SCORM Watch

Why can't our data just get along?

Developers of SCORM seek new content model for K-12 data, but consensus among educators and vendors may be elusive 

October 5, 2007 eSchool News article

The Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA) and the Defense Department's Advanced Distributive Learning (ADL) Initiative are collaborating to improve interoperability in K-12 schools. Through the development of a new version of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM, the two groups hope to transform the way education content is shared, with a focus on improved teaching and learning. "Core SCORM" will feature capabilities including the aggregation of learning content, search and discovery, and tracking student achievement.

eLearning Content

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Defense Department's development of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model and SCORM is on its way to dominating the content marketplace for on-line courseware, both educational and corporate. SCORM is now managed by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, a part of the office of the Secretary of Defense, which now requires that all eLearning materials be SCORM compliant.

Read the full article here.

Stewardship of SCORM Moving to International Arena

The Defense Department is relinquishing the stewardship of SCORM, a collection of standards for e-learning interoperability, so that the initiative can more readily fulfill its purpose as an international e-learning standard. See article in Campus Technology. The "Global 2007 Conference," held London on March 19, was considered the start of the transition of SCORM between the old and new parent organizations.

SCORM in D2L: A Sharable Experience

Suzanne Skublics delivers SCORM conformant courseware in Desire2Learn for the Defence Learning Network Project at the Canadian Department of National Defence and shares her experiences. Apart from developing and verifying SCORM courseware, her main role within DNDLearn is to support our user community with all issues related to SCORM. When the D2L LMS was deployed as DNDLearn, her first task was to determine its conformance to SCORM, for both versions 1.2 and 2004. Once that was determined, the next step was to analyze how easy the SCORM features are to use. Read the entire article for her challenges and solutions.

Making the Grade: Collaborate and Catalog

In the January 2007 CRM Magazine, Coreen Bailer states:

Some contact centers are taking a more collaborative approach to generating e-learning materials by culling information from disparate sources like marketing and human resources. That's where sharable content object reference model (SCORM) compliance comes in. SCORM is a collection of standards and specifications adapted from multiple sources to provide e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility, and reusability of Web-based learning. "Things like SCORM compliance are hitting the call center now because [centers are] starting to realize that a lot of this content may exist already somewhere within the company," says Matt Storm, product manager for etalk's e-learning product line.

Six ed-tech trends to watch in 2007

eSchool News names SCORM as Trend No. 4: The gathering SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)

A close cousin of service-oriented architecture is the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM.

SCORM is a collection of standards and specifications adapted from multiple sources to allow for the interoperability, accessibility, and reusability of digital learning materials: everything from a video clip illustrating how cells divide to a PowerPoint explication of a sonnet.

The SCORM specifications--now in edition three--are becoming increasingly important for ensuring that digital content can be integrated into any learning management system (LMS) software, regardless of its manufacturer. What's more, SCORM is opening the door for the creation of "digital repositories," or collections of sharable, reusable online content that educators can search through to find items they can incorporate into their own instruction.

Though SCORM might sound complicated, its desired outcome is quite simple--to facilitate the sharing and reusability of digital learning materials among educators. Educators hope the untethering of content from its method of delivery will be a big outcome of SCORM.

Delta3D-LMS Integration Project

The United States Navy is engaged in an enterprise-wide transformation of how it trains. One key component of this transformation is the development of the Navy's Integrated Learning Environment (ILE). This initiative uses a variety of instructional development strategies to meet the diverse requirements of the Navy's workforce and assures content which is relevant, current, accurate and engaging. Where content design and development is concerned, the Navy has mandated the use of SCORM guidelines for all learning materials to be used within the ILE.

However, the growth in capability and flexibility of interactive simulations has led to a challenge for the Navy, regarding how to integrate the power of these interactive simulations into the ILE. The Naval Education and Training Command's (NETC) Experimentation Lab, located at the NAVAIR Training Systems Division in Orlando Florida, is experimenting with the tracking of learning objectives between a Learning Management System and a gaming/simulation engine for reporting back progress towards meeting defined training objectives.

The project involves the successful integration of the open source projects Delta3D and Moodle.

Making the Vision of Learning Anytime, Anywhere, a Reality

The latest issue of Military Training Technology (Volume: 11  Issue: 4) includes an interview with Robert A. Wisher, Ph.D., Director, Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL). Dr. Wisher examines the history, current status of ADL and of SCORM.

Dr. Wisher is responsible for directing and implementing the ADL Initiative within the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as other government organizations, academia and industry on an international basis. Wisher provides direction for the development and refinement of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) and for the continued expansion of the ADL Initiative.

Ariss takes e-learning to the next level

Ariss Computers is gearing up to showcase its SCORM compliant e-learning content solutions for universities and schools in the region at this year’s Gitex. The SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) e-learning based solutions will enable plug-and-play interoperability, accessibility, and reusability of Ariss Web-based learning content.

The Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA) and Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Announce Formal Relationship to Enable Interoperability Between Educational Applications

The Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA) and the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) have just released a joint executive brief outlining their newly established relationship. The relationship outlines the desire to create and implement a proof of concept using SIF and SCORM, provide clarity and best practices around the use of SIF and SCORM and develop a long term action plan for collaboration between SIFA and ADL.