Core SCORM Overview
"Core SCORM" is a proposed future version of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) that will be 100% based on de jure standards and designed to support adaptation by communities of practice to meet their particular linguistic, pedagogical, and deployment requirements.
To date, all versions of SCORM have been developed and maintained by the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL), a program of the U.S. Department of Defense. SCORM has succeeded on a global scale beyond ADL's original expectations. In response, ADL is collaborating with an international group of sponsors to establish a stewardship organization to support SCORM's future maintenance, evolution, and global adoption. This collaboration has the working name of "LETSI", for Learning, Education and Training Systems Interoperability. Core SCORM is the version of SCORM that ADL proposes to transfer to LETSI.
With one exception, Core SCORM will be functionally equivalent to SCORM 2004 3rd Edition, the current SCORM release. The exception is support for IMS Simple Sequencing, which Core SCORM will not include. ADL anticipates that the U.S Department of Defense will continue to use IMS Simple Sequencing as a community of practice adaptation. Also, Core SCORM proposes a more flexible approach for content aggregation. While IMS Content Packaging will remain a conformant solution, Core SCORM will enable communities of practice to adopt other, equivalent solutions if there is a community of practice requirement to do so.
Core SCORM will support the following functional capabilities, harmonized and based on de jure standards:
- Content aggregation
- Content description using learning object metadata
- Content runtime communication
Core SCORM will be defined in terms of three document types chosen for compatibility with ISO/IEC procedures:
- foundation standards
- profile standards
- technical reports
Core SCORM Foundation Standards
Core SCORM will rest upon a set of de jure standards that are selected by the LETSI collaboration but that are developed by an accredited standards body such as the IEEE or ISO/IEC. The proposed set of foundation standards to be used in Core SCORM is:
- IEEE 1484.11.1-2004 IEEE Standard for Learning Technology - Data Model for Content to Learning Management System Communication
- IEEE 1484.11.2-2003 IEEE Standard for Learning Technology - ECMAScript Application Programming Interface for Content to Runtime Services Communication
- IEEE 1484.11.3-2005 IEEE Standard for Learning Technology - Extensible Markup Language (XML) Schema Binding for Data Model for Content Object Communication
- IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 IEEE Standard for Learning Object Metadata
- IEEE 1484.12.3-2005 IEEE Standard for Learning Technology - Extensible Markup Language (XML) Schema Definition Language Binding for Learning Object Metadata
- ISO/IEC 21000-2:2005 Information technology -- Multimedia framework (MPEG-21) -- Part 2: Digital Item Declaration
Core SCORM Profile Standards
As needed, Core SCORM will utilize profile standards, specialized standards that define a conformant subset of one or more de jure standards to support particular application requirements. LETSI proposes to define profile standards according to the practice followed in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 and to progress proposed profile standards through that body. The following profile standards are anticipated:
- ECMAScript Runtime Communication Profile Standard (based on IEEE 1484.11.1-2004, IEEE 1484.11.2-2003, and a set of "dot notation" data element names)
- Web Service Runtime Communication Profile Standard (based on a Web Service binding of the IEEE 1484.11.2 functionality and on IEEE 1484.11.3)
- Content Aggregation Profile Standard (based on ISO/IEC 21000-2:2005 and defining a canonical model against which other specifications and standards may be mapped for conformance)
Core SCORM Reference Model Documents (Type 3 Technical Reports)
Core SCORM will define a set of documents that define the actual reference model and that provide implementation guidance. In ISO/IEC terms these will be Type 3 Technical Reports and will correspond to the "books of SCORM" as traditionally provided by ADL. These documents should:
- provide capabilities that are broadly relevant to diverse LET communities of practice
- be freely available and royalty free for implementation
- be 100% based on de jure standards
- support localization, extension, and adaptation by communities of practice
- have defined and testable conformance statements
