Does updating LearnR tutorials installed via package overwrite user progress?

[Norcalbiostat]

I want to start using LearnR for students in a class, and will deploy it by creating a package ala this method.

However, when I update the tutorials in the package, if they reinstall the package to get the updates will it erase their progress?

[grrrck]

No, updating the package containing a tutorial usually doesn't erase a student's progress with the tutorial, since progress is typically stored in the student's browser. You can specifically cause a state reset in new versions of a tutorial by changing the value of the tutorial version in the YAML header of the tutorial:

tutorial:
  version: 2.0

[Norcalbiostat]

Awesome, thank you. If it's stored in a students browser, is it using cookies or some other form of data tracking? What if they have cookies blocked, or when they shut down their browser their information is deleted?

Could you point me in the direction of instructions/tutorial on how to get user progress data out of a tutorial? E.g. for submission to instructor for credit.

[grrrck]

learnr tutorials use the browser's local storage system, which is not cookie based, but is dependent on the browser they use and where the tutorial is hosted. So as long as they open the tutorial in the same browser where they were working previously, their progress will be restored, even if they update your package in the interim. If they were to open the tutorial in a different browser (e.g. Safari instead of Chrome) or if they access the tutorial via shinyapps.io instead of their local R session, then they'll start over in that tutorial.

To access the user's progress through the tutorial you have three options, ranked from most to least complicated:

1. Use event handling to observe and store the student's events as they move through the tutorial: Publishing Basics: Recording Events
2. Access the current tutorial state via get_tutorial_state() in the Shiny app part of the tutorial
3. Use a package like learnrhash to collect student's responses.

[Norcalbiostat]

For the record, i'm going with learnrhash.
Thanks!