How To: Replace a content item – Civica Learning

You sometimes need to replace an item of content such as an eLearning course or a PDF document with an updated version of the same content, for example, when a typo has been identified and fixed. Civica Learning provides a replace function which you can use to replace any previously uploaded content.

When using the replace function, the existing content item launch link is not changed. This is useful, if for example you've already published this link or sent it to users by email.

Course replacement considerations

Replacing composite content items such as SCORM or xAPI (Tin Can) courses is not as simple as replacing file based content and you should be very careful to consider whether or not it is appropriate to use the replace function, or whether you should upload the updated version as a new catalogue item.

It is safe to use the replace function with courses when:

The structure of the course has not changed. For example, no new pages have been added, pages removed or pages resequenced.
Completion criteria for the course has not changed.
Assessments or quizzes contained within the course have not changed. For example, no questions or answers have been added or removed or resequenced.
Only page content has been updated. For example, diagrams, text corrections, colour corrections.
Only assessment or quiz text content has been updated. For example, to fix typos.
When contained media such as video or audio files has been updated.
You have not yet released the course and no learners have started the course. In this case, structural changes will not cause problems and you can safely replace courses without issue.

The reason that structural changes can cause problems when replacing courses that learners have already started, is that these changes can invalidate the course's suspend data. This is the data that is saved by the course as the learner progresses through it. It is also used to ensure that learners resume the course at the point they left it. It can also contain state data that impacts course completion. Replacing courses with structural changes can invalidate this data and can cause completion issues and undefined behaviours for learners who are midway through the course and who subsequently resume it.

Maintaining Activity IDs

When you replace an xAPI (Tin Can) course, you must ensure the Activity ID of the new and old courses match. If these conditions are not met, the replace operation will fail. You may therefore need to manually edit these properties, if your authoring solution updates these details when the updated course is created.

For an xAPI (Tin Can) course, the activity id is defined in the tincan.xml file, which is normally in the root folder of the course's xAPI zip file package. Here is the header from an example tincan.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

To replace a content item

Log in to your Administration portal, as either a Global administrator or Content administrator (with Owner permissions for the item you want to replace).
On the NAVIGATION pane, click Catalogue.
On the Results page, click the content item that you want to replace.

INFO: If the content item you want to replace is not currently displayed, use the Search and filters.

In the ACTIONS section, click Replace item_type, where item_type is the type of item being replaced, for example course, where you are replacing an eLearning course.
In the Replace item_type dialog box, click Browse and then locate the new item-type. Alternatively you can drag-and-drop the new item-type over the top of the dialog box.
In the Replace item_type dialog box, click Upload.
Once the upload is complete, click Close.

A short demonstration of replacing a content item