Speaker 1: Hi guys, so today we are going to be talking about something that might be familiar to you if you've been in the learning technology space for a while or if you've come to it new it's going to be something that you're going to be hit in the face with pretty damn quick. And this is what is SCORM? Okay, so if you have any involvement whatsoever in learning technologies, you're buying an LMS, you're buying anything to do with learning online, SCORM will be something that people will be talking about. So SCORM is an acronym. So it's S-C-O-R-M and it stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model. And that probably gives you some idea about what it is. Essentially what SCORM is, is a wrapper that allows you to put your content in so it can be reported on. And that's what SCORM is, okay? So in terms of the problem it solves is that when people were moving their training programs online, one of the things that they wanted to do is know what people were doing. What people were doing, when they were doing it, how long they were doing it, whether they had passed or failed it, okay? So this is really where SCORM comes into its own. And this is why a lot of L&D departments are known as the SCORM police rather than the L&D department. So it really came into effect in the 90s. So it's been around for a while. And the problem it was solving is that when you put in a reporting engine, you want to have a defined set of characteristics. So when the LMS market was forming, there needed to be an agreed set of standards that all LMSs, Learning Management Platforms, Learning Management Systems, could report on. And that's really what SCORM gave us. So just in terms of a little bit of the history, SCORM came from the US. So it was basically paid for by the United States Department of Defense. And it was really them seeking to define how learning programs could be reported on. And it was created by the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, ADL, and they basically created SCORM, or SCORM. Now, it wasn't the first frame of reference that the learning technologies market had had. Before that, there was AICC, and I have got a video on that as well. But that gives you some idea of where SCORM came from. So the way that SCORM works is very simply, it has a list of technical specifications. So these technical specifications are all the things that the unit of learning can report on. So that's really what the specifications are. So content can be made to meet all of those specifications or some of them. So it can just be end, fail, or it can be a myriad of different things within that unit. So the premise behind SCORM, and there are currently two specifications, one is 1.2, and the next one is SCORM 2004. So there are different things within those two things, or those two frames of reference, that you can call upon. So there's no such thing as being SCORM compliant. You're either SCORM 1.2, or you're SCORM 2004, or you can be both. But it's an important distinction. So when you're looking to buy a learning management system, it's important to understand what SCORM 0.2 is defined as, and what SCORM 2004 is defined as, to make sure that you've got the right reporting metrics for what you want to report on. So you just need to be clear about that. And you also need to make sure that the authoring tools and the content that you're doing dovetail, so you're exporting that content out of your authoring tool in the right format. So you could be exporting out as SCORM 1.2, or you could be exporting it out as 2004, in order to get it to report on the right things. So the important thing is, is that now we have a set of standards that we had AICC, and now we've got SCORM, we've also got TinCanX API. If the industry didn't have these standards, you wouldn't be able to take content from one learning management system and put it into another learning management system. So why these are important is ultimately there is a drive to make the industry more efficient, so that you can swap over your LMS without having to rewrite your content. So these standards are important. However, there are some issues with SCORM. So although they are still relevant today as they always have been, one of the issues is that SCORM in its entirety has failed to evolve. So SCORM can only report on things that are inside the learning management platform or inside the learning technologies environment. So L&D professionals are looking to track more than what is just on the learning management system, and SCORM fails to do that. It's also got limitations in terms of the world of formal training. So it can track learner progress, but it is difficult when we're trying to track things like social learning or we're trying to track things that happen outside of the learning technology environment. And the other thing is, is that it's not a full representation of all things that are happening online, even 2004. So we can't track the learner's full behaviour, but we can track the majority of it. It is important to understand the different elements that are in 2.1 to 2004. And by understanding them more, you can then decide which standard is right for you. Or indeed, with LEPs, a lot of LEPs, so learning experience platforms, they don't use any of these standards. So, you know, we are moving to a world where people are thinking outside AICC and outside SCORM. So there are alternatives on a lot of LEPs, so learning experiences platforms. The SCORM engine does not come as standard. So they might be tracking things through XAPI or what's known as TinCan, or they might be tracking using a format called CMI5. So there are other alternatives to SCORM. Just because SCORM is the most prolific at the moment, doesn't mean to say it will do in the future. So in terms of just before I say goodbye, I just wanted to say one thing about SCORM, that currently about 60% of the learning technologies out there use SCORM, either SCORM 2001 or SCORM 2004 as their basis. And that is shrinking as a percentage because more and more learning technologies are using things like XAPI or are choosing to monitor report different things like social engagement or, you know, impact or financial ROI. So don't think by not using SCORM that you can't track the success and failure of your learning technologies or your learning program. But it is always a consideration if you are looking for a full-blown learning management system. So I hope that was helpful. Look forward to seeing you soon. Hi guys, my name's Juliet Denny and I'm from a company called Growth Engineering. I hope that you enjoy these videos. I hope you give it a big thumbs up. I also hope that you comment and you give us some questions because otherwise, how am I going to know what you want to learn about in the future? So I want your comments and I want your feedback. And then most importantly, it would be really great if you could subscribe to the channel and then when I'm delivering out new content and hopefully I'm answering questions that you guys have asked me, you'll know when I post another video. So thank you very much and thank you for being part of my learning tribe.