Many have even argued that unless if you are building your own SCORM or LMS, you don’t need to bother about the complexity of how it works.

I will take the opposing side of the argument because many at times the understanding of the LMS and the SCORM can help you troubleshoot issues encountered while creating your course content.      

Even with that, the full concept of how the SCORM works may seem abstract and a bit cumbersome. In this article, we’ll be looking at everything regarding the concept of SCORM and how it works.

However, before we go into that, here’s a burning question; what is SCORM?

What is SCORM?

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. It is a technical standard for e-learning software products.

It gives a standard at which all programmers must write their code in order to play well on other e-learning software. It dictates how the learning management system (LMS) and e-learning course content relate to each other.

Thus, all authoring tools and LMS are designed with SCORM specifications in mind.

SCORM courses that are created with authoring tools or LMS are rendered as a zip folder. Furthermore, the LMS handles and interprets the SCORM courses. Learners can easily assess the course online with their browser when launched.

Simple analogies

When you purchase a new movie on DVD, you don’t need to worry about whether it is going to work with your brand of the DVD player. Why? It is because all DVD brands, whether Sony, Toshiba, or any other brands, are produced using the same standard.

Another example can be seen when using the Universal serial bus (USB). Whenever you want to connect your device to your computer, you use the USB cables. That is the standard for all PC manufacturers that prevents them from having different cables. I hope this analogy helps you understand how SCORM works.

Components of SCORM

There are two main components of SCORM, which include sharable Content Object (SCO) and Reference Model.

• Sharable Content Object (SCO)

SCO represents the unit of online training material that is sharable and can be reused across multiple systems and platforms.

• Reference Models

The reference model reveals the fact that SCORM isn’t really a standard. SCORM was built to reference existing standards in the e-learning industry and tells programmers how to effectively use them.

How SCORM really works

SCORM specification is basically divided into two different parts:

• The run-time environment specifies the behavior of content when they are launched. All run time communication between the LMS and the content is handled with javascript.
• The content aggregation model determines how content should be packaged into an LMS. It involves creating an XML file that LMS can read from.

Run-time Environment

When a learner starts a course from an LMS, SCO utilizes Javascript to look for the SCORM API. The API consists of eight functions (which varies slightly from SCORM 1.2 to SCORM 2004).

• Initialize()
• Terminate()
• GetValue()
• SetValue()
• Commit()
• GetLastError()
• GetErrorString()
• GetDiagnostic()

This API is implemented by an API adapter named “API_1484_11”, a Javascript object that is accessible through the DOM.

All communication between the LMS and the content is handled by only the Javascript API adapter. This adapter must be able to execute all the API functions.

 The SCORM defines a data model containing elements that the content can read from and write from. The content start, it calls Initialize() and calls Terminate() when it exits. GetValue() functions fetches a data model element’s value from the LMS.

SetValue() function draws a value for a data model element to the LMS. The Commit() function may be called after any values have been set to ensure the data is persisted.

The Content Aggregation Model

The content aggregation model is divided into three:

• The content model
• The metadata
• Content packaging

The Content Model

The content model describes the physical structure of the content being delivered. The content model described the relationship between every module If the content contains more than one module.

Aggregation content (that is content containing more than one module) can be structured to form a tree. Furthermore, The Content model breaks down content into smaller units called sharable content objects(SCO) and assets.

Assets are used to represent electronic objects like media, text, images, sound, web pages, or assessment objects.

 The Metadata

The Metadata section describes the content using a common vocabulary. Every part of the SCORM course is described by associated metadata. This vocabulary is divided into nine categories:

• The General category groups the general information that defines the resource as a whole.
• The Lifecycle category describes the features related to the history and current state of this resource.
• The Meta-metadata category stores information about the metadata record.
• The Technical category groups the technical requirements of the resource.
• The Educational category groups the education of the resource.
• The Rights category groups the intellectual property rights for the resource.
• The Relation category groups define the relationship between this resource and resources.
• The Annotation category gives comments on the educational use of the resource.
• The Classification category defines where this resource falls within a particular classification system.

Content packaging

The content packaging section describes how the content model and metadata are packages in a common XML file named imsmanifest.xml.