The New Chrome 80 May Cause Reporting Issues in LMSs

The latest update of the popular Chrome browser appeared to become a real challenge for eLearners and eLearning software providers worldwide, as it now does not allow AICC, xAPI, and SCORM learning items to get reported to some LMSs. However, there are several solutions, depending on your LMS and course format.

Why do LMSs not receive statistics from the new Chrome?

Chrome now disallows synchronous XHR during page dismissal, e.g., when a user leaves the page or closes it. It does so to improve the user experience, which means making the browser work faster and preventing data loss. However, synchronous XHR in the browser is involved in communication between eLearning content and LMSs.

In a nutshell, a course, a browser, and an LMS communicate the following way:

1. While a learner is taking a course, the course collects statistics, e.g., how many slides the learner viewed, what answers he gave, how many attempts he took, etc.
2. After the learner has finished the course and closed the page, the browser has a timeout period before the page shuts down (up to 2 seconds in Chrome).
3. During this timeout, an LMS receives statistics from the content. By the time the page shuts down, an LMS gets all the necessary information about your learner’s progress. 

Since Chrome 80 does not use synchronous XHR, this means of communication between content and LMS software is not available.

Does iSpring Learn get stats from Chrome 80?

Here is some good news for iSpring customers! If you use iSpring Learn LMS, you will still get the same detailed information about your learners’ progress. We have updated data reporting so the stats are sent with no interruption. iSpring Learn LMS keeps tracking statistics for courses created with any authoring tool, e.g., iSpring Suite, Articulate Storyline, or Adobe Captivate, etc.

What about other learning management systems?

It depends on the course format and particular LMS that you use. Since SCORM and AICC courses still use synchronous XHR to send statistics to your LMS, you need to undertake one of these measures to be able to track the results:

1. Send a request to your LMS software provider to change the process of data reporting.
2. Ask your learners NOT to update Chrome to version 80 or higher.
3. Advise learners to use another web browser for taking courses.

If you use iSpring authoring tools to build xAPI or cmi5 courses, you are all set! We’ve already released a special update which fixes the issue. The output content will work in any browser and accurately report progress and completion to LMSs.

To get this new version, just update your iSpring tool or contact our support team.