The use of SCORM in e-learning has made it possible to improve online teaching in multiple aspects, facilitating a common framework for work throughout the world.

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a standard used in e-learning that refers to content and digital training resources.

If you know the field of online teaching, you probably already know, at least in broad strokes, what SCORM is, so we are not going to talk about its definition again. In this post we are going to delve into how it works and what advantages its application brings to virtual teaching.

Woman prepares a course in SCORM in an e-learning platform

How does SCORM work?

At the computer level, SCORM works as a set of files compressed in a .zip file and it is recognized by the LMS. This is the file that is exported and imported when the course needs to be moved from one platform to another. When unzipping it we see that it contains a file named imsmanifest.xml and other files.

The folders contained in the file provide information on the topics (SCO), but also on other aspects such as the progress of the students, their scores, as well as other data on the usability of the users (page views, time spent on each topic, etc).

 

What are SCOs?

SCOs (Sharable Content Objects) are each of the topics that are part of an educational program. These may contain other subtopics, depending on how the teacher organized the training.

These SCOs can be grouped and organized to create the contents of an online course. In addition, it is also possible to sequence them in the desired way so that the student navigates through the syllabus as we expect them to.

 

What is SCORM for?

For teaching, SCORM standardization provides a tool that allows you to create training content that can be shared and used on different educational platforms, without the need to create it again specifically for each of them.

As you can well imagine, this translates into efficiency and effectiveness in the management of e-learning.

 

Advantages of SCORM for e-learning

There are many reasons why using SCORM in courses is a success. Therefore, we want to highlight the advantages of its implementation in online education through an LMS (Learning Management System) platform.

Educational content that works for multiple platforms

Thanks to this international standardization, the training contents can be exported and imported to other online learning platforms that are compatible with SCORM.

When acquiring an e-learning platform, it is important to make sure that it is in accordance with the SCORM format to take advantage of all its benefits. In the case of CAE’s educational platforms, all the solutions we offer are developed to offer compatibility with SCORM, as well as its utilities.

 

Time saving in the preparation of the didactic units

The operation of the SCORM contents makes it possible to prepare the contents of each training quickly and efficiently.

On the one hand, because by being able to import content previously created in other LMS, time is only spent updating the concepts when necessary, without having to create them again for each platform.

Likewise, when it is necessary to create a new course from scratch, the standardization of SCORM, together with the functionalities of CAE’s teaching platforms, make the tasks of preparing the syllabi simple and intuitive.

Therefore, if you are a teacher, you can prepare your syllabi in SCORM files and use them in different centers even if they have different LMS platforms.

 

Easy to share content

Standardization in e-learning was born precisely to respond to the need to share training content. In fact, the origin of SCORM can be found in the laboratories of the US Department of Defense. They created this standard so that the different military units could share the training they imparted.

Before this standard existed, they could not be shared and had to be created for each of the platforms even if the content and trainers were the same, as each had its own unique format.

 

Monitoring of evolution and results

Courses in SCORM can be monitored to keep track of students in each of the learning phases. In this way, trainers and managers can see the performance of the students in each unit, the scores in the tests and the final results obtained.

This functionality helps teachers better assess each student based on all the criteria they want to grade.

 

Configuration and customization of courses

Online training in SCORM allows a detailed configuration, in order to personalize the teaching to measure.

This enables an optimal student experience, since teachers have the possibility to decide key aspects for usability, such as navigation through the topics or which exercises or documents must be tackled first.

Likewise, it is possible to create basic classes that can be modified to adapt them to different institutions, centers or groups of students.

 

Well structured training for students

Structuring the didactic content makes the students perceive the training on the platform in a well-organized way. This helps concepts to be learned intuitively and  makes them easy to follow. Thus, we avoid dropouts due to a chaotic or poorly structured presentation for learning.

Moreover, in the field of language training and in online IT courses, the application of SCORM-compatible platforms makes the task easier for teachers and improves the user experience for students.

In the same direction, Dexway language teaching e-learning software, which includes SCORM, is a powerful tool for language education professionals that offers the most advanced learning method.

 

Diversification in the offer

The simplicity offered by SCORM to create content enables a greater capacity to offer online courses.

If you are part of an educational center, surely you have immediately seen that the functionalities that we tell you about can be used to provide more quality training. Thanks to its features, it is possible to easily design programs for each of the disciplines or languages.

At CAE we are experts in SCORM/AICC content for e-learning. If you need professional advice and want us to tell you which are the solutions that best suit each case, contact us. We can guide you step by step.

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