Extending the SCORM wrapper and ActionScript classes

I’ve had a number of people ask me why I haven’t extended my SCORM helpers (the JavaScript-based SCORM API wrapper and the two ActionScript classes) to completely remove the need to know any of the “cmi” calls. I have three reasons: SCORM is not that simple, the functionality between SCORM versions is significantly different, and extending the helpers that far means writing a complete (non-standardized) replacement syntax for SCORM.

Unpublished Captivate variables

A recent post in the e-learning development forum reminded me that I forgot to post some unpublished Captivate variables I dug up a while back.

cmi.core.exit & cmi.exit

Ok, I just had to write a quick blurb about this one: in about 3.5 years of using SCORM in my own course code, I had never used cmi.core.exit (SCORM 1.2) or cmi.exit (SCORM 2004). Seems incredibly daft of me now that I’ve taken a few minutes to review the documentation.

How to add basic SCORM code to a Flash movie

Here’s a quick tutorial for adding basic SCORM functionality to an existing Flash file. This tutorial aims to demonstrate just how easy it can be to add SCORM functionality to an existing Flash movie.

Please note that this tutorial uses ActionScript 3 and SCORM 1.2, but the same principles apply for ActionScript 2 and SCORM 2004.

LegacyCaptivateLoader: Dealing with pre-existing scripts in your Captivate SWF

When I designed the LegacyCaptivateLoader, I was focused on giving the ActionScript 3 SWF the ability to control the ActionScript 2-based Captivate SWF; I hadn’t given much thought to how the situation affects Captivate SWFs using one of the workarounds I just described. Can the embedded SWFs still work? Will JavaScript calls from Captivate still work with ActionScript 3’s ExternalInterface system? The short answer is yes, but it may take some tweaking on your part.

Things to consider when working on a training project

I read not one, but three great blog posts today regarding what kinds of questions you should asking yourself when working on a project. Two of the blogs were not specific to the e-learning industry, but they apply nonetheless.