Using JavaScript SCORM API Wrapper simpleset examples

[Dino]

Hi,

I am a total newbie in regards to SCORM. I have a LMS site running for
about more than 2 years built in core PHP.
I would like to make it SCORM compliant and was checking out the
JavaScript SCORM API Wrapper.

I also downloaded Demonstration (simple completion) (SCORM 1.2 & SCORM
2004) but could not manage it to run [SCORM 2004 version/
scorm2004.html].
It always generates "Error: Course could not connect with the LMS". I
searched the pipwerks site as well for this issue and found the reply
for this issue posted by someone as
"SCORM-based courses must be launched from an LMS (or SCORM test
environment like cloud.scorm.com) or they’ll throw errors because the
SCORM API is not found."

I could not understand what is says. Do we need some extra stuffs to
run the example? I thought this wrapper was enough to use SCORM. How
do i run this sample so that I can get enough knowledge on how SCORM
works. I am studying few documents but it would be great if someone
helped me out here.

Thanks

[Ryan Meyer]

SCORM is a Javascript API that an LMS exposes in order to communicate
and store details about course progress and scoring. From the
perspective of the deployed course content, all it cares about is that
there's a Javascript object available with a specific variable name
(different depending on SCORM version) that exposes a few defined
methods and supports a defined data model.
However, behind this Javascript API, the LMS must handle all the
details of storing the information in its database and providing it
back to the course when launched/re-launched.
The SCORM wrapper and sample course you're looking at are to help
CONTENT developers interacting with the exposed API, not to help
SERVER developers implement the back end of that API. I would suggest
you go to http://www.scorm.com and start reading. A lot.
Once you've got a good handle on how SCORM works, you'll quite likely
realize that there's a LOT of server implentation involved in doing it
properly. However, the folks at scorm.com (Rustici Software) have
built SCORMCloud, a service which hosts, delivers, and tracks your
SCORM content. It exposes web services, that your LMS could use to
deploy and launch content seamlessly for your end users without them
realizing that it's not your LMS running behind the scenes. It's not
free, but their licensing fees are fairly reasonable, and it will
allow you to use SCORM with your existing front-end.
If you're not interested in that approach, I would probably recommend
looking at an open source or commercial LMS to look at as a
replacement for your own. Implenting a SCORM LMS properly is no small
task, especially if you want to support SCORM 2004.
Hope that gets you set off on the right path. Good luck!
-Ryan

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2011, at 7:49 PM, Dino <dinkar.p...@rapidesign.com.au>
wrote:

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[Dino]

Thanks Ryan,

For the helpful reply. Will go into the SCORM deep again.

Thanks

On Jul 21, 8:46 pm, Ryan Meyer <ryan.e.me...@gmail.com> wrote:
> SCORM is a Javascript API that an LMS exposes in order to communicate  
> and store details about course progress and scoring. From the  
> perspective of the deployed course content, all it cares about is that  
> there's a Javascript object available with a specific variable name  
> (different depending on SCORM version) that exposes a few defined  
> methods and supports a defined data model.
> However, behind this Javascript API, the LMS must handle all the  
> details of storing the information in its database and providing it  
> back to the course when launched/re-launched.
> The SCORM wrapper and sample course you're looking at are to help  
> CONTENT developers interacting with the exposed API, not to help  
> SERVER developers implement the back end of that API. I would suggest  

> you go tohttp://www.scorm.comand start reading. A lot.

> Once you've got a good handle on how SCORM works, you'll quite likely  
> realize that there's a LOT of server implentation involved in doing it  
> properly. However, the folks at scorm.com (Rustici Software) have  
> built SCORMCloud, a service which hosts, delivers, and tracks your  
> SCORM content. It exposes web services, that your LMS could use to  
> deploy and launch content seamlessly for your end users without them  
> realizing that it's not your LMS running behind the scenes. It's not  
> free, but their licensing fees are fairly reasonable, and it will  
> allow you to use SCORM with your existing front-end.
> If you're not interested in that approach, I would probably recommend  
> looking at an open source or commercial LMS to look at as a  
> replacement for your own. Implenting a SCORM LMS properly is no small  
> task, especially if you want to support SCORM 2004.
> Hope that gets you set off on the right path. Good luck!
> -Ryan
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>

> On Jul 20, 2011, at 7:49 PM, Dino <dinkar.prajap...@rapidesign.com.au>  

> > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/elearning-technology-and-development?h...
> > .

[Robert Doherty]

Not sure how far along you've gotten, or what stage you are at,
but the Javascript API is slightly different for SCORM 1.2 vs SCORM
1.3 (aka 2004).

In particular, the API object itself is named differently in the
different SCORM versions, so that could be why you are seeing the
"SCORM API not found" errors.

Check out the Moodle project to see some sample code that deals with
SCORM handling.

[Philip Hutchison]

If you're looking to build SCORM support into your LMS, start with SCORM 1.2; it's MUCH easier to implement than SCORM 2004 and will help you become familiar with concepts and issues in SCORM.

I'll warn you now, it isn't easy to build SCORM support for an LMS; there are people who make careers out of it.  The JavaScript API is the easy part -- you also have to build the package support system that can load and parse the course packages using the guidelines from SCORM's Content Aggregation Model (CAM) book. There are lots of nuances and little gotchas involved, including issues such as determining which manifest settings should override a JavaScript API call from the SCO.

I suggest checking out the SCORM support from an open-source PHP LMS such as Moodle, Chamilo, or Ilias and seeing if you can adopt it for your own LMS.

- philip

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[Cor]

I wouldn’t recommend ILIAS.

Due to lack of financial support they stop developing sequencing in ILIAS version ... and contact with Berne Toedt of ILIAS, who said:

“It is also not going to be implemented in later versions”.

 

Notice the difference between version in 2008, chapter 4 about sequencing:

http://www.codobyte.com/ILIAS/Berne_Toedt_ILIAS_Editor_Manual.pdf

 

And version 2009 without sequencing:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36233506/Ilias-SCORM-2004-Editor-Manual

 

Furthermore, the ILIAs community is very (!) small and merely used by the medical university at Dortmund, Germany and one in Switzerland.

I don’t know Chamilo, but working with Moodle for a few years now, and thanks to Philips SCORM API Wrapper, it works like a charm…

 

HTH

Cor

[Philip Hutchison]

Thanks for the info, Cor

[Dino]

Thanks for all the helpful tips.
Yes I have planned to start with Scorm 1.2 and have started working on
it too. I am using step by step scorm wrapper development tutorial
from vss (http://www.vsscorm.net/).
Once I get familiar with Scorm, I will definitely switch on to the
needs of Scorm 2004.

Thanks