SCORM Defined & Explained

The more I read about the e-learning environment the more interesting it becomes because one thing takes me to another. I find I need to watch my time becasue I can get easily absorbed in reading about this topic. One interesting piece of information I discovered while researching this topic, though it's unrelated to the topic of this blog, was how much R & D the US goverenment does in the areas of e-learning and Instructional Design, particularly by the Department of Defense.

Okay, SCORM...SCORM is something probably no one has heard of unless you are in the software development side of e-learning or are looking to purchase an e-learning software. This is how I became aware of SCORM. For my collaborative project I was researching a software tool that would allow quizzes to be embedded in a Power Point presentation and recorded directly to a learning environment or some sort of area that would keep track of student scores. We finally located a piece of software that I was told was SCORM compliant to which I asked, what's that?

SCORM is what let's e-learning software be compatible with other e-learning systems. It allows for easy connectivity between e-learning environments. It permits information to be shared between e-learning systems. SCORM is like a design standard that application software designers follow when creating e-learning software.

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. Software is design in modules or objects. It's these modules or "shared content objects" that gets shared or distributed across different systems. Reference Model means it's not an actual standard but SCORM has become a generally accepted practice by the e-learning development industry. It's similar to bar codes. There are many different bar code formats and no official standard for using one or another. Take for example the bar codes we see on items we purchase at the grocery store. The grocery industry has decided amongst themselves to use a particular format so that all grocery stores scanner will recognize their package bar codes. These type of "defacto" standards are found everywhere. Another example, there is no "official" size for a USB port but all removable drives fit in all computers. The computer industry just adopted that size. E-learning software is the same way. SCORM was developed by ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning), a Department of Defense funded research group. When looking to purchase an e-learning software make certain that the software is SCORM compliant otherwise it will be a stand alone package with no connectivity to other systems.