Learning Content Development System: Frequently Asked Questions

The Learning Content Development System, or LCDS, is a forms-based tool that anyone can use to create e-learning content. By using the LCDS, you can:

A timeline for this has not been determined. Please submit any feedback about the tool by using one of the following methods.

You own the content that you create by using the LCDS.

This is a known issue for computers that run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Internet Explorer 6 installed. Please upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 7 to avoid this issue.

Some keyboard shortcuts may not function at this time. If the keyboard shortcuts for "redo" and "undo" do not work for you, please use the "redo" and "undo" buttons that are part of the LCDS user interface.

The maximum characters that you can use depend on the type of title:

To run the LCDS on your computer, the minimum system requirements are:

You must have write permissions on your computer for the LCDS to function. If your computer runs on the Windows Vista operating system, you must have administrative rights on your computer. You must open LCDS by using "Run as administrator." To do this:

When you create a Glossary, enter the term in bold text and the definition for the term in non-bold text. Do not bold any of the text in your definitions. If you use bold text in your definitions, some of your content will not appear.

If you enter any spaces at the beginning of the glossary term, the spaces might be sorted as a category, which would appear as a blank header. To avoid this, do not enter any spaces at the beginning of a glossary term.

The text will not wrap correctly if the words are too long to fit next to the image. If you can reword your text by using shorter words, the text will wrap around the graphic properly.

Refer to the LCDS Help for instructions on how to upload the simulation Shockwave Flash (.swf) or Windows Media (.wmv) file to the course media folder. In addition to the simulation file, you must also upload the simulation .xml file into the same media folder. The simulation .xml file contains the steps information and is required for the Flash file to function correctly.

No. The .avi file format is not supported in LCDS.

When you localize a course in the LCDS, the language string must be correctly specified in the imsmanifest.xml file. Look for the following code string:

<imsmd:langstring xml:lang= 

For non-English courses, the attribute should read the two-letter language code. For example, a Danish language course string should read as follows:

<imsmd:langstring xml:lang="da" 

The following is not the correct code string for a Danish language course:

<imsmd:langstring xml:lang="da-DK" 

Japanese glossaries are sorted by phonetics. To sort by phonetics, you must manually edit the XML content file to include the phonetic characters. To do this, open the XML topic file that corresponds to your glossary topic. (You can find the file from the status bar in the LCDS.) In this file, look for the following code string, where "sample_term" would be replaced by your term name:

<definition term="sample_term">  

To the beginning of definition term, add the phonetic character followed by a space, then a hyphen, and then a space. Use the half-width alphanumeric mode on your keyboard to enter the spaces and hyphen. When the glossary is viewed in Internet Explorer, the phonetics and the hyphens will be stripped from the glossary terms, and the glossary will be sorted by the phonetics.

Note If the glossary includes English terms, each English term will appear under its alphanumeric character. The English alphanumeric characters will be displayed first, followed by the Japanese terms.

Like Japanese glossaries, Korean glossaries are sorted by phonetics. To sort by phonetics, you must manually edit the XML content file to include the phonetic characters. To do this, open the XML topic file that corresponds to your glossary topic. (You can find the file from the status bar in the LCDS.) In this file, look for the following code string, where "sample_term" would be replaced by your term name:

<definition term="sample_term">

To the beginning of definition term, add the phonetic character followed by a space, then a hyphen, and then a space. When the glossary is viewed in Internet Explorer, the phonetics and the hyphens will be stripped from the glossary terms, and the glossary will be sorted by the phonetics.

When a localized course is created outside the LCDS and it includes a glossary, make sure that you open the course in the LCDS and use the "Save" functionality to save the course. This ensures that the glossary sorts correctly and the alphabets list appears correctly.

When a course is localized outside of the LCDS, you need to open glossary pages within the LCDS and re-save them. If you localize the courses externally to the LCDS, the sorting order of the terms within the XML content file changes. During an LCDS re-save, the LCDS re-establishes the correct sorting order within the glossary XML content file.

This is an issue with Internet Explorer 7, for Japanese. To resolve this issue, download the Internet Explorer 7 hotfix.

Localized content is supported only on an operating system of the targeted language. If non-English content is loaded into an English machine, non-ASCII characters will be lost when saving the SCORM package. SCORM packages are saved by using the ZIP file format, which supports only ASCII characters for file and directory names. If you develop non-English content, you must do so on a non-English operating system, or on an operating system with a non-English language pack installed and active. Once the content is developed, it must be packaged on a similarly configured machine. When using the non-English language pack, that language's ASCII values will align with the ZIP file and everything will work as expected.

When you enter Japanese text in the Half-width Katakana or Half-width Alphanumeric modes, the Yen mark displays as "\". This is a known issue with many editors. To display the Yen symbol, use one of these input modes: Hiragana, Full-width Katakana or Full-width Alphanumeric.

This issue occurs if you created the simulation by using an older version of the simulation Flash template (simulation.swf). To fix this, you can modify the German global XML files (de.xml and de-de.xml) in the CCS. The variable "simulation_showMe" has to be modified to remove the text

"<b>"

and

"</b>"

The truncation does not happen in a JPN environment. No truncation appears with Japanese Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 2 at 1024 x 768 and higher resolutions.

The he LCDS is a free tool that was created by Microsoft Learning and is community supported. Please refer to the LCDS Forum to see if your question has already been answered or to submit your question.

A timeline for this has not been determined. Please submit any feedback about the tool by using one of the following methods.

The following file formats are supported:

The help topic "Templates > Play > Tile Game > About tile games" explains, "The default number of submissions is 8."

The help topic "Templates > Play > Tile Game > Using the Tile Game template" indicates that "By default, 8 turns display in the Number of Turns field. It is best to have anywhere from 6–9 turns in the Tile Game for the best learning experience."

Yes, both terms refer to the allowed number of turns that a user has. The LCDS default for a turn (submission) is eight. Authors can change the default as needed for special cases.

When you create job aids, you must save the file with the .mht file extension by using the Microsoft Office Word Save As > "Single File Web Page" option. If you try to save the file by using the Internet Explorer Save As "Web Archive, single file" option, you will lose the images.

This might be a formatting issue within the .mht file. To correct the numbering, follow these instructions:

The "click to print" icon has been phased out and there is no option for such an icon within the jobaidtemplate.dotx file. You can use the Internet Explorer print functionality.

Yes. When a new version is available, you will need to download the new version and install it.

You can continue working on courses you created in the previous version of LCDS by upgrading the course.

To upgrade a course

No, when you install the newer version, the courses do not automatically upgrade. You must use the LCDS to open each course to upgrade it.

No, you do not need to save each page. The course will upgrade when you open the course by using the newer version of LCDS.

To change the course title, you must change the title by using the Save As button in LCDS. You must open the specified course within LCDS, click the Save As button, and re-name the course. This will create a new course folder (which corresponds to the new course name) and change the title of the course, which will change the white title at the top of the viewer.

Do not use the ampersand (&) in topic names. Spell out the word "and" instead.