Saturday, June 7, 2008

How can I change the size of the navigation frames for a course with multiple SCOs or AUs?

When you launch a SCORM course with multiple shareable content objects (SCOs), an AICC with multiple assignable units (AUs), or a course created using the Courseware Manager with multiple lessons, EKP provides one or more frames containing navigation controls that the learners can use to navigate between the SCOs, AUs or lessons of the course.

If you are using EKP Gold or EKP Silver, you can change the size of these frames by creating a custom courseware template, provided that you have the appropriate administrative privileges. The steps are as follows.

  • Create a courseware template package. You can use the files under nd/fresco/template/course/default as a guide. Copy the files to a new folder, edit default.css as required, then package the files as a zip file, ensuring that default.css is in the root of the package. (Note that you do not need to edit default.css to change the size of the navigation frames, but you can change the fonts and colors used for the navigation controls.)
  • Go to Manage > Courseware Manager > Courseware Template Editor, and click the Create button.
    Create button
  • In the new window, enter a name for the template, then click the Browse... button and select the courseware template package (zip file) you created.
    Name and zip file selection fields
  • On the next page, click the top frame in the image.
    Top frame image
  • In the Top Frame window, enter the desired height for the top frame. You can specify the height as a percentage of the total window height or as an absolute number of pixels.
    Height field
  • Set the width of the left frame by clicking the left frame in the image.
    Left frame image
  • Click Update to save the courseware template settings.

You can configure a course with multiple SCOs, AUs or lessons to use your custom template by opening the course in the Catalog Editor, clicking Navigation Setup in the left frame, selecting your custom template from the Template drop-down list, then clicking the Save button in the top frame.

Courseware Template Selector

Note that EKP needs to provide navigation controls for a course with multiple SCOs, AUs or lessons in order to ensure correct tracking, so you cannot remove the navigation frames. For a more detailed, see my earlier post.

2 comments:

Josh said...

Hello Rob,

I'm new to EKP and was wondering how best to control the properties of course windows in the EKP LMS?

The window properties I'm wanting to control are:
- course window size
- course window address & toolbars
- course window status bar
- course window scroll bar
- course window resizing

I would ordinarily use JavaScript to control these properties but, I'm wondering what's pest practice for EKP?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Josh

Robert Lowe said...

Hi Josh,

There is a Default Pop-up Window Size property under Manage > System Administration Manager > System Settings > System Configuration. Note that this is a global setting however.

Otherwise, JavaScript is generally your best option.