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Tracking user scores and data in Articulate Online is a very simple process as long as you understand the difference between public content, private content, and guestbooks.

Public content

Public content is exactly what it sounds like…public content.  This means that anyone with a direct link to the content itself can access it.  Keep in mind that if someone accesses a public content item via the direct link, they will not be required to log into your Articulate Online account.  Thus, when you run a report on that content item, their attempt may show up as “anonymous” instead of an actual first and last name.

If you insist on keeping your content public, I recommend that you only do so in the following situations:

• Surveys – In most cases, surveys can be anonymous and still be effective.  For example, if you are trying to find out if your employees like the new cafeteria vendor or even the new CEO, it might be best to keep the survey anonymous.
• Knowledge Checks – Are you trying just to get an idea as to how much your employees or students know about a certain subject?  Create a “knowledge check” in Quizmaker, list it as a public content item, and then email invitations to your users.  Using knowledge checks is a great way to determine if there is a need to create a full-blown course on a specific subject.
• Other content / Engage interactions / Quizmaker quizzes that do not require a need to know who actually accessed the content.  This will likely need to be determined by you…the e-learning designer.

Private Content

If you need a way to ensure that your users’ scores are linked to actual user accounts, then you’ll want to make your content Private.  When a user tries to directly access the content through a link or button that you provide, that user will be required to log into the Articulate Online system.  Thus, when they access the content, their progress and their scores for that content item will be tracked.

Guestbooks

Guestbooks are used to provide supplemental information about the people accessing content in your Articulate Online account.  They should not be used an alternate means of attempting to track a specific user’s score.  Rather, they should be used in the following situations:

Public Content – Using guestbooks with surveys, knowledge checks, and other content is a great way to ensure that a specific person has completed the content without associating their name to specific responses.  This not only keeps the attempt anonymous, but also helps you track whether or not someone has accessed it.

Private Content – Using guestbooks with private content is a great way of getting additional information about the people accessing your content without having to customize the content itself.  Without guestbooks, you would need to add additional questions to your survey or quizzes to get additional information about the user.  However, by using the guestbook feature, you can request (or require) a wide range of information, including:

• Company
• Job Title
• Department
• Phone
• Cell
• Fax
• Address and more

Summary

If you need to track users and their scores in Articulate Online, be sure to do the following in order:

1. Set the end-user up in the system
2. Set the content up as private
3. Invite the user to view the content

If it’s not necessary to link a specific user to their progress of a specific item, then set the content up as public.  Finally, be sure to use guestbooks only as a means to get additional information about your users instead of as a means of tracking progress.

If you’ve ever published a course to Articulate Online, one of the things you’ll notice is the thumbnail that is associated with your course.  Essentially, it is a thumbnail of the first slide in your presentation.  So, what happens if you use a Flash file or even a web object for your first slide?  This happens:

That’s right!  You get a thumbnail that doesn’t really represent your course at all.  Wouldn’t you rather have a thumbnail that looks something like this?

To replace the thumbnail for your content in Articulate Online, you will need to use the following method:

1. Publish your project locally to Articulate Online (note:  the process is detailed on Articulate’s site if you are unfamiliar with it)
2. When your course has finished publishing, click on the Open Folder button
3. You should see a file with the .art6 file extension.  Right click the file, choose rename, & change the extension from .art6 to .zip
4. Using your favorite art program (MS Paint, Artweaver, or Photoshop), create a 163 (width) x 123 (height) image and save it as thumbnail.png
5. Double-click the zip file that you renamed earlier and you should see the thumbnail.png file that is currently associated with your project
6. Drag the new thumbnail.png file that you created into the folder & replace the file
7. After replacing the file, go back to the .zip file and rename it back to .art6
8. Finally, manually upload the file to your Articulate Online account

Once you’ve completed the above process, your content will look much more appealing:

If you’re having trouble manually editing your .art6 file, Dave Moxon covered this subject back in April of 2008.  Please click here to see that article.

Although I haven’t tested it, you should be able to do the same thing to your Engage or Quizmaker content.  Please comment if you have tried this on other types of content!