SCORM Under 4: Not just for Programmers Anymore

Standards and interoperability can be totally dry and boring topics. But if you and your organization are researching and trying to select new course creation and/or LMS systems for your education program, they are pretty important.

Interoperability is something I first learned about when my friend and colleague Tim Magner took a job as the Executive Director of edtech’s Software Interoperability Framework (SIF). I’m trying now to draw a bead on exactly when this was, but my best guess is around 2003. In education, this coincided with a huge push toward “accountability” and “infrastructure” overhauls. Another keyword thrown around at the time was “data-driven decision-making.” As a result, many administrators and school systems were seeking administrative software solutions in epic proportions. At any rate, SIF was working to create awareness about interoperability and the benefits of structuring technical systems in such a way that components by different providers could “talk” to each other. Cool! This is an idea that seemed like a great big whopping “DUH” — a concept that seemed far from rocket science.

More than 10 years later, technology systems and software backend are a daily part of our lives. If we work in businesses and organizations, the struggle of how to make what we have with what we need/want next is a regular guest at the table. Interoperability is a big part of the answer. What I love about the “Shareable Content Object Reference Model” (SCORM) is that it puts the topic out front and frames it within the eLearning environment. This video, put together by #KMI Learning, is a great overview. And it’s under 4 minutes long.

M&M met with a staff member for a major European medical society a few weeks ago. One of her biggest pain points was having received a top-down directive to “implement eLearning,” then invested in an LMS, then had no time or available resources to take that LMS beyond the initial baby steps. Been there? The commitment to make a purchase is huge and requires big financial and political investment. If that system doesn’t play well with others, you could end up even more stuck than you were before you started. Because, after all, you have just lobbied for (and spent) a huge chunk of change — potentially the lion’s share of your eLearning/education budget.

Beyond the technical interoperability issues involved with creating online courses, SCORM also establishes technical standards for course structure and course progression/completion. Most programmers in eLearning spaces know SCORM, but Instructional and Curriculum Designers don’t yet. Is this you? It’s worth learning more.

SCORM.

SCORM.

SCORM.

Ensuring SCORM compliance in your systems is a critical first step in your software evaluation process.

SCORM.

Say it until you say it in your sleep.

SCORM 2004 4th Edition (User Guide for Instructional Designers)

#SIF #edchat #SCORM

Digital Alchemy: Beyond the MOOC

I”ve been reading a lot about different technologies for enabling the online learning and education experiences. Roderick Sims, of the University of South Queensland in Australia, recently gave a Keynote presentation at the 2013 EdMedia conference last fall where he basically likened the current focus on MOOCs and other tech-focused learning experiences to a large-scale conspiracy theory. His premise is that we’ve allowed the art of teaching and learning to fall by the wayside in favor of sexy new technology opportunities.

What do I think? For much of my career, I worked with educators who are using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. And, for much of that time, it was very hard to get the non-converted to think of these educators as doing much other than giving kids computer games to play with. The opposition railed high and low about things like too much screen-time, sweetheart deal corruption, and keeping kids from cheating or looking at porn. The pro-tech educators involved spent a lot of their time debunking these myths, gathering data to prove the debunks, and frankly speaking, figuring out how the heck to create change despite the counterinsurgency of small-minded morons.

The life-raft they clung to, through thick and thin, is that good teaching is good teaching. Computers and technology alone can’t make a bad teacher a good teacher. But, technology resources, in the hands of truly gifted professionals, can improve student engagement, create lifelong learners, and take learning far beyond the classroom.

Remembering this philosophy is more important than ever now that the fields of eLearning and online education are literally exploding. In building this consulting company, my husband and I are desperate to help channel and direct the efforts of current and prospective providers of digitally-based education. We want to bring a blended focus to the eLearning marketplace that isn’t just about blending face-to-face with digital experiences — we want to bring educational integrity back to the playing field and help providers get learner-centered again. In doing so, they will design programs and education that work. They will engage students, solve problems, create social context, and make the impact that their associations and businesses were founded to make. They will become sustainable sources of societal improvement.

Professor Sims’ presentation is worth watching — lovely graphics, clear audio and thought progression. I found it motivating and articulate about how simple it can be to design courses with the end in mind, taking the emphasis off the resources and placing it on the application of knowledge.