A SCORM course that looks perfect in your authoring tool’s preview can still misbehave once it’s on an LMS: completion doesn’t record, learners land back on slide one, or video won’t play on a phone. You don’t want to find that out from hundreds of learners. This checklist walks through what to test, in order, before you roll a package out.
Step 1: Check your export settings
Many tracking problems start here, so review the publish settings before you look anywhere else.
- Format: SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004, and for 2004, which edition. Pick one your LMS supports. If you’re undecided, see SCORM 1.2 vs SCORM 2004.
- Completion trigger: what makes the course complete, such as viewing a number of slides, passing a quiz or reaching a particular point.
- Result reporting: for SCORM 1.2, tools typically ask whether to report passed/incomplete, completed/incomplete, passed/failed or completed/failed. Choose what your reports need to show.
- Quiz tracking: the passing score, and which quiz reports to the LMS if the course has more than one.
- Resume behaviour: whether learners always resume, are asked, or start again.
- Not xAPI or cmi5: if your LMS expects SCORM, make sure that’s what you exported.
Write down the settings you used. When you republish later, you want the same result.
Step 2: Check the file size and zip structure
- Manifest at the root. Open the zip:
imsmanifest.xmlshould sit at the top level, not inside a folder. Zipping a folder instead of its contents is a common mistake. - Don’t re-zip by hand. Upload the zip exactly as your tool published it. If you must edit files, keep file names consistent, as web servers often treat
Image.pngandimage.pngas different files. - Size limits. Check the file against your LMS’s upload limit. Video is often what makes packages large, so lower the tool’s media quality settings or split a long course into shorter modules.
Step 3: Preview it as a learner
Upload the package to the LMS you’ll really use. An authoring tool’s own preview isn’t talking to an LMS, so it can’t show you tracking problems.
Open the preview and click through the whole course. Check:
- It launches, and the layout and fonts look right
- Audio, video and animations play
- Interactions, drag-and-drops and quizzes respond
- Links and attachments open
- Full screen and any pop-up windows work
In some LMSs, previews don’t record anything, so a good preview only proves the content displays. Tracking needs a real learner attempt.
Step 4: Check completion, score and resume
Take the course as a test learner, ideally with a separate learner account, and check the LMS reports after each run, not just what the course shows on screen.
| Scenario | What to do | What to check in the LMS |
|---|---|---|
| Complete and pass | Finish every slide and pass the quiz | Completed and passed, with the right score |
| Fail | Finish but fail the quiz | Failed or not passed, and whether a retry is offered |
| Leave part-way | Close the window halfway through, then reopen | Resumes at the right place, with earlier answers remembered |
| Exit button | Use the course’s own exit or close button | Progress is saved |
| Time | Note roughly how long you spent | Recorded time looks sensible |
Start each full run with a fresh attempt. Old attempts keep their old data, which can hide whether a fix worked.
Step 5: Check browsers and devices
Test on what your learners actually use, not just your own machine.
- Browsers: the ones your organisation uses, such as Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox.
- Phones and tablets: if learners will use them, check the layout, touch interactions such as drag-and-drop, rotating the screen and video playback.
- Audio: browsers often block sound until the learner taps or clicks, so check narration starts when it should.
- Your network: try a work device on the work network, where firewalls or locked-down browsers can block media or pop-ups.
- Accessibility basics: keyboard navigation, captions and readable contrast.
Step 6: Run a pilot group
Before you enrol everyone, give the course to a small group from different teams, locations and devices. Ask them to report problems with the device, browser, what they did and a screenshot. Afterwards, check the reports: did every finished learner record as complete, and is anyone stuck “in progress” who says they finished? Fix, republish, and retest before the wider rollout.
When tracking doesn’t work
Work through the likely causes one at a time:
- Completion never records: check the completion trigger and the result-reporting setting, and confirm the learner actually reached the point that sets completion.
- Resume starts from the beginning: check the resume setting. For a long SCORM 1.2 course, it may be running out of room for progress data; try publishing in SCORM 2004.
- No score: make sure the quiz is set to report to the LMS.
- Upload rejected: check the manifest is at the root of the zip, the file is within the size limit, and the package is SCORM rather than xAPI.
- Works in one browser only: look at pop-up blockers, locked-down settings and media formats.
Republish from the source project rather than patching the zip, then test again with a fresh attempt. If you’re still stuck and contact your authoring tool’s support, include your publish settings and the LMS you’re using.
Testing your own packages with an Acadenix evaluation
If you’re considering Acadenix, an evaluation is the easiest way to check your own packages. You request it from the Bronze plan on the pricing page, and our team reviews each request. It runs for 14 days with up to 25 learners, and each unit and test opens for two minutes at a time.
- Upload. In the units library, choose Create Course Unit, pick SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 as the unit type and upload the zip (up to 100 MB). Packages are processed in the background, so refresh until the type shows ready.
- Preview. Choose Preview from the unit’s menu to see it exactly as learners will. Nothing you do there is recorded.
- Take it as a learner. Units are reusable, so add the unit to a test course, keep the course to your own organisation, publish it and enrol a test learner.
- Check the reports. Under Reports, open the SCORM and course reports to see what was recorded for your test learner.
Two minutes won’t get through a long course, so publish a short copy with the same export settings to test completion from start to finish. A few details also help when testing:
- Time in course only counts while the content is on screen.
- Opening the course in a second tab takes over from the first, so use one tab.
- Completions are final, so use a new test learner for each full run.
When the evaluation ends, your setup is kept for when you buy. See how the SCORM LMS handles tracking, versions and private delivery.
Key takeaways
- Check export settings and zip structure first. They’re behind many tracking surprises.
- A preview only proves content displays; take the course as a real learner to test tracking.
- Test complete, fail, resume and exit, and check the LMS report each time.
- Test on your learners’ browsers, devices and network, then run a pilot.
Ready to try your own packages? Request an evaluation and see how they launch and track in Acadenix before you commit.
