When it comes to SCORM content, you have two options – Popup or Current window. As a rule we pretty much always use the Popup option, because it gives us the biggest viewing area for our content.

I was asked recently if it would be possible to open the SCORM activity in a new tab, rather than a popup window.

I could not get it to open in a new tab, but I did manage to get the content to display in the current window, without the pre and post regions. Basically full page width from the banner down.

The change I made does require one line to be added to the SCORM module. This is a change to core Moodle code. If you make the change, you need to manage this change carefully when it comes to upgrades.

The SCORM settings in Moodle – select Current window

Selecting the SCORM activity in the course will load the page below as per usual.

Once you click enter, the SCORM activity loads in the current window.

The page is full width, and the SCORM activity is shown without scroll bars.

I made the change to the /mod/scorm/scorm.php file.

The change I made was to include set_pagelayout and set it to “frametop” (line 111). I got the value frametop by looking at the config.php file of the theme I was using. In this instance I am using the Elegance theme.

mod/scorm/scorm.php

Elegance theme config.php page

Core changes are never a good idea, so be sure before implementing a change like this.