Just for interest, here is an unmodified SCORM content package (I didn't create it) that has been uploaded to Moodle and included as a resource.
http://moodle.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=578
No extra code needed to be added to make this work. The only tricky part is to know which file to link to as the "main" file. (Note that the fancier features of SCORM such as detailed tracking and the communication of grades back to the LMS are not being used here.)
It would be nice, as a first step, to automate this installation process with a new resource type called "SCORM package". The user would just need to select the zip package, then Moodle would unzip it, and set up the "start page" automatically (by parsing the package).
It might be this particular module but I found that the graphic of the lion didn't appear in Safari (Mac) and that in both Safari and MSIE 5.2.2 (OS X) the scroll bar either didn't appear or didn't allow me to scroll down to the "next" button or final rows of text. I actually had to increase the size of the frame by decreasing the size of the top frame before it was visible.
Also, the text of the "next" button was small and not centered. Is this simply because someone made a "rough and ready" module or is it a defect in the rendering?
Also, the text of the "next" button was small and not centered. Is this simply because someone made a "rough and ready" module or is it a defect in the rendering?
I hadn't even noticed there was a lion! (it doesn't show in Mozilla either). Works fine in IE. This package was generated by a SCORM authoring package.
"Welcome to SCORM, where we use Javascript and DHTML to make simple things complex in the name of simplicity." 
Hi Martin,
From your description of what you've done it would seem that you've not used the imsmanifest.xml file which describes the structure of the package.
In which case, you've simply got a zipped up set of resource files.
The beauty of using the imsmanifest file is that it allows the content author to build a menu structure that can then be used by the Learning Management System automatically. You would not need to know which were the key files to link to as the content author has already done the work.
For a primer on SCORM see this excellent online tutorial at: http://www.jcasolutions.com/SC12/index.html
All the best,
Mark
From your description of what you've done it would seem that you've not used the imsmanifest.xml file which describes the structure of the package.
In which case, you've simply got a zipped up set of resource files.
The beauty of using the imsmanifest file is that it allows the content author to build a menu structure that can then be used by the Learning Management System automatically. You would not need to know which were the key files to link to as the content author has already done the work.
For a primer on SCORM see this excellent online tutorial at: http://www.jcasolutions.com/SC12/index.html
All the best,
Mark
Looks like Dr Ed has a minimal commitment to openness.... I quote...
ADL's SCORM Course
This course is ver. 1.2.1 and makes extensive use of javascript in its pages. It is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5.x or 6.x. Please report any suggestions or problems to:
Can't seem to find a version of Internet Explorer for my Operating system....
ADL's SCORM Course
This course is ver. 1.2.1 and makes extensive use of javascript in its pages. It is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5.x or 6.x. Please report any suggestions or problems to:
Can't seem to find a version of Internet Explorer for my Operating system....
Yes, that's what I meant by needing to parse the package to set up a "start page" ... just linking to
http://moodle.org/file.php/5/SCORM_TEST/HTML/imsmanifest.xml
isn't very useful.
http://moodle.org/file.php/5/SCORM_TEST/HTML/imsmanifest.xml
isn't very useful.
Once I get a little more familiar with PHP and Moodle, this is exactly what I want to try to do. I have written an ASP application that will create a Microsoft .LRN package for a series of pages for a course. (I used it to teach myself ASP.) Now I want to be able to import them into Moodle. I was actually successful in getting my program to export into a format to be imported as a BlackBoard assessment using Moodle, so I have hope I can get this. If anyone is working on it, let me know. I have a good understanding of the format and of the SCORM package, XML and XSLT and a great background in programming and now own 4 PHP books.
Just give me a few weeks to get up to speed on PHP and I'd love to help!
Jenny
Good stuff! No-one else is working on this right at this moment that I know of. Keep in touch with how you're going and feel free to ask questions any time!
In The Netherlands the collaborating Universities and other Higher Education Instituts, united in "The Digital University" choose a central CMS for educational content. Their choice became a tool that can handle IEEE LTSC, IMS, ADL SCORM, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36, CEN/ISSS WSLT
From the CMS product page:
- X stands for modular learning objects, designed for reuse and personalisation, dynamically addressing your learning needs, whenever & wherever they arise.
- X stands for xml, the new lingua franca of instructional design, enabling you to express content independently from the delivery device you might have today or tomorrow, from workstations to mobile devices, from wearable PCs to wireless networks.
-0-0-0-
Before someone creates a SCORM or other solution: where do we wish to place Moodle in the "restricted arena of standards"? If you want to do personalisation the SCORM way, where in Moodle do you store this LIP info? (Learning Information Profil)
My five cents:
For me:
- "The core of Moodle is a pile of cards. On these Moodle-cards you group resources and (group)activities."
- Students use these Moodle cards as a tool for their mind.
- Teachers - not algorithms - stimulate and monitor these processes the "Montessori way" and are managers by exception.
You can describe this Moodle thing in "a Manifest" as the levels of an outline
- On the first level you have the course name. Here should be room for a general description of a course (Dublin Core? LOM?)
- The second level are the titles on the Moodle-cards on the main screen of a course. On this moment it is a free text field, where teacher do very differnt things: a standard would wish here at least a separation in a title field and a description box.
- The Third level is the level of the names of the resources and the activities placed on the Moodle-cards.
Until this third level you could compare the design to the outline design of IMS content packaging (The way it was implemented in the first versions of Microsoft's eLearn tool?)
..But then Moodle looses control: under the third level you can hang a single sheet or a complete html-tree, Moodle cannot tell the difference. So no export of a complete Moodle course back to SCORM format... (Although the Backup mechanism could become the start of this?)
If you want to import a SCORM /IMS CP course-outline, the question should be: on which level do you place the top of the outline-tree? I think it should normally be on level one, but I would wish me "Moodle freedom" so that I could choose the level of import myself:
- top level would be accepting a complete course outline,
- level three would be inserting a SCORM outline as a submodule/card set.
On level one you cannot (yet) import a SCORM file in Moodle.
If you hang a SCORM modul in level 3 of Moodle - like Martin's example - it becomes a black box that always fits:
It is not better or worse then the html-website I created with Enersoft's SiteGenWizard, zipped that html-tree and created a working tree as a resource inside Moodle, suprise..
Hanging in SCORM resourses as black boxes could be our choice, I do not reject it, by the way.
An even more important point is the question:
Do you want to give up the freedom and flavors of Moodle in favor of importing SCORM modules?
Moodle as a modern eLearnig tool tries to promote:
- That students work and learn more together
- That teachers give more open assignments and peer responsibilty
- That the teacher-coach can tune a course, depending of the monitoring and feedback of his/here students, even durig a run.
SCORM isn ot bad. It is good for learning on your own on the internet, training for functions with very complex procedures like the job of an aeroplane pilot. That is the origin of the AICC standard.
A subset of AICC control-flow is transfered to SCORM, but it stays for individual monitoring and control.
Again, nothing wrong with learning on your own or even doing some m.c. tests inside a Moodle and monitoring/adminstrating these things, as long as there is more in your Moodle course.
Workshop should become the flagship of Moodle content. Scorm cannot handle that flow, Simple Sequencing is also only for individual tasks in steps. (The only way in SCORM to do group things, is simulating all teh other students in a course.)
Please Scorm expert and others, comment on this,come with solutions, even flame me... but let's agree on the future road of Moodle..
In reply to Ger Tielemans
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by David Delgado -
I think that making Moodle standards compliant is good, and does not mean loosing any freedom. It is just about speaking a common language with other e-learning platforms, nothing else.
In a quite near future, we will be able to move courses from a platform to other with the click of a button, and to extend them using e-learning application modules that can be plugged into any of them.
It is not so far, since we already have a main e-learning standards organization: IMS. It provides standard contents (IMS Content Packaging), standard quizzes (IMS Question and Test Interoperability - QTI), standard interface with enterprise/campus information systems (IMS Enterprise), and many other e-learning standards.
We also have a standard common architecture for e-learning platforms, with its own API: OKI, from the very MIT.
There is also a lot of work being done in Learning objects. They are small, reusable, learning modules that can be used in an independent way and can be combined with others to build courses. There is also an standard for it: Learning Object Metadata (IEEE LOM).
Related to all this stuff is a Reference Model, integrating several standards, called SCORM (Shareable Course Object Reference Model), from ADL, wich could be the foundation for Learning Objects and integration of e-learning standards.
I do agree in your 3 level vision of an XML schema for Moodle courses. I think that level 2 (sections) could be used as a foundation to construct learning objects that could be shared in a moodle server and even among different servers.
Eloy Lafuente has done a great work on XML schemas for courses in his backup tool for Moodle. Each course backup zip file has a moodle.xml file in it that describes the course very well. You can unzip any course backup and see it for yourself.
As you can see, we are not so far from integrating e-learning standards into Moodle, without loosing any freedom. In fact, it is planned to have a basic support for IMS and SCORM in Moodle 2.0, in early 2004. I think that there are also plans to make Moodle OKI compatible.
I think it is the most important think that we have to integrate into Moodle: e-learning standards, to be able to share any content, courses, learning objects or even application modules with other e-learning platforms. If we do not do that, we will not survive, that simple.
Anyway, Moodle will be still the best open source e-learning platform (at least for me
), being reliable, with good performance, with powerful tools and very simple to use. I think it can be even better that the best commercial platforms, such as WebCT and Blackboard. In fact, there are many Moodle users who have dropped from them (like me). I just miss groups, standards and conditionals (the 2 first being planned for 1.2 and 2.0).
Long life to Moodle!
(and sorry for the loooonnng post).
In a quite near future, we will be able to move courses from a platform to other with the click of a button, and to extend them using e-learning application modules that can be plugged into any of them.
It is not so far, since we already have a main e-learning standards organization: IMS. It provides standard contents (IMS Content Packaging), standard quizzes (IMS Question and Test Interoperability - QTI), standard interface with enterprise/campus information systems (IMS Enterprise), and many other e-learning standards.
We also have a standard common architecture for e-learning platforms, with its own API: OKI, from the very MIT.
There is also a lot of work being done in Learning objects. They are small, reusable, learning modules that can be used in an independent way and can be combined with others to build courses. There is also an standard for it: Learning Object Metadata (IEEE LOM).
Related to all this stuff is a Reference Model, integrating several standards, called SCORM (Shareable Course Object Reference Model), from ADL, wich could be the foundation for Learning Objects and integration of e-learning standards.
I do agree in your 3 level vision of an XML schema for Moodle courses. I think that level 2 (sections) could be used as a foundation to construct learning objects that could be shared in a moodle server and even among different servers.
Eloy Lafuente has done a great work on XML schemas for courses in his backup tool for Moodle. Each course backup zip file has a moodle.xml file in it that describes the course very well. You can unzip any course backup and see it for yourself.
As you can see, we are not so far from integrating e-learning standards into Moodle, without loosing any freedom. In fact, it is planned to have a basic support for IMS and SCORM in Moodle 2.0, in early 2004. I think that there are also plans to make Moodle OKI compatible.
I think it is the most important think that we have to integrate into Moodle: e-learning standards, to be able to share any content, courses, learning objects or even application modules with other e-learning platforms. If we do not do that, we will not survive, that simple.
Anyway, Moodle will be still the best open source e-learning platform (at least for me
Long life to Moodle!
In reply to David Delgado
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by John Eckhardt -
Scorm compatibility would make Moodle a real broad success in the e-Learning environment. It would be interesting to have a new forum here for this reason and to know what the implementation level will be in Moodle 2 and what others can say about it.
In reply to John Eckhardt
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Jenny Watt -
Since I last posted I built a module that will read an IMS-compatible XML file (imsmanifest.xml) and associated files and create a Moodle course - it is pretty much structured as was suggested in an earlier post with a course containing topics then modules. I have written an application that will create a course from Learning Objects and I wanted a way to get the course out of my creation tool into Moodle.
My next project will be to take a course created on Blackboard (Bb) and import it into Moodle. I agree that with most of the IMS package formats, and Bb's is certainly representative of that, there will be very little meshing to be able to seamlessly create a course in Moodle, but since many of Bb's features are similar to ones available in Moodle, it can be done.
In another thread there was a discussion by several people involved in migrating from Bb to Moodle. These people could export their Bb courses and import them into Moodle. Some additional work would need to be done, but I can tell you from experience this amount of work would be far less than recreating the course in Moodle.
The major book publishers offer coursepacks in Blackboard and WebCT formats to schools that will adopt their books. By being able to import these coursepacks (read IMS content packages) Moodle users would be able to get classes online more quickly.
I think this is a first step.
I have attached my imsmanifest.xml file. This file refers to a series of .dat files that are XML files that contain the information that will be used to build the individual modules, topics and courses. They are all basic XML files with one field for each field in the database. I'd like to hear what anyone thinks.
Jenny
In reply to Jenny Watt
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Ger Tielemans -
Great, great news, I am surpised how far some of you are on the XML-road. Raises the question: "In which forum I must be to read about all these developments." (I cannot find it in the CVS)
Questions that survive your comments:
- How will the workshop with peer review fit in the ADL frame?
- What happens to the scales for open assignments?
- Why make things more difficult with a limited Java-set (EMACS?) to import/connect Scorm modules. I hear the same complaints about the "open" OKI approach
- Even worse for QTI questions: nice to be able to exchange geography maps where you in any system can point with your mouse to the capital city of Australia, but is it really better then the map with the marks a,b c and d and a simple Moodle m.c question? (If I want to start quality assurance for my question-set, which version gives me more control?)
Jenny, I will contact people who are using test sets to measure the succes of IMS Manifest import and play with your solution.
In reply to Ger Tielemans
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by David Delgado -
Just one thing related to Java APIs: according to Mark J. Norton, an IMS/SCORM guru and e-learning standards specialist, the API in OKI is NOT Java based.
He says that "OKI is focused more on behavior interface definitions and intends to take advantage of data specifications created by IMS, SIF, and IEEE. It is a misconception that OKI is based on Java. Rather, the first binding is
done in Java. See Middlebury's PHP OKI bindings (Harmoni project on SourceForge), for example. Other bindings are forthcoming, including web services (WSDL, SOAP)."
So, we can make Moodle become an IMS/SCORM/OKI compatible e-learning platform with not so much effort. We already have XML schemas for whole courses from the backup tool of Eloy Lafuente and a XML IMS Manifest from Jenny Watt, and Harmoni project can help a lot in making Moodle OKI compatible.
In my opinion, this is a step by step process, first IMS (content, quizzes, campus/enterprise information systems, courses,...), then SCORM (learning objects) and finally OKI (whole compatible API).
He says that "OKI is focused more on behavior interface definitions and intends to take advantage of data specifications created by IMS, SIF, and IEEE. It is a misconception that OKI is based on Java. Rather, the first binding is
done in Java. See Middlebury's PHP OKI bindings (Harmoni project on SourceForge), for example. Other bindings are forthcoming, including web services (WSDL, SOAP)."
So, we can make Moodle become an IMS/SCORM/OKI compatible e-learning platform with not so much effort. We already have XML schemas for whole courses from the backup tool of Eloy Lafuente and a XML IMS Manifest from Jenny Watt, and Harmoni project can help a lot in making Moodle OKI compatible.
In my opinion, this is a step by step process, first IMS (content, quizzes, campus/enterprise information systems, courses,...), then SCORM (learning objects) and finally OKI (whole compatible API).
In reply to David Delgado
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Adam Franco -
As an update to using the O.K.I. OSIDs in PHP, we have put up a site for O.K.I. in PHP at http://www.phpoki.org.
We have been working closely with the O.K.I. group at MIT and though the OSIDs were initially released in Java, they were designed to be language independent. Version 2 of the OSIDs (not yet converted to PHP) will remove several Java-centric aspects such as method-overloading (which we got around in PHP by using optional arguments) to make the interfaces even more language independent.
We have been working closely with the O.K.I. group at MIT and though the OSIDs were initially released in Java, they were designed to be language independent. Version 2 of the OSIDs (not yet converted to PHP) will remove several Java-centric aspects such as method-overloading (which we got around in PHP by using optional arguments) to make the interfaces even more language independent.
In reply to Ger Tielemans
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Jenny Watt -
I tried loading my complete package in an application I have for building IMS packages and it bombed - evidently I have a poorly formed XML document somewhere in the package - typos will be the death of me yet! 
As soon as I find the error and get it fixed, I will upload the package so you can see the complete content. The imsmanifest.xml file serves as a packing list for the package. The rest of the information is in the .dat files referred to in the manifest. I also have some .html files for some of the content.
I sent off what I did to Martin a few days ago. He is looking over it. It may be too rough and not particularly useful to post in CVS yet. I mainly did it for my purposes to be able to import my courses. If you would like to see it in action, I can set up an account for you on my development machine and give you instructions for importing. You can see the course I imported at:
The course is available for guest access. It does not include all the modules, but my import tool will import all.
If you have IE you can view the same basic course in Microsoft's LRN Viewer at:
http://66.25.38.140/learningobjects/application/courses/153/LRNViewer.htm
I will get the complete package here as soon as I get the chance to look it over!
In reply to Jenny Watt
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Ger Tielemans -
Jenny, I looked at both of your courses.
- I see in your eLearn example a resource tree with no really activities, except ""read chapter..."
- You import this resource tree into Moodle (on top level I guess, so it is possible, nice)
- Then you use Moodle to seed your resource tree with activities
- And as a human coach you start to help your students
- this way you use Moodle as a flexible hybrid system, i would say: the Royal Way
By the way, nice straight structure on all these activity-cards
SCORM modules will behave like a dormer, with AICC variables for seeding the exercise and reporting the results to the host-system (in our case Moodle) have the danger that they prescribe to much how you should use Moodle, to do no harm to the mechanics of these modules...
To give you an example:
- If you start with a book as core for your course, you follow the author in your first draft: chapter one, chapter two etc..
- filling in the details of the exercises, you discover that chapter three should be moved before chapter two. In Moodle you can do this on the fly. (of course you check the consequences of this migration.)
- If you import to much SCORM-interrelated modules, the module of chapter four expect to have the results of the previous chapters like in the old CBT times...
The danger of this is that Moodle will get a flow-control-mechanism for individual learning: pushing groupwork results and other difficult groups-flow-of-control-things out of the Moodle-nest.
IMS is developing standards for that (LD). That has a long way to go, so the words of Delgado are giving me hope.
About these import/export-xml-schemes in the Backup-mechanism: Will it become possible in version 2.0 or 3.0 for a normal teacher to look at a graphical tree of Moodle and then click on the point where he wants to hang-in the imported module?
In reply to Ger Tielemans
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by Jenny Watt -
Thanks for looking at them and the feedback!
I set this up for my own uses and this is how I structure my classes. I have just started using Moodle for hosting the classes, so I am learning how to take best advantage of the system. I have been on a Blackboard system for the last three years so my courses still sort of look like they came from there. I am trying to make them better!
With a tool like some that are available for building IMS/SCORM/AICC packages, a course developer could put in any kind of structure they want. What I have created are the building blocks they can use to package their data to go straight into Moodle. While most instructors/instructional desginers may want to just build their courses in Moodle, some may want to use tools that are available for building courses and then import into Moodle. This is the start (and we have a LONG way to go) to making that possible.
I have been researching Learning Objects for about 6 months now. The one thing I can state for certain, I agree that they have a LONG way to go before they are as useful to us as the designers envision. I am working on my master's with my eyes on a PhD eventually and I want to make the pedagogical aspects of Learning Objects for online learning my thesis topic.
In reply to David Delgado
Re: SCORM content packages - e-learning standards and Moodle
by walter waldner -
I agree fully ! Learning management systems will only survive if they support e-Learning standards ! So please make moodle fully compatible with the major standards like SCORM ! I would very much like to use moodle for the next years !
Just posted something somewhat related to this in the 'Assignments' module forum; wish I'd seen this discussion first!
I create Flash-based CBI modules, and need a way to make them available from Moodle. More than that, I need a way to track a student's progress through them (enable return to last position in CBI if not completed before exit), as well as collect and score a student's responses within the CBI itself.
Without knowing much about SCORM, I made my stuff following some of the SCORM ideals--up to and including an XML-based lesson layout, and stand-alone pages that are viewed within a Flash navigation container.
I NEED to have this kind of capability in an LMS; modifying Moodle seems to me to be MUCH easier than making my own from scratch.
Jenny, others, where do I sign up to help develop this capability? I can even get my boss to spring for the development time...*grin*
I create Flash-based CBI modules, and need a way to make them available from Moodle. More than that, I need a way to track a student's progress through them (enable return to last position in CBI if not completed before exit), as well as collect and score a student's responses within the CBI itself.
Without knowing much about SCORM, I made my stuff following some of the SCORM ideals--up to and including an XML-based lesson layout, and stand-alone pages that are viewed within a Flash navigation container.
I NEED to have this kind of capability in an LMS; modifying Moodle seems to me to be MUCH easier than making my own from scratch.
Jenny, others, where do I sign up to help develop this capability? I can even get my boss to spring for the development time...*grin*
I'm studying about e-learning. then I'd like to know about SCORM so Interoperability and How to Use .......
My email computech_intel@yahoo.com.
I hope, you help me. If you help me, I give with 10euro in Skype
My email computech_intel@yahoo.com.
I hope, you help me. If you help me, I give with 10euro in Skype