XELL, SCORM, and Learning Management Systems

							                         Apex Performance Inc.
             Data Tracking, Learning Management Systems, and SCORM

Apex Performance builds online courses that track selected user information, according to client
specifications. Data capture options include user name and employee number, as well as
percentage of course completed, length of time spent in course, responses to quiz questions, and
quiz scores. Data tracking enables users to access dynamic data-driven features such as book-
marking and personalized remediation, and it enables course administrators to retrieve and
analyze user data on an as needed basis.

There are a plethora of methods that allow data to be captured, but not all of these methods are
guaranteed to work within the IT infrastructures of all organizations. What happens if an
organization decides to sell a group of courses to another organization? What happens if an
organization decides to change its infrastructure? What happens if an organization tries to
distribute courses made by several different vendors under one umbrella?

Learning Management Systems (LMS) were invented to allow organizations to weather any one
of these changes without having to invest a significant amount of time and labor to ensure the
continuity of their web based training initiatives. To an extent, LMSs did simplify the
distribution of online courses, but as they were proprietary entities in and of themselves, they did
not go far enough towards eliminating existing problems.

In the late 90's several specifications and standards bodies, including the IEEE, the AICC, the
IMS, and ARIADNE, began developing separate protocols to which Learning Management
Systems and the courses they supported should adhere. Seeking to unite the disparate standards
being developed by these groups, the Department of Defense assumed a leadership role and
paved the way for the creation of the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. The ADL in turn
developed a viable collaborative standard for the distribution of web-based training. This
standard is today known as the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM.

Most current Learning Management Systems support SCORM, and course developers planning
on distributing lessons via such an LMS are tasked with making sure their courses are SCORM
compliant.

The SCORM compliant LMS model is still somewhat new, and not all e-learning initiatives need
to take advantage of the feature set it has to offer. However, should an organization require that
its online courses are delivered in a SCORM compliant manner, APEX is well equipped to make
sure the courses adhere to the standard. Apex e-learning is developed in Macromedia's Flash
MX, which, via its FS SCORM extension, is able to call SCORM specific functions. The ADL
supports Flash's SCORM implementation and offers validation tools and sample code on its own
site.