What is SCORM? In Layman's Terms...
If you’re new to eLearning or Learning Management Systems you’ll often hear or see the word SCORM. It’s a piece of jargon we use that means nothing to people outside our industry. So, let’s explain SCORM in layman’s terms:
- SCORM is the most common standard format that eLearning modules are published in. It allows content to be uploaded to and tracked by a Learning Management System.
Why do we need a standard? Well, there are two main steps to delivering eLearning. First you make the content, then you put the content online. Typically, you make the content using a computer program called an ‘authoring tool’. There are many authoring tools on the market; Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline or Elucidat are examples. The next step is to put your content online. You do this using a Learning Management System (‘LMS’). Example LMSs are Totara, Moodle or Docebo. It is critical your content can ‘talk’ to your LMS so that you can track how your learners are doing. You want to capture data such as; Who has done which course? How long they looked at the course? What score did they get? Which specific questions did they get wrong? This is the magic of SCORM. The SCORM standard defines how this data is captured and communicated.
Having a standard allows learning and development teams to use their preferred choice of authoring tool and their preferred choice of LMS without compatibility issues.
SCORM is not a standard for the technology that the eLearning itself is built with. So, you can have eLearning built in Flash which is packaged into SCORM format or eLearning built in HTML 5 packaged into SCORM format or any other technology.
A SCORM file, typically looks exactly like a zip file. If an LMS asks you to upload a SCORM file you upload it in whole – don’t unzip it. This is very easy on Docebo.
Things are slightly complicated by there being more than one flavour of SCORM e.g. SCORM 2004 and SCORM v1.2. There are also other competing standards e.g. AICC or Tin Can/xAPI. These formats are less common. xAPI is gaining traction, however, it is still a bleeding edge technology that we would avoid for now. Whichever you use Docebo LMS is compatible with ALL these standards. We’ll do another article on the different types in future.
Whether you are looking to buy SCORM content, build-your-own SCORM content, or find an LMS to host SCORM content we can help you. eLearning is what we do. Please feel free to get in touch.
Quickly Publish SCORM Content to an LMS
CLICK HERE TO ACTIVATE 14-DAY DOCEBO FREE TRIAL
If you're new to the eLearning game and have made some content using an authoring tool such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Camtasia or Lectota, then the chances are you've exported your content in SCORM format and are wondering how to get it out to the world. The video above shows how easy it is to share any SCORM content using the Docebo LMS. If you follow the link you can have a 14-day free trial of Docebo. So stop scratching your head, watch the video, follow the trial link and in 10 minutes time your content could be live....
Is it E-Learning or eLearning?
During our recent website rebuild, everything ground to a halt while we argued about the spelling of e-learning/eLearning. Is it spelt with or without the hyphen? Tempers got heated. Blood was nearly drawn.
We create it, so you’d think we’d know how to spell it. Embarrassingly a quick check of our old website showed wild inconsistency. Reassuringly a look at our main competitors’ websites showed they’re no better. Even our industry professional bodies, the US based E-learning Guild and the UK centric Elearning Network are pick-and-mix. So it wasn't just us that could not decide.
One of the briefs for the new website was to pick one spelling and stick with it. Menacingly, there was a threat to the developers to ‘make sure you pick the right one’. Research was clearly required. Our company has a phrase when we’re stuck: J-F-G-I. The ‘J’, ‘G’ and ‘I’ stand for ‘Just’, ‘Google’ and ‘It’. I’ll leave the ‘F’ to your imagination.
So the first point of call was Google Trends. At first glance this showed that ‘e-learning’ with a hyphen is the most common typed variation in search engines in the UK. We have a winner! No, hold on… A closer look shows this only stands when looking cumulatively from 2004. If you use only more recent data, say since 2010, ‘eLearning’ no hyphen has the majority. The size of the majority grows throughout 2011, 2012 and 2013. It has the kind of momentum that wont be reversed. Now we have a winner.
In many ways this mirrors the debate we had around 20 years ago over how to spell email. Back then we used to type ‘e-mail’, but over time that hyphen got dumped. History repeats itself, so the same trend can be seen for e-commerce, e-business and, yes, eventually e-learning.
We’re actually not the first people to mull over this great issue of our time in learning technology. There is a great blogpost which is in violent agreement with our findings and annoyingly beat us to the punchline. So we’re sold. eLearning it is. End of debate. Almost. Work has now ground to a halt whilst we argue whether it is eLearning or elearning? Capital ‘L’ or not? But we’ll leave that one for another day.
Article by Guy McEvoy, MD Guykat Solutions, research by Natalie Jensen
Interview with a GuyKat Intern
Internships at GuyKat: Over the past three years we've offered a number of recent graduates the opportunity to undertake a paid internship. These typically last around 3 months. We try to make our intern programme a little different by having the flexibility to tailor the role to the individual’s talents and interests. We keep in touch with our 'alumni' and so far every single person has successfully used the opportunity as a springboard to their next thing. Some remain in eLearning (even at GuyKat!) and some in other industries. Our latest GuyKat intern, Mair Ahmad, leaves us today. Here is a quick interview:
What attracted you to the role at GuyKat? "The role at GuyKat attracted me because of its broad nature. If you had an interest in marketing and/or eLearning, then you would have a great experience and real clients to work with. I found this exciting as the work was always changing, giving me something new to focus on with each coming day or week."
What kind of work have you been doing? "During my time at GuyKat I have been a part of many projects, including doing some real client work! This involved helping design particular slides and amending on-going projects using programs such as Adobe Captivate. In addition to this I was marketing GuyKat’s LMS system (Docebo) by creating help guides. This was for users to go through if they had a question about a certain function in the system itself. My other work included things like blog posts, editing in Photoshop and doing press releases. I also was given a chance to use our partner training site called Lynda. I really liked this because it helped me to learn new skills that I did not know before and by having access to online videos about multiple subjects."
What's it like working at GuyKat? "Working at GuyKat has really given me a great team experience, we aren’t the largest team out there but as a small team, I feel the experience is more as you get to see the different processes of the company as compared to a large team environment. Faraday Wharf is a quaint community of small businesses and it gives a perfect opportunity to network with all types of organisations. I really liked this aspect of working with GuyKat as it helped me to gain a neutral mind when completing my own tasks during a working day. If I didn’t know something then I made sure I learnt about it and expanded my knowledge in that area."
Would you recommend the experience? If so would you offer any advice to your successors? "Yes I would recommend the experience and my advice I would offer would be to not be afraid to go out of your comfort zone, you may surprise yourself and this may lead to a great idea in the workplace. Another point would be to ask questions! If you are really confused about a task or project, make sure you get clarity on your doubts. This will help you and everyone else feel much more relaxed about a large project or even a task if you understand what you are doing."
BLOGPOST: Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate?
I often get asked 'which authoring tool is better?' Captivate or Storyline? The way I usually explain it is that both Captivate and Storyline rock. My sense is that if you take two equally bright people with identical skills and you gave one Storyline and one Captivate, then after a couple of days your Storyline user's content would appear to be better. It would be the same story after a week or a month, after three months they'd maybe be neck and neck, but after six months your Captivate user would be limited only by their imagination while your Storyline user's material would start to look 'samey' (which isn't to say it is better or worse learning).
Put simply, Storyline has a much shorter learning curve and you'll look great quickly. The flip side is that you'll also hit its capability limit sooner and be using hardcore workarounds to extend capability when you attain mastery in a way that you would not if you had mastered Captivate.
So, both tools are great. I'd recommend either. But remember they are just tools. Having a saw and workbench doesn't make you a carpenter. Having a rapid authoring tool will not make you an instructional designer. Enthusiastic or even reluctant amateurs can and do make brilliant material with these tools. In the modern workplace budget constraints often mean that option is all you can do. However, if you want to train thousands of people, if you have a proper training budget, if you want to concentrate on your day job rather than the technology and if you want the training to truly engage then the DIY approach is misguided. You would likely be better commissioning a professional agency such as ourselves to build your online training for you. If this is you, we'd love to talk. Details are here.
But back to the initial question, if I really had to pick just one, which would I go for? I'll say just this: my company makes eLearning for third party clients, we are doing it all day every day, and we choose Captivate.
Guy McEvoy is MD of GuyKat Solutions. The company is agnostic about clients authoring tools, but happens to use Captivate itself. GuyKat are partners of Docebo, an LMS that handles both Captivate and Articulate output equally well.
Aim to Exceed Client Expectations
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always have"
We are proud of what we do. But we still like to get better as we go on. To do this we listen to client feedback. As part of our RAID (Rapidly Applied Instructional Design) methodology the last step at the end of an engagement is to get structured feedback from our clients. We do it as an online questionnaire so we cannot influence their answers. We solicit some open ended questions which can give us qood insights. We also have some standard survey graded questions about how we have done.
The detailed results are commercially sensitive. However, the one really gratifying headline stat that stood out in 2012-13 was:- we either 'Met' or 'Exceeded' Client Expectations on 100% of survey returns*.Nobody expressed a neutral or negative opinion of our work. We're working hard to make sure we always 'Exceed' client expectations. Obviously, the higher we set those expectations the harder it becomes. It's still what we shoot for. If your eLearning vendor isn't meeting or exceeding your expectations, then why not give us a go?
* Client Surveys were taken in H1 2013 and covered 37+ project deliverables for work undertaken in 2012-13 of minimum value £1000
TinCan API v Experience xAPI.
Recently, a colleague and I attended D-Conf in Milan. Hosted by our partners at Docebo, the event focused on cloud apps and eLearning. As usual at conferences the agenda documentation was teasingly thin. You have little more than the session title to guess exactly what the speaker will cover.
Day 2 had interesting sounding back-to-back sessions. One was on 'Tin Can API' by Mike Rustici and one was on 'Experience API' (or just 'xAPI') by Aaron Silvers. Both were engaging speakers worth listening too. Both spoke of a new API in an infant state. They evangelised about how with a little momentum they will be on the cusp of the beginnings of something that will eventually change everything. Good. SCORM sucks.
For me, the really interesting insight was clocking my colleague’s reaction to these talks. She is a bright, switched-on, graduate, eLearning professional. She is no mug. She’d been looking forward to the Tin Can presentation having followed some of the buzz about it over the last year. She hadn’t previously heard of the Experience API. She listened to both forty-minute presentations in full. Yet when I spoke to her about it afterwards it dawned on me that she hadn’t connected that both presentations were talking about exactly the same thing.
Neither script referenced that there was any debate about the name. Yes, there were aggressive questions alluding to it after Mike’s talk, but these had a level of assumed knowledge in the way they were asked and answered that went over the audience’s heads. For those who live and breathe working on delivery of the post-SCORM standard, any vibrant debate about the name and any trademark issues may be boring and done to death. However, outsiders being introduced to the topic for the first time will not be aware there has even been a discussion.
My colleague is the target audience that these pioneers want to convert into the first wave of early adopters and sales-people. They diluted their message to her. Not because she is stupid, far from it, but because they didn’t explain themselves properly. She cares about this stuff. If they confuse her, they'll certainly confuse more generalist HR professionals.
The dual branding is plain confusing. Having folk going on road-shows and calling it two different things in the same meeting is simply nuts. The confusion will delay that last bit of momentum they crave to get vendors like us to tell our clients they have to jump on this wave. Only when we're pushing compatibility as an essential feature in any buying decision will it truly take off.
If I had a vote, and I don’t, nor do I deserve one, I’d say Experience API is a far better, more obviously relevant name. I’d go for that. I appreciate that there has been a chunk of work put into pushing the ‘Tin Can’ brand out there over the last few years, but let’s face it, it does sound like the code-word for a product in beta. You’d also struggle to sell something with such a whimsical name as an essential upgrade to a typical knee-jerk finance director. Worse, it does sound ‘suspect’ having a private company trademark the name of an open standard. I say that no matter how honourable or benign their actual intent.
Whichever name they settle on, they need to settle on it quick and stop the road show confusion. The benefits of this new standard, whatever it is called, means promoting this stuff to eLearning professionals should be pushing on an open door. Adding this confusion pulls the door back. Guys, sort it out.
Guy McEvoy is Managing Director of GuyKat, he’s looking forward to Tin Can or Experience or whatever it’s called freeing up eLearning content from the restraints of SCORM compliance. He hopes if you take nothing else from this article it’s that, for now, Tin Can API and Experience xAPI are exactly the same thing. Oh, and that whatever it is called Docebo LMS already supports it!
Getting Business Going In the UK
GuyKat Managing director Guy McEvoy was a guest at an event hosted by Goldman Sachs in London. Also present were entrepreneurs such as Sir Charles Dunstone (Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk), Gerry Ford (Cafe Nero), Julian Metcalfe (founder of Pret A Manger and Itsu) and about 300 other leaders of small businesses who have received support from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Programme.
Much of the day's discussion focussed on the economic outlook for the UK in the near-to-mid term. The Global CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein comments at the event were picked up by much of the media.
Opinion remains split between optimists and pessimists on the UK's prospects. However, everyone seemed to agree that it will be growing SMEs that eventually kick-start the economy. GuyKat are proud to consider themselves of one these growing businesses, and proud to help our peers achieve the same through developing their people and lowering their training costs.
Are you ready for Tin Can?
Did you know that Tin Can API version 1.0 is scheduled for formal release on April 26, 2013?
The Tin Can API is a new standard for data flow between learning technologies. It's tempting to describe it as an update to the venerable SCORM standard. For years SCORM has been allowing eLearning modules developed in authoring tools such as Adobe Captivate, or Articulate Storyline to 'talk' to the Learning Management Systems on which they are hosted. However, saying it's just a SCORM replacement sells Tin Can short - it brings much more to the table. There's a great description of Tin Can here.
At GuyKat we're proud to be working with our partners Docebo to ensure that clients can release the benefits of Tin Can quickly. We can help them wrap their heads around the new concept of the LRS (Learning Record Store). You're all going to be hearing a lot about Tin Can API over the next few years. If you want to know more now - get in-touch.
GuyKat is UK's First Docebo Partner
We've been keeping an exciting secret. Back in November we signed an agreement with Docebo to become the first of their UK Partners. You may be familiar with the concept of a Learning Management System (LMS). You may also be familiar with the concept of Software-As-A-Service (SaaS). Docebo brings these together. With style.
Since November, without fanfare, we've been learning about the Docebo product in depth and have begun introducing it to several clients. Selecting an LMS partner was a challenging process and we trialled numerous alternative products. At the end of our assessment exercise we found Docebo the most compelling value proposition. In our opinion it balances being user-friendly, feature-rich and simplicity-to-deploy whilst still being surprisingly competitively priced. Docebo is the LMS we use ourselves. We think our clients should too.
Keep an eye on the website. In the coming months you will see far more information about the Docebo product and the formal launch of the additional services we can provide to help you get up and running. However, in the meantime if you are based in the UK and want a free-trial or demo then please find out more by clicking here.