This question came in via email. I figured I would post it (keeping the author anonymous) because these are very common questions, and maybe this post can help other people out. I also want to give others the opportunity to throw in their 2 cents! 🙂
Most e-learning developers don’t care about SCORM and only (begrudingly) learn enough to get the job done. I don’t blame them. This brings up the never-ending question when it comes to using SCORM in courseware: What are you really trying to do with SCORM?
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.
The SCORM API wrapper (v1.1.7) has been updated to automatically set the initial course status and the exit status.
The point of my SCORM API wrapper is to make working with SCORM easier. These two new functions are intended to ensure you follow best practices with your SCORM code while reducing the amount of tedious code you will need to write for your course.
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.
Learn how to add SCORM code to a plain HTML file. This example uses SCORM 1.2 syntax, but can be converted to SCORM 2004 without much effort.
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.
A summary of updates regarding the pipwerks JavaScript SCORM wrapper.
By popular demand, the SCORM API Wrapper for JavaScript has a new feature: the ability to specify what version of the SCORM API should be used.
Also, I converted the AS2 demonstration FLA to Flash 8 format and posted it as a separate ZIP file.
The pipwerks SCORM wrapper examples have been successfully tested in SumTotal TotalLMS 7.6. FYI, the examples’ imsmanifest.xml files required some modifications (the old manifests worked fine in the ADL test suites, but coughed a little when used in SumTotal TotalLMS 7.6). The JavaScript, ActionScript and HTML in the examples remain unchanged. If you’ve previously downloaded the examples, I suggest you download the updated versions to get the newer manifests. Of course, if you’re a pro at manifests (Aaron?), you could always make better ones… making the imsmanifest is my least favorite part of working with SCORM. As always, if you test these in your LMS, please let me know — even if it doesn’t work! Thanks 🙂
