SCORM !?

What is SCORM?

Shareable Content Object Reference Model

"Shareable Content Object" (SCO) describes a reusable element that can be used independently across multiple tools and platforms. "Reference Model" is used to describe this system since it's not yet considered a strict industry standard. SCOs are any asset to the course (a module, chapter, or page for example), and when they're SCORM compliant the content should be understood by all compatible learning management systems (LMS). Each LMS will have SCOs shown and tracked separately with an attached score.

SCORM is a technical specification for elearning development software. Basically, the content is compliant with SCORM when you've created elearning courses with any authoring tool and the output is a zip folder. This SCORM compliant zip folder is then easily uploaded to your LMS, regardless of the ecosystem.

Benefits of SCORM

SCORM has been widely adopted throughout the elearning industry. It's cost effective, fast (saves time for you, the instructors, any stakeholder), and powerful. Being SCORM compliant allows for elearning courses to perform and migrate across LMSs with ease.

How to Create a SCORM Course

Technically, SCORM is produced by Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL), a research group sponsored by the US Department of Defence. In order to easily create a SCORM course, you'll want to have access to an authoring tool that supports SCORM so that content is compatible with your LMS. Now this is the down side to SCORM: cost of authoring tools. Some common examples of authoring tools that use the SCORM Driver (also known as Rustici Driver) are; Adobe Captivate, Articulate, dominKnow, and simTutor. Rustici Software specializes in helping these companies become SCORM conformant.