SCORM 2.0 and beyond LETSI seminar

Last Wednesday along with 190 others I joined the “SCORM 2.0 and Beyond” webinar hosted by LETSI. This was the first in a series of community events LETSI are hoping to organise to promote its activities.

Charles Allan started the session with an overview of developments with SCORM and the relationship between LETSI and the ADL. Orginally it was envisaged that ADL would hand over governance/stewardship of SCORM to “the community” i.e. LETSI. However, there have been some developments and the current state of play is that ADL are continuing to steward SCORM and may (or may not) release new versions. LETSI is working on developing SCORM 2.0 which is not as close to the existing SCORM specification as originally thought. So in effect they are starting with a blank sheet and are looking at wider context of data interoperability than the original SCORM model which was primarily content driven. SCORM 2.0 developments will be focused on the different types of data which need to be shared including: learning activities; resources, people, competency frameworks there was also a nod to webservices and mashups.

Charles explained that LETSI is not a standards development body or a trade association. It sees itself rooted within the implementation community. LETSI will work with existing bodies to help shorten adoption lifecycles through filling a gap in the current standards community. Specifically by helping to build communities and developing agile software development processes which should speed up consistency of implementation approaches. LETSI will not build a spec if there is an existing one which is fit for purpose and they are currently reviewing a number of standards as part of the SCORM 2.0 scoping work. LETSI hopes to enable a move towards a more agile, iterative standards development process.

Four technical working groups have been formed (more info on the LETSI website) and they hope to produce a technical roadmap later this year. Over the coming months there will be a series of webinars on candiate technologies, continued development of potential software architecture solutions as well as continuing liasion with formal standards bodies. Future developments will include investigation of orchestration of content/activities and compentency frameworks amongst others and they are actively looking for working group participation. The working groups are open to anyone to join, however to have voting rights you need to pay a (nominal, I think $100 was mentioned) membership fee.

It will be interesting to see how developments progress this year and if an organisation like LETSI can actually effectively work with existing standards agencies and speed up the specification development and release process. I hope they don’t get bogged down in the same bureaucratic processes which have made the formal standards process so drawn out.

6 thoughts on “SCORM 2.0 and beyond LETSI seminar

  1. Pingback: Structured Methods › links for 2009-03-17

  2. Pingback: SCORM in der Schule und die Zukunft von SCORM | Tim Schlotfeldt » E-Learning

  3. Do you have real users this time around or is it more learning technologists and vendors speaking on behalf of user and developer (the real people who have to actually use this stuff)? What say we all just use the web and stop finding excuses to try and reinvent it, e.g. APP for content packaging, RSS trackback or HTTP error codes for quizes/tests, ReST based systems for web services, cool urls for real users, W3C widgets for tool interoperability and microformats for forms. There job done. 8D

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  5. Hi

    I found your blog while trying to find out more about SCORM. I am tasked with implementing a VTLE called Talmos at a school in Dorset. SCORM sounded great when we bought Talmos but i’m not sure it is being used by exam boards to allow us to download specifications in a hierarchy of Unit / Topic etc as I was led to believe. Is SCORM being used by exam boards or QCA and if so how can it help us?

    Steve Gerry
    Queen Elizabeth’s School
    Dorset

  6. Hi Gerry

    I’m not 100% sure if SCORM is being used by exam boards per se, however it is a fairly common content standard in the schools sector and most BECTA approved suppliers can provide content as SCORM packages. BECTA and/or your local exam board could probably provide you with more detailed information.

    Best wishes

    Sheila