Learning Objects

Management of Learning Objects, and detailed description of configuration and usage of each LO type

• Learning Materials Management
• File Upload
• HTML Pages
• SCORM
• Test
• Assignment
• File Name Handling for SCORM Packages

Learning Materials Management

The Learning Objects management page is made by three tabs:

1. Course Objects: list of actual LO of the course, available for students. They can be directly created from this area or imported either from MyObjects or Shared Objects areas.
2. Shared Objects: a repository of LO shared among all the courses and users with permission to access this tab
3. My Objects: personal materials' repository for the logged user. A private area for teachers in which they can store their own objects, create new objects or import objects from other teachers. It is an inter-course area in the sense that the objects placed there can be viewed from any of the courses managed by the teacher. 

In all the tabs, LO Objects can be organized into folders/subfolders.

Course Objects

LO types

• SCORM
• TEST
• Upload file
• HTML page
• Survey
• Assignment (since Forma 4.2)

The following LOs are available until Forma 4 and REMOVED SINCE FORMA 4.1 and it won't be possible to create new ones. Previously created LOs will keep working but may be removed in feature releases. 
- FAQ
- Glossary
- Links

LO actions and features

1. View: open and launch the learning object. Actions will be tracked as for normal fruition
2. Edit: access the edit page for this of learning object. Each type of learning object has a different edit mode.
3. Properties: edit object properties for:
   1. Prerequisites
   2. LO Properties
4. Assign: assign this LO only to specific users
5. Categorize: Add description, category, and tags for the knowledge base
6. Copy: duplicate the object
7. Delete: Delete the object

Properties: Prerequisites

Click on the “Properties” icon to open the Properties > Prerequisites tab.

Here you can select the LO in the course that need to be completed for the object to be unlocked

Properties: Properties

Here you can set the general configuration settings for this object. Different LO types might have different option sets.

General options, available for all types of objects:

• Title:  display LO name. Editable only for SCORM objects, for other types use their edit page
• Hidden: decide whether this object must be visible or not for students (default: yes)
• Publish from/until: the object will be visible only between the selected dates. Leave empty for unlimited
• Number of Views: define how the object must be accessible based on its completion status
• End Object Marker: if set to yes, completing this object will set the user status on the whole course to “complete”.

Score Options

The following options are available only for LO types involving scoring logics:

• Bookmark: this object's score will be reported as separate start score or final score for the course
• Ignore score: only managed for SCORM objects. Essentially, if a SCORM package has a minimum score defined in its manifest but the instructor wants to set a new threshold, this flag bypasses the value declared in the manifest."
• Weight: weight of this LO's score in final vote calculation
• Show to user: the score obtained for this LO will be listed in the user's Report Card
• Use for Final: this score is considered or not in the final score calculation

The options weight, show to user and use for final have been migrated in this position since Forma 4.2. In prior versions they were set from the gradebook module

Assign to selected users

Here you can assign the LO only to selected users or groups. Other users won't see the object.

Categorize

Use this form to categorize the object within the Forma Content Library

Shared Objects

This is the area where teachers can share teaching objects with other teachers, can import them to their own homepages or directly to the courses section.

Note:

• Importing entails making a new copy of the imported object, which will therefore be treated as a completely new object
• Teachers can create, copy and move any shared LO, but can delete only their own. Only administrators can delete LO by other users.

My Objects

Materials in this area can be viewed and managed only by the logged user, and are shared among all the courses where he has teacher permissions.

File Upload

Select and upload from your computer any file to be used as a course material.

Downloadable files will be marked as “completed” once the users clicks on the download link.

You can set the “title” as the name to be shown for this object

Description can be entered but won't be shown with the existing platform features.

 

HTML Pages

Use the “HTML Page” learning object type to create a custom content page.

Explore the editor feature to:

• write Formatted Text
• Images
• embed media (i. YouTube or Vimeo videos)

 

You can also attach multiple files for download

SCORM

Upload SCORM Objects

SCORM LO Properties

Test

Test Questions

Manage Questions

Insert/Edit Questions

Question Category: Select a category for this question. It will be possible to calculate category scores for each test compiling. Categories are globally defined for the whole platform in backend question category configuration

Difficulty: set a difficulty level that can be uses to automatically weigh scores calculation.

Question Types

This is the list of the available question types and test elements:

SC — Single Choice

MC — Multiple Choice

ET — Extended Text

TE — Text Entry

IC — Inline Choice

HT — Hot Text (Find the wrong term)

UP — Upload File

AS — Association

TE — Title

BR — Page Break

Test Options

Test display options

Attempts settings

Test Suspension: to avoid conflicts when using test suspension the option "number of views" in the LO properties should be set to infinite

Results page settings

The following options determine which information will be shown to the user after submitting the test:

Time Management

Score Management

• A required score for the test to be considered as “passed”
• Grading by marks or percentage
• Set score per individual question
• Resetting the maximum score
• Dividing the maximum score by question, evaluated according to the difficulty level assigned to the question, score assigned to individual questions

Feedback Management

• Possibility of assigning textual feedback according to the score attained
• Possibility of assigning the achievement of a competency
• Subscription to a specific course depending on the result.

Insert Feedback 

Assignment

Overview

The “Assignment” LO has been introduced in Forma 4.2, and allows administrators or instructors to assign customized tasks to learners, who can respond with an essay, a file, or text directly within the platform.

Replacing the old Gradebook "Activity" elements

If you are upgrading from Forma 4.1.x, previously created gradebook "activity" elements will be automatically migrated and converted into "Assignment" learning objects, placed at the end of the list of training materials within the same course.

All the activity configurations (Title, max/required score, weight, show to user, use for final) will be moved to the new learning object, and all the user scores and teacher comments will be migrated and visible through the new "Course Reports" module introduced with Forma 4.2

Creating an Assignment

Assignments are created as any other material from the "Learning Object Management" module in the Teacher Area of a course

Assignment Options

When creating or editing an Assignment the following options will be prompted

Upload Mode

Define if this activity needs some upload by the user:

• No upload: the activity will be held offline, i.e. during a classroom lesson
• Single File: the student will be asked to upload a single file
• Multiple files: the student will be asked to upload one or more files

Completion method

Define how the assignment will be marked as "completed":

• Manual: the object status will be set to "complete" wen  teacher manually enters a score 
• Upon file upload: the object status will be set to "complete" automatically when any file has been uploaded by the student

Assignment Score Properties

Score propertis for an assignment can be set from the LO properties page:

User view and upload

When a user accesses an Assignement material, the following elements will be displayed:

1. Title and description, as set by the teacher during the LO creation
2. File upload area, if the assigment is configured fore single or multiple file upload. If the assignment upload method is set as "No Upload", this block won't be shown
3. List of uploaded files, If the assignment is configured for "single upload", when a new file is uploaded it will override the previous one. It won't be possible to upload new files once the LO has been reviewd by a teacher
4. Teacher review

Evaluating an Assignment

Assignments will be listed in the Course Report module:

Clicking on the LO Title teachers will then be able to see the list of students and:

1. Check the files uploaded by a user
2. Assign a score
3. Add a comment

File Name Handling for SCORM Packages

Feature available from: FormaLMS 4.1.39 (March 2026) Subsequent improvement: FormaLMS 4.1.40

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Why was it introduced

In the past, when uploading SCORM packages or attachments whose names contained special characters — accented letters, apostrophes, spaces, parentheses, symbols, or non-Latin characters — the platform could encounter errors in various operations:

• inability to copy a SCORM learning object between different repositories;
• errors during package extraction or playback;
• broken download links;
• inconsistencies between what was recorded in the platform and what was actually stored.

To resolve these issues and ensure consistency across the entire platform, an automatic file name normalization system was introduced.

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What the platform does

When a user uploads a file (SCORM package, forum attachment, quiz response file, course material), the platform automatically applies a series of transformations to the file name before saving it:

1. Accents are converted to their base letter Example: lezione sull'età adulta.zip becomes lezione_sulleta_adulta.zip.

2. Spaces are replaced with underscores Example: Modulo base.zip becomes Modulo_base.zip.

3. Special characters and punctuation are removed Apostrophes, parentheses, dots, and various symbols are removed, keeping only letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens.

4. Non-Latin characters are stripped out Ideograms, non-Western alphabets, and emojis are removed. If the file name consists entirely of such characters, the platform automatically assigns a safe fallback name, ensuring the upload never fails.

5. The file extension is preserved Users will continue to see the correct extension (.zip, .pdf, .docx, …) to open the file with the appropriate application.

What this means for the user

• Uploads are never blocked due to file name issues.
• The original name visible to the user in the platform (learning object title, attachment label) does not change: normalization only affects the technical file name used behind the scenes.
• SCORM packages with complex names can now be copied, moved, and reused across organizational and home repositories without errors.

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Where normalization is applied

Normalization is automatically applied in all areas where users can upload files:

• SCORM packages uploaded in courses;
• Forum attachments (both course forums and public forums);
• Quiz response files uploaded by learners;
• Course and lesson materials.

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What happens to existing packages before the update

Platforms that already had SCORM packages, attachments, or materials with names containing special characters were handled through an automatic alignment procedure executed during the update to version 4.1.39.

During this process, the platform:

• identifies all files and folders with names containing special characters;
• renames each item automatically using the same normalization rules;
• updates internal references to maintain consistency between platform records and stored files.

The procedure is designed to be safe:

• before any changes, the full list of original file names is saved in the update log, ensuring traceability;
• if a file is missing, it is skipped without consequences;
• if a file with the new name already exists, it is never overwritten;
• internal references are updated only after confirming that renaming was successful.

Improvement introduced in version 4.1.40

In some scenarios — particularly when the same SCORM package had been copied multiple times across courses or repositories — the 4.1.39 alignment process could leave some references out of sync with the already renamed file.

Version 4.1.40 introduces a corrective step that automatically detects and fixes these remaining cases, ensuring full alignment between the file system and the platform.

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Benefits for the end user

• Always reliable file uploads, regardless of the original file name.
• Error-free copying and reuse of SCORM packages across courses and repositories.
• Stable download and playback across all devices and operating systems.
• Automatically cleaned historical archive after the update, with no manual intervention required.
• Unchanged user experience: visible titles and descriptions remain the same.

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Version summary

FormaLMS Version	What it introduces
4.1.39	Automatic normalization for new uploads and alignment procedure for existing archives
4.1.40	Fix for residual misalignment cases in SCORM packages copied multiple times
4.1.41 and 4.1.42	No changes: feature stabilized