Skip to main content

LMS Best Practices

Updated

A few setup choices and small habits make the difference between a smooth learning experience and one that stalls, freezes, or loses your progress. Follow the guidance below — especially the browser and cookie settings — and most issues never come up.

Browser & device

  • Use a supported browser, kept up to date. Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Safari are all fully supported on their two most recent major versions. If you aren't sure whether your browser is current, see Keep Your Browser Up to Date.
  • A desktop or laptop gives the richest experience — larger screen, reliable keyboard, and uninterrupted network. Tablets and phones are fully supported for taking courses, but some authoring and reporting features are desktop-only.
  • Stable internet matters more than raw speed. A steady 5 Mbps connection plays video reliably; a flaky 50 Mbps connection will still stall a course. Use wired Ethernet or a strong Wi-Fi signal where you can.

Cookies, pop-ups & privacy settings

The single most common cause of "the course won't launch" or "my progress wasn't saved" is a browser or extension blocking cookies, pop-ups, or third-party content for the LMS domain. Before reporting a problem:

  • Allow cookies for *.tortal.learning.net and any content host your courses use.
  • Allow pop-ups for the LMS site — most courses open in a new window or tab.
  • Pause ad-blockers and privacy extensions on the LMS site (uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, AdGuard, Ghostery, etc.). These tools sometimes block the tracking calls a course needs to record your progress.
  • Avoid Incognito / Private browsing for coursework — third-party cookies are blocked by default in those modes.

Taking a course — the rules that prevent lost progress

  • Exit through the course's Exit button, not by closing the tab or window. The Exit button is what triggers the final save of your progress, completion status, and quiz results.
  • Wait for the course info page to reload after you exit — if you close the browser before it reloads, the last save may not commit.
  • Don't open the same course in two tabs at once. The two sessions can overwrite each other and your progress may be lost.
  • If a course freezes, use the course's built-in navigation (Back / Next / Menu) to move away from the frozen slide before closing. Force-quitting a frozen course is the most reliable way to lose progress.

Before you report a problem — quick self-checks

  1. Reload the page with Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to bypass cached files.
  2. Try a different supported browser. If the course works in Chrome but not Edge, the problem is almost always an extension or setting on one of them.
  3. Clear your browser cache and cookies for the LMS site — see How to Clear a Browser Cache.
  4. Restart your browser and try again. Long-running browser sessions occasionally accumulate memory issues that a restart resolves instantly.

If the problem persists after all four checks, open a support request and include the course name, your browser and version, the step at which it failed, and a screenshot of any error message. That information lets us resolve most reports in a single reply.

Related articles