First!!
More than 10,000 plugins available for WordPress and we’re your first, best and only option for using SCORM. Which we should be. This is kind of our spot, after all.
All that to point out that SCORM Cloud is officially in the WordPress plugin directory, which makes it just that much easier to install and get going. Just search for SCORM and … well, it’s in a class by itself there. College class, instructional design portfolio, sales training – all easy to execute now.
We’ve heard from lots of you who are excited about using this plugin. But we want to hear more about how you’re using it and what other plugins make it more valuable. Do you tie it to BuddyPress? Have you figured out a clever connection to [some related posts]? Making money with a tie to Aweber?
I’m compiling a list to be part of our WordPress section to show off your sites and the smart ways you’re putting our plugin to use. If you’ve deployed the SCORM Cloud plugin, let me know and I’ll add you to the list.
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When we talk about SCORM Cloud, we usually talk about taking SCORM outside the LMS. Take learning anywhere online. Connect learners to learning.
Well, to date, we’ve still been connecting to LMSs with modules for open source learning management systems like Moodle and Sakai. But now we’ve taken that first step away from the LMS with a WordPress plug-in that allows you to offer a SCORM course right from a post or page or sidebar list.
We’re still testing it out, writing up instructions and so forth, but by next week (maybe sooner?), we fully expect to have all our ducklings in neat rows and ready to go for full release. To tide you over until then, here’s a look at how I used it on a test blog. Just by pushing a button and picking my course, I was able to add a course directly into a blog post and registered learners can click the button and launch the course right from the post.
Now, if you just can’t wait and want to try out the beta version, you can go ahead and download it to check it out. Screencasts to walk you through some of it are on the way available in our YouTube playlist. We’d love to hear what you think about the direction we’ve taken with this.
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Moodle worked for years to achieve SCORM 1.2 conformance and certification. They achieved this laudable goal in October 2009, more than eight years after the standard’s release. A long road and congrats on getting there. Just a few months later, we had Moodle certified for SCORM 2004 by installing the SCORM Cloud Moodle plug-in (which takes about five minutes).
We totally understand that SCORM 2004 is irrelevant for a lot of Moodle users. But we also understand that it’s crucial for others. As Moodle partners like Moodlerooms and others attempt to sell their solution to government agencies, they frequently run into the federal government’s requirements around SCORM 2004. As sophisticated content authors look to apply their SCORM 2004 content in Moodle, they are stopped in their tracks.
For people and companies looking for next level of SCORM capability, SCORM Cloud lets them push Moodle miles forward … in about five minutes.
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I’m gonna take a quick break from the SCORM Cloud beta tour to lay out a decision we’ve just made. In creating the SCORM Cloud user interface, we confronted something every web developer has been dealing with forever…
Which browsers are we going to support?
This question is a little different for us than most companies in that we have two distinct audiences: the companies that embed our software and those that use it directly.
In supporting companies like we do via SCORM Engine and SCORM Driver, we have an obligation to provide them with the support they need. And let me tell you, many of our clients still support IE5.5 (the bane of a designer’s existence).
So, we’ve got a particular responsibility to support the lowest common denominator (or something close to it). It is not our place to drag our customers’ customers forward in the browser evolution… We don’t get to make that decision for them, and so we won’t. This decision applies to the following products:
- SCORM Engine
- SCORM Driver
- Embed-able components of SCORM Cloud, accessed via the API
For our embed-able, compatibility based products, we support and will continue to support the following browsers.
- Firefox 1.0+
- Internet Explorer 5.5+
- Safari 1.0+
- Chrome (we’re still phasing this in, but all appears to be working nicely)
Our World
For our customers and their customers … we have a certain obligation … . But when it comes to the products we offer directly to the customer, we get to make our own choices. And I don’t feel bad about eliminating a potential customer by virtue of an informed decision if it affects only Rustici Software.
In designing and implementing SCORM Cloud’s new UI, we went to our usage metrics. In looking at Google Analytics, we’re seeing that just 7% of our total visitors are using IE6. For us, that number is low enough that we’re willing to ask those users to upgrade if they want to fully experience SCORM Cloud (and its Test Track functionality). Our apologies go out to those of you locked into old browsers by your situation or employer, but we’re going to drop our support of IE5.5 and IE6 for our customer facing products.
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SCORM Cloud is built to allow learners to learn in whatever application makes the most sense. For some, this is a big corporate LMS. For others, the LMS is just too much.
If you’ve got a piece of training that you want to share, how are you going to do it? What’s the easiest way to share something online?
The Public URL
When I go to share a map with someone, I turn to the “Link” button in Google Maps. I set up my map just how I want it, click the link button, and grab the URL. From there, I can do what I need to with it… I can include it in an email, put it on my blog, whatever… URLs have got to be the simplest sharing mechanism on the web.
SCORM Cloud’s Public Invitation
Now, you can share any course in your library via a public URL. We call this a public invitation, and creating them is pretty simple.
The result, too, is powerful. Consider this your invitation to watch my daughter sing “5 Little Pumpkins” via a public invitation.
Step 1 :: Upload a course to SCORM Cloud and click “Invite”
Step 2 :: Create a public invitation
For now, creating a public invitation requires one email address… If you want to send this to a distribution list, for example, you could certainly do that here. In my case, I’m just sending the URL to myself, because then I can post it anywhere I want… You know, like on Facebook? ‘Cause then everyone could see how cool SCORM is, right?
What happens for the learner?
With a public invitation, we want the process to be so simple for the learner. We need something by which to identify them, so we ask for their email address… From there? Straight into the learning material.
What happened?
For some people, knowing how their learners are doing is fundamental. Well, for you folks, you dig right into all of the details about the invitations and who has accepted them and completed them.
For those of you who don’t care to know these things, just avert your eyes.
A word of caution
Lastly, a word of caution. We’ve given you 10 free registrations (well, for the beta, it’s actually unlimited). That means that if 10 folks accept your invite, you’ll be all out… unless you put in your credit card information. We hope you find the public invitations so useful that you sign up for a paying SCORM Cloud account.
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