SCORM support

The steps to enable SCORM support are:
1. You login as a professor
2. You enter a lesson
3. You click on the "Administration" Link
4. You'll see all lesson's components. Those in grey color are deactivated.

5. Click on the "SCORM" icon. This action will change its color, which means that it is active from now on.

6. Click on the "Main page" link on the left menu
7. On the control panel, you now see a "SCORM" icon, which leads to the SCORM-specific options

SCORM import

To import a SCORM module as a new lesson:
We assume that you have already created a new lesson in which you intent to import the Scorm content.
1. Login as Professor
2. Go to Lessons
3. Go to the lesson you created for this purpose
4. Go to lesson Administration
5. Activate the SCORM lesson option
6. Go to the lesson's control panel
7. Click on the SCORM icon
8. Choose "Import SCORM content" tab
9. Browse to the SCORM module and select it
10. Click on the "Submit" button

11.Click on the button next to the file name, in order to convert it to a SCORM content unit , in case it is a theory content, or to test unit if it is a test.

You have successfully imported a SCORM module.

Note: You can also import a SCORM module into an existing lesson. The SCORM content will be added to the lesson's content tree.

SCORM export

To export a lesson in SCORM format:
1. Login as professor
2. Go to the lesson you want to export
3. Go to SCORM button from the main menu
4. Click on "Export Lesson to Scorm" option and then on the "Export" button that appears.

5. Click on the exported zip file to download it.

SCORM data usage

The professor has the ability to review data about the usage of the scorm content by his students. On the SCORM menu, there is an option called "Review SCORM data".

This tab, as we can see at the image above, provides the professor with information about the students who have seen the content. when they saw it, if they have passed it, their score etc.

Specific SCORM vendor notes

1. Adobe captivate:

Adobe captivate uses a queuing system for communicating with the LMS, sending a request for each SCORM API call back and forth the client and the LMS. In addition, it uses a special "legacy" mode for all browsers except IE8, which is very slow. As a result, it seems as if the LMS does not save the SCO results, whereas what happens is that the queue is so long that several minutes must pass until the result is registered. The solution to this is 2-fold:

First, from within efront you must go to the unit's properties and switch to "asynchronous" mode for communication, which is considerable faster: As a professor, click on the green pencil to edit the unit, then click on the "Advanced settings" link to expand the advanced settings, and check the "Asynchronous SCORM communication" option.

Second, you must disable the "legacy" mode in Captivate, by using a special template for creating the SCOs (Custom.htm - attached at the bottom of this page). You can see more information about this issue at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2163688/captivate-lms-scorm-communication-problems. 

If you are experiencing "freezing" courses, then you can try the workaround proposed on http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2011/03/solution-to-captivate-scorm-course-freeze-issue-on-some-lmss.html#comment-5140 (thanks Niklas)

In adobe Captivate 5, 5.5 and 6 there's a switch that makes the produced SCORM content to only communicate with the LMS upon completion, so setting this should resolve any issues.

2. Articulate and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9):

There is a communication problem with the LMS when running Articulate content in an iframe using IE9. The SCORM content is unable to persist scores and completion statuses. This is a known Articulate+flash+IE9+iframes issue: http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?cat=3

In order to make it work, you have to edit the file www/themes/default/templates/includes/header.tpl and add the following line along with the rest meta tags:

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=8″ />

This will make your browser treat the system like IE8 does. Please note that you must restart your browser for this setting to take effect, as simply reloading the page won't make any difference.

IMS support

IMS Content Packaging specification describes data structures that can be used to exchange data between systems that wish to import, export, aggregate, and disaggregate packages of content. IMS content packages enable exporting content from one learning content management system or digital repository and importing it into another while retaining information describing the media in the content package and how it is structured, such as a table of contents or which web page to show first. The IMS Content Packaging Specification focuses on the packaging and transport of resources but doesn’t determine the nature of those resources. This is because the specification allows adopters to gather, structure, and aggregate content in an unlimited variety of formats.

Many tools can use content or produce content in IMS format. For example you can download all free courses from the British open-university in IMS format. For more information on that check the links below: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=346010

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/

For every topic there is a download link on the left of the page. You should download using the IMS Content Package format.

The process of using content in IMS format is similar to how SCORM content is used. As a professor you have to use the dedicated IMS icon on the lesson's control panel to import IMS content. Imported content is merged with the lesson's content.