0018. External content completes topics; completion events fire after progress is saved

• Status: Accepted (2026-10-09)
• Date: 2026-10-09

Context and problem statement

SCORM packages, LiaScript courses and LTI tools report completion outside the topic API. Before Phase 1 a finished SCORM package left its topic open. Lesson and course completion, certificates and the LTI grade passback all hang off TopicFinished. The Moodle conformance run showed that the event fired before the new progress row was saved, so a listener running at once (sync queue) saw the old state and sent the previous score. Phase 1 decisions 5, 23 and 38.

Decision

• Every external completion goes through CourseProgressRepository::updateInTopic(): ScormScoCompleted (first completed/passed) completes every SCORM topic using that SCO for learners with course access (checked on the course policy); LiaScript completes at the last section or on completed/passed; an LTI score with Completed or FullyGraded completes the LTI topic. An in-progress row is created first so the transition fires the usual events.
• TopicFinished and the lesson/course check are dispatched after the progress row is saved.
• Scores from tools are append-only; a later lower score never reopens a topic.

Consequences

• Listeners can read the learner’s progress including the topic just finished, whatever the queue driver.
• Certificates and course completion now follow package completion automatically.