We added a new feature to our LMS that ensures that your learners are actively interacting with their assigned content. There is a new presentation setting where you can specify an idle timeout value.

For content that has an idle timeout set, we’ll detect user activity in the content window after the learner launches a learning item (lesson, topic, module, etc.). If no activity is detected for a specified period of time, a warning message is displayed asking them whether they want to continue with the current session or log out. If the user does not respond to this prompt within two minutes, their session is terminated and they get logged out of the system.

If a learner’s session is terminated this way, we’ll subtract the timeout value from their session duration so that they don’t get credit for time in content when they weren’t active.

By default, all SCORM content is configured with an idle timeout of 10 minutes. The warning message will be displayed after eight minutes of inactivity and the learner will have two minutes to respond before getting logged out.

If the user clicks the ‘Stay Logged In’ button, the timer resets and they won’t see the warning message until we detect another eight minutes of inactivity.

User activity

The below actions are considered user activity in the launched content browser window:

  • moving the mouse
  • clicking the mouse
  • scrolling the mouse wheel
  • using the keyboard
  • touch events

How to enable/disable idle timeout

As an administrator, you can set a timeout value from two different areas:

  1. Through the presentation settings of an individual learning item.Navigate to some SCORM content in the ‘Content’ tab and click ‘Edit’. In the top right drop-down edit menu, choose ‘Presentation’. Under ‘Idle Timeout’ you will find two options, either select ‘No Idle Timeout’ or specify inactivity duration (minimum 2 minutes) before a user is logged out.
  2. Through the activity list page using the presentation bulk operation.From the ‘Activities’ page in the ‘Content’ tab, check the courses you would like to select items from. Choose ‘Presentation’ from the bottom-left drop down menu then click on ‘Go’.In the ‘Presentation’ window, the first step is to select the type of learning item you would like to set the timer for. This may be any launch-able SCO item. The second step is to apply the feature. Again, you will find two options under ‘Idle Timeout’. You may either select ‘No Idle Timeout’ to disable it or specify inactivity duration (minimum 2 minutes) before a user is logged out.

Supported Browsers

The following browsers support the idle timeout feature:

  • Google Chrome (latest)
  • Mozilla Firefox (latest)
  • Microsoft Edge (latest)
  • Safari (latest)
  • Internet Explorer 9+

We hope you can benefit from this feature. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.