2

I'm really confused about SCORM and Tin Can API. A client wants to be SCORM compliant, and everything I've read up on seems to suggest that I should be using Tin Can API as a service. One reference from eFront stated that it took them nearly 18 months to implement an old SCORM standard but only a month to implement Tin Can.

Is there a difference in these two? Will standing up a LRS and Using Tin Can in our LMS make use "SCORM" compliant?

Brandon Runyon
  • 231
  • 1
  • 4
  • 14

1 Answers1

4

Two different things.

SCORM is composed of a student attempt data model called a CMI Object, which is JavaScript to JavaScript communication between the content and LMS Runtime API. Data is stored from the client to the LMS server typically on Commit or Terminate. Content is packaged like small portable websites via a Content Aggregation Model or zip. This includes a xml (imsmanifest.xml) and assets capable of presenting the page(s). A Content API is typically in charge of connecting to the LMS Runtime, and initiating the communication which must adhere to the SCORM Specification. Students log into the LMS, and the LMS prepares the student attempt before it loads the shareable content object. More of an assigned, Table of contents style approach.

xAPI or TinCan is a more modern twist enabling more than just HTML based technologies to establish a 'I did this' style statement which if you look up Activity Streams or dig deeper into what makes that all tick. For HTML it would be more AJAX posts against a endpoint (aka a OAuth style Restful web service). This means your app or webpage etc .. has to allow the student to authenticate and report to a specific server. There are a handful of LRS systems out there.

All things aside this is a question of adoption, and where your team wants to take the content being built or already built. SCORM is typically the go-to for sending it to other 3rd Party LMS systems. TinCan is in the adoption phase now so you may find more information googling around on prices and availablity.

Rustici has made a non-commercial SCORM Driver which supports AICC,SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 and xAPI. So depending on how deep the projects pockets are you can possibly come up with some level of failover between deployment goals.

Good Luck.

Mark
  • 2,429
  • 20
  • 20
  • 1
    Whitepaper specifications commonly can take a team 18 months or more to properly implement. So if you were just a content developer, or just a app developer you're not rolled into the 18 month statement mentioned. Building a LRS, or a LMS is going to take some time mainly because your reading a specification, and trying to implement it all from scratch. Or you buy your way to the top. – Mark Nov 04 '14 at 19:16
  • SCORM appears to really have the potential to decentralize your user's experience and their results data. I'm looking at it from a proprietary courseware perspective, and it seems like providing SCORM is a recipe for loss of control over both my user's experience and data as well as a loss of controlling the source of the courses. Could you imagine people distributing Rosetta Stone courses to anyone who wanted it? Maybe it's not for me. IDK – Brandon Runyon Nov 04 '14 at 23:57
  • Well ultimately you're choosing what you report to SCORM. If you want to store interactions and objectives, much would need to be baked in to your content in order to report that type of stuff. And if you already have a competing strategy, you'd have to go thru the effort of adjusting one way or the other. Commonly, teachers can re-launch the content to review the students entry. So they can see it as the student interacted with it. But, that again requires the content developers to program that in to the courseware. – Mark Nov 05 '14 at 18:33
  • Brandon, there wasn't much DRM baked into SCORM. There is Learning Object Meta Data which offers you an ability to copyright and lay stake to its uses and intentions. You can reference media/assets/data on servers external to the LMS its deployed on to throttle things a bit. But I don't honestly know how much e-learning piracy is really taking place aside from ebooks, video training which is more publicly accessible vs. content on a LMS. – Mark Nov 06 '14 at 01:01