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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It’s time for me to say it, “SCORM doesn’t suck…”
Categories: Ideas and Thoughts, SCORM, SCORM 2004, Using the Standards
22 Jun 2009
I am a patient man. Slow to anger, slow to annoy. Frankly, some mistake my calm demeanor for apathy. But now they’ve done it. The folks on Twitter (and elsewhere in the community) have made enough comments about SCORM that I’m annoyed. That’s right, I’m actually a little irritated.
I’ve been feeling, lately, like SCORM is my little brother. It’s OK if folks choose to pick on my bro, so long as they are constructive, or at least right. The comments I’ve been seeing lately range from misdirected to out and out wrong.
Feel the angst, read on
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SCORM 2004 4th Edition is Available
Categories: SCORM 2004, SCORM Engine, Standards Evolution, TestTrack
16 Jun 2009
Last night we released an implementation of SCORM 2004 4th Edition to the public TestTrack server. For all of you chomping at the bit to take advantage of the new features in 4th Edition, now’s your chance to give it a whirl. Ok, so maybe it’s not all that exciting, but we’re happy to have it out there. As far as we know, we are the first to release a 4th Edition conformant LMS product. Our plan is to make 4th Edition available to all of our active SCORM Engine customers as soon as ADL opens up certification for 4th Edition (last indication was that would be in August).
Note: Details of the 4th Edition changes are available here.
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A few SCORM Engine customers have asked recently what our plans are for SCORM 2004 4th Edition and how it relates to our release schedule.
Must of the SCORM 2004 4th Edition stuff is already complete here in house. We’ve been working with the early versions as they come out and working with ADL in testing the test suites. All of that is going well.
Our intent is to hold our release until ADL agrees to start testing/certifying SCORM 2004 4th Edition LMSs. When they do that, we will quickly release and have some version of the SCORM Engine certified. Once we prove that we are certifiable (in the good way), we will release what we’ll call 2009.1. The announcement of that release will be made via the forums here. Our sense from ADL right now is that they will open up that certification sometime in June, but we don’t control their schedule at all.
In the mean time, we’re incorporating other functionality into our 2009.1 release. Things like historical attempt logging are likely inclusions.
Let us know if you have any questions on the release.
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ADL recently released beta versions of the SCORM 2004 4th Edition Conformance Test Suite and Sample Run Time Environment. 4th Edition adds 4 new features and 30-something clarifications/enhancements/bug fixes to SCORM 2004. This evolution is not a drastic change to the specification, but should represent a significant step forward in the compatibility and usability of SCORM 2004.
Since most of the changes are simply clarifications, the implementation burden on SCORM adopters should be rather light. For content developers, only minimal changes (if any) will be required. Most content should be unaffected by the update to 4th Edition. LMS vendors (as always) will have a greater load to carry. For them, the amount of development work required will vary considerably based on the quality of their 3rd Edition implementations. The 4 new features should be rather straight-forward to implement, but the numerous clarifications will present varying levels of difficulty to different vendors.
The new features include:
-Rollup of weighted completion data. SCORM 2004 has always include a “progress measure” data model element that indicates “how complete” the user is on an individual SCO. This data will now be officially rolled up with different activities having different weights. This weighting and rollup will give an accurate picture of the user’s overall completion of a course and enable LMS’s to provide accurate progress bars.
-Jump navigation request. Many sequenced courses want to provide the ability for SCOs to control navigation in a way that is different than what is available to the user. Previously, the navigation requests that a SCO was allowed to make were identical to what the learner was allowed to do. The new “jump” navigation request gives content authors more sequencing options and separates the requests that are available to internal calls from the requests that the learner is allowed to initiate.
-Shared data between SCOs. SCORM 2004 4th Edition now allows SCOs to share arbitrary buckets of data. When creating a sequenced course, it is often very helpful to have a common pool of data that different SCOs can access to maintain a shared state. The lack of this functionality has always been a big obstacle to creating cohesive sequenced content.
-More objective data available globally. All of the objective data that can be reported at runtime is now available to be shared with other SCOs and courses via global objectives. This will provide for simpler and more creative sequencing strategies.
Part of our duty as members of the ADL Technical Working Group is to be early implementers of new specifications to help ADL verify their accuracy. We are already working to update our products for SCORM 2004 4th Edition. The SCORM Engine was first on the list and we’re making good progress. ADL added or changed 92 LMS test cases for 4th Edition. Of those, 23 deal with the new features that we are starting to implement. Of the other 69 dealing with clarifications and bug fixes, we currently pass all but 12 of them. Of those 12 remaining test cases, 6 have open questions of interpretation that we’re discussing with ADL and the TWG. The other 6 should be completed soon.
Currently 4th Edition is in a beta period for review and public comment. Please let us and/or ADL if you have any feedback about the changes made for 4th Edition before the public comment period elapses. We intend to release a 4th Edtion complaint version of the SCORM Engine to the public SCORM Test Track instance shortly after it is completed. We will have production-ready and formally released versions of all our products that are compliant with 4th Edition very shortly after 4th Edition is finalized and out of beta.
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