Implementation Issues of SCORM
(in Online Training, eLearning and distance Learning environments)
SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is the most successful and widely accepted reference model of the IMS specifications for content packaging and AICC computer managed interface specification (also being part of the IEEE LSTC effort).
The follow papers are practical in nature. For information about the more theoretical aspects of the use of learning objects in online training, teaching, or distance education enviroment, please visit the papers section on Learning Objects.The ability to discover and locate appropriate learning objects is important for re-use. Please visit the learning object metadata section on our work.
Supporting Collaborative Learning Activities with SCORM 
(Authors: Albert Ip & Ric Canale)
This paper investigates the data elements required to fully and flexibly support a broad range of collaborative learning activities and proposes extensions to the SCORM data model to enable support for collaborative learning designs for online learning within SCORM. The analysis is partly based on a range of well established collaborative learning designs that cannot be implemented within the SCORM 1.2 specification.
(Presented at EduCause 2003 Australia conference, 6-9 May, 2003, Adelaide, Australia)
also see Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Activities
Overcoming the Presentation Mosaic Effect of Multi-Use Sharable Content Objects (draft available)
(Authors: Albert Ip, Allyn Radford & Ric Canale)
One problem holding back more widespread re-use of SCOs in distance learning is the mosaic effect that arises when assembling a course from sequences of SCOs that are from a different origin... To reuse these SCOs for different courses (or clients in a private enterprise context), or in combination with SCOs from other providers, the courseware developer must edit the HTML tags to change the appearance of the SCO to suit the new context. This re-work severely compromises a key promise of the SCORM initiative: "the flexibility to incorporate instructional components into multiple applications and contexts" (Dodds, 2001) and undermines the principle of separating content from its presentation. Unless sharing can be achieved with no intervention or recoding of a SCO, there is little hope of it being successfully promoted. This paper describes an approach which has been used in a leading Australian Higher Education provider that has successfully overcome this problem.
Single Instance Reuse of Sharable Content Objects (draft available) 
(Authors: Albert Ip, & Ric Canale)
This paper puts forward a generic solution to the problem of re-use of Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) from multiple content repositories without making new copies of the SCOs. One of the difficulty is to enable SCORM communication where the LMS dynamically loads learning content from an LCMS which is installed on a server in a different internet domain or sub-domain (e.g. lms.yourdomain.edu and lcms.mydomain.edu). SCORM requires that the communication mechanism is the responsibility of the LMS. Such mechanism is typically provided as Javascript by the LMS, hence come from lms.yourdomain.edu. The initiation of communication, however, is the responsibility of SCO. Typically, a SCO will try to locate the communication script from the document hierarchy of the browser and communicate via the found communication script. However, due to the security requirement, the modern browser will typically block any Javascript calls or communication when the scripts involved are originated from different domains, in the case the SCO coming from lcms.mydomain.edu...
(A presentation demonstrating the technique discussed in last two papers was presented at Plugfest 7 (Dec 2002) by Tom Grobicki of Avilar Technologies Inc. The powerpoint 
and video 
are available.
The SCO-fetcher solution described in this paper was also included as the first solution [see section 4.2] in a technical discussion paper on cross domain scripting issues published by ADL. Two presentations on this were made during Plugfest 8 (Oct 2003): A powerpoint by Avilar Technology Inc, HarvestRoad P/L and Digtial Learning Systems, and powerpoint by ADL's technical team.
Please check back later for more update of links to the presentations and demonstration codes.)
A layered approach to the re-use of content and its presentation 
(Authors: Ric Canale, & Albert Ip)
This paper continues our work on overcoming the mosaic effect - an impediment to the sharing of content, and proposes layered re-use as a conceptual framework for solving the problem...develops the concept of layered re-use in which the re-use of content and content structures is governed by specifications appropriate to the content level (e.g. SCORM, IMS QTI specifications) and the re-use of "look and feel" properties and their application throughout a course is governed by HTML-based specifications applied at the display level....The advantages of adopting layered re-use include, a) ease of technical implementation (at scale and wide scope), b) low impact on course development work-flows, c) ease of maintenance against growing complexity in course design and re-design and d) it supports the DAM and SCORM-SSS developments as complementary approaches to overcoming the mosaic effect.
(Presented at AusWeb 2004, 3-7 July, 2004, Gold Coast, Australia)
SCORM Course Player from www.scormplayer.com
Based on the work we did ("Overcoming the Presentation Mosaic Effect of Multi-Use Sharable Content Objects" & "A layered approach to the re-use of content and its presentation"), a new software is created. SCORM Course Player enables you to deliver SCORM-compliant courses on CD or using a static web server. That's right, you don't need an expensive Course Management System to deliver SCORM courses anymore. All you need is Course Player! Course Player will also use content encryption to protect against unauthorised copying and re-distribution of courses. It also supports SCORM-SSS.
Extending the supported pedagogical frameworks within SCORM (available soon)
(Authors: Albert Ip, & Ric Canale)
SCORM was considered too pedagogically inflexible for wide spread adoption in higher education section. This paper summaries the extensions we have proposed in the previous papers and discusses how these extensions, taken together, may support a wide range of pedagogical designs.
