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Not sure how to choose your SCORM-compatible authoring tool?
March 26, 2024
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If you’re new to the world of e-learning, chances are you have come across the term “e-learning standards” or more concrete acronyms like SCORM, ADL, and AICC. While they might seem intimidating to someone who is unfamiliar with their meaning, it’s essential to understand them if you want to create high-quality e-learning content.
Below, we explore what e-learning standards are, along with their purpose and some of the most common standards in the industry.
Standards are specifications or guidelines for products or services that are created by groups of industry experts, governments, and other entities.
Some examples of standards in the technology industry may refer to data privacy and customer information such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Data Security Standard (DSS) when handling credit card information or the Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) which is a voluntary standard with guidelines on how to handle customer data.
Adhering to already existing standards or developing new ones is important for technology companies because they can save time and money, help understand specific market requirements, structure your industry, and drive the market.
As per the IEEE SA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association) : “…by participating in standards development, companies can help shape and capitalize on the future of technology, which helps to reduce development time and cost, and enables participants to gain insights to better align their products and services with industry opportunities… assure compliance with commercial and other requirements, and to enhance their brand by building trust with customers and other stakeholders.”
In the case of the e-learning industry, standards refer to the guidelines and specifications that determine how e-learning courses should be structured, developed, and handed over.
These guidelines can help determine how to track learner activities and experience, integrate e-learning multimedia to structure content, enhance the interoperability between different learning systems, or follow criteria to create courses that are accessible to all learners.
E-learning standards aim to make sure different platforms, technologies and content work seamlessly together. By adhering to these standards, the online teaching and learning process becomes more effective, accessible, and scalable. E-learning standards have many purposes, including interoperability, reusability, durability, accessibility, and scalability.
Achieving interoperability means that different online education platforms and systems can work and interact seamlessly together. This makes educational resources easy to share across different platforms and means training managers don’t have to sacrifice functionality or quality in the process.
When learning materials are designed and developed following certain standards, they can be structured in a way that allows companies to reuse them in different contexts. Reusability maximizes time and resources, by covering a range of learning objectives with the same content.
E-learning standards also aim to guarantee that content lasts over time. This involves ensuring that learning materials are compatible with future updates and emerging technologies to ensure it’s relevant in years to come.
Another key objective of e-learning standards is accessibility, which means providing educational content to everyone, regardless of their abilities or limitations. Standards like WCAG ensure that content is accessible to people with hearing, visual, motor, or cognitive impairments.
Lastly, scalability refers to how well systems and platforms can adapt to growing demand. Scalable software and content should be able to extend beyond its original scope to accommodate more learners.
Currently, there are various e-learning standards compatible with different course creation platforms and learning management systems. Each of them has its pros and cons which is why your choice should be based around your organization’s specific training objectives.
The Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) is one of the earliest versions and the pioneer of e-learning standards, which originated in the aviation industry. It is used to transfer information of your e-learning courses to the LMS via the HTTP AICC Communication Protocol.
Complex. Uploading the courses into the LMS is complex and requires various steps.
Since the dissolution of the committee the AICC standard has become outdated. Since then, there have not been any updates to the standard. Nevertheless, there are still legacy LMS systems that still use it, so it’s a good idea to still consider it when working with older LMS systems.
Experience API, also known as Tin Can API, is another important standard in the e-learning world. Developed by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative of the U.S. Department of Defense, xAPI allows tracking and recording of student learning experiences across various contexts and devices. xAPI is flexible, modern, and compatible with mobile, social, and real-world activities.
In conclusion, xAPI has many advantages, and is a powerful specification that allows to track the performance of learners throughout the learning lifecycle. Since its inception, 10 years ago, Experience xAPI has come a long way. In 2023 xAPI 2.0 has become the first open-source specification to become an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and LTSC (Learning Technology Standards Committee) standard in 2023. There’s no doubt, it will continue to be implemented throughout many new learning software.
Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) was developed by IMS Global Learning Consortium to enable the integration of external tools and applications within an LMS
Although LTI might not be a perfect fit for all the needs of an LMS system, it should be considered. The newer version LTI Advantage, also adds another layer of benefits, namely advanced protection of sensitive user data and the ability of linking to third-party tools outside the LMS environment making it very flexible and allowing it to improve the learner’s experience.
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is one of the most popular and widely adopted e-learning standards. Like xAPI, it was also developed by ADL and defines technical specifications and rules for creating online learning content compatible with different LMSs.
If you want to know more about SCORM, check out this article.
SCORM is a very popular standard that has been broadly adopted by the e-learning industry since its creation in 2000 and has gone through several revisions. SCORM 1.2 released in 2001, is considered one of the most stable and reliable versions. The last revision was released in 2004, with a total of four editions. The SCORM 2004 version has enhanced several features including added more flexibility and control of sequencing and learning activities, interoperability and conformance testing improvements, as well as content delivery and tracking.
| Standard | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| AICC | High security, easy communication and flexible storage on multiple servers. | Complex course upload, requires programming skills and has limitations in tracking and mobile interaction. |
| xAPI | Real-time tracking, detailed performance data and multi-device support. | Recent standard (2013) with possible incompatibility on older systems and non-standardized commands. |
| LTI | It enables cross-platform communication, access to external tools, high security and intuitive plug-and-play integrations. | Low usage, limited access to data in LMS, inconsistent user experience and lack of enrollment detection without course launch. |
| SCORM | It facilitates content reuse, tracking, 24/7 access and flexibility between LMSs. | It requires experience and does not allow data exchange with other systems. |
E-learning standards play a crucial role in the success of online education. As we have seen, they can enable more effective and accessible learning experiences for both training managers and students. If you aim to develop high-quality content with these advantages in mind, working in line with e-learning standards is an essential consideration.
Now that you understand what e-learning standards are and are familiar with some of the most common ones, it’s time to start creating outstanding e-learning courses. isEazy offers innovative e-learning solutions for any training need. Find the perfect tool for your project or combine them for extraordinary results.
E-learning standards are guidelines that define how online courses should be structured, developed, and delivered. They are crucial because they ensure interoperability between content and platforms, providing a consistent and accessible learning experience for both students and educators.
The most widely used standards include SCORM, xAPI, AICC, and LTI. SCORM and xAPI are popular for their ability to track learner progress and for their flexibility in integrating with various LMS platforms, while AICC and LTI are valued for their security and ease of integration with third-party tools.
Using e-learning standards ensures that courses are reusable, accessible, and durable. They also enable better tracking of learning progress and make it easier to adapt content for different contexts and devices.
Interoperability is the ability of learning content to function across different LMS platforms seamlessly. This means that training materials can be transferred and used across multiple systems without losing functionality or quality, making courses more versatile and scalable.
While it’s not mandatory, working with standards like SCORM or xAPI makes it easier to create high-quality training and to track learning progress accurately. With solutions like isEazy, you can create courses that comply with various e-learning standards, ensuring that your content is accessible and effective for all users.
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