AICC/SCORM compliant course structure in Flash

[TheOriginalFlashDavo]

Hi guys,

It's quite easy with the new MX components to create individual interactions or quizes that are AICC/SCORM compliant, and the HTML code gets generated automatically. What I am trying to find out is what other files/elements are required to create the course structure that can then ne imported and read by a compliant LMS?

I originally thought the LMS must create all the course structure, with the Flash being imported as modules or lessons, but apparantly this is not so. Could someone enlightne me n this, or even better send me a very simple course structure (like, 2 or 3 questions) in a ZIP that is complete and ready to be imported into an LMS?!

I am getting desperate on this...

Thanks
Dave
drooney@e-cademy.net
dave@envisionous.com

[JabezStone]

I'd be quite interested in this as well.
Dave, when you get info on this, could you please post in this thread? This info has been illusive to me as well.

[TheOriginalFlashDavo]

I only hope someone out there has some info. I've spent the past 3 days doing nothing else but search the web and read about AICC/SCORM compliancy, Flash interactions...etc, and even calling the States (from Sydney) to try to get information. No one seems to have more than the basics.

All the hype about FlashMX and the new learning capabilities, so far all that can be produced from Flash is a module, or quiz. That's fine as a standalone, but does nothing to create a course structure, which is required when importing into the LMS.

[dissector]

Hi

I tried to post a reply to this in the coffee lounge but it hasn't come up for some reason.

Anyway. I've been thinking about these problems a lot recently.

Basically in order to track user progression and test results from INSIDE the flash movie you have to send the appropriate variables to the API using FScommand. This is not the easiest thing to do and requires some knowledge about javascipt. There is, however, a 'FS SCORM' template from macromedia that is not actually a template but a demonstration of how this can be done. Search for it on macromedia.com.

I personally am going down the route of having all layout, text and navigation in html with flash animations embedded in each screen. You can see an example at dissectionroom.com/tutorials.htm under 'vertebral column'. This way I can import into a simple SCORM creation tool (such as lectora) which will sort out all the coding for me.

I am, however going to create some simulation and game-based elearning material which would not be ameniable to this solution so I shall be implementing the FScommand technique of checking user progression and the various scores generated inside the games. I hope to come up with an open-source library of components that will contain the appropriate FS commands and a template to make the whole thing SCORM compliant and integrate with LMSs.

I am currently working with a programmer, who has just created an open-source LMS, to test out these methods. If you have any luck finding anybody who has successfully done this or want to help yourselves please let me know.

On the other hand it is important to think - do you really need to know the user's progression? Do we really need to store results from a flash based quiz or can we just do a simpler html based quiz? I think the reason there is not much stuff out there about this is that it probably isn't all that necessary. It is very easy to use the 'SCORM wrapper' when publishing to make the flash moview scorm compliant.

There is also an opinon (spreading quickly) in the elearning industry that standards are going out of the window. We are moving towards the 'semantic web' where it will not be necessary for items to comply with standards in order to be correctly categorised and accessible. If something is able to be viewed on all internet browsing software this will be all the standard that is required. As people build up better directories and search facilities the benefits of storing elearning material on SCORM repositories (which you have to pay for) will be diminished. This is especially true for things like simulations and game based learning.

I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions about this.

Chris

[skinnyot]

There's a pretty good course for SCORM content developers on http://www.scorm.tamucc.edu/scorm/home.html

It's also got Manifest and Metadata generators available for free download, which should simplify your content aggregation task.

[l0ungeb0y]

I suggest you download the docs from http://www.adlnet.org

The concept here is that you have a 2 part componant framework that together creates the LMS environment.

Part 1 is the SCO-RTE the actual runtime environment.
This must provide an API that provides at a minimum the following functions:
LMSInitialize() and LMSFinish()
This is to allow the courseware to initialize itself and terminate itself via the Browser DOM.

Why this componant?
Because the course must be distributable.
Fred makes a course and hosts it on his server, he runs Informix and runs the course over his corporate intranet.
Barney wants to have the course on his too, but Barney wants the SCO to interface to his Oracle database and keep records of the course to be taken from a remote website.

The SCO-RTE allows for server independancy.
If this componant were imbedded in the course itself, it would defy the very purpose of LMS, which is for distributed education via a variety of service models.

Part 2 is the actual SCO,
which is the Sharable Content Object.
That is the course itself, and what you as a courseware developer need be concerned with, you will have to seek out the SCO-RTE and detect it then call the LMSInit() function to initialize then when done, call LMSFinish() to terminate the connection so that the SCO-RTE may act appropriately (update the database etc)

How you do this is up to you
You can use Flash itself to handle everything or you can use external javascript. As long as the courseware you distribute has all the parts in place to initialize and work with the RTE, you are compliant.


Hope that helps a bit, it's all a bit much to explain in a post so I really do suggest reading the SCORM conformance matrix and other material available at the link above.

[enemem]

wow - a whole thread that I don't understand a single word of!

I would be interested to know a little more and will do a search on Google but if someone could explain in 1 or 2 brief sentences what this is all about (AICC/SCORM, LMS, etc) I'd be very grateful...

thx - n.