The SCORM LMS: Compliance for Your E-learning Advantage

E-learning is both advanced technology and a challenge for people who want to learn more and progress in today’s business environment. E-learning entails the use of technology to help people learn better: this means making use of the convenience of the online arena in delivering lectures and learning modules for people who have no time to enroll in classes and return to school. It also means making use of different multimedia devices and products to supplement conventional classroom lectures. This can include the use of audio and video files to accompany ordinary classes or schoolwork, which employees might find boring or monotonous.

E-learning is also a challenge. E-learning modules are delivered online, through a website or through software that functions by downloading learning modules through the Internet. These modules are best viewed by a conventional browser or supporting software, both of which entail long hours spent in front of a computer screen. This can be exhausting for many employees who already spend most of their day typing out reports and working out charts, graphs, and evaluations online. This means that e-learning modules have to be designed so well, in that they are attractive to the eyes, pleasing to look at without causing eyestrain, and delivering the most amount of important knowledge to employees at the same time.

On top of all these, e-learning modules have to be controlled by an efficient learning management system, or LMS. An LMS is a comprehensive software package that functions in sending e-learning modules and content to the right e-learning participants. In general, an LMS should be convenient for e-learning module creators to use: it should allow e-learning module creators and organizers to access the individual accounts of e-learning participants, and it should allow e-learning creators and organizers to change the content and style of e-learning modules no matter where in the world the e-learning creators and organizers are.

Creating a successful LMS means striking the balance between convenience for the users, and compliance with existing standards that govern the quality of e-learning products. Convenience can entail designing e-learning modules that are customized to meet the needs of individual businesses, even individual e-learning participants. This means that the e-learning infrastructure, or the LMS, has to be customized to either meet the needs of a fast-paced corporation, or the long-term educational aims of a distance education program offered by a university. An LMS should also ensure that e-learning products can meet the needs of as many different people as possible, whether these people are fast or slow learners, and whether or not these e-learning participants have disabilities that may get in the way of their ability to learn new things.

The LMS actually governs the run-time environment of e-learning products. This run-time environment is comprised of a union between the content provider and its host system, a collaboration that is, in turn, governed by a set of standards called SCORM. Short for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, SCORM standards ensure that an LMS and its e-learning product can cater to the needs of as many people as possible. To pass SCORM standards and receive SCORM certification, an LMS should be evaluated by the U.S. Department of Defense, whose ADL, or Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, dictates the progress and implementation of SCORM standards.

Having a SCORM LMS, or a SCORM compliant LMS, can spell profit for e-learning creators and producers. A SCORM certification means, among other things, that the e-learning software and module can be used across a wide variety of browsers, and is compatible with the greatest number of commonly used computer software. In other words, a SCORM certification can be used as a basis for quality, and having a SCORM certification can translate into high quality products.

If you are interested in getting a SCORM certification for your e-learning module, do as much research as you can on how you can improve your software. A SCORM certification can also be a good standard for judging what e-learning modules you can use to ensure the best education for you and your company’s employees.