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  1. Defense Acquisition University
  2. Frequently Asked Questions

​Addressing Lesson Tracking Discrepancies

 

Announcement

There has been an increase in reports from students stating their course progress is not tracking while using the Internet Explorer browser.  This will prevent access into an exam. If you notice your progress is not tracking, please use the Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Mozilla Firefox browser as an alternative.

Overview

While navigating online training courses in the DAU Virtual Campus, the course player will keep track of each page that is accessed by establishing course-specific bookmarks associated with your login session.  Once engagement with an online course has concluded (the course player window has been closed), all bookmark data is then saved in the Virtual Campus to help learners resume their training in subsequent login sessions.

Students occasionally report that their progress has either been lost or that their status remains "in progress" after completing a module.  This tutorial has been created in response to these incidents, and the guidance provided will aid those impacted by providing steps to resume training and tips to prevent future occurrences.

  Questions this tutorial will address include:
 

What Causes The Loss Of Progress?

It's important to note that each test/exam presented in an online training course requires a passing score of 80% or higher within 3 testing attempts.  If you do not achieve a passing score on your third/final attempt, your enrollment will reset and you will be required to re-complete the entire course; this is expected system behavior.  

However, if your progress is lost/reset while simply navigating an online module, it's likely that your last login session was interrupted.  This may be due to:

  • An idle session with the Virtual Campus.

  • Closing the Virtual Campus window that is expected to run in the background after "launching" your course/module.

  • Impact from a local network outage/maintenance.

  • Alternating between wired and wireless connectivity (common occurrence when docking/undocking a laptop or tablet device) while the course player is open.

  • Generating a secondary login session using a different Internet browser while the course player remains open.

  • Local browser security policy contraints.

 

How Do I Restore My Progress?

While there's no way to recover/restore your entire progress, there are ways to overcome the impact of these incidents and still receive module completion credit in order to advance on to exams: 

  1. Clear your browser cache.

  2. Restart your Internet browser by closing all open websites.

  3. Log back into the Virtual Campus website using a supported desktop browser (Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox).

  4. Return to your course and Launch the module impacted.

  5. Use the Table of Contents to navigate to where you left off in training.  Within the Table of Contents, you may click-to-expand Modules and Lessons in order to navigate to a specific page.

    IMPORTANT:

  • If you had completed the entire module and are ready to begin your exam, simply access the Module Completion page from the Table of Contents.  Afterwards, close the course player window.  The page where you launch training will automatically refresh to activate the next exam or module presented in your online course.

  • If your course does not present a Table of Contents, you may be taking a "hosted" course developed by a different training provider.  Please click here for targeted guidance that pertains to FAC, FCN, FCR, FPM, HBS and SPS courses.


Figure 1 - Example Depicting The Navigation Of A DAU Online Training Course Using The Table of Contents:
Screen capture depicting the navigation of a course's Table of Contents

 
What Can I Do To Prevent The Loss Of Progress?
 
  • When teleworking, avoid using your organization's VPN to access the DAU Virtual Campus.  Use a direct Internet connection, if possible, or a personal device on your home network.  COVID-19 has resulted in increased VPN traffic which, in turn, presents challenges with maintaining site connections in the Web browser.
     
  • Avoid logging into your account in multiple browsers.  When switching browsers, be sure to close the course player and log out in the first browser before you log in with a different browser.

  • Avoid closing the Virtual Campus (Window 1 depicted in Figure 2) after launching the course player (Window 2 depicted in Figure 2). 

    If Window 1 does not remain open in the background, your progress will not be saved when you close or complete the content being presented in Window 2. 

Figure 2 - Example Demonstrating The Virtual Campus And Course Player Windows:
CSOD_CourseWindows.png


  • Periodically close the course player window to forcefully save your progress.  You may immediately re-launch the training, if desired. 

    This should be done at least once every 45-60 minutes.

Figure 3 - Example Highlighting How To Close The Course Player Window to Save Progress:
CSOD_CloseToSave.png


If a "404" error occurs after closing and re-launching a training module, this means that your login session has already expired.  Clear your browser cache and start a new login session. 


  • If the above recommendations do not result in improvements as you complete additional training modules, please contact your local IT department and explain that your browser is not maintaining your login session with the DAU Virtual Campus website.  It may be necessary that they associate the Virtual Campus domain, https://dau.csod.com/, to be "trusted" or "white-listed" if local security configurations are causing session interference.  In addition, they should ensure that your computer recognizes the DigiCert certificate that's used to establish a secure connection.