What is SCORM?

Today's enterprise software market provides access to a number of significantly different systems. If each of these tools used different file formats, communication, preparation of universal solutions or changing the platform used in an organization would be greatly hindered.

This is why it is so important to develop standards that are universally accepted by software developers. In the case of e-learning, SCORM is just such a standard.

The SCORM standard began to be widely used already at the beginning of the 21st century. Thanks to it, it is possible to create training courses that can be supported by almost all contemporary LMS platforms. In addition, the method of communication with platforms used within its framework allows for easy management and control of training.

Key benefits of the SCORM standard

Today SCORM is an internationally recognized e-training standard. Thus, many enterprises implementing e-learning are choosing to use it. What benefits can result from choosing the SCORM standard? Attention should be paid primarily to such of its benefits as, among others:

• interoperability - training courses created in the SCORM standard can be supported by almost any e-learning platform; this not only provides great flexibility, but also means that training courses created once will be able to be imported in the event of a change in the LMS used, so there will be no need to rework the material;
   
• easy creation of training courses - thanks to the availability of a wide variety of tools, the creation of training courses compliant with the SCORM standard is very easy; thanks to this, the modules in question can be developed independently by those most familiar with the specific material;
   
• readability - the clarity of the materials created in the SCORM standard makes it very easy to get acquainted with both the training itself and its results;
   
• possibility to obtain feedback - e-trainings created in the SCORM standard allow sending to the LMS system information such as test results, trainees' progress or time spent by them on a given module;
   
• flexibility - SCORM training can be performed by employees at their convenience; it is also possible to divide the material into smaller parts and perform only single modules at a time;

So, as you can see, the SCORM standard offers many benefits that are important for companies considering implementing e-training. However, in order to achieve all the benefits, we need to know how to use the solution in question. It is therefore necessary to explain some basic issues related to the SCORM standard.

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Commonly used versions of the SCORM standard

Before you start creating e-learning courses and choose an LMS that supports them, you should be aware of the different versions of the SCORM standard.

Due to the fact that a given software can support only some of them, checking the system's capabilities in this regard is one of the things to keep in mind when implementing an e-learning platform. The first version of the standard in question was SCORM 1.1.

Due to its limitations, it is no longer supported by most tools today. In fact, a much wider range of possibilities is provided by its successor - SCORM 1.2. It provides a number of useful features, such as, among other things, tracking the progress of training, so it is still very often used by companies.

The newer version of the standard, SCORM 2004, is also very popular, as it provides even more accurate progress monitoring and is also compatible with some modern LMS systems.

So what versions of the SCORM standard should the e-learning platform we choose support?

If you care about the greatest possible versatility, it is worth opting for a solution that allows you to import training courses in both commonly used contemporary standards, i.e. SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. Such capabilities are provided by our Ideo e-learning platform.

What does it look like to create SCORM training courses?

Both the creation of SCORM training courses using the appropriate tools and the import of ready-made training courses is a simple task that can be successfully performed by anyone on their own. The whole process of developing the material in question resembles working with popular text editors.

However, if you care about the highest possible quality of training courses without having to spend many hours on their creation, a good choice may be to entrust their preparation to specialists. The option of professional development of the material is also offered by Ideo e-learning. The ready-made SCORM packages will be prepared in SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004, so they can be easily imported by any platform.

SCORM package - what is it?

Companies wishing to create a new training course or import already finished material into an LMS may come across the term SCORM package. What does it mean in this case? A SCORM package is a ZIP-formatted file that packs all the content necessary to implement the principles of the SCORM standard.

Thus, it contains both the training material files and the XML manifest file describing them. In addition, the SCORM package also contains schema files relating to the manifest file.

Importing SCORM packages into the training platform

SCORM packages are now created automatically when the training creation is completed in the corresponding tool. Thus, thanks to such software, it is no longer necessary to write the code and create the archive yourself. After all, once the training is completed, we will receive a ready-made package.

A good e-learning platform, such as Ideo e-learning, will allow us to easily import training materials, either as a SCORM package or as a PDF file. Such a feature guarantees ease of use and allows us to develop the teaching materials ourselves.

The emergence of the SCORM standard played an extremely important role in the development and popularization of e-learning. To this day, a huge number of training courses are based on it, and any modern and universal LMS must include the ability to import SCORM packages.

Both when choosing software for companies and when creating new training courses, it is worth taking into account the enormous possibilities and unflagging popularity of this solution. Thanks to modern tools such as the Ideo e-learning platform, we will gain the opportunity to achieve all the benefits of the SCORM standard.