ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite

ScormFly is a video-to-eLearning conversion and streaming service from the makers of UniversitySite for use with any Learning Management System (LMS). Content creators upload videos to ScormFly and download SCORM packages for their LMS.

Setting up the extension? Before learners watch their first video, have your IT team review the network requirements below.

ScormFly has been used to publish thousands of videos for UniversitySite. Many of our law firm clients use it for converting recordings of CLE programs, webinars, and screencasts to eLearning. Some law firms have used it to convert in excess of 1,000 videos created in-house for employee consumption.

Publishing videos for use in a LMS can be a cumbersome process. Not only do videos need to be optimized for low bandwidth playback but they also need to be converted to the language that an LMS speaks: SCORM.

To make sense of the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite, you need to understand the functionality provided by ScormFly on its own. With this understanding in place we will be able to point out what makes the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite better than the ScormFly on its own.

Features for Content Creators

• Convert videos to SCORM packages.
• Make videos mobile compatible.
• Optimize videos for distribution to thousands of concurrent Users.
• Securely stream videos for playback over a global content delivery network.
• Add presence verification prompts to compliance videos.
• Add chapter markers to videos.
• Sync PowerPoint slides to videos.
• Add Closed Captioning.

Features for Learners

• Watch videos on your phone, iPad, laptop, or desktop computer.
• Increase the playback speed while watching a video.

Features for Learning Management Systems

• Compliance tracking.
• Exit and continue later.

The ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite expands on the capabilities of UniversitySite by incorporating the functionality provided by ScormFly into UniversitySite. The ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite provides two primary benefits over ScormFly as a standalone service:

• With the standalone version of ScormFly there is frequently only one person per organization who has a subscription to use ScormFly. All videos that need to be loaded into the LMS must be funneled through this person. This creates a bottleneck for content creators who do not have a subscription to ScormFly. With the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite, every UniversitySite User who has permission to create Courses has the ability to add videos to Courses on their own.
• With the standalone version of ScormFly, the process of getting a video into UniversitySite involves several steps. It starts with the signing into ScormFly, uploading a video, downloading a SCORM package, and ends with uploading the SCORM package to UniversitySite. With the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite the process is much more efficient. Videos are simply uploaded directly to UniversitySite Courses and the ScormFly extension goes to work converting the video to eLearning.

It is important to recognize that ScormFly is a streaming service and videos will be playable so long as a ScormFly subscription is in place. SCORM packages loaded into an LMS will no longer stream your videos after canceling a ScormFly subscription. The same holds true for canceling a subscription for the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite.

Using the ScormFly Extension for UniversitySite

When creating an On-Demand Course, the ScormFly extension provides the ability to upload videos files (such as MP4 files) directly to a Course. After your upload has completed, the ScormFly extension will make your video LMS compatible by embedding it into a SCORM package and will begin optimizing your video file for high bandwidth and low bandwidth playback including mobile devices.

To minimize buffering time and optimize playback, ScormFly videos are streamed over Microsoft Azure's Global Content Delivery Network.

Network Requirements

ScormFly videos play from ScormFly's hosting on Microsoft Azure, not from your universitysite.com address. If your firm uses a web proxy, secure web gateway, or security agent on learners' computers (for example Zscaler or Netskope), allow these hosts on HTTPS (port 443) for learners in the office, on VPN, and working remotely:

Allow these by hostname rather than by IP address, because Microsoft Azure can change the addresses behind them without notice. The two Azure hosts accept only TLS 1.2 or newer.

If your security agent inspects TLS traffic, exclude these hosts from inspection as well. Some policies block or reset traffic to Azure Blob Storage (*.blob.core.windows.net) because they classify it as cloud storage or file sharing.

What learners see when a host is blocked

The course opens in the player window, but the area below the header and Exit button stays blank and the video never loads. Other e-learning courses usually still work, because standard SCORM packages load from your universitysite.com address.

To confirm the cause on an affected computer:

1. Open https://scormfly.blob.core.windows.net/api/v1.0.2/scripts/scorm.js in the browser. A working computer shows a page of JavaScript. A connection error means the computer can't reach the player host.
2. Or open the course, press F12 to open the browser's developer tools, choose the Network tab, and relaunch the course. Look for a failed request to one of the hosts above.

For supported browsers and UniversitySite's other network requirements, see Browser and Network Requirements.

Supported Video Formats 

Note: We do not support mp3 or other audio formats since the outcome is a SCORM compliant package.

• 3g2
• 3gp
• asf
• asx
• avi
• f4v
• flv
• hdmov
• m4v
• mov
• mp4
• mpeg
• mpg
• ogv
• vob
• webm
• wmv
• mkv

For additional information contact sales@profiscience.com or support@profiscience.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can some learners play a ScormFly video while others can't?

The block happens on the learner's computer or network path, not in UniversitySite. Different security policies for different user groups, office networks, or VPN connections can let one person play a course while another can't. Check the network requirements above.

ScormFly videos worked before. Did something change in UniversitySite?

These addresses haven't changed. The usual trigger is a change on your firm's side, such as a new security agent version or policy, a browser update, or an IP-based firewall rule that no longer matches Azure's current addresses.

The browser asks for permission to access devices on the local network when a video starts. Is that required?

No. ScormFly never needs to reach anything on your local network. Chrome and Edge show that prompt when a security agent routes a public ScormFly address through a private network address. Excluding the ScormFly hosts from tunneling or inspection removes the cause. Your IT team can also use the Chrome and Edge policy LocalNetworkAccessIpAddressSpaceOverrides to treat the agent's address range as public.

What happens to our videos if we cancel the extension?

ScormFly is a streaming service, so videos stop playing once the subscription ends, as described above.