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This guide covers linking to or uploading your SoftChalk lessons into the Moodle 2.x / 3.x learning management system.
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For your instructors, you may want to post the URLs for our guides (see below). As we update the guides, the URLs will remain the same.
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Description and URL
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Search our FAQs
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SKB/pages/196182576/SoftChalk+FAQs
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This guide has step by step instructions for linking to or uploading your SoftChalk lessons into Moodle. Please note that scores from SoftChalk lessons can go into your Moodle gradebook.
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129536436/lms_moodle.pdf?api=v2
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This Student Guide includes a Troubleshooting section.
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/200114368/studentguide.pdf?api=v2
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SofChalk Create is SoftChalk's content authoring program. It is available in both a web launch version (as part of a SoftChalk Cloud Account - see the section SoftChalk Cloud) and in a desktop version.
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129532299/createguide.pdf?api=v2
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SoftChalk Cloud is an award-winning, multi-function platform that combines a learning object repository, content authoring and hosting and management features. https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129404604/cloudguide.pdf?api=v2
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A SoftChalk Cloud account is available as a yearly subscription. You can purchase a SoftChalk Cloud account on our Buy Now page. Fill out the information and submit your credit card information.
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The web link for this guide is below. As we update this guide, the URL will remain the same. (You may want to bookmark this guide link in your web browser.)
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129536436/lms_moodle.pdf?api=v2
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- Scored lessons, see the section Scored Lessons (Cloud Users). (While your preferred method would probably be to collect student scores in the Moodle gradebook, you can also collect emails from students and have students print certificates. See the section Print or Email Scores.)
- Non scored lessons, see the section Non Scored Lessons (Cloud Users).
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When you view your SoftChalk lesson scores within the Moodle gradebook, you are using a SoftChalk feature called the ScoreCenter. In other words, you click on the name for your lesson in the assignments area of Moodle and you see the SoftChalk ScoreCenter interface but all the scores are also "plugged into" the Moodle gradebook. In Moodle, students will also see their grades from SoftChalk lessons as well.
IMPORTANT: To use the ScoreCenter feature, your Moodle administrator needs to configure your system to use this feature. See the section Moodle Administrator.
With the ScoreCenter feature, you can:
- Determine which score is the grade for the student (i.e. first, highest, last or average score). (Attempts for all scores are viewable.)
- Determine how many times a student can go into a lesson (unlimited times or a specific number of times).
- Get detailed scoring information for individual students (i.e. what a student did on an activity and or quiz items).
- Change scores.
- Update your lesson in one place (SoftChalk Cloud) and link to it in multiple sections or courses.
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At the top of the ScoreCenter, you will see a 'Class average' summary of all learners attempts on the lesson. This summary will include:
- the total number of Learners
- a visual representation of scores obtained
- the overall lesson high and low scores obtained
- total score possible
- Scoring Method and Max Attempts setting for the lesson
The next section will display the total number of attempts that have been made on the lesson. This section will also list Average Score and Class Percentage for the overall lesson and for each scored Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group in the lesson.
At the top, click to identify which Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group was scored in the column. The tooltip will also display the 'Question' and 'Possible Answers' for Quiz Poppers and Quiz Group questions. Each interactive will display if the 'Allow Retry' option was enabled, offering Learners another chance at the interactive to improve the score.
Learners that have accessed the lesson will display listed at the bottom of ScoreCenter. Quickly see the number of attempts the Learner made, attempt score, and details of their attempt.
An asterisk next to score helps to easily identify scores made on a previous version of the lesson.
| The Learner made the correct answer choice and obtained full credit for the Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group. |
| The Learner made the incorrect answer choice and did not obtain any score for the Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group. |
| The Learner obtained a partial score for the Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group by making correct and incorrect answer selections. |
| The Learner did not make or 'Complete' an attempt on the Activity, Quiz Popper, or Quiz Group. |
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- Save your lesson into your SoftChalk Cloud account (see the section Save a Lesson to the Cloud in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide).
- Copy the LTI Link for this lesson (see the section Copy the LTI Link for Your Lesson in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide). IMPORTANT: Be sure to copy the LTI Link and NOT the Hyperlink for the lesson.
- Paste this LTI Link into the Lessons area in Moodle (see the section Paste the LTI Link into Moodle).
- Set the Scoring Method and Maximum Attempts for each lesson (see the section Set the Scoring Method and Maximum Attempts).
- View or change your students' scores (see the section View or Change Scores).
- If you plan to collect and/or score essays, see the section Essays.
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- After copying the LTI Link for your lesson (see the section Copy the LTI Link for Your Lesson in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.), log into your Moodle account and choose your course (see below).
- If necessary, at the top right, click Turn editing on (see below).
- Click Add an activity or resource
- Select External Tool on the left in the pop up window and click Add
- Type in an Activity name (such as a name for your lesson). For your Preconfigured tool, select SoftChalk Cloud.
Then Select Content.
- Expand the lesson folders of your SoftChalk Cloud account and select your lesson.
- Then choose Select for LTI Link.
- The lesson LTI link is then inserted into the Tool URL field.
- Under Privacy, update the Maximum grade value to match the points available in the SoftChalk lesson.
- Scroll to the bottom of your page and click Save and return to course.
- IMPORTANT: If you get an error u'\xa0' when you click on your LTI link, see below.
If you are entering an Activity description for your LTI link (in Moodle, click the Show Advanced button to show the Activity description field), you may encounter an error -u'\xa0' - if you have extra space(s) at the beginning of your description (see below).
- Be sure to see the next section Set the Scoring Method and Maximum Attempts.
If you do not see the SoftChalk Link Selector tool, your Moodle administrator may not have enabled this feature. However, the administrator may have enabled the LTI/ScoreCenter feature within your LMS. Please see the below FAQ if you are unable to use the Link Selector tool.
My institution does not have the Link Selector tool enabled. How can I add my scored SoftChalk Cloud lesson to Moodle?
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You will need to set the scoring method (i.e. first attempt, last attempt, average attempt or highest attempt) and the maximum attempts allowed (unlimited or a specific number of attempts).
All the student attempts will be collected, and you can view all the attempts for each student for each lesson. You can change the scoring method and maximum attempts at any point. If you want to allow your students only one attempt for the lesson, you need to set that option right away.
- Log into your Moodle account and choose your course (see below).
- Click on the name of your lesson (see below).
- The SoftChalk ScoreCenter screen appears. Use the Actions drop-down menu to select Change Scoring Method.
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- Select a scoring method from the drop-down menu and be sure to click Save changes (see below).
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- Log into your Moodle account and choose your course.
- Click on the lesson name (see below).
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A quick check of the Status icons helps to identify learner attempts that successfully completed the attempt by clicking on the Finish button on the last page.
- Completed attempts have the
Status icon. The learner successfully completed the lesson by clicking on the Finish button. - An incomplete attempt displays an
icon. This indicates the learner began an attempt, but did not 'Complete' the attempt by clicking the Finish button on the last page.
IMPORTANT: Instructors can manually 'Complete' individual and/or all incomplete attempts using the Actions menu. See the section Complete All Attempts for All Students for a Lesson below.
- Click on an attempt to see additional attempt data (see below).
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- Activity, QuizPopper, and Quiz Groups in the lesson will be listed at the bottom. The
icons let instructors quickly know if the learner received full, partial, or no points for their attempt at each Activity, QuizPopper, and Quiz Group question.
- Notice you can view detailed information about this attempt at the bottom.
- If you need to change the score for an attempt, use the Actions menu to select Change Score from the dropdown.
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- Enter a new score and click Change Score (see below). IMPORTANT: An attempt has to be complete before you can change the score.
- Notice that you also have the option to Clear an attempt (see below). If you clear an attempt, it will not count as part of the grade calculation. If needed, you can also Restore the attempt.
- Notice that you also have the option to Complete an attempt (see below). If a student starts a lesson but neglects to click the Finish button at the end of the lesson, then that attempt is incomplete. An incomplete attempt does not count as part of the grade calculation. You can cause the attempt to be completed so that the score for the attempt is part of the grade calculation.
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You have the option to complete all attempts for all students for a lesson. You may find that your students have neglected to complete their attempts (i.e. they have neglected to click Finish on the last page of the lesson – clicking Finish sends a completion status to the gradebook).
IMPORTANT: You may want to do this procedure after the availability of your lesson has expired.
IMPORTANT: This procedure cannot be undone. (You can change individual scores or re-open individual attempts if you need to.)
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If you use essays in your lesson, you can view the essays within the ScoreCenter area (see the previous section View or Change Scores). Please note the following important information.
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You can modify the score for the lesson based on the points you decide to give to the essay. For example, you may have a lesson worth 100 points including one essay worth 10 points. (You assigned the points for the essay and other items.) Let's say a student completes everything correctly, completes the essay, clicks the Finish button for the essay and then clicks the Finish button on the last page of the lesson to submit his or her score. At this stage, the student has a score of 90 out of 100 because you will need to evaluate the essay and assign points. You can go into the gradebook (i.e. ScoreCenter) and evaluate the essay and modify the score. You may want to provide feedback to the student on the essay by clicking the Feedback button within the attempt.
(You may want to explain the above process to your students; as mentioned, you also have the option to assign 0 points to an essay if you like.)
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- Log into your Moodle account and choose your course (see below).
- At the left under the Settings area, click Grades (see below).
Your Grader report appears with the scores from your SoftChalk lessons (see below). IMPORTANT: A column for your LTI lesson will appear in the Grader report only AFTER a user has completed an attempt for the lesson.
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This section explains how to have your students access "practice" SoftChalk lessons. In other words, you don't plan to collect student scores from these lessons. [You can have items that have points assigned to them within your lesson, but if you want to collect the scores, see the section Scored Lessons (Cloud Users).]
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- If necessary, at the top right, click Turn editing on (see below).
- Click Add an activity or resource (see below).
- In the pop up window for the left-hand list, scroll down to select URL and click Add (see below).
- Enter the information for Name, External URL (i.e. the hyperlink for your SoftChalk lesson) and Description (see below). For details on finding the hyperlink for your lesson, see the section Copy the Hyperlink for Your Lesson in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.
- Scroll down to the Appearance area. Under the Display dropdown menu, you'll probably want to have your lesson appear in a new window (see below):
In pop-up displays the lesson in a new window.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and return to Course.
- Click on the name of your lesson to preview it (see below).
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If you used the LTI Link or Hyperlink to your SoftChalk Cloud lesson, then you can easily edit your lesson within your SoftChalk Cloud account. (You don't have to paste in a new LTI Link or Hyperlink; simply edit your current lesson in SoftChalk Cloud and the LTI Link or Hyperlink for this lesson will still work.)
IMPORTANT: If you edit a lesson that has scored items and you have pasted an LTI Link for this lesson into Moodle, we recommend the scoring for your lesson remain the same if students have started taking this lesson.
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The steps below are for your Moodle administrator to enable the LTI/ScoreCenter feature for your Moodle server. For details on the LTI/ScoreCenter feature, see the section Scored Lessons (Cloud Users). If you want to enable LTI 1.3/ScoreCenter feature for your Moodle server, please see the section LTI 1.3 Tool Provider setup.
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As a Moodle administrator to use the ScoreCenter feature, you need to register with SoftChalk and configure the ScoreCenter for your system.
- Please contact help@softchalk.com and provide the following information to register with SoftChalk and receive authentication credentials (i.e. an OAuth Consumer Key and an OAuth Consumer Secret).If you have a test server and a production server, you may send us two LMS URLs and we will register both of them. (You will receive a separate email with a unique key and secret for each registered URL.)
- Your institution name
- LMS URL
- First Name (optional) of the person registering with us
- Last Name (optional) of the person registering with us
- Email for this registration (the email can be a specific person's email or a generic email such as lmsadmin@myinstitution.edu)
- After registering, you will receive an email from SoftChalk with information to enter into your Moodle system (see the following steps).
- Log into Moodle. At the left under the Settings area, choose Site Administration/Plugins/Activity Modules/LTI/ Manage external tool types (see below.)
- Click Add external tool configuration (see below).
- For the Tool Name, enter SoftChalk Cloud. (This name will be easy for your instructors to recognize - see below for a completed screen).
- For the Tool Base URL, enter https://softchalkcloud.com
- Copy and paste the consumer key and secret from the SoftChalk email you received after your registered your server. IMPORTANT: Be sure NOT to paste in spaces at the end of the key and secret. (Make sure you do NOT copy the spaces from your email.)
- Under the Privacy area, for Share launcher's name with tool choose Always. For Accept grades from the tool choose Always (see below).
- At the bottom click Save Changes.
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- Navigate to Site Administration > Plugins > Activity Modules > External Tool > Manage Tools.
- Under Manage Tools select Configure a tool manually.
- Fill in the following data in the form:
- Tool Settings
- Tool name: SoftChalk Cloud 1.3
- Tool URL: https://softchalkcloud.com
- Tool Description: Leave blank
- LTI version: LTI 1.3
- Public key: This will be provided in a response from SoftChalk after the registration is complete
- Initiate login URL: https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lti/auth
- Redirection URI(s): https://www.softchalkcloud.com/scorecenter/lti; https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lti/content
- Custom parameters: Leave blank
- Tool configuration usage: Show as a preconfigured tool when adding an external tool
- Default launch container: Embed, without blocks
- Content-Item Message: Select the checkbox
- Content Selection URL: https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lti/content
- Icon URL: Leave blank
- Secure Icon URL: Leave blank
- Fill in the following data in the form:
See below screen capture.
- Services
- IMS LTI Assignment and Grade Services: Use this service for grade sync and column management
- IMS LTI Names and Role Provisioning: Use this setting to retrieve members' information as per privacy settings
- Tool Settings: Do not use this service
- Services
- Privacy
- Share launcher's name with tool: Always
- Share launcher's email with tool: Never
- Accept grades from the tool: Always
- Force SSL: Leave un-selected
- Privacy
- Miscellaneous
- Organization ID: Leave blank
- Organization URL: Leave blank
- Miscellaneous
- Click Save Changes.
- On the Manage Tools page click the configuration icon for the SoftChalk Cloud 1.3 tool you just created.
- Gather the LTI 1.3 configuration details for the tool and send them to help@softchalk.com with the subject line Moodle LTI 1.3 Registration.
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Once SoftChalk has received the new tool's configuration details, we will perform the registration with SoftChalk ScoreCenter and reply back with the remaining details that need to be added to the existing tool in Moodle.
- Navigate to Site Administration > Plugins > Activity Modules > External Tool > Manage Tools.
- Select Edit to make changes to the SoftChalk Cloud 1.3 tool.
- Using the Public Key provided by SoftChalk, fill in the Public Key field for the tool in Moodle. (Be sure that you include the entire key block as sent, from ----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY---- through to ----END PUBLIC KEY---- and ensure that there are no spaces left at the start or end of the key).
- Click Save Changes.
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IMPORTANT: As mentioned previously, we recommend using the SoftChalk Cloud ScoreCenter solution versus using SCORM. See the section ScoreCenter Overview.
IMPORTANT: Within your lesson in SoftChalk Create, be sure to assign points to each QuizPopper and Activity. (In the main editing window of your SoftChalk lesson, right-click on the QuizPopper or Activity and choose Modify QuizPopper or Modify Activity to assign points.)
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Your students can print certificates of their scores and/or your students can email you within the lesson to send their scores. The basic steps are:
- Create scored quiz questions and/or activities within your SoftChalk lesson and assign points for each quiz question or activity.
- Add the email feature within your SoftChalk lesson. Choose Properties/ Lesson Certificates. Make the appropriate selections under Lesson Certificates.
- On the last page of your lesson within the web browser, is an area for students to type their name or identifier and then click Email Score, Print Certificate and/or Print Score Summary. (You can preview your lesson on your local computer to see how this works.)
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- Within your lesson in SoftChalk Create, choose File/Package Lesson. Under Package type, choose Standard Zip. Under Track score using, choose LMS with SCORM 1.2 (see below).
- If you are using SoftChalk Create, select the area where you want the zip file saved such as your Desktop. Then click OK. By default, you would save to your Documents area. With earlier versions of SoftChalk, the _sco.zip file is saved within the lesson folder.
- Your packaged file has your lesson name with a _sco.zip extension (see below). If your file extensions are not showing, you will not see the .zip at the end of the filename. Look for a folder with a zipper or package icon with your lesson name.
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- Log into your Moodle account.
- Choose your course (see below).
- If necessary, at the top right, click Turn editing on (see below).
- Click Add an activity or resource
- Select SCORM package on the left in the pop up window and click Add
- Under the General area, type a name and description (see below).
- Under Package file, click Choose a file (see below).
- In the File picker pop-up window, click Upload a file.
- Click Browse.
- Navigate to the location of your sco.zip file. Click on your sco.zip file to select it (see below) and click Open. (If your file extensions are not showing, you will not see the .zip at the end of the filename. Look for a folder with a zipper or package icon with your lesson name.)
- Click Upload this file (see below).
- Notice that the name of the SCORM file appears under Package file. (see below).
- Scroll down to the Other Settings area. Click Show Advanced (see below). (If Hide Advanced appears, go to the next step.)
- Change the Grading method to Highest grade (If you happened to select Learning Objects, the score will NOT record.) Change the Maximum grade to 100 (or another point value depending on the number of points you designated in your lesson). IMPORTANT: Even though the Grade method is set to Highest grade, the score updates each time in the grader report. In other words, the score displays the LAST score for the student (see below).
IMPORTANT: When you upload packaged SoftChalk lessons into Moodle, the Number of Attempts and Attempts grading options don't have any effect (see below).
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and return to Course. (You could also click Save and display.)
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- Click on your lesson name to preview. (located under the area where you put this content ).
- Click Enter (see below).
- After previewing your lesson, you can return to your course page by clicking on your course in the upper left corner of your screen (see below).
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After your students have finished your lesson, then you can view their scores in your grader report using the steps below.
- Log into your Moodle account.
- Click on your course to select it.
- Scroll down to the left hand bottom of the screen and select Grades under Settings (see below). (You may need to click on the arrow for Course administration to open up this menu.)
- You can view your student scores (see below).
- Click on the name of the lesson (see below). to view more details (see below).
- Below are the details of the scores for your lesson.
IMPORTANT: As mentioned previously, when you upload packaged SoftChalk lessons into Moodle, the Number of Attempts and Attempts grading options do not have any effect.
IMPORTANT: As mentioned previously, the score updates each time in the grader report. In other words, the score displays the LAST score for the student. (This is how Moodle works with SCORM content.)
IMPORTANT: As mentioned previously, we recommend using the SoftChalk Cloud ScoreCenter solution versus using SCORM 1.2. See the section ScoreCenter Overview.
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Within SoftChalk, you can package a lesson in a .zip format. Then upload this .zip file into Moodle and unzip it. See the steps below.
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- Start SoftChalk Create. Within your lesson in SoftChalk Create, choose File/Package Lesson. Under Package type, choose Standard Zip. Under Track score using choose None (see below).
- If you are using SoftChalk Create, select the area where you want the .zip file saved such as your Desktop. Then click OK. By default, you would save to your Documents area. With earlier versions of SoftChalk, the .zip file is saved within the lesson folder.
- Your packaged file has your lesson name with a .zip extension (see below). If your file extensions are not showing, you will not see the .zip at the end of the filename. Look for a folder with a zipper or package icon with your lesson name.
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- If necessary, at the top right, click Turn editing on (see below).
- Click Add an activity or resource
- Select File on the left in the pop up window and click Add
- Type a name and information in the Description area under the General section. ex. Eye Anatomy for the name field and Interactive lesson on Eye Anatomy for Description.
- Select files by clicking the Add icon under the Content section.
- In the File picker pop-up window, click Upload a file.
- Click Browse.
- Navigate to your zip file. Click on your .zip file to select it (see below) and click Open. (If your file extensions are not showing, you will not see the .zip at the end of the filename. Look for a folder with a zipper or package icon with your lesson name.)
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- Under Content, click on your zipped lesson. A drop box will open. Click Unzip (see below).
- There may be a pause while the file unzips.
- After your unzipped files appear, scroll down your list of files and click the index.html and select set main file (see below).
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and return to Course.
- Click on your lesson name to preview. (located under the area where you put the content ).
- After previewing your lesson, you can return to your course page by clicking on your course in the upper left corner of your screen (see below).
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IMPORTANT: You cannot overwrite a SCORM lesson. If you put up a second SCORM lesson, there will be a separate column for the SCORM lesson in your gradebook.
- In SoftChalk, edit and save your lesson. Package the lesson (see the section In SoftChalk: Package a Lesson).
- In Moodle, delete your lesson folder.
- Upload your lesson again (see the previous section In Moodle: Upload a Zip File.)
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