SCORM: What is this course format and why is it still popular despite being outdated? / ITech content

SCORM, which stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, is an international standard that defines the technical characteristics and structure of digital content for online education. This standard ensures the compatibility of e-courses with various learning platforms known as LMS (Learning Management Systems). Developing courses in accordance with SCORM simplifies the integration and use of learning materials across different educational platforms, ensuring a reliable and effective learning process.

To understand how SCORM works, you can draw an analogy with an electrical outlet. Anywhere—be it at home, a cafe, or on the go—you can plug in your smartphone to charge. You don't need to look for a suitable outlet or use adapters. Simply plug in and wait for your device to charge. The simplicity and versatility of SCORM make it a convenient tool for integrating educational content and tracking learning outcomes in e-learning. SCORM ensures standardization and compatibility across various educational platforms, enabling the creation of effective and accessible solutions for users. A course created in accordance with the SCORM standard has a universal interface, ensuring compatibility with multiple learning management systems (LMS). No additional converters or adapters are required to launch it—simply upload the course file to the LMS and begin training. This makes SCORM an ideal solution for educational institutions and organizations seeking to effectively implement e-learning. SCORM is not a format for educational content, such as longreads, slide courses, or video courses, but rather a packaging format for this content. Rostislav Poleshko-Ostrovsky, a specialist in distance learning platform market analysis, explained this in detail during the webinar "Debate: Which Formats of Corporate Training Materials Are Most Effective?", organized by the HR-Kitchen project. SCORM provides a standardized way to integrate and manage learning materials, allowing learning platforms to effectively interact with various content types. This format facilitates the creation of modular and adaptive educational solutions that can be easily updated and tailored to the specific needs of users. Using SCORM in corporate training improves the efficiency of learning processes and simplifies tracking learner progress. SCORM is a universal "container" for various educational content formats. Within this "container," rules for interaction between all its components are established. A variety of elements can be placed within it, ranging from standard slides to complex simulators. A key element is a specialized player that analyzes the content structure and provides interactive user interaction. SCORM enables the creation of flexible and adaptive learning solutions, making it an ideal tool for developing online courses and learning materials. SCORM is appealing for its flexibility and versatility, allowing developers, designers, and administrators to integrate content from various sources into courses. This makes it possible to rebuild courses, combine modules from different learning materials, and swap out course creation tools. One of the main advantages of SCORM is the ability to upload the same course to different LMSs without having to reconfigure the learning content. However, it's important to note that SCORM is available in various versions. Some LMSs support SCORM 1.2, others SCORM 2004, and many can support both versions. This is important to consider when developing and implementing training materials to ensure their compatibility and effectiveness.

Where SCORM is common and where it is not

SCORM is not a universal standard for all segments of online learning, and its support varies among different platforms. SCORM is primarily used in the development of courses for corporate training, as well as in educational institutions, particularly universities. This standard allows for the creation of interactive and adaptive learning materials, making it particularly popular in vocational training and higher education.

Still: the film "Retribution" / Warner Bros / GK Films

According to Pavel Bezyaev, leader of the Digital Learning community, SCORM is a valuable tool in corporate training. It allows for the easy transfer of an entire library of SCORM courses between different learning management systems (LMS). This is especially important for companies that may need to change their LMS. Furthermore, SCORM allows organizations to purchase ready-made courses from various providers, created according to a single standard, and integrate them into their LMS. This significantly simplifies the learning process and increases its effectiveness.

On educational platforms operating in the B2C and infobusiness segments, the format of universal standards has not gained widespread popularity. According to Gleb Mikheev, CTO of Skillbox, such standards are unnecessary in this sector. Each educational platform develops its own learning management system (LMS) and creates courses with unique features in mind, offering students additional features that distinguish it from the competition. In the information business, platforms that combine the functions of a course builder, a marketplace for selling them, and an LMS for students to complete their training are commonly used. This means that each platform has its own technical features, and developers don't need to transfer courses from one platform to another.SCORM is an outdated standard that doesn't always meet the requirements of modern online learning and has a number of limitations. Its closest competitors include AICC, xAPI (formerly known as Tin Can API), and CMI5 (Computer Managed Instruction). AICC, being the oldest e-learning standard, introduced in the 1980s, is also outdated. In contrast, xAPI and CMI5 offer modern features that could replace SCORM in the future. xAPI enables the integration of simulations and virtual reality elements and supports experiential, offline (without an internet connection), and collaborative learning. CMI5, in turn, combines the best features of xAPI and SCORM, ensuring course compatibility with various LMSs and offering extensive capabilities for analysis and learning. Using these new formats can significantly increase the efficiency and flexibility of the online learning process.

Still: the TV series "Young Sheldon" / Chuck Lorre Productions / Warner Bros. Television

Despite the growing popularity of xAPI and CMI5, SCORM remains the dominant format in e-learning. In the corporate environment, companies are reluctant to abandon SCORM for good reasons. The transition to a new format could lead to the loss of existing courses created in SCORM. Expert Evgeny Nagorny noted during the "HR Kitchen" webinar that many organizations have a significant amount of content packaged in SCORM and are unwilling to risk losing it. Furthermore, as the speaker emphasized, many companies simply lack the necessary resources to migrate content to more modern standards. Therefore, SCORM remains a relevant solution for organizing e-learning in business.

Most likely, higher education institutions continue to use the SCORM format for similar reasons. This standard ensures compatibility and integration of educational materials into e-learning systems, which helps optimize the learning process. The use of SCORM helps universities ensure that materials are accessible across multiple platforms and learning management systems. This not only simplifies student access to educational resources but also facilitates effective monitoring of their progress. Therefore, adherence to the SCORM format is an important element in ensuring the quality of the educational process at universities.

How the SCORM standard emerged and developed

Before the emergence of the SCORM format, there were other attempts to standardize online learning. In 1988, the international association of e-learning specialists (AICC) developed a standard that was initially used to create courses for airline employees. It was later adopted in other fields. However, the AICC standard had numerous limitations, which negatively impacted its popularity. Currently, AICC is mainly used by those who already have a significant amount of educational content in this format. The standard is rarely used in new courses, and development of AICC was discontinued.

Thus, despite the historical significance of the AICC, its outdated limitations and lack of updates have made it less relevant in the modern context of online learning.

AICC had a significant influence on the development of the SCORM standard. The creators of AICC, working within the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, integrated a number of specifications and recommendations from the AICC into a new system. They refined existing elements and introduced new ones, which ultimately led to the formation of the SCORM standard. This transition was an important step in the evolution of e-learning and ensured more effective interoperability between different learning management systems.

The first version of the SCORM 1.0 standard was published in January 2000. This initial version was a draft that could not be implemented in practice. However, it defined how content should be structured, how it should interact with learning management systems (LMS), and also included a methodology for describing content using metadata. SCORM 1.0 became the basis for further developments in the field of e-learning, ensuring the standardization and interoperability of educational resources.

Since the release of SCORM 1.0, three more versions of this standard have been developed. These updates have significantly improved the functionality and interoperability of learning management systems (LMS). Each new version of SCORM offers improved capabilities for tracking and managing the learning process. This allows developers to create more interactive and adaptive learning materials. The implementation of new SCORM standards has provided a higher degree of integration with various educational platforms, which, in turn, contributes to more effective learning and improves the user experience.

SCORM 1.1 appeared in 2001. This was the first implemented version of the standard, but it still required work and, therefore, was not widely adopted.
SCORM 1.2 was released in the same year as version 1.1. This version of the standard details how content should be stored, tagged, and accessed. It also includes the ability to track learner progress. This version is still supported by most learning management systems.
SCORM 2004 improved existing functions and added new ones. These include the ability to regulate content access conditions (for example, "a student can open module C only if they have completed modules A and B"), as well as track the number of points a student has earned for completing a course and passing tests. This version has been released several editions. The fourth, the most current, was released in 2009.

How SCORM courses are structured

SCORM courses have a modular structure, which allows for efficient management of educational content. The material is divided into individual modules that can be easily copied, integrated into other courses, resequenced, or outdated sections deleted. Students can master modules either independently or in a predetermined order. This provides flexibility in learning, allowing each student to move at their own pace, return to complex topics, and review them. Student progress is securely saved, allowing for tracking throughout the course. SCORM courses are most often presented as slide presentations, similar to PowerPoint. They contain text, images, audio, and video, as well as interactive elements such as clicks and drags. However, the SCORM standard is universal and allows for packaging in various formats, including video courses and long-form courses. This approach provides flexibility in creating educational content, allowing materials to be tailored to the needs of different users and providing a more engaging learning experience.

Still: film "Who's There" / Black Bear Pictures / Camp Grey

Teachers and administrators of the learning management system (LMS) have the ability to effectively control Learners' interactions with courses. They can track the time spent on the course, quiz results, videos viewed, and the total number of points earned. This allows them not only to improve the quality of learning but also to tailor learning materials to student needs, providing a more personalized approach. Analyzing learner interaction data helps optimize courses and increase their effectiveness.

The course is a SCORM package packed in a ZIP archive. This archive contains all the necessary files, the key one being the manifest. The manifest, written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language), describes in detail all the elements of the package, including the learning content, instructions, and course structure, and defines the sequence of materials. In addition to the manifest, the SCORM package includes resources representing the learning content itself, as well as schema files in XSD and DTD formats, which ensure the correct structure and formatting of the manifest. Using SCORM packages allows for the efficient integration of courses into learning management systems (LMS), ensuring compatibility and standardization of learning materials.

Once a SCORM package is uploaded to a learning management system (LMS), interaction between the course and the platform is accomplished through an API written in JavaScript. This API allows learners to launch the course in a web browser, select modules, and interact with the learning content. It also saves learning progress, allowing users to continue learning where they left off. This integration mechanism ensures efficient management of the educational process and improves the learner experience.

Do I need programming skills to create a SCORM course?

At the beginning of the e-learning era, programming knowledge was a prerequisite for creating online courses. Nowadays, SCORM course development is accessible even without programming skills thanks to specialized course builder services. While most of these are paid and require some time to learn, the course creation process is significantly simplified compared to traditional programming. These tools offer users intuitive interfaces and ready-made templates, making it quicker and easier to implement educational projects. SCORM course creation is possible on various platforms, including the following. Using these platforms, you can develop interactive learning materials that comply with SCORM standards. This allows for effective integration of courses into learning management systems (LMS), ensuring compatibility and ease of use. Choosing the right platform depends on your content creation needs and the functionality it offers.

CourseEditor provides tools for creating longreads that can be exported in popular formats, including SCORM.
SCROLL also helps assemble longread courses from a variety of blocks and save them in SCORM 1.2 or 2004 packages.
iSpring Suite is installed as an add-in to PowerPoint and allows you to create SCORM courses.
EdApp allows you to edit courses in SCORM format and create them from scratch.
Course Lab is a designer for creating courses from module templates, which also offers professional development features (for example, customizing the interaction between the course and the LMS via JavaScript).

Using course designers, a developer can create a course using standard elements and adding the necessary content. The service will automatically save the result in SCORM format. After that, all that remains is to upload the resulting package to the learning management system (LMS).

What are the limitations of SCORM?

The SCORM standard offers extensive capabilities for organizing and managing training, but it also has certain limitations. Despite its popularity in the e-learning field, some features and aspects may be unavailable or underdeveloped.

SCORM provides limited capabilities for tracking learning progress, which makes it difficult to collect analytics on how users complete courses. SCORM allows you to track the overall progress of students, and the 2004 version of SCORM adds the ability to collect statistics on scores received on tests. However, for in-depth analysis and improvement of the quality of courses, simply recording the fact of completion is not enough. It's important to consider the time spent studying each module, as well as whether the learner returned to individual materials for review. These tracking aspects are not available in SCORM, but they are available in more modern standards, such as xAPI, which offer more detailed analytics and opportunities for optimizing the learning process.

Successful learning requires stable internet access, which is a significant drawback of the SCORM format. Modern learning management systems (LMS) allow students to take distance courses from anywhere in the world, including using mobile devices with dedicated apps. These apps allow students to study even without an internet connection, saving their progress on the device and automatically uploading data to the server the next time they connect. In contrast, SCORM courses require a constant internet connection, significantly limiting students' access. If the connection is unstable, there is a risk of losing progress, which may negatively affect the learning process.

Still: TV series "Sex and the City" / New Line Cinema / Cold Spring Pictures

All SCORM courses run in web browsers, both on computers and smartphones. To ensure a comfortable course experience on a small screen, it is important to use a designer that supports the creation of educational content for mobile devices. Otherwise, if the course consists of presentation slides, the text may be too small for comfortable reading, and interactive elements will be difficult to control with a finger. There is a common misconception that SCORM does not support mobile learning, but this is not true – the standard itself does not impose such restrictions. Problems may arise only with presentations originally designed for display on large screens. To successfully integrate SCORM courses into mobile learning, it is necessary to consider the design features and responsiveness of the content.

SCORM packages are significant in size and take a long time to upload to the LMS, as they include all the necessary media files, such as audio, video, and images. Posting SCORM courses to the educational platform is done manually, which means that a specialist must be involved in this task. There is also a risk that an administrator could accidentally upload an outdated version of a data package, as SCORM lacks an effective version control system. This highlights the importance of careful content management and course updates to ensure their relevance and functionality.

SCORM still serves important functions for developers and users of training courses, but its capabilities are becoming increasingly limited. Modern learning standards and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality require more advanced tools that are absent from SCORM but present in xAPI. As a result, xAPI can be expected to gain popularity in the near future, gradually replacing SCORM. This is also confirmed by the lack of SCORM updates in recent years, which indicates the need to migrate to more modern e-learning solutions.

Why should a course developer know about the format?

It is important for online course creators to have a basic knowledge of various development standards. Understanding these standards, their advantages and disadvantages, is especially important when creating courses for businesses and educational institutions. Flexibility, versatility, and resource optimization are critical in these areas. Knowing these standards will help you effectively adapt content to different audiences and improve the quality of training. The choice of training standard and format depends on the platform on which the product will be implemented. This could be your own LMS or a third-party online platform, and it's important to consider the formats they support. The type of device on which users will access the training, as well as their level of familiarity with electronic services, also play a significant role. It's important to choose training methods that align with the learning objectives. For example, for a mini-course on safety, slides, which are well supported by the SCORM standard, are sufficient. However, if the goal is to develop a VR simulator for training specific hard skills, SCORM will not be an effective solution. When creating a custom course, it's important for information entrepreneurs to determine the platforms for its distribution in advance. While some platforms offer course development tools, they may use non-standard formats, making it difficult to export the completed course to other platforms. However, there are platforms that support common standards, such as SCORM, CMI5, and xAPI. A course created using one of these standards can be successfully sold across multiple platforms, providing greater flexibility and accessibility for potential learners. Choosing the right platform for course development and distribution can significantly impact its success and audience reach. When developing a course for corporate training, it's critical to consider the learning management system (LMS) used by the company for which the course is intended. If the LMS is unique and developed in-house, courses are created with its specific requirements in mind, and common standards may not be relevant. If the LMS supports standard formats, such as SCORM, CMI5, or xAPI, it's important to develop the course according to these standards to ensure proper functioning and integration. This allows you to maximize the LMS's capabilities and ensures that training materials are accessible and user-friendly.

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