The most appealing design and attracting platform are useless if there are bad content. Content includes the learning materials (games, animations etc), and tests/quizzes/exercises. The easiest way to convert content into digital materials (if you have these exercises in some other format) is by applying the industry standards. Among the most popular standards are: SCORM, xAPI and cmi5. Do you understand the difference between them?

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How Belitsoft Can Help

We have been working in the eLearning domain since the early 2000s. Here’s how we can use our experience to assist you:

Content Development . We can create new eLearning content and package it with the format of your choosing.

. We can create new eLearning content and package it with the format of your choosing. Consulting . We can share our knowledge of software and content creation to guide you along your path to success.

. We can share our knowledge of software and content creation to guide you along your path to success. Custom eLearning software development. If you want to break into the eLearning market with a great new product, we can provide the technical know-how and capable professionals to help you.

What Are eLearning Content Standards?

There are dozens of LMS’ on the market. If they only accepted content tailored to their exact specification, creating that content would take an enormous amount of time.

Thanks to eLearning content standards, you can make a course compatible with pretty much any LMS on the market. After you are done working with your authoring tool, just package the content with SCORM, for example, and two or three clicks later it will be good to go.

We will focus on the most widespread ones: AICC, SCORM and xAPI.

AICC

AICC stands for Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee - a now-defunct organization that created and maintained the standard. The first version was released in 1993 and kept evolving until the organization behind it switched to xAPI in 2010.

AICC (the committee) disbanded in 2014. But content packaged according to their standard can still be found in some places. Moreover, some of their xAPI-based work lives on as CMI-5.

AICC advantages include:

Ability to host content on a separate server

Secure HTTPS data transfer support

As for the disadvantages of the standard:

It is mostly used in legacy applications, almost no new AICC content is being made

It lacks the progress tracking capabilities and has limited functionality compared to its more modern counterparts.

SCORM

The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is the most popular set of guidelines for the content. It is a standard for packaging learning courses into special files that can be read by any compliant application.

SCORM is a good decision for those who want to convert, let’s say an old PowerPoint presentation into a cross-platform e-Learning course without spending money. Plenty of authoring tools have a SCORM conversion feature.

It exists in two primary versions:

SCORM 1.2

SCORM 2004

The older version - 1.2 is still more popular than the version of 2004, though it has some limitations in comparison with its younger brother. For instance, SCORM 1.2 doesn’t allow course sequencing or providing restricted access to separate units.

What has changed in the eLearning world with SCORM introduction in general? It has provided an opportunity to integrate courses without spending too much time and money on content customization and introduced learning materials across multiple platforms.

However, it hasn’t been updated since 2009, so you know how it is with things that haven’t been seen for the last decade.

SCORM advantages:

Allows content publication and playback across multiple platforms

Allows tracking course completion with the time spent

Allows producing basic content without spending too much money on it

Blend s the content coming from different sources

Converts out-of-date content into a recognizable format

SCORM disadvantages:

Lack of relevant updates

Absence of in-depth analysis of user activity

Some authoring tools still only allow presenting the content in Flash-format (though even Adobe doesn’t support flash nowadays)

xAPI

This standard, also known as Experience API and “Tin Can” API is much more powerful than SCORM. Created for the modern learning environment, it boasts advanced tracking and analytics capabilities, which is why it slowly replaces SCORM - its older predecessor. But don’t worry, SCORM-packaged content can be easily made ready for xAPI-compatible systems.

AData flow in xAPI. Source

xAPI is great for blended learning environments, LXPs, and mobile learning.

xAPI has plenty of advantages in comparison with SCORM, including:

Advanced portability (thanks to the Learning Records Store feature)

No browser required

Greater control of the content

Greater control over the relevant activities

Ability to track a bigger number of e-Learning scenarios

Independence from JavaScript (SCORM is committed)

LMS agnostic (You don’t have to use an LMS at all with this standard)

Multiple Score Reporting

The greatest disadvantage of this standard is that this e-Learning standard is less widespread in the industry so far. People still use SCORM despite the fact it only allows tracking completion and results of the course.

If you need help with implementing xAPI, we can help

Tin Can API LMS’

These are some of the most popular LMS’ that support xAPI.

Moodle

Moodle is a free open source LMS that is used by millions of people around the world. It has a lot of modules that allow tuning of the system for various purposes by adding different features.

Moodle. Source

Still, the popular opinion holds that Moodle can sometimes be hard to customize and requires technical skills to set ut up.

Core features:

Built-in authoring tool

Gamification

Videoconferencing support

Mobile learning

Learner portal

SCORM compliance

Moodle disadvantages:

Complicated navigation. “Moodle is horrible. The format is seriously hard to navigate. Plugins are required to do anything worthwhile. The navigation requires too many clicks to go where you need too and its overly complicated for teachers and administrators. Half the time, the simplest tasks will take my teachers days to figure out before they call me for the easy 10-minute solution. The customer service in non-existent and the Moodle Docs are outdated and useless.".

Bugs. “The site is constantly crashing. The users are virtually unable to accomplish anything because of the frequency of failure within the website. I attend a large university that uses it and every single professor absolutely hates the site because of its difficulty to operate, constant crashing, it is hard to grade from, and for students, it is a confusing mess of useless features and lack of organization. The website is incredibly slow for mobile users.”

Requires technical specialists. “This software requires to have someone on staff who can take on the responsibility to develop it to fit your company needs. With it being free, there isn't a customer support area where they will address your every whim. You will need to be able to dedicate full-time staff to managing and maintaining the software.”

Blackboard Learn

Blackboard is a cloud LMS that is focused on enterprise users. Its vendor company has been on the market for over 20 years and has won numerous awards.

Blackboard Learn. Source

Core features:

Built-in authoring tool

Gamification

Videoconferencing support

Mobile learning

Learner portal

SCORM compliance

Blackboard disadvantages:

Bugs. “Whole passages of feedback will suddenly disappear if you move the mouse into the wrong area or scroll a bit while you are typing comments on the essay. This is a persistent problem that everyone in our school has verified. In order to use one editing tool (a highlighter), the program locks out the other editing tool (the comment field), unless you refresh the screen, which then erases any comments not held in place by a highlight. I could go on and on and on, but I'm afraid I'd have to type it all over again if this review field is made by the same people who made Blackboard's essay editor.”

Outdated structure. “Compared to other learning management systems (such as Canvas or Schoology), Blackboard reflects the features and structuring of learning management systems of days gone by - specifically, it is structured most closely around a 'document dump' approach to online learning. This approach has been soundly refuted in the research, and while one can certainly design a quality learning environment, many of your end-users will likely not have the discernment to do so. From a student's perspective, it is often difficult to access key pieces such as messaging and grades when enrolled in multiple courses at once.”

Bad UI/UX. “Everything is unintuitive. I find I usually have to Google tutorials on how to do basic things (e.g. download all assignment submissions) - The UI is slow and clunky. e.g. you may find that you are allowed to edit some grades, but not others, with no clear explanation given. - The front page has about 200 buttons on it, 2 of which you might ever use. - Grading assignments is a painful process, involving a lot of clicking and waiting.”

Docebo

Docebo is a cloud-based LMS that is available in more than 30 languages. It aims to be a one-size-fits-all solution that can fulfill the needs of any organization.

Docebo. Source

Core features:

Gamification

Videoconferencing support

Mobile learning

Learner portal

SCORM compliance

Disadvantages of Docebo:

Bad customer support. “BEWARE! Once you buy there is ZERO support. The support takes 2 weeks for the simplest things that don't even require fixing bugs. Their answer to serious issues that prevent you from using the product successfully is usually "Will be fixed with the next patches". And they take 2 weeks to tell you that! There is zero support even if you buy support. Their way of working around the issues "if they don't ignore you" is usually unacceptable in terms of user experience. We are very disappointed and will be migrating away from this product as soon as we can.”

Unintuitive UI. “Clunky navigation. Our users consistently report negative feedback. There are bugs in the workflows, customer support all give different responses and often are incorrect. The support is just awful being in EST with no phone support (even for a fee) available. issues take a long time to solve (sometimes months) and support is very slow. This is not a very well developed or managed application given the breadth and scope of issues we've encountered.”

Bugs. “Even though Docebo offers many great features, we have found many "technical bugs" that Learning and Support are slow to correct, making the functionality poor and the user experience frustrating.”

TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a cloud solution that targets businesses, governmental institutions, and NGOs of any size.

TalentLMS. Source

Core features:

Built-in authoring tool

Gamification

Videoconferencing support

Mobile learning

Learner portal

SCORM compliance

TalentLMS disadvantages:

Bad customer support. “We have been having more and more issues throughout the years. They NEVER tell you when things are wrong especially when your entire system and theirs are down. like recently Jan. 2, 2019! It was down for 25 minutes. When I tracked it back.. this happens about once every 3 months. So if you are in it for e-commerce you would know how this affects your bottom line! I have been waiting 9 days now for them to fix a SCORM issue, uploading content has frequent issues- they fix in usually within 24 hours, but sometimes it takes days. I have emailed the higher-ups with complaints and no comments returned.”

Complicated for newbies. “This site is definitely not for rookie usage. Very counter-intuitive in many areas and it takes quite a bit of time to get comfortable with the full functionality of the site. That being said, the Customer Service support is out of this world. Extremely fast feedback in a very personal and professional manner, with answers that 99 out of 100 times solve your problem with ease.”

Requires workarounds. “I had to do some workarounds to make the initial end-user experience work for them. The workaround is not bad it is just a little annoying. In addition, the system notifications are limited in their configuration, this has proven frustrating at times. The biggest frustration has been the lack of an integrated grade book along with limited testing options (that are not very customizable).”

Learndash

Learndash is an LMS that is distributed as a Wordpress CMS plugin. As such it is compatible with over 90% of all the websites on the internet. And anyone who uses Wordpress is their target audience.

Learndash. Source

Core features:

Built-in authoring tool

Gamification

Mobile learning

Learner portal

SCORM compliance

Learndash disadvantages:

Bugs. “Never got the change to see Learndash working (Luckily!!) Since the moment we finally got our course online there was a problem with login and logout. Once students/customers logged out they had to do the registration process over and over again. The support team needed 2 weeks (...) to come up with the solution. And yet… the problem remains the same, nothing changed.”

eCommerce Issues. “Our web team reported that the product is not as theme-compatible/customizable as some of its competitors, especially when it comes to the eCommerce portion of selling courses via WooCommerce. Unfortunately, this realization came after the 30-day mark, so we did not receive our refund for the year.”

Bland UI. “Here's what I don't like. It's ugly. The user interface is plain and not very intuitive. You have to buy other add on's so users can do things like taking notes, and so that you can begin to have an interface that looks better than native Wordpress. In other words... ugly. With all the work they put into this software, it is so crazy that they did not spend time on the user experience.“

Cmi5

While xAPI is very powerful and robust, it is also very broad and applicable to a large number of eLearning environments, which makes it ultimately more complex. This is why cmi5 (which stands for “computer-managed instruction, 5th attempt”) was developed.

Cmi5 is a set of rules or a “profile” for xAPI that tailors the use of xAPI-based content for conventional eLearning environments, e.g. LMS. The first version (yes, of the 5th attempt) was released in 2015 and is being developed and supported by the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative of the US government.

“Since the xAPI specification is highly generalized to support many different use cases, a set of “extra rules” (called a “profile”) is needed to ensure interoperability for a given use case. The cmi5 profile ensures plug and play interoperability between learning content and LMS systems. The use case that the cmi5 profile is specifically designed for is one where the learner launches the learning content/activity from the LMS user interface,” as the authors of the standard put it.

All of the advantages of xAPI over SCORM apply to cmi5 too. The specific benefits of cmi5 are:

Easy to use compared to full-fledged xAPI

Still retains most of the xAPI functionality (LMS-agnosticism, mobile learning, etc.)

The drawbacks are:

Not as widespread

More limitations compared to the general-purpose xAPI

AICC vs SCORM vs xAPI vs cmi5 Comparison

Here’s a little table to help you compare standards in a more convenient way.

AICC SCORM xAPI cmi5 Completion tracking ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ Spent time tracking ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ Game-based learning tracking ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ Offline learning tracking ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ No browser needed ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ Mobile compatibility ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ No LMS needed ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ Advanced security ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ Standard getting further development ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅

Which Standard Should You Use?

If you are just starting out with your course, there is no reason to use outdated content formats. So if you are going to use the learning content in an LMS only, use cmi5. LXPs and other similar environments would benefit from the full range of xAPI features.

If you have a legacy SCORM course and don’t need any extra tracking features, you are fine as is. Most LMS’ are already compatible and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

Our team of experienced IT specialists offer API development and integration services , providing you with a custom rich in functions API solution.

FAQ

✅ Why do we even need eLearning standards?

One reason is interoperability. Suppose you have a course that is hosted on a certain LMS. Eventually, you grow dissatisfied with that system and decide to migrate to another. As your course is SCORM-compliant, transferring it to the new LMS can be done in a few clicks.

Another is tracking tools. xAPI, for example, allows monitoring completion rates and speed, and even user activity in learning games and on third-party websites.

✅ Is xAPI replacing SCORM?

Yes and no, depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, SCORM isn’t being developed anymore. xAPI has all its features and more. On the other hand, SCORM is still supported by most major LMS’ and provides enough functionality to fit a regular instructional environment. Moreover, SCORM-compliant content can easily be converted to work with xAPI.

✅ What are the standards that a good online platform should support?

It depends on the purpose of such a platform. If it is intended for selling MOOCs, it doesn’t have to support any of them (like Udemy, for example). If it is an LMS, then flexibility is important, and SCORM/xAPI are a must.