How to migrate courses from other authoring tools into Coassemble Embed
How do I migrate courses from other authoring tools?
What comes across automatically from an existing authoring tool, what needs rebuilding, and how to set expectations so the project stays on track.
When customers already have training built in tools like Articulate, 7taps or Chameleon Creator, you'll often need to help them move that content into your Coassemble solution.
Start with SCORM if they have it
Most established authoring tools export SCORM, and that's now the fastest route into Coassemble. There are two paths, and the right one depends on whether the content needs to change.
Host the package exactly as it is
Upload a SCORM package and it runs exactly as it was authored, with the original design and interactions intact. It sits in the library as a course card with a SCORM label, and you get attempt-level reporting including time spent, success, score and question-level results. Completion, score and time land on the same tracking objects as any other course, and the people who take it count as Identified Recipients or Anonymous Recipients against your annual account-level allowance exactly as they would for a course embed. A learner who leaves mid-package resumes where they left off.
A hosted package is never editable. It can't be opened in a builder, translated, or re-exported as SCORM. That makes hosting the right answer for approved compliance content that rarely changes and where the original design has to survive intact.
What's supported:
- SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (3rd and 4th Edition), single-SCO or simple multi-SCO.
- Up to 200 MB per package by default.
- Standard exports from tools like Articulate Rise and Storyline, including their default sequencing boilerplate.
Packages using SCORM 2004 sequencing rules (activity trees, rollup rules, global objectives) are rejected at upload with a clear reason rather than played incorrectly.
Convert the package into an editable course
Upload the SCORM package when creating a course with the AI agent and it's converted into a fully editable Coassemble course made of blocks. Text, images, galleries, flashcards, process steps, accordions and knowledge checks come across, and anything that couldn't be converted is listed for review rather than quietly dropped.
Either way, the customer's original package is untouched. Both paths read a copy, so the file they uploaded keeps working wherever it's running today.
Hosting is done by uploading the package in the app, and conversion through the agent runs on the Generate API. See the developer documentation for the request shapes.
Which tools convert best?
Four tools are recognised specifically, and their content is read directly:
- Articulate Rise
- Articulate Storyline
- Adobe Captivate
- iSpring
Coassemble's own SCORM exports are also recognised, so a course exported from Coassemble can be brought back in.
Packages from other tools can still be uploaded. They're read generically rather than with knowledge of how that tool structures its content, so expect less of the original structure to survive. If a conversion produces very little, you're told rather than left with a near-empty course that looks like a success.
Hosting has no such distinction. A hosted package runs as its own authoring tool built it, whichever tool that was.
What carries across when you convert
Content and media. Text, headings and images come across, along with galleries of images from the original.
Interactive elements. Interactions are mapped onto the closest Coassemble block, so they stay interactive rather than flattening into paragraphs:
| In the original | Becomes in Coassemble |
|---|---|
| Accordion | Accordion |
| Flashcards | Flashcards |
| Process or steps | Process |
| Tabs with two or more panels | Accordion, one item per tab |
| Tabs with a single panel | Process with a single card |
| Timeline | Process, one card per entry |
| Bulleted and numbered lists | Lists |
Order is preserved. A timeline with six entries becomes a process with six cards in the same sequence.
Assessment. Knowledge checks and quiz slides come across as real question blocks with their answer options and correct answers intact, not as plain text describing a question that no longer works.
What still doesn't carry across
- Labelled graphics and hotspots. The text from each hotspot does come across, so the information isn't lost, but the image and the reveal interaction aren't rebuilt by the conversion. The course builder has a Hotspot block, so a customer can rebuild the interaction on the converted screen. If they'd rather keep it exactly as it was built, host the package instead.
- The original visual design. A converted course is rebuilt from Coassemble blocks and takes the Coassemble theme, so it won't look like a copy of the original. The content carries across, not the styling.
- Learner history. Neither hosting nor converting brings across completions and scores. Records in the customer's current system stay there, and reporting in Coassemble starts from when people take it here.
- Complex Storyline interactions. Branching scenarios and advanced triggers have no direct equivalent and need to be reimagined.
What if there's no SCORM export?
Proprietary card formats like 7taps, and heavy template-based designs like Chameleon Creator, often can't be exported as usable SCORM. In that case, work from the customer's original source material instead.
Upload their PDFs, Word documents or slide decks to the AI agent and choose how closely the course should follow the source:
- Verbatim keeps the wording exactly as authored, which is usually what you want for compliance content that has already been approved.
- Structured keeps the content but reshapes it into a clearer learning flow.
- Adaptive treats the material as background and builds a fuller course around the learning outcomes.
This is almost always faster than manual recreation, and it's the reason to ask early whether the customer still has the source files.
A migration approach that works
For customers migrating a significant library, this workflow reduces rework and surprises.
- Audit first
- Ask the customer to list all existing courses.
- Rank them by usage and importance.
- Avoid migrating low-value or unused courses.
- Sort each course into host, convert or rebuild
- Host if the design and interactions must survive intact and the content rarely changes.
- Convert if the content needs updating, translating or reusing.
- Rebuild from source if there's no usable SCORM export.
- This single decision drives the effort estimate for the whole project.
- Start small
- Take one course of each type end to end.
- Use it to validate the process, define a visual style and estimate effort.
- Convert one package before committing to a whole library, so the customer sees what carries across.
- Phase the rollout
- Move high-priority courses first.
- Retire low-value courses.
- Use the project as an opportunity to clean up and standardise the library.
Setting expectations with customers
Misaligned expectations are the most common cause of friction. Establish these principles early.
- Converting is not a visual copy. If a customer expects a Storyline course to look identical inside Coassemble, they'll be disappointed. Position the outcome as improved and modernised. If the look matters more than editability, host the package instead.
- Learner history stays where it is. Completions and scores recorded in their current system don't come across, so plan the cutover around a reporting boundary they're comfortable with.
- Volume counts from day one. Once content is live in Coassemble, the people taking it draw on the recipient allowances in your agreement. Worth sizing before a large library goes live rather than after.
- Some courses should be retired. Migration is the right time to ask whether a course is still needed. It's normal and beneficial to drop outdated content.
- Plan for review cycles. Every converted or rebuilt course needs stakeholder review. Include review time in the project plan to prevent timeline drift.
When to escalate to Coassemble
Most migrations can be handled by your team using the developer documentation and the AI agent. Escalate when you encounter:
- A package that won't upload or convert
- A package rejected for unsupported sequencing rules
- Unusual customer requirements
- A migration at a scale that needs platform-level guidance
Email vip@coassemble.com with the package, what you were trying to do, and what you saw instead.