How can I publish an Articulate Quizmaker quiz as an AICC course package that I can import into EKP?

Articulate Quizmaker is capable of publishing quizzes as both SCORM and AICC content. EKP can import and deliver both formats. One advantage of publishing as AICC content is that learners do not have to have Java installed in order to take the quizzes. However, there are a few points to bear in mind when publishing Quizmaker quizzes as AICC content. By following the steps below, you can publish a quiz as an AICC course package and import the package into EKP.

1. Click the Publish button in the Quizmaker toolbar.
2. In the Publish window, choose LMS from the left menu.
3. In the LMS field under Output Options, select AICC.
4. Click Reporting and Tracking...
5. Under LMS Course Information in the LMS Metadata window, complete the Description and Creator fields. Note that if you leave these fields blank, Quizmaker will omit these fields from the published AICC files, resulting in files that are invalid according to the AICC specification. Therefore, in order to produce a valid AICC course package, you must complete these fields before publishing the quiz.
6. The default value of the Filename(URL) field is http://www.servername.com/quiz/index_lms.html. While it's possible to replace this with the full URL at which the quiz will be published, it's easier to simply remove the initial portion so that the value becomes just index_lms.html. (Note that the value should not contain any slash characters.) If you then import the quiz into EKP as an AICC course package as described below, EKP can automatically deduce the full URL needed to launch the quiz.
7. Click the OK button to dismiss the LMS Metadata window.
8. In the Publish window, under Output Options, ensure that the check box labeled Zip files is checked.
9. Click Publish.

The resulting zip file can be imported into EKP using the Import Content Package function (Manage > Catalog Manager > Import Content Package)—simply follow the on-screen instructions.

In summary, the important points are as listed below.

• Be sure to complete the Description and Creator fields in the LMS Course Information section of the LMS Metadata window.
• Enter index_lms.html in the Filename(URL) field.
• Under Output Options in the Publish window, ensure that the check box labeled Zip files is checked.
• Import the published zip file into EKP using the Import Content Package function.

Batch importer for SCORM courses

EKP has long featured a batch importer for AICC-conformant courseware. Starting with EKP 4.7, the importer also supports SCORM-conformant courseware.

To use the batch importer, you'll need to create a new zip file that contains the individual SCORM content packages. (IMS content packages will work too.) Since these content packages are themselves zip files, you'll have a zip file that contains multiple individual zip files as entries. Then, go to Manage > Catalog Manager > Import Content Package, select the zip file you created, and click the Next > button.

EKP will display a summary of the courses that will be imported, and will walk you through the various import options. Just follow the on-screen instructions. (The process is pretty much identical to the AICC batch import process.) And, if you make a mistake, there's also a batch delete function that you can use to undo your changes.

Improvements to bulk courseware import tool

We just made some improvements to the bulk courseware import tool. This tool makes it easy to import many AICC-conformant courses in a single step. To use it, simply package the course structure files for the courses in a single zip file, then go to Manage > Catalog Manager > Import Content Package and upload the zip file. (Each course should have a set of four files, with the same base file name, and file name extensions .au, .crs, .cst and .des respectively. Some tools and vendors provide extra files, but EKP doesn't need them.)

Perhaps the most useful change is that EKP now shows the full titles and IDs of several of the courses in the package on the import options screen right after you select the package and the character encoding. That lets you see what courses are available in the package before running the import. It's also helpful if you're not sure what character encoding to use, since you can check that the course titles look correct before running the import, and if not you can return to the previous step and choose a different encoding.

EKP also now shows full course titles in addition to IDs on the summary page once the bulk import is complete.

We've also simplified the process in the case where the package contains only a single set of course structure files. In this case, the process is almost identical to importing a SCORM content package, and EKP will provide a detailed error report if it finds any problems with the files.

These changes will be available in versions 4.6.0.83 and 4.5.1.197.

What is PENS, and when should I use it?

Starting from version 4.5, EKP supports the Package Exchange Notification Services (PENS). PENS enables one-click publishing of courses from a PENS-conformant authoring tool or LCMS to EKP. Note that PENS is not a format for learning content like SCORM or AICC CMI001. That is, by itself it does not define any formats or protocols for course catalog metadata, course structure, course/LMS communication, or sequencing. PENS simply defines a way for a publishing tool to notify a delivery system (LMS) that new content is available for collection. The relevant content is still transferred using an establish format such as SCORM or AICC packages (most commonly the former).

So PENS is not an alternative to, say, SCORM content packages. Rather, it simply eliminates the step of manually exporting a content package from the publishing system and then importing it into EKP. Note that if your workflow requires you to make use of the packages (e.g. you need to manually modify the packages, or wish to archive them outside of EKP) then it's probably not appropriate to use PENS.

How can I use PENS to enable one-click publishing from an authoring tool or LCMS to EKP?

Starting from version 4.5, EKP supports the Package Exchange Notification Services (PENS). PENS enables one-click publishing of courses from a PENS-conformant authoring tool or LCMS to EKP.

To configure the authoring tool or LCMS to publish courses to EKP using PENS, you will need three pieces of information: a URL, a user name, and a password.

The URL is simply the base URL for the site, followed by pens. A typical URL is shown below; if you have changed the default protocol or path for your site, you'll need to modify this URL as appropriate.

http://ekp.example.com/ekp/pens

(N.B. If you encounter problems, check that you can access the PENS URL directly in a browser. You should get a response similar to the one below. If you see a 404 Not Found message or similar, there might be a configuration problem with your web server; see I get a 404 Not Found page when accessing EKP's PENS URL, what should I do? for an explanation of how to resolve it.)

error=0
error-text=collect command received and understood
version=1.0.0
pens-data=

The user name and password should correspond to an EKP user in a role that allows them to import courses.

I get a 404 Not Found page when accessing EKP's PENS URL, what should I do?

Starting from version 4.5, EKP supports the Package Exchange Notification Services (PENS). The URL used for notifications is typically /ekp/pens.

If you see a 404 Not Found error when attempting to access this URL, it's likely that your web server (e.g. Apache HTTPD) is not configured to forward requests for this URL to your application server (e.g. Apache Tomcat).

If your web server is Apache, you can fix this by editing the httpd.conf configuration file, which is in the conf/ directory under the Apache installation directory. If you open this file in a text editor, you will find a series of "directives" such as the following:

JkMount /ekp/tx/* ajp13
JkMount /ekp/servlet/* ajp13
JkMount /ekp/*.jsp ajp13
JkMount /ekp/servlet/ekp/* ajp13
JkMount /ekp/*.tx ajp13
JkMount /ekp/xml/* ajp13

(Note: in some installations, the above directives might be in a file named mod_jk.conf under the directory conf/jk/, instead of in httpd.conf itself.)

To enable PENS support, you should add one more directive as follows:

JkMount /ekp/pens ajp13

You'll need to restart Apache for that change to take effect. Note also that if the prefix for your site is something other than /ekp, you'll need to modify the directive above as appropriate.