Publish a Shadow Capture walkthrough to Moodle

Before you start

• Permissions. A Moodle role that can edit the course and add activities: Teacher on the course, or Manager or Administrator.
• Format. SCORM 1.2. Moodle 2.1 and later pass the ADL conformance tests for 1.2; SCORM 2004 is not supported without a third-party service.
• The package. A Shadow Capture SCORM export, or the sample. Keep it zipped; Moodle unpacks it. The zip has imsmanifest.xml at its root, which Moodle requires, and every file it references is listed in the manifest.

Export from Shadow Capture

1. Open the walkthrough's menu. On the Walkthroughs page, click the More options button on the walkthrough's card and choose Download…. The dialog is titled Download standalone walkthrough.
2. Choose the brand. The Brand list holds your saved profiles. The brand is frozen into the package; the recorded product screens are never restyled.
3. Choose the format: SCORM 1.2 package (.zip). The other options are Single HTML file, Folder (.zip) and SCORM 2004 package (.zip). Moodle needs 1.2.
4. Keep the intro page on. Include the intro page is checked by default; it is the scenario and objectives screen the learner reads first.
5. Click Download. The file is named after the walkthrough with a -scorm.zip suffix. Do not unzip it.

Add the SCORM activity in Moodle

1. Open the course and turn editing on. Use the edit mode toggle at the top right of the course page.
2. Add an activity or resource, then choose SCORM package. In the section where the training belongs, click Add an activity or resource and pick SCORM package.
3. Name it. Use the walkthrough's title, or the name your catalog uses. The description is a good place for the one-sentence scenario.
4. Package: upload the zip. Drag the zip into the Package file area, or click to browse. Moodle validates the manifest on save.
5. Appearance. Set Display package to New window if your theme's content column is narrow; the player is laid out for a desktop-width screen. If you keep Current window, set Width to 100% and Height to at least 800. Set Student skip content structure page to Always: the package is a single item, so the structure page adds a click and nothing else.
6. Grade. Set Grading method to Learning objects. This counts completed objects rather than a score, and the package reports no score. Leave Maximum grade at its default.
7. Attempts management. Number of attempts as your policy prefers. Leave Force new attempt off so a learner who closes the window resumes at the same step rather than starting over.
8. Compatibility settings. Leave Force completed off; the package sets completed itself when the last step is done. Auto-commit is not needed, because the package commits after every step, but it does no harm.
9. Activity completion. Choose Show activity as complete when conditions are met. Tick Require status and select Completed. Do not tick Require minimum score; the package never sends one and the activity would never complete. Require minimum time is optional and works, because session time is reported.
10. Save and display. Moodle shows the launch page with an Enter button.

Verify it, as a learner

1. Launch and check the status. Click Enter. The walkthrough opens on its intro card. In Reports, the Basic report should now show the attempt with status Incomplete.
2. Close mid-way, then relaunch. Complete two steps in You try, close the window, and launch again. It should resume at the same step and mode. If it restarts at the intro, Force new attempt is on or suspend data was not saved.
3. Finish it. Work through to the completion screen. The Basic report should show Completed and a total time. If the activity completion tick does not appear, recheck that Require status: Completed is the only condition set.
4. Try a wrong choice. Choose the wrong filter in the expense example. Read the feedback and confirm the step stays incomplete until the correct action is taken.

Common failures and what they mean

• "Package is not valid" on upload. The manifest is not at the root of the zip. This happens when a folder is zipped rather than its contents. Shadow Capture's export already places it at the root; re-download rather than re-zipping by hand.
• The activity launches but never records anything. Moodle's FAQ is explicit: if the runtime's Initialize call fails, nothing after it is saved. Check that JavaScript is not blocked and that the page is not being opened outside Moodle's SCORM player, for example from a direct file link.
• Completed in the report but the activity is not ticked. A completion condition needs something the package does not send, usually a score. Remove it.
• The player is cramped or scrolls inside its frame. The content column is narrower than the recorded screen. Use New window, or widen the frame.
• Blank frame on a phone. Moodle plays SCORM in an iframe, which its own documentation notes is not responsive on iOS. Shadow Capture walkthroughs are recorded from desktop screens and are meant for desktop learners; point mobile learners at a desktop or the offline file.

Known limitations

• No score, so no grade beyond completion. Pair with a Moodle quiz if you need one.
• One SCO per package. A collection of walkthroughs is several activities, not one.
• A re-recorded walkthrough is a new package. Replace the file on the activity; learners' earlier attempts stay on the old version's record.