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Hi, my name's Jono Poltrack, I'm an engineer on the ADL Technical Team.
This is part four of the Introduction to SCORM video series.
This one is on Conformance and Certification.
The objective is to understand SCORM conformance and certification.
SCORM product status.
Conformance.
Conformance means that a product is tested to ensure it performs as specified in the ADL SCORM
Test Suite.
This applies to a specific version of the SCORM only.
So for example,
if you test with the SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition Test Suite
Version 1.1.1
well then you're testing conformance versus SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition only.
If you have a requirement to use SCORM 2004 Third Edition
then you have to use the appropriate SCORM 2004
Third Edition Test Suite to test for conformance.
Here I also get a lot of questions about backwards compatibility.
Between SCORM 2004
and SCORM Version 1.2,
there's not backwards compatibility.
This is because
a lot of the API and data model names changed. Behaviors changed.
Sequencing was added in SCORM 2004 which isn't supported in SCORM Version 1.2.
So definitely not backwards compatible.
That happened actually because,
SCORM, remember, is a reference model. It references others specs and standards.
So as those specs and standards were updated, we harmonized the SCORM with those specifications
and at times that broke the backwards compatibility.
Now within SCORM 2004 First, Second, Third and Fourth Edition,
there's a chance
that your content will run in a different version. So for example, if you're developing SCORM
2004 Third Edition content,
it may run in a SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition LMS.
It's going to depend on the feature set that you use with your content.
So, it's not very straightforward whether it's backwards compatible in SCORM 2004.
It's going to really depend on the different features that you use.
Generally the answer would be no, it's not backwards compatible,
but you may have some luck if you do need to run in another version.
Certification. Certification in SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition applies
to LMSs only.
The difference between certification and conformance
is that a neutral third party conducts a formal evaluation using the ADL Test Suite.
This is done by our ADL Certification Testing Centers. They're the only ones
that can assert SCORM certification.
Very similar to the way conformance works, certification is for a specific version of the SCORM.
We'll talk about the different
types of certification for the different versions of the SCORM on the next slide,
but it is specific to a version so
your product could be
certified for SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition
or Third Edition.
It's not the entire SCORM 2004.
Conformance and certification levels. Starting at SCORM Version 1.2
there were three LMS levels,
four SCO levels, four metadata levels and one content package level of conformance.
You'll see over time as we talk about the other versions
that that actually changed, that we removed those different levels of conformance.
So, for example the three levels of LMS conformance
are really
deffering based on the data model value supported.
So the first level of LMS conformance
meant that the LMS supported the mandatory data model elements.
The second level of LMS conformance meant that the LMS supported the mandatory
and at least one optional but not all optional data model elements.
And, the third level of LMS conformance meant they supported all mandatory and all
optional,
all data model elements.
Well, the different levels of conformance actually caused some interoperability issues.
If you were developing content,
the use of the data model
altogether is optional.
But, you can really use any ones that you like.
So
if you use some of the optional elements and then you imported your content into a LMS
that was only conformant to like the first level, maybe only supported the mandatory elements,
well then the data model elements in your content
would not be supported so
this did result in interoperability issues. So over time we removed those other conformance
levels to remove the interoperability issues.
Also in SCORM Version 1.2 there were
four levels of SCO conformance.
These vary also based on the use of the data model.
Metadata, there was also different levels of conformance.
For metadata
the requirements were different depending on what you were describing.
The package as a whole,
a SCO,
an asset.
So, the different levels meant for whatever you were describing
if you use the mandatory elements,
if you use the mandatory and optional,
or if you use just some optional elements.
And that's how you got those different levels of conformance.
Similar with content packaging there was actually only one
level of conformance and that cascaded over into SCORM 2004.
So, moving to SCORM 2004 Editions One through Three
there was one level of LMS conformance
and one level of content package conformance.
So you can see
that that interoperability issue was removed. In SCORM 2004 all data model
elements are mandatory from the LMS point of view.
So when you're developing your content, if you're using SCORM 2004,
any of the versions,
whatever data model elements you use will be supported by that learning management system.
We had to remove that interoperability issue
because in SCORM Version 1.2 again,
an LMS could say it was conformant but not support all the date model elements, not the case
in SCORM 2004.
And then there was one level of content package conformance
that is basically testing your course, that's your course package, is it conformant or not?
That actually tests your SCOs.
That tests your metadata.
That tests your manifest in your content package. So in SCORM Version 1.2 where we
had those tests broken out,
in SCORM 2004 it's the entire package that needs to be conformant or certified.
Moving on to SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition.
Right now you can be conformant
to SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition
but as of summer 2010 we have not rolled out the certification process for
SCORM 2004 Fourth Edition yet.
We've made some significant changes to the certification process to make it an ISO-
conformant certification process,
and right now that's still in the works. So it should be out soon,
but not quite there yet.
Also notice in 2004 Fourth Edition
that only LMSs can be certified. There's one level of LMS certification.
Content has been removed.
Certification does not mean
from the LMS perspective
that an LMS has all the functionality you need,
uses tracking data from your SCOs, or is approved, good, or a safe purchase.
So, what we mean by that is that
if you have a SCO that's running in an LMS
the LMS is responsible for
serving up those data model values if the SCO asks for it.
Or if the SCO sets it, it must maintain it. So when the SCO asks for it, it gets it back.
However on the back-end,
there's no requirement that the LMS does anything with that data.
So for example,
um
An LMS may create a grade book application where an instructor can go in and assign
a course
to a set of their students.
When the students take the course
they take an exam at the end and they all get a score.
Well the professor in certain LMS may be able to go in, use a grade book application
to change the curve
and grade based on that curve on how his
course did.
So,
That is not specified by the SCORM - that's something that's on top of the SCORM.
It's not something that LMSs must provide to be SCORM conformant.
So, when we say that the LMS
uses the run-time data, we mean
reporting type features.
Do they provide charts of how my
students did?
That type of stuff is not specified in the SCORM, so when selecting an LMS you want
to make sure you look for those features because those are the features
that enable an LMS to get a market value.
Also certification does not mean, from an LMS perspective, that it's approved, good
or a safe purchase.
If an LMS is SCORM conformant or SCORM certified
that means that they meet the requirements of the SCORM and that's all.
So again, you really want to look for those features, you want to make sure it meets your needs.
It may not be the case
even if it is SCORM conformant.
Certification does not mean from a content point of view that it will work the way you
want it to in an LMS,
and that it will run on any other platform configuration, et cetera.
What do we mean by that?
Well, let's use an example.
So if I'm developing a course and it requires some client side plug-ins
and I'm developing on my local machine and I'm running the SCORM Test Suite on my local
machine,
I could basically build the course, run it in the Test Suite and get an conformance statement.
But let's say the intended operating environment, was a secure network.
That had the mobile code policy. That didn't allow client side plug-ins.
Well when deployed to that environment
that content may not run.
So you see,
you can actually have a conformance statement because I ran it locally in the Test Suite,
and got conformance level.
But, when I move it over into the LMS system on the intended operating environment,
it doesn't work due to mobile code policies.
Now these are common web issues, this is not specific to the SCORM.
You can run into the same issues when developing web sites so it's not unique to this environment
but just know that because you get a log that says something is SCORM conformant,
it doesn't get you around
other web issues, so you want to be cognizant of that.
To learn more about ADL go to ADLnet.gov. There you can subscribe
to our ADL Insights newsletter.
Also follow us on Twitter at @ADL_Initiative.
Or join our Advanced Distributed Learning group on LinkedIn.
That concludes the fourth part of the Introduction to SCORM video
series. If you missed the other parts they're available on ADLnet.gov.
Also we're doing a lot of other videos that will be available on the site soon,
so check ADLnet.gov for other videos in the series. And thanks for watching�