) that you’d like to share with an LTI-conformant LMS. The biggest difference between Rustici Dispatch and RxD is that Rustici Dispatch primarily shares standards-based eLearning content with 3rd-party LMSs, whereas RxD helps share non-standards-based content with 3rd-party LMSs.
Q: How is Rustici Cross Domain different from SSO?
A: We’ve talked with many people who have tried single sign-on (SSO) as a means to streamline content delivery to their customers, often with frustrating results. This could be a reasonable approach in a world where RxD doesn’t exist, but unfortunately the stories we hear again and again are of setup struggles, blocked access, and increased support tickets. RxD provides a simpler way to solve this challenge using the language that the LMSs already speak – which has a nifty side effect of neatly removing much of the support burden from the content distributor’s shoulders.
Versioning and integrations
Q: For SCORM Cloud, would uploading a source file that has a different SCORM format, i.e. SCORM 2004 rather than 1.2, impact functionality or compatibility of the dispatch?
A: With all of these dispatching solutions, the learning standard of the actual course is entirely decoupled from the standard of the dispatch file. You are free to publish in whatever standard works best for the content, regardless of what standard is required by the launching LMS. SCORM Cloud can dispatch in SCORM 1.2, while Content Controller can dispatch in SCORM 1.2 / 2004, cmi5, AICC, and LTI. On the reporting side, we will always capture whatever the course was designed to report. We will push as much data down to the launching LMS as possible, limited only by the learning standard used to dispatch the course.
Q: How does versioning work from the viewpoint of the end learner?
A: The end learner’s experience won’t change unless you need it to. If you have updated a course and published the new version, that’s what learners will see when they click Play on the dispatched proxy file. If you’re using SCORM Cloud or Content Controller, you’ll have some controls in the administrative UI that will allow you to decide whether to let in-flight learners continue on the old version or push everybody over to the new version immediately. But from the learners’ perspectives, they’re still just clicking Play on the course in their LMS.
Q: Is there the ability to create a “content sync integration” per client to some of the bigger LMS players? For example, if a customer uses Workday and wants to have the latest content we offer from dispatch it can automatically push the new content to their system via a connector. That way they never have to manage SCORM files and the newest courses can automatically show up in their system.
A: It’s possible, but very LMS-dependent. You would need to build your own bridging connector between the Content Controller API and the LMS API. If you would like to discuss this more with our technical team, feel free to reach out.
Q: If an enterprise client uses an LMS mobile app that allows for ‘offline viewing,’ will a SCORM Cloud Dispatch proxy file work offline, or does the proxy file require a constant, active internet connection to ping the Rustici servers?
A: A dispatched proxy file requires a constant, active internet connection. Because the proxy package in the client’s LMS is essentially a lightweight “pointer” that streams content from our servers in real time, it cannot function without internet access. If offline viewing is a strict requirement for your clients, they will need the full, traditional SCORM .zip file imported directly into their local LMS environment.
Thanks again to everyone who joined us and brought so many great questions! We hope these answers are helpful. Let us know if you have any follow-up questions or if you’d like to find some time to take a closer look at any of the solutions we mentioned during the webinar.
