Forum .LRN Q&A: Response to Anyone working on Scorm ?

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on

The way I understand SCORM it's about being able to export sequences (courses or curriculums), and not student data. Each system that imports the sequence via the exported (SCORM) XML manifest, e.g. a dotLRN website, must have its own LMS including grading system.

That's not entirely accurate. First of all, SCORM *does* include considerations regarding student data (although you are correct that it must work in conjuniction with an LMS). The XML manifest is only half of the SCORM spec; the API is the other half, and it's where the rubber really meets the road. One of the most common uses of SCORM today (as opposed to the stuff that it theoretically can do but that nobody uses it for) is to tie information about application state (in this case, it's a courseware application) with user data that's stored in the LMS, e.g., whether the user has taken the pretest, what page in the course the user was on when s/he last exited the course, etc.

Although the SCORM manifest does contain some sequencing information, practally speaking the sequencing part of the spec really isn't done yet. SCORM 1.3, which is due out early next year, will include more robust sequencing. For now, think of SCORM as providing a way to associate courseware state with a particular user in the LMS and a way to share metadata about particular content segments (or "learning objects") within the course. Note that this second function is a necessary but not sufficient condition for robust sequencing logic.