Critical questions to ask your LMS vendor about SCORM before buying their learning management system. These questions are designed to help you get a SCORM implementation that works for you.
SCORM: A Quick Guide. What is SCORM? An introduction to Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM); the standards and specifications for web-based e-learning.
A basic outline of what SCORM does and how the idea for SCORM came about. For an in-depth look at SCORM in a language you can understand visit www.thinkingcap.com/SCORM
This presentation looks at SCORM (and in particular SCORM 2004) from an end user perspective. We address those aspects of SCORM that go beyond technology and aim at supporting effective learning practices in both corporate and academic contexts. We focus on its rationale and its current status, trying to understand its real potential for those who really have strategic goals about training and education in their organizations.
SCORM: A Quick Guide. What is SCORM? An introduction to Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM); the standards and specifications for web-based e-learning.
A basic outline of what SCORM does and how the idea for SCORM came about. For an in-depth look at SCORM in a language you can understand visit www.thinkingcap.com/SCORM
This presentation looks at SCORM (and in particular SCORM 2004) from an end user perspective. We address those aspects of SCORM that go beyond technology and aim at supporting effective learning practices in both corporate and academic contexts. We focus on its rationale and its current status, trying to understand its real potential for those who really have strategic goals about training and education in their organizations.
What is SCORM? Finally, we solve the mystery! Find out about its benefits and the problems SCORM solves! Check out what Juliette has to say about SCORM here:
https://youtu.be/bOnMmy8xvEY
Some of the Department of Defense (DOD) services have had negative experiences when attempting to share SCORM content packages between their various LMS implementations primarily due to differences with both user interfaces and the Application Programming Interface (API) Implementation. The vision of plug-n-play interoperability of learning content is usually achieved only after several additional hours of modifying the content to work in a particular LMS implementation. In order to achieve adoption on a global scale, SCORM 2.0 must have a strategy to improve interoperability by standardizing the user interface controls in further support of flexibility, usability, accessibility, and durability. This paper provides a background and summary of the Navy's successes with extending the SCORM to support standardized user interface options, and further proposes creating or incorporating a new user interface interoperability specification and a recommendation for supplying a standardized API Implementation as part of the Core SCORM.
During the past three months I have been in contact with several organizations and vendors that have either already implemented SCORM or have been working on implementing SCORM as part of their mobile learning strategy. This helped me to identify the use cases for this presentation.
My objectives for this presentation and also for my ongoing research interests are the following:
1) Generate a list of mobile learning technologies that use SCORM.
2) Publish general best practices for designing SCORM content for mobile devices.
3) Identify which technologies are available when implementing SCORM for mobile devices.
4) Identify potential updates to SCORM that will enhance future mobile learning.
Today I will talk about some specific mLearning examples and provide you with the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, and why) of each use case and how SCORM is being addressed as part of their mLearning strategy. Finally, I will conclude the session with the outcomes I recorded from analyzing these use cases. The outcomes will include:
• Notable Findings
• Common Technical Challenges and Considerations
• General Best Practices
Creating and using SCORM based Adobe Captivate tutorials in Moodletrainingfront
If you are using Adobe Captivate and Moodle together, one of the first things you need to take into consideration is the use of SCORM.
Both Moodle and Adobe Captivate are SCORM compatible. What does this mean? It means that you can create an eLearning tutorial with Adobe Captivate that will communicate the users score and other information to the gradebook in Moodle. If you were ever wondering how to track completion of flash based eLearning tutorials, SCORM is the answer. Flash based elearning tutorial can be your presentation, a software simulation, a scenario based soft skill training session.
You could drive yourself crazy drilling down into the details of SCORM but the most important thing to know is how to make it work.
This session will answer one of my most frequently asked questions from eLearning instructional designers by walking you through the steps of using a SCORM based Adobe Captivate tutorial in Moodle.
FusedLearning, in partnership with eFront Learning has provided an informative presentation on the benefits of the eFront LMS.
eFront enables functions such as community learning, supports the principle of collective knowledge and provides functionality towards personalized learning. eFront bridges the gap between Enterprise, Educational, Open-Source and Proprietary learning combining the best from all of them.
Our experience in providing successful launches of the eFront Learning platform educational and enterprise solutions helps us create an outstanding product. FusedLearning guarantees quality, competent and rapid execution of any projects from small business educational programs to enterprise level education integrations.
Presentation given by Mike Rustici at eLearning DevCon 2010. Run through of the most important questions you should consider about SCORM when planning an LMS purchase.
Dependency Management In A Large Agile EnvironmentSteve Greene
Salesforce.com’s R&D organization has over 30 Scrum teams working simultaneously in a single release code branch. This report highlights practices that salesforce.com has been using successfully to scale Scrum and to manage inter-team dependencies.
Regardless of the buzz around the TinCan API, SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 still enjoy better support as a way of ensuring standardized communication between online courses and their corresponding learning management system. SCORM 1.2 is in all likelihood the most commonly used specification in the industry. The biggest advantage of SCORM 1.2 is that uploading content to the LMS is as easy as uploading a ZIP file. Unfortunately, SCORM 1.2 lacks many of the features of the more modern specifications, like SCORM 2004
What is SCORM? Finally, we solve the mystery! Find out about its benefits and the problems SCORM solves! Check out what Juliette has to say about SCORM here:
https://youtu.be/bOnMmy8xvEY
Some of the Department of Defense (DOD) services have had negative experiences when attempting to share SCORM content packages between their various LMS implementations primarily due to differences with both user interfaces and the Application Programming Interface (API) Implementation. The vision of plug-n-play interoperability of learning content is usually achieved only after several additional hours of modifying the content to work in a particular LMS implementation. In order to achieve adoption on a global scale, SCORM 2.0 must have a strategy to improve interoperability by standardizing the user interface controls in further support of flexibility, usability, accessibility, and durability. This paper provides a background and summary of the Navy's successes with extending the SCORM to support standardized user interface options, and further proposes creating or incorporating a new user interface interoperability specification and a recommendation for supplying a standardized API Implementation as part of the Core SCORM.
During the past three months I have been in contact with several organizations and vendors that have either already implemented SCORM or have been working on implementing SCORM as part of their mobile learning strategy. This helped me to identify the use cases for this presentation.
My objectives for this presentation and also for my ongoing research interests are the following:
1) Generate a list of mobile learning technologies that use SCORM.
2) Publish general best practices for designing SCORM content for mobile devices.
3) Identify which technologies are available when implementing SCORM for mobile devices.
4) Identify potential updates to SCORM that will enhance future mobile learning.
Today I will talk about some specific mLearning examples and provide you with the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, and why) of each use case and how SCORM is being addressed as part of their mLearning strategy. Finally, I will conclude the session with the outcomes I recorded from analyzing these use cases. The outcomes will include:
• Notable Findings
• Common Technical Challenges and Considerations
• General Best Practices
Creating and using SCORM based Adobe Captivate tutorials in Moodletrainingfront
If you are using Adobe Captivate and Moodle together, one of the first things you need to take into consideration is the use of SCORM.
Both Moodle and Adobe Captivate are SCORM compatible. What does this mean? It means that you can create an eLearning tutorial with Adobe Captivate that will communicate the users score and other information to the gradebook in Moodle. If you were ever wondering how to track completion of flash based eLearning tutorials, SCORM is the answer. Flash based elearning tutorial can be your presentation, a software simulation, a scenario based soft skill training session.
You could drive yourself crazy drilling down into the details of SCORM but the most important thing to know is how to make it work.
This session will answer one of my most frequently asked questions from eLearning instructional designers by walking you through the steps of using a SCORM based Adobe Captivate tutorial in Moodle.
FusedLearning, in partnership with eFront Learning has provided an informative presentation on the benefits of the eFront LMS.
eFront enables functions such as community learning, supports the principle of collective knowledge and provides functionality towards personalized learning. eFront bridges the gap between Enterprise, Educational, Open-Source and Proprietary learning combining the best from all of them.
Our experience in providing successful launches of the eFront Learning platform educational and enterprise solutions helps us create an outstanding product. FusedLearning guarantees quality, competent and rapid execution of any projects from small business educational programs to enterprise level education integrations.
Presentation given by Mike Rustici at eLearning DevCon 2010. Run through of the most important questions you should consider about SCORM when planning an LMS purchase.
Dependency Management In A Large Agile EnvironmentSteve Greene
Salesforce.com’s R&D organization has over 30 Scrum teams working simultaneously in a single release code branch. This report highlights practices that salesforce.com has been using successfully to scale Scrum and to manage inter-team dependencies.
Regardless of the buzz around the TinCan API, SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 still enjoy better support as a way of ensuring standardized communication between online courses and their corresponding learning management system. SCORM 1.2 is in all likelihood the most commonly used specification in the industry. The biggest advantage of SCORM 1.2 is that uploading content to the LMS is as easy as uploading a ZIP file. Unfortunately, SCORM 1.2 lacks many of the features of the more modern specifications, like SCORM 2004
Choosing a learning management system that suits your organisation requires an array of considerations, including deployment options. If some circumstances, you might find an LMS isn’t the right fit either.
For more content like this, check out the full Acorn Resources blog: https://acornlms.com/resources
Decoding the Salesforce Developer Demand: What to Look for & How to HireCRMJetty
Hiring the right Salesforce developer is a make-or-break decision. The answer lies in figuring out exactly what you need and then hiring the right person.
Our IEEE LTSC voting members recap 2023 and what’s next for the standardsRustici Software
What better way to kick-off 2024 than to talk about eLearning standards? Okay, maybe not everyone gets as excited about discussing the latest news about acronyms like SCORM, xAPI or cmi5 as we do. No matter your standards enthusiasm, be sure to catch our latest webinar with IEEE LTSC voting members Chris Tompkins and Brian Miller sharing what happened in the standards world in 2023 and what may transpire in the future.
Talk Through for the VS2010 ALM MTLM usages patterns for Windows Azure hosted application development persentation http://www.slideshare.net/clemensreijnen/alm-4-azure-7425724
Unified Component Model for Distributed, Real- Time and Embedded Systems Requ...Remedy IT
The objective of this RFP is to solicit proposals for a new component model called the “Unified Component Model” targeting Distributed, Real-Time and Embedded (DRTE) Systems. A component model defines a set of standards for component implementation, naming, interoperability, customization, composition, evolution, and deployment.
The UCM will be a simple, lightweight, middleware-agnostic, and flexible component model. The UCM will allow many different interaction models, including publish-subscribe and request-reply.
Mainframe often termed old world juggernaut of software industry, but still holds large trillions of data in Banking, Insurance, Travel, Hospitality industry, has an impeccable track record of robust processing and security. But often the fast changing Digital world and Mobile eco system, manifests a challenge to Mainframe systems, in terms seamless compatibility. So that organizations can leverage competitive edge to have mobile eco system as part of their IT solution to gain the dynamic edge yet leverage Mainframe as their system of records to leverage stability.
In this talk will share a generic case study of major bank how they leveraged in making their Mainframe eco system nimble and compatible with Mobile eco system using Agile, Devops and Micro services in tandem to leverage competitive advantage and cost savings.
This presentation was giving at the Torrance Learning xAPI Party on May 17, 2018. The presentation highlight the ADL's cmi5 initiative, state of the industry and a brief overview of xAPI.
Similar to (At least) 27 Questions to Ask About SCORM in Your RFP (20)
Corporate and higher education. Two industries that, in the past, have had a clear divide with very little crossover. The difference in goals, learning styles and objectives paved the way for differing learning technologies platforms to evolve. Now, those stark lines are blurring as both sides are discovering they have content that’s relevant to the other.
Join Tammy Rutherford as she walks through the pros and cons of corporate and higher ed collaborating. And the challenges of these different technology platforms working together for a brighter future.
SCORM. xAPI. cmi5. LTI. AICC. Talk about alphabet soup! Just keeping up with these acronyms and standards can be difficult enough, but deciding which learning standard is best for your content and while working with the technologies in your ecosystem is even more challenging. But don’t worry, Joe Donnelly and Brian Miller are here to help you blend your content goals and choose a standard to meet them.
Always have an exit plan: Questing to limit SCORM lost completionsRustici Software
Has your party has ever experienced not getting rollup status reported back, missing learner data, confusion over what to look for in a debug log or concerns with SCORM 2004 3rd Edition? Then join Dungeon Master Joe Donnelly and Ranger Kyle Patmor as they quest to limit lost SCORM completions in this webinar!
Egg-cellent Ways Content Controller Helps Your Organization’s Training NeedsRustici Software
In this egg-citing webinar, Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales, and Elizabeth Mohr, Client Success Manager, are putting their ducks in a row to chat about what our customers’ favorite Content Controller features are and discuss new and innovative ways they’re using it to save time, cut costs and solve internal and external training needs. However, we aren’t responsible for their fowl bird puns.
RIP to Manual Course Packaging: How SANS Streamlines Content DistributionRustici Software
Are you buried in work from managing a growing course catalog? See how delivering and maintaining training across multiple systems doesn’t have to leave you feeling like a zombie. You’ll hear how the SANS Institute shifted their content distribution model to save hundreds of administration hours, ensure accuracy for high risk content, protect intellectual property, and gain visibility into course utilization.
Ready to get pedantic? Picking the best verb for StatementsRustici Software
You know the English verb you think describes your experience, but you can’t find an xAPI verb with an identifier that matches it. You’ve found other xAPI verbs that seem similar, but you want to use the verb you have in mind. What do you do?
Listen to Brian Miller as he dives into semantics and how that plays into making sure the data you generate is useful and usable across systems. He’ll discuss natural language and how that impacts semantic interoperability.
Ask Me Anything: Using eLearning Standards when creating contentRustici Software
We’ve always embraced the “Ask Us Anything” motto at Rustici, but now we’re bringing it to you in a whole new way: a live webinar. After all, one of the best ways to learn something new, or new tricks, is by hearing what questions your fellow content creators are asking – and learning the answers.
Listen to Andy Whitaker and Brian Miller as they answer your pressing SCORM, xAPI and cmi5 standards questions that arise while creating content. Whether you’re just starting to learn about standards, using xAPI tracking capabilities or considering if cmi5 is right for your organization, Andy and Brian are here to help.
Meeting in the Middle: A Blended Approach to Learning TechRustici Software
The present is not what the L&D industry predicted years ago. Many believed one learning platform would fulfill all their training needs. The reality is that most organizations have multiple LMSs implemented across every department. Each department has different priorities and needs specific tools designed for their own unique requirements. The result is a collection of siloed systems that make it difficult to have a holistic view into learning and training across the enterprise. Now, a new and more daunting challenge is presented: how can the organization connect all these systems and data together—often at scale, across geographies, and for both internal and external audiences.
George Vilches, Principal Software Engineer at Rustici Software, gave this presentation at ATDTK 2022.
Smelling what The Rock's cooking: Converting SCORM content to cmi5Rustici Software
You have loads of existing SCORM content, but now you're ready to start using xAPI for getting a ton of data about your learners. But, you still need your content to be played securely in an LMS with their authorized learners. So how do you move from SCORM to xAPI while maintaining interoperability? If this sounds familiar, cmi5 could be your answer.
In this session, George Vilches talks briefly about what cmi5 is and when to use the specification before diving into converting legacy SCORM content to cmi5 using various approaches, including utilizing the cmi5 CATAPULT course templates and authoring tools or building custom courseware. He also discusses SCORM to cmi5 terminology, what happens through the lifecycle of a learner's course launch and using cmi5 with other xAPI Profiles, like the Video Profile.
Tales from the trails: Navigating a proven path from content creation to dist...Rustici Software
There’s more than one way to navigate through content creation and distribution. Listen to Joe Donnelly and Andy Whitaker as they guide you through all your options for creating, packaging, and distributing content for learners.
Content Controller: The easiest way to share content with your customersRustici Software
Listen to Andy Whitaker share show you how to distribute your training content without losing control over your valuable intellectual property. He will walk you through how to use Content Controller to give your customers access to your courses and no longer have to worry about manually keeping up with how customers are using your content.
Learn more about Content Controller: https://rusticisoftware.com/products/content-controller/
Content Controller: The easiest way to centralize content across your learnin...Rustici Software
Listen to Andy Whitaker share how to help you organize your training content library and centralize all your learning materials into a common course catalog. He will walk you through how to use Content Controller so you can tackle the challenges that come up when you need content to work across multiple systems. See how you can upload new content versions in a snap and bid farewell to manually uploading content into multiple LMSs.
Learn more about Content Controller: https://rusticisoftware.com/products/content-controller/
Another Learning Standard? Where cmi5 Fits with SCORM and xAPIRustici Software
There’s SCORM, xAPI and now cmi5, how do I keep track of all these eLearning standards? While SCORM is the most widely used, it’s become clear that SCORM isn’t flexible enough to support emerging tools and technologies. xAPI was designed to support more modern learning technologies and methodologies, but shifting from SCORM to xAPI is a big leap. That’s where cmi5 comes in to help bridge the great divide.
With the emergence of xAPI and cmi5, it’s hard to know where and when to use these standards and how they relate to SCORM. This presentation will help attendees better understand what cmi5 is and where it fits in. Attendees will also have the opportunity to preview the cmi5 tools and conformance test suite currently under development with Project CATAPULT.
Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales, and George Vilches, Principal Software Engineer, at Rustici Software, gave this presentation at xAPI Cohort during the Spring 2021 Virtual Party.
By the Numbers: A Behind the Scenes Look at xAPI and cmi5 AdoptionRustici Software
Every business is investing its time and money on the next emerging technology trend. The challenge is how to effectively move forward with solutions to problems they face today when the next technology has yet to be widely adopted. This is exactly what the L&D industry is facing with the emergence of the next eLearning standard, xAPI.
Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales at Rustici Software, gave this presentation at xAPI Cohort during the Fall 2020 Virtual Party.
Back to the Drawing Board: Painting a Picture with xAPIRustici Software
Whether you’re new to xAPI or need a refresher on the basics, we’re going back to the drawing board both figuratively and literally. We’ll explain key concepts and even incorporate a fun, interactive drawing game to help you understand what xAPI is and how to use it.
Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales, and Joe Donnelly, Customer Support Manager at Rustici Software, will illustrate key xAPI concepts. You’ll leave with a complete picture of how xAPI works and how it can benefit your organization.
Whether you’re new to SCORM or need a refresher on the basics, we’re going back to the drawing board both figuratively and literally. We’ll explain key concepts and even incorporate a fun, interactive drawing game to help you understand what SCORM is and best practices for using this standard.
Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales, and Joe Donnelly, Customer Support Manager at Rustici Software, will illustrate key SCORM communication concepts. You’ll leave with a complete picture of how SCORM works and our insights gained over the years having worked closely with the standard across all of its different versions.
Listen to Chris Tompkins, Director of Sales at Rustici Software, share why he’s passionate about xAPI, the thinking behind the development of xAPI itself, and why it is set to transform the way we all learn.
Extending Your Reach: Taking Your Training Content Beyond Your LMSRustici Software
Creating, sharing, and maintaining valuable and accurate product training is critical, but managing this can quickly become more time-consuming and labor-intensive than you realize when you’re working with multiple LMSs and people that use other training systems. Whether you manage multiple LMSs supporting external learners or across internal platforms, you’ll need a strategy for handling the various system behaviors and learner experiences you’ll encounter.
Listen to Tammy Rutherford, Director of Accounts and Marketing at Rustici Software, discuss the considerations for distributing training across multiple systems, including learner access, content delivery, course version control, and reporting.
This presentation shares the numbers behind the growth and adoption of xAPI in the context of its usage in our products. Because we provide eLearning standards support for hundreds of learning platforms and have nearly 200,000 users in SCORM Cloud around the world, we’ve been able to pool a meaningful representation of how others are using xAPI.
TJ Seabrooks, CEO at Rustici Software, gave this presentation at xAPI Camp during DevLearn 2019.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
GraphSummit Singapore | The Art of the Possible with Graph - Q2 2024Neo4j
Neha Bajwa, Vice President of Product Marketing, Neo4j
Join us as we explore breakthrough innovations enabled by interconnected data and AI. Discover firsthand how organizations use relationships in data to uncover contextual insights and solve our most pressing challenges – from optimizing supply chains, detecting fraud, and improving customer experiences to accelerating drug discoveries.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Dr. Sean Tan, Head of Data Science, Changi Airport Group
Discover how Changi Airport Group (CAG) leverages graph technologies and generative AI to revolutionize their search capabilities. This session delves into the unique search needs of CAG’s diverse passengers and customers, showcasing how graph data structures enhance the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated search results, mitigating the risk of “hallucinations” and improving the overall customer journey.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Why You Should Replace Windows 11 with Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 for enhanced perfor...SOFTTECHHUB
The choice of an operating system plays a pivotal role in shaping our computing experience. For decades, Microsoft's Windows has dominated the market, offering a familiar and widely adopted platform for personal and professional use. However, as technological advancements continue to push the boundaries of innovation, alternative operating systems have emerged, challenging the status quo and offering users a fresh perspective on computing.
One such alternative that has garnered significant attention and acclaim is Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, a sleek, powerful, and user-friendly Linux distribution that promises to redefine the way we interact with our devices. With its focus on performance, security, and customization, Nitrux Linux presents a compelling case for those seeking to break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom and flexibility of open-source computing.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity. Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features
available on those devices, but many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information.
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
(At least) 27 Questions to Ask About SCORM in Your RFP
1. RUSTICI
S O F T W A R E
Ensure your RFP for a learning management
system gets you what you want and expect
from SCORM.
SCORM made easy
scorm.com
2. RUSTICI
S O F T W A R E
SCORM for LMS RFPs: Beyond a Checkbox
Somebody told you that your RFP needs to include a requirement for SCORM conformance. What does
that mean? Why do you need it? What exactly should you be looking for in an LMS? What requirements
should be added to the RFP? How will you judge the proposals, i.e., how do you know a vendor really
knows what they are talking about and can do what they propose to do?
Yep, there are a lot of things you need to ask as you start this process if you want to have a LMS that
meets your needs and expectations. We’ve come up with at least 27 things to talk to your LMS vendor
about specifically related to SCORM to help you make that happen. Just putting in a checkbox that asks if
they do SCORM isn’t enough.
This paper will describe the impacts of these implementations and some hard-hitting questions you
should ask your LMS vendor to ensure that their implementation adheres to the intent of the specifica-
tion rather than simply the letter.
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Let’s talk SCORM
Requirements for Sharable Object Content Reference Model (SCORM) conformance have intentionally
been of a limited scope to allow for market flexibility. SCORM allows great freedom of implementation;
this freedom is a blessing for promoting wide adoption, but also a curse in that freedom can be abused.
True interoperability requires intent on the part of the developer. It requires going beyond the minimum
requirements of the specification and developing a supporting infrastructure that fully capitalizes on the
power of the specification.
SCORM is a great standard, but it only gets us about 90% of the way down the road to true interoper-
ability. Even amongst products that are ADL certified there are a number of different implementations,
interpretations and design decisions – all of which have a significant impact on interoperability. Interop-
erability issues will arise, even in the best SCORM implementations. It is not a question of “if” but rather
“when” and “how many”.
ADL puts the market in a position to define what is good and what is not. As we see it, there are three
levels of SCORM conformance: (1) the bare minimum, (2) good enough, and (3) conformance that truly
embraces the spirit of SCORM. Our goal is to help readers distinguish between these levels so that they
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can formulate solution requirements that meet the spirit and goals of SCORM rather than just the letter
of the specification.
What is SCORM and Why Do I Need It?
SCORM is the de facto industry standard for e-learning interoperability. That’s a fancy way of saying that if
you ever have a situation where e-learning courseware is coming from one party and should be played in
a Learning Management System created by another party, SCORM is the common language that the two
parties speak to work together. A full discussion of SCORM, its benefits and implementations is beyond
the scope of this paper, but if you’re a bit uncertain about what SCORM is, it would be wise to pause now
and go read up. There is a great explanation of what SCORM is, why you need it (and why you might not
need it) available in the SCORM Explained section of our website.
SCORM for LMS RFPs
The rest of this paper will talk about specific aspects of SCORM that have been known to vary across LMS
implementations and cause obstacles to successful implementation of SCORM. Before purchasing an
LMS, you should at least be aware of how the LMS vendor has chosen to deal with each of these aspects.
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The issues are broken down into five high level groups:
• Interoperability: Standards Support - discusses the different versions of SCORM and helps
you understand exactly what a vendor means when they claim they “support SCORM”.
• Interoperability: Debugging, Diagnostics and Development - talks about the process for
getting new content into an LMS and ensuring that it works properly.
• Learner Experience / Usability - helps you ensure that the process for actually delivering
training is robust and usable.
• System Logic - discusses how SCORM fits into the larger picture of an LMS systems and
helps you ensure that it “makes sense” in your training context.
• Technical Implementation - a place to “geek out” a bit and talk about the nitty gritty tech-
nical details of what makes a good SCORM implementation from a technical perspective.
Within each section are a series of questions you should ask, along with an explanation of what to look
for in a response and some questions for further elaboration.
Disclaimer of Bias
My name is Mike Rustici. I wrote this paper. I am a SCORM guru and I am a vendor. My company sells a
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product, the SCORM Engine, that implements SCORM for many LMS systems. LMSs that use the SCORM
Engine will do very well in meeting the criteria set out in this paper.
I fully acknowledge this bias, and you should too. But also know that we wrote the SCORM Engine to be
the best SCORM implementation possible. We put a lot of time, energy, money, blood, sweat and tears
into making the SCORM Engine exceptional (ok, well, maybe not a LOT of blood, but I’m sure we had a
paper cut or two). The SCORM Engine implements the principles in this paper because years of experi-
ence have shown that they are the best way to create a great SCORM implementation. In some sense, this
paper shares a bit of our “secret sauce” for what makes the SCORM Engine great.
My motivation for writing this paper is not to sell more licenses of the SCORM Engine. My motivation is
to help the e-learning industry as a whole become more efficient and more interoperable. Quite frankly,
I am tired of hearing some people blame SCORM for interoperability problems, when in reality is it poor
implementations of SCORM by vendors that are causing the problems. This paper is intended as a stake
in the ground for the industry to start defining what constitutes “good SCORM” vs “bad SCORM”. (For
more on this rant, read It’s time for me to say it, SCORM doesn’t suck…).
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Interoperability: Standards Support
1 What versions of SCORM do you support?
SCORM has evolved since its original inception in 2000. During that time, content has been developed to
each of the different versions of the standard. To be broadly useful, a LMS should be able to play content
that uses any SCORM version. Just like your fancy new Blu-ray player can play old DVDs, the burden of
maintaining backwards compatibility should fall on your LMS.
Currently, SCORM comes in five flavors:
• SCORM 1.1
• SCORM 1.2
• SCORM 2004 2nd Edition
• SCORM 2004 3rd Edition
• SCORM 2004 4th Edition
A thorough explanation of these versions and the history behind them can be found in our eLearning
Standards Roadmap. At a minimum, the LMS should support SCORM 1.2 as it is the most broadly adopt-
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ed version of SCORM. An LMS that is serious about standards support should support at least one of the
SCORM 2004 editions. Content developed to SCORM 1.1 is rare and support for this legacy standard isn’t
often needed.
2 Do you support AICC HACP?
As mentioned in the eLearning Standards Roadmap, there is a related specification called AICC that is
still broadly used within the industry. AICC is especially useful for content that will not be hosted on
the LMS server as it is not susceptible to the cross domain scripting problem. There are several different
implementations of AICC, one file-based, one HTTP-based (web-based) and another ECMAScript-based
(browser-based). In most all cases, when one refers to “AICC”, the references points to the HTTP-based
implementation known as HACP. Your LMS should support AICC HACP to ensure broad content compat-
ibility.
3 Are you SCORM certified by ADL? If so, for what versions? If not, please pro-
vide test suite logs showing your conformance.
ADL offers a formal certification program that employs independent auditors to ensure that an LMS is in
fact SCORM conformant. Formal ADL certification is the best way to ensure that an LMS is SCORM confor-
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mant. Certification will ensure that the system meets the letter of the specification, but not necessarily
that it is a functional system that meets all of your needs...that is what the rest of the questions in this
paper are for.
ADL will certify systems as being conformant with a particular version of SCORM. A LMS is not “SCORM
Certified”, it is “SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Certified” or “SCORM 1.2 LMS-RTE3 Certified” (more on the “RTE3”
bit in the next question). Also note that ADL only certifies the specific version of the LMS that it tests
against. If a vendor has changed their SCORM implementation since becoming certified, it is no longer
technically certified.
Certification costs money, requires some paperwork and isn’t for everybody. It is okay if a vendor isn’t
formally certified, but certainly better if they are. If they are not certified, there is still a way to ensure that
their claim of SCORM conformance is legitimate, ask them for their test suite logs. ADL produces a freely-
available conformance test suite that runs all of the same tests that a certification auditor runs. The logs
from these tests are easily saved and shared as proof that a product can pass the tests.
A product that can not pass the full set of conformance tests is MOST DEFINITELY NOT SCORM CONFOR-
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MANT. The LMS might be SCORM-ish, SCORM-like, SCORM-y or SCORM-ified but it is not SCORM confor-
mant. Implementations like this are the most dangerous. They lead to unending compatibility problems
for their users and degrade the entire industry. If there is one thing you take away from this paper, please
demand that your vendor provide some kind of proof of their SCORM conformance.
Note: ADL has indicated that a more robust certification process will likely be put in place soon that
requires ongoing conformance testing and enables systems to loose their certification if they do not
maintain their implementations. [Sept 2009]
4 What level of SCORM 1.2 conformance Do you support?
Conformance with SCORM 1.2 is broken down into three levels, LMS-RTE1, LMS-RTE2 and LMS-RTE3. The
levels indicate how much of the SCORM run-time data model the LMS supports. LMS-RTE1 indicates that
the LMS developer has done the absolute bare minimum it could to call itself SCORM conformant. LMS-
RTE3 indicates full support. Support for LMS-RTE1 or LMS-RTE2 is generally a red flag that the vendor
pays lip service to SCORM so that it can “check the SCORM box” (on lesser RFPs than the one you are writ-
ing), but that the vendor cares little for becoming truly interoperable.
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5 What is your policy regarding adopting new versions of standards?
Some organizations will always be on the cutting edge and adopting the latest industry innovations.
Others prefer to wait for significant adoption or specific client demand before moving forward. Look for
their history of actually following through with staying on the cutting edge if they tout this as an impor-
tant part of their business strategy.
6 How much experience have you had delivering SCORM conformant content?
It is often a good idea to probe a vendor’s depth of expertise. Deep expertise not only predicts a quality
implementation, but also ensures that competent technical personnel will be available for troubleshoot-
ing compatibility issues as they arise.
Some related questions to consider include:
• How many different content developers have you worked with, and with what kinds of
content?
• Can you provide references at organizations that have implemented content similar to our
in your LMS?
• Do you participate in the process of evolving the standards?
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Interoperability: Debugging, Diagnostics
and Development
The process for importing new content into an LMS, validating its behavior and diagnosing problems can
be time consuming and frustrating if the LMS vendor has not provided adequate resources, tools and
access to information.
7 How is content imported into the LMS?
The process for importing content into an LMS can often be arduous and limiting. Ask for a demonstra-
tion of this process and ensure that it is inline with your expectations. Specifically note how long it takes
to add a basic SCORM module to the system.
Is the process quick and efficient? How many clicks does it take? Are there shortcuts that can be used
during development and testing? If not, your administrators and content developers will have a miser-
able time trying to test out new content.
How does the LMS deal with very large courses, for instance 2GB or more? Is there a way to just import
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some of the course assets (say one or two files) rather than re-importing the entire course? Can the LMS
import a SCORM PIF file (a SCORM course packaged up in a ZIP file)?
Once the content is imported, how easy is it to register a user to experience that content? Is this process
quick and efficient? If not, are there shortcuts that can be used during development? Can a registration
be reset so that testers can easily try alternative scenarios? There can be a lot of variation in the way this
is implemented. If it is a common task for you, you should “dig into the weeds” and see how easy this re-
ally is.
8 How is content updated and how are new versions deployed?
Content is rarely static forever. Typos and errors are fixed and instructional material is updated. When this
happens, the LMS needs to provide a mechanism to import the updates and create new versions of the
content as necessary.
What aspects of a course can be updated without creating a new version of the course? What is the
process for publishing an update or new version? Sometimes simple updates (like typo fixes) need to
be made without much fuss. Other times, big changes to the course warrant creating a separate new
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instance of the course in the LMS. You will want an LMS that allows for both types of updates with an ap-
propriate level of effort.
When a new version of a course is created, what happens to users who are currently taking the old ver-
sion? Are they automatically moved to the new version? Do they continue on the old version? Do they
lose existing progress data if they are half way through the course? For minor changes, learners should
be able to experience the updated content without interruption. For major version updates, it can be
very hard for an LMS to move users to the updated content while maintaining their progress information.
One of the elegant aspects about SCORM is that the logic describing how the course is organized and
functions is concentrated into one file, the course manifest (written in XML). Changes to the sequencing
or reorganizing the existing assets can be accomplished by simply swapping out this file rather than re-
uploading the entire course package.
9 What tools are available to the LMS user and content developer when cre-
ating / importing content?
Is there a sandbox environment for LMS administrators to use when testing new content? Is this sandbox
available to external content developers (if so, are additional licenses required for them)? Does the sand-
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box precisely replicate the production environment? A robust sandbox that precisely mimics the pro-
duction environment is a valuable tool that is often an oversight until after procurement (at which point
there are financial barriers to its formation). Ensure that the sandbox is only for content development and
testing. Often, there is one sandbox that is both for testing new LMS versions/features/customizations
and for testing content. This situation can lead to very disappointing results when content works well
in the sandbox, but not in the production system because they are not precisely the same. A sandbox
doesn’t necessarily have to be a separate system, an isolated area of the production system can be just as
effective.
10 What kind of diagnostic information is available to troubleshoot problem-
atic content?
SCORM enables some complex behaviors. Often, when something goes wrong, a fix is not readily identifi-
able; a debugging effort will be required. In many LMSs there is no diagnostic information to assist with
this debugging. The lack of these tools can lead to a painful situation in which the content developer is
forced to repeatedly “guess and check” to ascertain the root cause of the problem (this can be especially
painful if the content import process is onerous).
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There are three primary touch points between the content and the LMS, each of them creates potential
interoperability problems for which diagnostic tools should be available:
Content packaging (import) - To be imported, a content package presents an XML document called
the imsmanifest to the LMS. The LMS reads this document to learn everything it needs to know about
the content. It is possible that this document will be improperly formatted or inconsistent with the
LMSs expectations. When that is the case, what kind of error messages does the LMS provide? Are they
intelligible to the average user? Does the LMS do any validation beyond simple XML format validation?
Can the LMS handle slightly imperfect manifests, or does any imperfection cause the entire course to be
rejected?
Run-time - After it is launched, content will write data to the LMS and read data from the LMS using the
SCORM run-time API. This data is exchange as a series of read and write operations. Each of these opera-
tions can succeed or it can fail based on the a number of factors. These calls are at the heart of SCORM
and control whether content is completed, what the learner’s score is recorded as, and just about every-
thing else that really matters. When something is behaving unexpectedly, the first thing to look at is the
series of run-time communication calls between the content and the LMS. Does the LMS provide a list of
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the run-time calls made by the content? If an API call fails, does the LMS provide detailed information as
to why it failed? Is this list of calls available after the content unloads (this is important as many SCORM
courses make the most significant API calls as they are unloading)?
Sequencing - SCORM 2004 courses will often include sequencing rules that the LMS must interpret to
navigate the learner between SCOs. These rules operate on their own data model (called the “activity
tree”) that is separate from, but related to, the run-time data reported by the SCO. Does the LMS provide
information about the current state of the sequencing activity tree? Does the LMS provide any indication
of which sequencing rules were executed (and which were not) when the learner navigates between
SCOs? It is rare to find LMSs that make this level of detail available, but it is invaluable when developing
sequenced SCORM 2004 content.
11 What kind of error messages does the LMS provide?
When something goes wrong (in each of the three areas above), what kind of error message does the
LMS provide? Is it a generic message that is the same for all errors? Is it overly technical and only inter-
pretable by the LMSs software developers? Is it something that a content developer can understand and
use? Does the message vary depending on whether you are in the sandbox or the production system?
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Content packaging errors should be intelligible to the content developer. Run-time errors should never
be displayed to any user as many of them are in fact intentional behavior. However, they should provide
very detailed descriptions of the error using the built-in SCORM error diagnostic API call. Sequencing
errors are a bit more complex. In the sandbox, the exact sequencing error condition should be displayed
to the content developer. In a production environment, a more intelligent message should be made
available to the learner. For example, a message to the content developer might look like “Error: SB.2.2-
1 - flowed into a parent activity with sequencing control flow=false”, wheras the same error would be
represented to the learner as “Please make a selection from the menu to continue.”.
12 What is your process for resolving interoperability issues?
Interoperability issues are a fact of life. While every LMS vendor should seek to eliminate these issues,
the true test of a company’s support is how they deal with issues when they arise. Does the LMS vendor
provide accessible and knowledgeable support staff to resolve SCORM interoperability issues? Are the
support personnel willing to work directly with content developers to resolve interoperability issues?
What is the support process for resolving these issues? Is the LMS vendor willing to admit a mistake and
issue a free patch, or is it always up to the content developer to create a workaround? How does the LMS
vendor go about issuing patches for interoperability?
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Put another way, how does the LMS handle content with differing interpretations of the standard? When
an interoperability error is discovered, how does the vendor ensure that it won’t happen again? Does the
LMS provide configuration options to accommodate different types of content, potentially even misbe-
having content?
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Learner Experience / Usability
SCORM provides only minimal guidance about how the LMS should present a SCORM course to the user.
The guidance is intended to ensure that the required user interface elements are present, but allows the
LMS a lot of freedom to provide a user experience optimized for its environment. As mentioned in the
introduction, freedom is both a blessing and a curse. When procuring an LMS, you want to ensure that
the actual user experience of taking online training is a pleasant one. Some LMSs provide notoriously un-
usable interfaces. The best way to do that is to try it out yourself as an actual user would. Here are some
things to look for and consider.
13 How many windows does the LMS open?
Some LMSs open chains of three or four browser windows just to deliver a simple course. If the user in-
advertently closes one of these windows, it can be possible for the course to stop functioning. Get a feel
for what it is like to launch a course and if the user can mess things up by inadvertently closing windows.
You might want to ensure that the user is not required to press a specific “exit” button to close a course.
All results data should still be saved even if the user just closes the browser window.
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14 Does the LMS provide any indication of progress and status to the learner?
It is often helpful for a learner to know how s/he is doing on a course. What kind of feedback is given
to the learner? Does the LMS provide an indication of the learner’s status on each activity (satisfaction,
completion, score, etc)? Is this display configurable to accommodate different courses?
15 Is there an easy to use course menu?
SCORM courses are typically represented as a set of hierarchically structured activities. The LMS should
provide a “table of contents” to the user that allows the user to select an activity to launch. The availability
of this table of contents as well as which activities are visible and selectable can be controlled by SCORM
2004 sequencing rules. How does the LMS represent this table of contents? Is it intuitive and easy to use?
Does it remain visible when a SCO has been launched? How many clicks does it take to navigate between
SCOs?
16 How does the SCORM player respond to large courses?
When a SCORM course has many SCOs (say 100-200), how does the LMS respond? Is the user interface
still intuitive and usable? Is the navigation between SCOs still fast and responsive? Is it still responsive
even if complex sequencing logic is being used?
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17 Can the user interface be customized for each course?
Different SCORM courses have different expectations for how they will be delivered. Some expect to be
launched in a new window, others expect to be launched in frameset. Some expect to occupy the full
screen, some adapt to minimal screen real estate, some require a window of a very specific size. Some
courses benefit from showing the table of contents at all times, others would operate better if it were
hidden. Some courses benefit from showing detailed progress data, others don’t report this data so it
simply becomes a distraction. The more configuration options an LMS provides, the better the expe-
rience will be for the learner. At a minimum, the LMS should provide different interfaces for SCORM
courses with just one SCO (and thus no need for LMS provided navigation) vs SCORM courses with many
SCOs (and thus a need for good inter-SCO navigation).
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a
System Logic
SCORM is very tightly scoped. It covers the interaction between the LMS and the content and no more
(with good reason). There is a lot of functionally surrounding e-learning content delivery that is relevant
and important to real world training. Many people are frustrated by the functionality LMSs implement
on the periphery of SCORM. Often SCORM is blamed for these problems, when the real problem is that
the LMS implementer failed to provide the LMS infrastructure to make SCORM useful and behave as
expected. Here are some LMS functions to consider that are “outside the scope” of SCORM, but can have a
dramatic impact on SCORM’s usefulness within a system.
18 What reports are available to extract SCORM data?
SCORM provides content with the ability to report a wealth of data about the learner’s experience with
a course. The content can provide as much or as little of this data as is relevant. SCORM requires the LMS
to store this data only for the current attempt on a SCO. Once that attempt is over, there is no formal
requirement for the LMS to persist the data. SCORM also doesn’t specify how the LMS should make the
tracked data available for the learner or administrators to view and report on.
• What reports does the LMS provide?
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• Does the LMS track data for all prior attempts on courses, or just the most recent attempt?
How are these reported?
• What report data can the learner see? Is it too much (for example, seeing question answers)?
• Do reports include access to the entire SCORM data model?
• Do reports provide information on individual question results? Can the LMS report data
across all attempts on of a course to provide things like question item analysis?
19 How does data reported via SCORM feed into the rest of the system?
SCORM contains logic that precisely defines when a SCORM package is considered “completed” or “satis-
fied”. It contains logic to identify a precise score and many other data model elements. However, SCORM
doesn’t say that “once the course is completed, the learner should receive credit for it in the LMS and it
should show up on his/her transcript”. How the data created and tracked by SCORM affects the rest of the
LMS system is beyond the scope of SCORM, but should be considered carefully to ensure that it is in line
with expectations. Some things to consider:
• What triggers a course to be “recorded on the learner’s transcript”? Does it just need to be
completed? Does it need to be satisfied? What if it is recorded as completed but failed? Is a
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score required? Do all individual activities need to be completed, or does only the rolled up
status (as dictated by SCORM sequencing rules) matter?
• Once a course is completed, can a user take it again? Does this new launch start a new at-
tempt, or simply resume the previous attempt? Does the data reported in this subsequent
launch affect the prior status? In other words, can a previously completed course become
incomplete? What is the process for starting a new attempt?
• What score is recorded in the “gradebook”? Is it the score for the entire course? Do scores for
individual activities show up outside of detailed reports?
• In SCORM 1.2, where there are no formal rules for “rolling up” status and score, how are sta-
tus and score calculated for a course with more than one SCO?
• How do SCORM courses fit into the larger LMS picture? Are they their own entity, or are they
a part of a larger curriculum or other structure?
20 What options are available for launching a SCORM course?
Must a SCORM course always be launched for credit? Is there a way to preview or browse a SCORM
course? As mentioned above, is there a way to review a SCORM course once completed? When alterna-
tive launch types are used, does the LMS set the cmi.mode (normal, review or browse) and cmi.credit
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(credit vs no credit) data model elements appropriately to indicate the alternative launch format to the
content? Setting these data mode elements can signal the content to adapt its behavior to the appropri-
ate context (for instance, during browse mode, test questions might not be displayed).
21 What does the LMS do with SCORM metadata?
SCORM allows content to specify tremendous amounts of metadata describing the courseware. What
does the LMS do with this metadata? Is it used when searching the course library? Is it displayed to us-
ers at all? If so, which (of the many) metadata fields are used and how? Is the metadata only used at the
course level, or will the LMS consider metadata that is defined at the activity, SCO or file level as well?
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Technical Implementation
SCORM specifies a technical interface, or what should be done, but SCORM does not specify how to cre-
ate that interface. There are many technical implementation decisions that can significant impact the
usability of SCORM. Warning, you are now entering the “geek out” section of the paper, please put on
your pocket protector.
22 Does the LMS require Java applets or other plug-ins be available in the
browser?
Browser plug-ins, especially Java applets, can create huge support headaches as you deploy your LMS.
Many LMSs use plug-ins to relay SCORM data from the web browser to the server. These implementa-
tions are notorious for causing compatibility problems. With AJAX supported in virtually every modern
browser, an LMS should not need to use Java applets or plug-ins to support SCORM. (A common mis-
conception is that “SCORM requires Java”. This is false, SCORM requires JavaScript, which is a common an
innocuous technology available in all browsers. ADL also implemented many of its sample applications in
Java, however this was an arbitrary choice, not something required by the standard.)
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23 How well does it scale?
Scalability is obviously a general concern for any software system. There are two aspects of SCORM that
present new dimensions to scalability. First, a LMS must be able to handle SCORM courses that frequently
report a lot of data. Second, SCORM LMSs should be able to handle large SCORM courses that contain
many SCOs and have very large file sizes.
24 How is data sent from the client to the server?
All of SCORM communication happens in the web browser. SCORM requires that this data be persisted
(presumably to the server), but does not define how the data should be moved from the browser to the
server. The technical implementation of this data transfer can have a big impact on the performance
and responsiveness of the system. Make sure that the system isn’t using a Java applet or other plug-in to
handle this communication (as mentioned above).
There are three common strategies for handling this communication:
1. Every time the content makes a SCORM run-time call the LMS will make a synchronous
request to the server to save or retrieve the data. This solution is straight forward to imple-
ment, but can lead to very unresponsive systems. Each individual request to the server
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incurs overhead. Considering the fact that reporting a single question result can easily
require 6 or more individual SCORM calls, a system can easily become bogged down using
this communication strategy.
2. Other implementations will alter this strategy and only send data to the server when the
LMS makes a call to the Commit API function. This strategy is certainly more scalable than
#1, however it has other drawback. There are no requirements that content make calls to
Commit. This leads to two negative situations, in the first, they call Commit after every
API call, resulting in a scalability problem akin to #1. In the second, the content never calls
Commit and data is not reliably saved to the server. Also, LMS developers will often make
“synchronous AJAX” calls in these first two scenarios. When using a synchronous AJAX call,
if the server is unresponsive, the entire web browser can become locked up and completely
unresponsive until the server has finished processing the request.
3. The best implementation strategy removes both synchronous processing and any correla-
tion to SCORM API calls. In these implementations, all data is cached locally in the browser.
Periodically an asynchronous process will look for dirty data that needs to be committed
and send it to the server in the background. This strategy can be tricky to implement cor-
rectly, but it provides the best user experience and system scalability.
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25 Where is the SCORM API located?
SCORM specifies that the SCORM API can be located either in a parent window (relative to the content),
the opener window, or a parent of the opener window. All of these locations are perfectly valid from a
technical SCORM perspective. However, they are not all ideal or equal. Some content doesn’t properly
search for and discover the SCORM API. Most testing environments provide the API in a direct parent
window, and thus, most content is only tested in this deployment configuration. To achieve the best
compatibility, the LMS should provide the SCORM API in a parent window, or at least provide a configura-
tion option to locate the API there for misbehaving content.
26 How often is SCORM 2004 sequencing logic reevaluated?
SCORM 2004 sequencing logic controls which LMS user interface elements are available to the user at
any given moment. For instance, a sequencing rule might state that the next button is disabled until
the learner passes a pretest. Thus, the timing of when an LMS re-evaluates the question “has the learner
passed the pretest” has a direct impact on usability. In many LMSs the sequencing data is not re-evalu-
ated until a SCO is unloaded. Thus, the learner would have to manually exit the pretest before finding
out that s/he can now click on the next button. In more robust LMSs the sequencing data is re-evaluated
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periodically and the user interface elements are enabled/disabled while the SCO is still loaded.
27 Do you allow content to be hosted in different domains? If so, how do you
enable this configuration?
Due to a well known browser security restriction, SCORM content must be hosted in the same domain as
the LMS (if the LMS is at www.myLms.com, the content can not be at www.myContent.com, the content
must also come from www.myLms.com). If you have a situation requiring content to be hosted in a differ-
ent domain, the LMS vendor will have to make some accommodations for this scenario. There are many
well defined workarounds all of which have merits.
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In conclusion
“
Craig Weiss recently published a blog post with a similar theme to this paper. My favorite quote:
“
If your vendor says they are AICC/SCORM compliant, ask them specifically what
does that mean? – Again, put the onus on the vendor to explain it. If they can’t,
start looking elsewhere.
Our hope is that the questions provided here will help you in your search and help you get a LMS that
meets your needs and makes your SCORM experience a great one.
Mike
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i
Iinfo about rustici software
Rustici Software creates products that simplify conformance with learning standards like SCORM and
AICC. While other companies tolerate them, we embrace the standards and their intent. Really, this is all
we do. Read more about it on our website or subscribe to our blog.
Born on
This document was written in September 2009 and based on the best information available at that time.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Rebecca Bodrero of CTC, John Campbell of Imedia.it, Aaron Silvers of Grainger and Peter
Berking of ADL for contributing their ideas and feedback to this paper.
copyright info WHAT YOU CAN DO
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