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From time to time we are asked the question "Is CDX material SCORM compliant?" Whether you are familiar with the acronym 'SCORM' or not, we hope this will give you a better understanding of what it is and the relationship between CDX and SCORM.
 What is SCORM?
SCORM development
SCORM'S purpose
CDX SCORM compliance
SCORM stands for 'Sharable Content Object Reference Model'
SCORM is an "application profile" that is trying to pull together and reconcile all the other fragmented e-learning standards and profiles from various industry players, acting as a catalyst to forge consensus.
SCORM is being developed by Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL), a US government-funded organization charged with coordinating standards for e-learning. ADL's goals are: - To create a common technical framework for e-learning
- To accelerate the development of online learning technologies
- To encourage faster acceptance of e-learning
ADL is NOT a standards body, but it works closely with standards bodies like ISO, IEEE and CEN.
SCORM is trying to solve these problems:
- How to ensure that web-based courses can move easily from one LMS (Learning Management System) to another
- How to create searchable libraries of content across different LMS environments
- How to reuse web-based content objects across different LMS systems
SCORM is NOT interested in pedagogy, instructional design, assessment models, or most of the things that concern a learning materials company like CDX and its customers.
SCORM is only interested in the reusability, interoperability, durability, and accessibility of e-learning content.
Definitely, yes. But not entirely.
CDX is a strong supporter of standards, but there will be many parts to SCORM that will not be relevant to us, so we will not be able to comply with all aspects of the standard.
Yes, CDX is complying with relevant LMS interoperability standards.
We want our materials to be used by as many people as possible, regardless of the brand or type of LMS they may be using. Therefore, we are publishing content blocks that conform to the appropriate parts of SCORM that prescribe how LMS's should interact with courseware, so that when learners are in a managed online learning environment, the LMS can connect them to our courseware, and track the results of any tests taken.
However, CDX will probably not need to comply with all the detailed reusability specifications for component learning objects.
A big part of SCORM will define how searchable databases of freely accessible 'learning objects' should work, so that developers all over the world can assemble small pieces of other people's courses into new learning experiences. CDX is a commercial content developer, not a publicly-funded institution, so we will probably never need to prepare our content so that it can be shared and reused by other developers in the public domain. |
