Problems exiting lesson in Chrome 80 (and higher)

SCORM/AICC ›› Troubleshooting General SCORM/AICC Problems ››

PROBLEM

My ToolBook lessons have been working in Chrome for years, but as of Chrome version 80, any attempt to exit a lesson is failing to communicate the exit status back to the LMS.


DETAILS

Exiting a lesson is typically accomplished by using an Exit - Mark As Complete button, or an Exit - Suspend Lesson button, or by the user simply closing the browser window (which by default will register as an Exit - Suspend Lesson).


When a user decides to exit a ToolBook lesson, launched from an LMS, this is what normally happens:


  1. The EXIT command is registered by the lesson, and ToolBook starts the process of closing the browser window.
  2. However the lesson detects that it was opened via an LMS, and the EXIT command is PAUSED for a moment.
  3. This PAUSE needs to occur so that ToolBook can send final lesson data back to the LMS.
  4. ToolBook collects all the remaining question and scoring related data about your lesson, and relays it to the LMS.
  5. Once the LMS indicates the data has been received, the closing of the browser window proceeds.


The problem is that as of Chrome 80 (released in February of 2020), Google started changing the behavior of the Chrome browser to no longer allow for this PAUSE behavior (see #2 and #3 above).


Google explains the change as follows:
Essentially it's common for a page or app to have unsubmitted data at the time a user closes it. To prevent data loss, many sites use a synchronous call to XMLHttpRequest() to keep the page or app open until its data is passed to the server, but this technique creates a bad user experience by delaying closing of the page for up to several seconds. This is aggravating for users who blame the browser for being slow to close, or deficient in some way, when in fact it has nothing to do with the Browser itself.


You can read more details about Google Chrome Change here:


Since the PAUSE does not occur, this leaves the LMS with incomplete data.


Normally this is experienced as a lesson remaining In-Progress, instead of being marked as complete, which means no final scoring data (pass/fail) is registered with the LMS.


SOLUTIONS

CHROME
Using a version of Chrome older than version 80 should permit things to work normally. Alternately using a different Web Browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, is an option.


TOOLBOOK
In order for Chrome 80 (or newer) to work, the ToolBook product would need to be updated by SumTotal, effectively implementing a workaround to the change Google Chrome has decided to make. Then you'd have to re-publish all of your lessons to benefit from such an update. Unfortunately the ToolBook product is retired and no further ToolBook development will be occurring.


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