Things You'll Need:
- ADL Sample RTE [Available at http://www.scorm12.com/]
- ADL Conformance Test Suite [Available at http://www.scorm12.com/]
- Dreamweaver / HTML Editor
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Step 1
If you are creating your course from scratch, then the best place to start is by creating a solid folder structure. If you already have created a course and folder structure, then it may not make sense to change the folder structure at this point. If this is the case I would recommend to leave it as is and continue to step 2.
For those of you that are starting from scratch, break your folders out as follows.
myCourse\lesson(n)\HTML
myCourse\lesson(n)\images
myCourse\lesson(n)\jscript
myCourse\lesson(n)\media
*where "myCourse" is the root directory of your course
*where (n) is the lesson number you are referencing (lesson1,lesson2,lesson3,lesson (n)...)
This structure will allow for easier sharing and referencing of lesson objects. It will also allow for easy packaging of the course. -
Step 2
Break your course into Sharable Content Objects or SCOs. There are countless methods of how to do this, but the concept is simple. If the content can teach something as a stand-alone unit of instruction, then it is a SCO. Many people make each lesson a SCO. This is simple and conformant to the specification, but may not truly get to the level of granularity SCORM, in theory, talks about. For this example, we will make believe that a lesson is equal to a SCO.
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Step 3
Now to create a simple course, download the latest SCORM 1.2 JavaScript API (APIWrapper.js) from http://scorm12.com and reference it in the HEAD of your HTML as follows.
SCRIPT SRC = "JScript/API.js"
NOTE: You must reference this file in all of your HTML pages. This file contains the basic functions that your SCO (lesson) will use to communicate with the Learning Management System (LMS).
ALSO: Make sure to download the APIWrapper.js file from http://www.scorm12.com and place it in the "/JScript/" folder for each of your lessons. -
Step 4
Now, you must initialize communication with the LMS. Anytime a SCO is launched, a communication line is opened using the function LMSInitialize(). Conversely, whenever communication is terminated, LMSFinish() must be called.
With this in mind, look through the first lesson folder, and ask yourself: "Is this the first page of my SCO?"
If your answer is yes, then you must initialize this page to the LMS. To initialize your SCO to the LMS, simply call LMSInitialize() from the API.
Do this by placing this function in the onLoad event of the body of the first page of your SCO as seen here:
body onload="LMSInitialize()"
Now, go through the pages in the lesson folder, asking yourself "Is this the last page of my SCO?" When you can say "Yes, this is the last page," you need to insert a function to finish communication with the LMS. Do this by placing LMSFinish() in the onUnload event of the body of this page as seen here:
body onUnload="LMSFinish()" -
Step 5
The previous steps deal with setting up communication with the LMS. Now, if you need your SCO to "talk" to the LMS, the lines of communication have been opened; all your SCO has to do is say something. You can use any of a number of functions listed in the SCORM 1.2 Specification such as LMSGetValue("cmi.core.student_name") which gets the students name from the LMS. I am not going to go through all the data model in this exercise, but they are explained in the specification, if you need to use them. The specification can be downloaded at http://www.scorm12.com.
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Step 6
Create a Manifest file. The Manifest file is used by the LMS to determine, in what order, you want your course materials displayed. The manifest file is essentially an XML file that is a packing slip that accompanies your course. It delivers, to the LMS, a list of all the resources used in your course.
Download the sample manifest file from http://www.scorm12.com. Open the XML file in Notepad, Dreamweaver, or your favorite editor. Replace %TITLE% with the title of your course. Replace %SCO1% with the title of your first SCO. Continue to replace SCO titles until all of your SCOs are listed. Scroll to the bottom of the manifest file where you see %SCO1_LAUNCH_PAGE% and enter the launch page for the first SCO. The launch page will probably be something like "mycourse/lesson1/index.htm". Once you have replaced these items, save the manifest file to the root of the course directory.
NOTE: Your Manifest file must be named imsmanifest.xml. -
Step 7
This is all that a SCORM course needs. Notice I neither said anything about instructional content nor did I mention anything relating to style or presentation. That is because SCORM 1.2 does not address these issues. What you have added to your content, LMSInitialize(), LMSFinish(), and a Manifest file, are all of the items that are required to create a SCORM 1.2 conformant course. All that is left now is to test the package to make sure that all your work was done correctly.
In order to run the test suite, you must first zip up the content of your course. The content of your course must be zipped up so that the zip file contains THE CONTENTS OF YOUR COURSE FOLDER and not the course folder itself. The imsmanifest.xml file MUST be at the root of the zip package or the test will fail.
Download the Conformance Test Suite (CTS1_2_7STSetup.exe) from http;//www.scorm12.com and test your imsmanifest.xml file and SCOs to see if you have done everything right. Once you have installed and opened the test suite, use the Content Package Conformance Test link to launch the appropriate test. When prompted, choose Content Aggregation Package and browse for your zip file. Run the test and admire the results :)
That is all that is required to pass conformance. We understand that this may be complicated. This is why we offer training, consulting, and tools to help in the process. If you need any of our services, please let us know. Thank you for giving us the chance to serve you.
