If yes, then there’s a high chance that you’d have come across the industry professionals, talking about developing your course to be compliant with SCORM and AICC, or any other standards.
However, in case you have little or no idea about the two terms, you might have to stop worrying too much about it. That’s because I’ll be sharing with you, in this post, the difference between SCORM and AICC.
Apart from that, we’ll also be looking at the benefits of applying any of the two standards, while developing an online course.
Before going ahead and talking about the differences between SCORM and AICC, it’s worth knowing that they are both learning technology standards.
Furthermore, they help to determine how online training courses communicate with the learning management systems (LMS). Admittedly, there are several authoring tools out there that one can use to design and develop e-learning courses.
Most of these tools can be used to create and publish courses that are SCORM or AICC compliant. One will be able to access these courses on all LMS platforms, which support any of the two standards.
For example, what that means is AICC compliant e-learning courses can be hosted, tracked, and accessed on LMS platforms that are compliant with AICC.
The same thing also goes for SCORM compliant courses, as they can be accessed on LMS that complies with SCORM. That said, let’s now take a look at the meaning of SCORM and AICC below, taking them one at a time.
What Is AICC?
Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC), established in 1993, is a technical standard, developed by an international non-profit association of technology professionals.
Speaking of the standard, it was initially created to only focus on CD-ROM based training. However, that changed in 1998, when web-based training was included by the association.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the AICC standard enables interaction between online training courses and learning management systems. And that’s possible with the help of the HTTP AICC Communication Protocol (HACP).
What Is SCORM?
On the other hand, the term “SCORM” is an acronym, which stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. It is a collection of standards and specifications for e-learning products.
According to the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense, online learning courses often face a few challenges, including interoperability, reusability, and durability.
And in a way to address them, the SCORM model was created as part of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative.
Unlike AICC that makes use of HACP, SCORM utilizes the mix of a data model and an application program interface (API) to make interactions between e-learning courses and learning management systems possible.
Also, SCORM compliant online training courses are built, with integration with JS API (JavaScript Application Programming Interface). Furthermore, there exist three known versions of SCORM, and they include SCORM 1.1, 1.2, and SCORM 2004.
However, according to a SCORM report, the 1.1 variant of SCORM didn’t receive general acceptance. Speaking of the SCORM 1.2 model, it was the first, widely used version and up till today, some LMSs still support it.
In terms of content packaging and migration between systems, this SCORM version has, over the years, proven itself to be reliable. However, you can not rely on it when it comes to content sequencing, as it neglects it.
For example, your learners will get to explore every part of your course, without being restricted to a specific path. Well, that’s not the case for the latest version of SCORM 2004.
That’s because it helps to address the issue of content sequencing, allowing learners to focus on the specific path that suits them, instead of having access to the whole content.
That said, let’s have a look at the major differences between AICC and SCORM below.
Differences between AICC and SCORM
To talk about the difference between AICC and SCORM, we’ll be looking at the stregs and weaknesses of the two learning technology standards.
Strengths of SCORM
One of the strengths of SCORM is that it’s very easy to follow. For instance, several e-learning authoring tools will allow you to create a SCORM-compliant course without prior knowledge of programming.
Apart from that, SCORM will allow you to control your learners’ pace. For instance, you can always provide your learnings with training that suits their learning path.
Furthermore, SCORM is a very popular and effective set of standards. As such, finding an LMS platform for your SCORM-compliant courses won’t be a problem at all.
Weaknesses of SCORM
Just as it has a lot of benefits, SCORM also possesses some weaknesses. First, there’s a limit to what you can track with the learning technology standard.
Admittedly, you’ll be able to track basic data, such as course completion rate and learners’ overall score. However, you won’t be able to track anything deeper than the above-mentioned data.
Furthermore, SCORM doesn’t work offline like some other standards. For instance, without an internet connection, your SCORM e-learning won’t work.
Apart from that, you won’t be able to launch your SCORM-compliant on other platforms, including web and mobile. You’ll only be able to do that via learning management systems.
Lastly, SCORM was initially created for Flash-based courses. However, speaking of Flash, it’s now becoming outdated and only a few options support it.
No doubt, you can create your HTML 5 courses to SCORM standards. But in terms of functionality, you shouldn’t expect it to perform up to expectation.
Strengths of AICC
The only strength of AICC is that it’s highly secured. Well, that’s so because it offers support for a very secure HTTPS data transfer between AICC-compliant content and LMS.
Weaknesses of AICC
Unlike SCORM which can track progress to some extent, AICC can not track it. Apart from that, the standard is not widely in use anymore. That’s because it was disbanded in 2014.
With that, it means that it’ll take a lot of research before you find an LMS that’s compliant with AICC. Furthermore, in terms of uploading your courses, AICC involves complex processes, unlike SCORM.
Also, you might be needing prior knowledge of programming. That’s because you’ll sometimes have to perform some manual code tweaks to ensure compatibility with AICC.
