(I’ve posted this in several places, but I really want all of our customers to see it. My apologies if you’ve already read it.)
If you’re having any performance problems with the SCORM Engine, we have good solutions for you. This article in particular gives the details.
These fixes are easy, fast, and reliable. And they have a substantial impact on performance for SQL Server customers in particular.
Lastly, you may all feel free to mock me for the fact that our “optimized” option is, in fact, slower than our “non-optimized” option in many circumstances. (Whereas the “Ask us anything” invitation on the website is sincere, please be so kind as to restrict your mocking of me to this particular topic. I don’t like to be seen crying at the office.)
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A Sneak Peak::Reporting Concepts
Categories: Ideas and Thoughts, SCORM Cloud, SCORM Engine
21 Oct 2009
We talk about living our company’s life publicly a fair amount… so we’re going to take another step in that regard here. We’re in the early stages of creating an add-on product… something that could sit on top of the SCORM Engine and/or the SCORM Cloud. Mike and I have heard too many times that reporting on SCORM data is “impossible” or “way too hard” or “useless”. We don’t believe it for a second. Well, OK, we do acknowledge that it’s pretty difficult, but it seems to be a problem worth solving, so we’ve been putting our collective energies into it for the last couple of months.
For the first “arc” of development on it, we’ve been entirely focused on the user experience. We want to be sure we’re creating something that is notably different from LMSs that disappoint and profoundly useful. Short of that, there’s not a lot of reason to commit the energy this will inevitably require.
Without further adieu, we’d like to ask you to click around in our completely mocked up “reportage”. (You’ll notice that the data doesn’t change and that many of the things that look clickable really aren’t. We’ll ask you for some contact information on the way in, but nothing more. We would love for you to dig into the reports and give us any and all feedback. If it sucks, tell us that. If it would be endlessly valuable to you, tell us that too.
- What are we missing?
- Are there views of the suggested data that would be more useful?
- Should we arrange the data differently?
- Is there something you want to know that isn’t there?
If you’d like to check it out, check it out here.
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Score Rollup in SCORM 1.2: There’s no silver bullet
Categories: SCORM 2004, SCORM Cloud, SCORM Engine, Using the Standards
7 Oct 2009
I got this question today (and yes, we really do mean you can ask us anything…):
We are making configuration settings for our new LMS ([redacted]) and one of the questions is:
1.3.5. How is the overall score for a SCORM course with more than one SCO computed? With the following choices:
- MaximumScore. Highest score of all items (SCOs) in the course.
- AverageScore. Average score of all items (SCOs) in the course.
- FirstScore. The first score achieved by the user across all items (SCOs) in the course. Note: If this option is selected, ScormScoreUpdateOption should be set to “Never” and the user’s score will always remain the first score they achieved.
- MostRecentScore. The most recent score achieved by the user across all items (SCOs) in the course.
What do you recommend?
My first reaction
Well, clearly we’re talking about an LMS that is really SCORM 1.2 centric. This ability to manage scores across attempts and SCOs is one of the things that SCORM 2004 actually does very well. Rollup rules allow the content author to specify these behaviors in great detail, including weighting the various elements and even excluding some. This provides the author with useful tools such as pre-assessment that doesn’t impact overall satisfaction.
My second reaction
There simply is not a good answer to this question. If these settings are global, as they appear to be, I can’t be forced to pick one in particular as it wouldn’t serve other situations adequately. The most common multi-SCO package structure, to my mind, is a course with several SCOs and a single post test (assuming we’re dealing with more than one score). I’m not sure that any of these options serve that package structure well at all.
My ultimate conclusion
An LMS simply can’t afford to make singular decisions about how to deal with content. It absolutely has to provide configurability on a package by package basis. Failing to acknowledge that the world of content is widely varied will lead to content that doesn’t work as desired. This, frankly, is why building an LMS with SCORM conformance is so difficult to get right.
How we handle it in SCORM Engine and SCORM Cloud implementations
Package properties provide our ability to address different pieces of content differently. (Take a look at the possibilities. There are more than 50 options for configuring a course. All are defaulted intelligently, but all are also the answer to a question that has to be answered for certain courses.)
Take a look at how we’ve approached the particular problem of rolling up scores in SCORM 1.2. We have options that aren’t unlike those offered in the question above. The differences are relevant, but only to a degree. Fundamentally important, though, is that you can set these properties for each package.
I hope this provides a bit of illustration as the level of detail required to really nail the SCORM problem. We suffer this minutiae so our customers don’t have to.
Note: Don’t worry, my recommendation for the person who sent the question isn’t as obtuse as, “Use the SCORM Engine”… We’re still chatting via email…
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Can’t want what we don’t know about
Categories: SCORM Cloud, SCORM Engine, Software Development
1 Sep 2009
Once upon a time, there was no sliced bread*. And people were happy because they didn’t know they wanted sliced bread.
Then someone gave them sliced bread. Suspicion, amazement and eventually joy erupted. Suddenly, they wanted, no needed, sliced bread. These days, it’s tough to sell bread that isn’t pre-sliced.
It’s a common problem in product development – delivering something amazing you know people will want but can’t ask for because they don’t even know it is possible. (Face it, did you know you needed TIVO before it came along? I’m waiting for a radio version, pretty please!)
I’m seeing a little of this as I explore the LMS world. Lots of talk about reporting and what should be there and whether anyone cares and who should care. I see admins refusing to bother because no one asks for anything other than the bare bones already provided. I see trainers who would love to know more but figure their LMS just can’t deliver so they suffer in silence. I see instructional designers who feel there has to be a better way to judge the success of a course than just a single score at the end.
Lots of talking, not much asking, very little doing.
One of the nice things about SCORM (yes, there are a few) is the amount of data that just naturally gets created. As we wrap up integrating the SCORM Cloud with various open-source LMS packages, the question of reporting has come up. Not whether to report, but just what and how to format the reports. We already know we can slice the bread; we just have to figure out how thick to make the slices and whether to toss in some butter and jam.
Wanna help us shape up LMS reporting? How would you want the SCORM Cloud (and likely the SCORM Engine by default) to deliver reports and what do you think you want to know? We have some devilishly clever ideas but welcome yours.
*After Tim wrote about bread on a software company blog, I had to figure out a way to include it as well. Bread. With butter and jam. Seriously. These posts make me hungry.
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To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.
–Robert Louis Stevenson
OK, fine, he’s right and all. Creating the new version of a product is fun and all. But shipping it, polishing it, finishing it, that’s pretty awesome too.
Today is the confluence of a bunch of different work around Rustici Software.
- SCORM Engine? 2009.1 released
- SCORM Driver? A new release including SCORM 2004 4th Edition
- SCORM TestTrack? 2009.1 has already been applied, so this is fresh and clean too.
I’m psyched. Great new versions of old products out, and a clean slate to start on some new stuff. Thanks to the guys at the office, and, importantly, the cookie intern.
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