Shhh. It’s been very quiet around these parts lately. We’ve been hammering away on a new way to work with SCORM Cloud, and, well, it means we’ve been neglecting the blog. This week, though, we’re going to be releasing SCORM Cloud in its beta for all of you to try, if you like. Over time, you’ll see there are many things to be done with SCORM Cloud, but for today, we’re going to start with the most basic. SCORM Cloud will be the new home of the artist formerly known as Test Track First of all, don’t freak out. We know that Test Track is really important to many of you. In some regards, Test Track is important to SCORM itself, since so many people use it to see if their content functions properly. I’ll just say it now… you’ll still be able to use Test Track SCORM Cloud to do your content testing. And you won’t have to pay for it. See? Everything is going to be OK. In an effort to save heavy Test Track users from any thumb sucking moments, I thought I’d share a couple of the basic functions of SCORM Cloud… import and testing content. Import Importing content should be easy, and it is. Click the omnipresent "Import Course" button Choose your file and hit Open Test Your Content Testing content, like importing it, should be really simple. Try this. Click "Launch" All of the functionality from Test Track remains, including file by file edits, saved debug logs, and… Course Properties So, come check out the beta later this week. And if you see something you don’t like or something that you could do before but now you can’t, tell us about it. We want to hear.

We made a small change in our reporting tool in the past month. You might not have even noticed. But it’s probably the biggest, baddest, best change we could have made. Because it fixes the source of many questions and much confusion about the tool just by changing to real-time reporting. We had originally meant for data in the reporting tool to update once a day. There’s this whole technical process where the form of the data has to convert from how it gets saved in the cloud and how it is reported in the tool. We really thought that once a day (and later, every 30 minutes) would be sufficient for admin types. Only, it wasn’t. In part because admins weren’t the only ones needing to see pieces of the data and in part because we’ve just gotten used to a world of real-time data. Our big concern - and the only reason we didn’t just jump on this one for a little while - was that the data transmogrification would throw a few kinks in the works and cause everything else to take longer. We dug a little deeper, spent a little time and realized this wasn’t going to be a problem. We’d hate to sacrifice performance in the process of adding a feature. So, enter the world of real-time reporting! Where you will actually notice this is when a learner completes a course, they can be informed of their completion status immediately. In addition, you can go straight to a launch history report and see what just occurred in a course where there was a problem. It will all be there, ready and waiting in real time.

A year ago, we talked about 5 things every piece of SCORM content should do.  Today, I wanted to mention 4 things every SCORM test should do… Keep in mind, SCORM tests are a subset of SCORM content, so they should be doing those same 5 things I mentioned a year ago.  Take that as a given.  This is just a further set of details. 1. Record your interactions with full detail SCORM provides a way for content to record the learner’s answers (and the questions) to the LMS.  Put simply, do it.  We see content all the time that elects not to report these interactions, and it’s a waste.  Even if the LMS doesn’t report well on this information today, it could do so ultimately.  And from a learning/remediation perspective, it’s crucial that the administrators of the LMS be able to see how their learners are progressing.  Just do it.  Nike would be proud. Now for the details.  Recording interactions can be done well or done poorly.  If you want to do it really well, and your LMS supports it, opt to use SCORM 2004, rather than SCORM 1.2.  SCORM 2004 allows content to be far more expressive in reporting interactions. Next, understand the data model elements.  I’ll spare you all the details here, but here are some highlights.  For the purpose of examples, pretend like we’re working with this question: What is my name?  A. Tim MartinB. Reggie BenesC. Dan StookD. Keith Bolliger Record the result (correct/incorrect) in cmi.interactions.n.result Record the learner response and correct response using a human readable identifier (or collection of them).  Better to record "Tim_Martin" than "A" if the learner answered the question correctly.  This gives the LMS an opportunity to share that data with the administrator in a useful fashion.  And in SCORM 2004, "Tim_Martin" is now a valid response pattern.  (In SCORM 1.2, "A" was the best you could do.) Use cmi.interactions.n.description.  Frankly, this is one of the best additions in SCORM 2004, allowing you to record that the question was, in fact, "What is my name?"  From a reporting perspective, this a vast improvement. If you’re going to go this far, you might as well complete the data model and record the following: cmi.interactions.n.type cmi.interactions.n.weighting cmi.interactions.n.latency cmi.interactions.n.timestamp 2. Understand the difference between state and journaling First things first… interactions are recorded in an array.  Take note of cmi.interactions.N.whatever.  That array is sequential, and each time a SCO wants to record something to it, it has to ask for the next available space (via cmi.interactions._count).  Separate from the N I’ve just mentioned, though, is the identifier of the interaction… cmi.interactions.n.ID. If a piece of content wants to record a 10 question test and have a slot for each of the 10 questions, it can do that, even if they allow the user to update their answers.  It would do so by cycling through the existing interactions and examining their cmi.interactions.n.ID to see if it matches the one that needs to be updated.  This technique of updating a given interactions values by cycling through the array and resetting those values is called "state" or "stateful".  The recorded interaction indicates the current state of those values.  It also eliminates any prior values that may have been recorded.  State is a valid approach to recording interactions. On the other hand, the array allows for you to simply add another value to the interactions array rather than seeking out the old array location and overwriting it.  In this case, the content would simply request the cmi.interactions._count value and record the new interaction data in that slot of the array.  In using this journaling technique, all of the historical values for that interaction are maintained.  If the content wishes to retrieve those values, say on relaunch of the content, though, it has to be more intelligent about discerning which of the answers was most recently given. Note, both journaling and state are valid option.  It’s crucial, though, that the content manage it’s concept of cmi.interactions.n.ID well though.  A piece of content that uses a new ID each time it reports and interaction is not properly journaling, because the association between multiple answers of the same question is lost. 3. Set completion status and success status In SCORM 1.2, completion status and success status were rolled up into a single entity, cmi.core.lesson_status.  It had six potential values, including completed, incomplete, passed, failed.  In this world, it was impossible for the content to tell the LMS if a failed status meant that the user should be allowed to take the content again or not.  Was it failed because they hadn’t finished?  Who knew? SCORM 2004, though, separates the concepts of passing and completing using two distinct data model elements: cmi.complete_status (completed, incomplete, or unknown) cmi.success_status (passed, failed, unknown) This allows the content to be more expressive about whether a failure was final.  Each content vendor is welcome to their own interpretation here, but making use of both completion_status and success_status is important in SCORM 2004. 4. Post a score Lastly, be sure to post a score. It’s such a simple thing to do, and it’s hugely useful to the LMS. Take note, in SCORM 2004, the posting of a score should look like this for a 10 question test on which you got 8 right. Set cmi.score.raw to 8 Set cmi.score.min to 0 Set cmi.score.max to 10 Set cmi.score.scaled to 0.8

Consider this post a teaser for some big news to come. We’re ramping up on a new project that you’ll be quite interested in if you follow this blog. Stay tuned. We’re going to be needing your help…yes, you should be flashing back to the teachers calling on you in class right about now!

The Big Announcement Well, here it is, the big announcement we hinted at with the obscure name "Project Tin Can". Rustici Software as been hired by ADL to help produce the successor to SCORM. For the next year, we will be conducting outreach, gathering requirements, proposing solutions and developing prototypes of a new "Experience API". Is this "SCORM 2.0″? Well, kinda sorta, but not really. This is much bigger. Just what this successor is and what it will be called isn’t formally decided yet. One thing is for certain though, ADL is thinking big. The "Experience API" is just one part of a larger framework that encapsulates all aspects of learning. It is an exciting time and we’re happy to be playing a big part in it. You can read all about it at http://www.scorm.com/tincan. The first phase of this project is all about outreach. That means you’re going to be hearing from us and we need your help. We’re not defining the next generation…you are! For now, check out the project site. You’ll find a collaboration area where you can vote on existing ideas, submit new ideas and participate in discussions. That’s just the start. Expect to hear a lot more from us over the next few months. We will be recruiting people to provide use cases and one-on-one interviews as well as highlighting particular areas for discussion. To stay up to date with the latest progress, you can: Follow us on twitter @projecttincan Follow the RSS feed or get email notifications on this blog Sign up for the feedback site and get notifications when changes are made

Project Tin Can isn’t about us…it’s about you. We know SCORM, but that’s about all (ok, well, I make a mean chocolate chip cookie too). It’s you guys who know what learning is all about. You know how organizations need to train in the future. You have the ideas about how mobile learning, games, simulations, informal learning, etc are changing your worlds. We need you to tell us. We want to know how you see learning evolving. What technologies are most impactful? What are some ways people are thinking outside the box? What does your ideal world look like? What new and innovative approaches have you seen? Tell us what’s important in your corner of the world. Your perspective is as unique as Tim’s taste in music…and we want to hear it (unlike Tim’s music). If you’d be willing to give us 15 minutes of your time to have an impact on the future of learning, please let us know. Our goal is to do at least 100 interviews in the next couple months. 15 minutes on the phone not your thing? Head over to the Project Tin Can discussion board and vote/comment/submit…make your voice heard. More of the paper writing type, send those over too. We’ll incorporate any feedback you have to offer. Just drop us a line.

We’ve been talking to a lot of people about Project Tin Can and we’ve been hearing a lot of "Didn’t you just do that with the LETSI RTWS project?". Well, kinda, sorta, but not really. Here’s the difference…. LETSI RTWS is about right now. Project Tin Can is about the future. RTWS is about improving the technical implementation SCORM. Tin Can is about increasing the scope of what can be done. The LETSI RTWS project set out to solve a number of shortcomings of SCORM with a common sense solution that everybody agreed needed to be implemented (namely a web services interface for SCORM run-time communication). RTWS is ready to be implemented now, and a number of vendors are already jumping on the bandwagon (SCORM Engine and Cloud updates with RTWS are due in the next few weeks). RTWS solves many problems with the technical implementation of the current specification. It drastically expands the scope of what can be done with SCORM, but it doesn’t expand the scope of what SCORM does. In other words, RTWS removes many technical barriers to implementing things like remotely hosted content, offline/occasionally connected devices, serious games and simulations. However, fundamentally, RTWS is still doing the same thing as SCORM (tracking learner progress through e-learning content), it just does so in a different way. With Project Tin Can, we are tasked to dream big. We’re thinking beyond SCORM and into the future. Project Tin Can is all about imagining what can be done and charting a course to get there. That is why it is so important to get your feedback. Our imaginations are only so big…but collectively we can paint a picture of greatness. So, tell us, what should the world look like in 5 years? What can we do besides record the fact that somebody flipped through a pager-turner? How will people be learning, and what should we do with this knowledge? How does learning data need to interact with other data? Which systems should be talking? How does learning relate to the rest of the world? This is all part of ADL’s Future Learning Experience project. It is just getting started (with Project Tin Can). For some more context, check out this post from ADL’s Community Manager, Aaron Silvers.

We’re off and running with Project Tin Can, and the community response has been overwhelmingly positive. As of this morning, we’ve: Uncovered 109 ideas, received 1149 votes on those ideas, from 162 different users, 35 of whom have volunteered for 1-on-1 interviews We still want to hear from you too though! There’s plenty of time left to submit feedback, but don’t wait too long. We will start summarizing feedback and moving on to technical designs towards the end of Feb. But please don’t procrastinate, contribute to the discussion today.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be sharing a great deal of detail from our Project Tin Can interviews.  Some of you would be overwhelmed by this level of detail (on our main blog) so we’re going to segregate it for you. If you’d care to keep up with it, you can do that at http://scorm.com/project-tin-can-blog/ or through an RSS feeder (at a url to be provided in the future.)

Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the privilege of talking to many of you about your ideas for what should be done beyond SCORM, and reading ideas and comments from even more of you.  Thank you! I’m sure there are many of you out there, who have ideas about the future of learning, who will be impacted by the decisions made in this project, who have yet to speak up.  And to you I say: now is the time.  In March we’ll be moving on to solving the problems and use cases that have been raised in phase 1.  We’ll still want your input, but we’ll be looking for how instead of what and why. So if it’s been a while since you’ve looked at our forum, or if you haven’t yet, please drop by and make your voice heard.  There is still time to talk too — whether we haven’t talked yet, or if there is just something you want to follow up on.  Please also have a look at the interviews we’ve started to post, they might spark some thoughts you want to share.

We’re winding down the requirements gathering phase for Project Tin Can, and have been making some decisions on what scenarios or requirements are in, and what’s out.  If you’ve posted to the Project Tin Can forum, you may have started to get email about ideas that are "planned" or "declined". Planned? Declined? Note that "planned" does not mean that Project TinCan will directly address an idea, nor does "declined" mean there is to be no improvement in that area.  It’s a matter of focus.  Ideas that are planned will be goals for the new API to address, sometimes directly, sometimes we will just ensure the API leaves enough room for content or tracking system developers to solve the problem on their own.  Ideas that are declined will not be goals for the new API, though they may still be considered while developing the API. Why? When looking at the ideas to include, we consider: can it be addressed with an API? Or as part of CMI 5 (data model)? level of interest (rank on forum, plus feedback in interviews) is this idea going to be more important in the future? previously collected ADL list of DoD needs for the Future Learning Experience project does it fit well with other planned ideas? our assessment of ideas impact on: adoption, complexity, or the -ilities Is that final? We will be delivering the entire list of ideas to ADL, so even those ideas that are not included in Project Tin Can can be considered for the Future Learning Experience project. These decisions are not yet final, but nor are they expected to change.  We are still conducting a few more interviews and reviewing transcripts from prior interviews.  We expect those interviews to help refine what we’ve already planned, but it’s possible we could hear something that would change these decisions. What’s Next? As we move into the technical solution & prototype phase, we’ll be looking for your thoughts on how to implement these ideas, and for volunteers to try out or write prototypes.  This phase will continue for the rest of the project, until the start of October  -  then we’ll hand off a final prototype API to ADL.

LMS’s and content creators benefit from one another. It’s a symbiotic relationship. The problem is that it’s not always (and usually isn’t) clear who will play nicely together. Our latest project is making it easier for you all to find each other and work together. We’ve been compiling a massive list of e-learning companies to see who is likely to play well together. We quickly realized that our unique position (think Switzerland) in the industry means we can share this list with the world and create a valuable resource for everyone. We’re not just publishing a list. We’re providing a searchable, filterable database that makes it easy to find what you want. We’re not going to tell you which vendors you should partner with. It’s not our style. Instead, we’re giving you the most comprehensive data set of e-learning products and vendors available, and the tools to make it useful. When we say "comprehensive data set", we mean it. There are more of these vendors out there than any of you realize. You’re welcome to submit your guesses at eLearningAtlas.com. We’ve hired people to help us do this. They’ll be reaching out to everyone. If you don’t want to wait, email us about your product right now.

We get asked all the time, "What is an LMS?" So, here’s a challenge… express it as simply, as elementally as you can. Here’s my effort: A tool that authenticates students, connects them to a topic, as well as each other, and provides the tools to efficiently deliver, track and assess the learning process. - (Think you can do it better using only 140 characters? Step up and leave a comment…) We’ve been pondering different applications and how they apply to that definition. And I can’t stop coming back to Facebook as a great candidate for an LMS of the future. A tool that authenticates students… …connects them to a topic… …as well as each other… …and provides the tools to efficiently deliver, track and assess the learning process. This is where SCORM Cloud comes in. Courses could be hosted on SCORM Cloud and delivered via Facebook. Assessments and tracking could also be integrated: Thinking about what could be is something we do a lot… Lately several of us have often discussed what SCORM Cloud + Facebook could be. I thought it’d be a good idea to expand the discussion and bring our followers into the mix. Apps in Facebook are nothing new. The social learning platform has created thousands of successful virtual farms and Vills. While many of the popular apps currently on Facebook are games, the Facebook population seems to be underutilized for eLearning. Students and Facebook have a healthy relationship — the site’s popularity was born from college students. I’m willing to make the argument that the blend of eLearning and the Facebook environment would be a useful marriage. Facebook advantages: 800+ million users (and growing) Easy to manage people and groups Users are loyal, familiar and comfortable with Facebook Streamlined registration and management process Frequent log-ins, easily accessible across platforms and devices By using Facebook to facilitate learning with students and instructors, developers could create a fast and intuitive way to group students and deploy courses. Learning within Facebook provides a platform students are comfortable and familiar with. Relationships formed via a Facebook-based experience could continue past the life of the course, creating a more genuine social experience than traditional eLearning has been able to give. The possibilities of a Learning App within Facebook are exciting to imagine and one I think could become the next big movement of eLearning. Arguably, this rush to manage learners within Facebook will start soon, and I’m excited to see it begin. We’ve built our SCORM Cloud to be flexible and adaptable with this scenario in mind. We’ve seen several integrations of our SCORM Cloud. So far it has been blended into Moodle, Sakai, Dokeos, Ilias, WordPress and Google Apps. Instead of reinventing the the learning platform, just plug our SCORM Cloud into Facebook and move on. Facebook is the next step, and one we’re excited to see someone take. Our SCORM Cloud can relieve the pain of hosting content, managing courses, tracking assessments and reporting grades. Facebook will manage students — all a developer needs to do is plug the two together. We’re open to ideas on how we can make this process easier. Group discussions, wall posts, notifications, real-time chat with classmates, leader boards… the Facebook platform offers plenty of elements that can be combined to create something cool. What could be within this solution keeps my mind racing. I hope that some momentum for this develops soon. So the logical question is, "If an e-learning Facebook app is such a great idea, why not do it yourself?" We have built the toolkit that can make this app possible… we’ve got a lot of development projects in cue. We’ve made it oblivious we’re hiring, great ideas like SCORM Cloud + Facebook are why. If this sounds cool and you’d like to jump in and create a Facebook integration, go for it. Where it goes from here is up to you. Are you willing to take the leap and become the first to navigate these waters? We know this process takes time and effort. We’re willing to lend a hand, let’s discuss what that could look like by dropping a comment. If you’re interested in working with us to make this happen, email me — chris.tompkins@scorm.com. Some images from: benstein & FindYourSearch

  A few days ago, a Pyrex dish filled with orange-chocolate chip cookies arrived in our office. In our world, a Pyrex dish means one thing: we’ve been graced with treats from Tim’s wife. As we sampled the offerings, Tim told us about his wife’s new endeavor. She was turning their kitchen into a test kitchen and would repeat a recipe until she had made it better and simplified the process. Her treats don’t last long in the office, so unfortunately we can’t share with you. Luckily, we have a test kitchen of our own. We’re always testing new features in SCORM Cloud to create a better user experience. Our latest concoction makes it easier for you to upload your courses into your Apps using SCORM Cloud. Enjoy! As you might have seen, we’ve integrated SCORM Cloud in a few places, including WordPress and Google Apps. The way we see it, SCORM Cloud is much like a switchboard. Content comes in from all over the place and SCORM Cloud sends it out to different locations, including other Apps. While you still have the option to upload your courses directly to your App, you can also upload to your App using SCORM Cloud.   Uploading your content directly into Cloud gives you a few benefits. You can test your content using your Test Track Sandbox to see how your users will experience it. You can also launch your courses directly from Cloud. Have you created a Quizzage or ScoTube course you want to share? No problem, you can push those directly to your App too! To upload to your Apps using SCORM Cloud, just follow these easy steps and you’re done before you know it. If you need to share your content outside the API, check out dispatch. We’re always looking for ways to make SCORM Cloud better, so send us your ideas. I’m sure that you can come up with things we’ve never even considered.

Thirteen years ago, a collection of like-minded folks gathered to find a better way for eLearning systems to work well together. Philip Dodds, Claude Ostyn, and many others gave their time to solve problems like resuability and interoperability. They looked at the best technology and standards of the day, they imagined how people would use eLearning content over the coming years, and they created SCORM. Over those thirteen years, SCORM has been a massive success. Thousands upon thousands of courses have been exchanged between systems that didn’t play well together prior to SCORM’s creation. Thousands upon thousands of dollars have been saved by companies that bought a piece of content once and used it in many contexts. And many, many business have been created. So I’ll just say it. Thanks to those of you who imagined, built, and nurtured SCORM.

Bathroom etiquette is a semi-frequent discussion topic around the office. It’s becoming a running joke that Tim and I care way too much about people remembering to replace an empty toilet paper roll. On the surface it’s lighthearted, but you know what, I really care. Actually, I care a whole helluva lot. It’s not about the toilet paper (we’re all smart enough to look before we sit), it’s about an attitude that cuts straight to the core of who we are and where I want to work. Changing the roll is just one of those things that needs to get done. It’s not anybody’s responsibility. It’s not in anyone’s job description, but its just gotta happen. Somebody’s gotta do it. The person who replaces the TP is the person who is going to answer a customer’s question about something well beyond the scope of what we do, just to help them out. The person who takes out the overflowing trash can is the person who is going to make a quick bug fix, even if that code technically belongs to another team. The person who puts a stray glass in the dishwasher is the person who will take 20 minutes to help a struggling peer, despite an overflowing to-do list of his own. A company filled with people who change the toilet paper is a company that delights its customers. It’s a company that respects its employees. It’s a company that can avoid a lot of structure, process, management and unnecessary BS because amazing people are filling in the cracks. A company that changes the TP, doesn’t have to fill out TPS Reports. The post Want a Great Place to Work? Change the Toilet Paper appeared first on SCORM - .

The floodgates are open. It’s time to celebrate. The Tin Can API, version 1.0, is here today. It was almost three years ago when ADL asked the e-learning community to help them with research to create a new, simpler, more powerful e-learning standard. E-learning standards are what we do, so of course we jumped at the opportunity. The result was Project Tin Can, which resulted in the Tin Can API. We wrote the first version of the API, version 0.8, then handed it over to ADL and a vibrant open community. Today it looks like a few guys in Nashville, TN (and a few stragglers up North) managed to transform our slice of the world. Learning isn’t going to be tracked the same way that it has been. You want to know more about learners than just "someone completed a course" or "someone scored 98% on an test". You want to be able to track activities that take place outside of an LMS, like serious games, mobile apps, group projects, conferences, simulations and so much more. You want to be able to correlate real-world performance with training data. And, you want all of this learning and performance data to live in one system. The Tin Can API makes all of this a reality. Already about 60 products/companies have adopted beta versions of the spec. Now is the time when the rest of the industry joins in. The post The World Just Changed appeared first on SCORM - .

mLearnCon 2013 is happening right now, and we thought this would be a good time to write about some related topics: Mobile learning. M-learning. Native apps. Tablets. Smart phones. Offline e-learning. HTML 5. These are all terms that we’ve been hearing a lot about in the e-learning community, but where do we really stand with all of these different things, especially when talking about trackable and standards-conformant learning? Many of our customers have a large catalog of SCORM content, and some of them have particular needs like being able to do offline learning or delivering their content via a native mobile app. In the past, this had only been done by a few people and in limited contexts, but about six months ago we figured out a really good way to make it work. This is a huge development in the world of SCORM. You can learn more about how it works here, or just just email or give us a call. We’d love to chat up some mobile/offline SCORM with you. Another option, and a more forward-thinking, future-proof alternative, is to use the Tin Can API. With Tin Can, you just enable your learning content/activities to send Tin Can statements to any LRS (or multiple LRSs). Configure your app to store the statements locally, and then send them when a network connection is present. Almost 40% of exhibitors at mLearnCon 2013 have adopted the Tin Can API, which has only been formally released as 1.0 since late April of this year. That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? You can even use Tin Can to track things like games and location-based activities, both of which are commonplace on mobile devices. If you happen to be at mLearnCon 2013, right now, this is the perfect opportunity for you to come by and talk about mobile SCORM and the Tin Can API with us. Just go find Andy and/or Tammy in booth 108, and they should be able to answer any questions that you have. If you’re not at the conference, send an email to info@scorm.com or give us a ring. You might be tired of seeing this line, but we love saying it (and we mean it) — we love talking to people about this stuff!   The post Mobile learning…what’s the deal? appeared first on SCORM - .

Folks like to use Cloud because it makes the business of SCORM a lot easier—we’ve done most of the heavy lifting for you! SCORM Cloud hosts services that allow you to test content, deliver courses, and house learning data in one straightforward platform. We try to design all our products with our user’s experience in mind, but from time-to-time the things that may seem clear to us are a little cloudier to others. To help clear things up, we’re starting a new blog series dedicated to addressing some common SCORM Cloud questions. The "What Now?!" blogs will be basic, short, and will usually link to our support forum for those who want more meaty explanations. To kick it off, I’ll be telling you a few things you should know about the "Delete" button. Stay tuned! The post SCORM Cloud: What Now?! appeared first on SCORM - .

Origin of DELETE Latin deletus, past participle of delēre to wipe out, destroy First Known Use: circa 1605 Ever hit "delete" only to later find the file hiding somewhere in a trash folder, refusing to let go? That’s really annoying, right? Especially when you intended for it to be gone—forever. Many people have become used to having a trash folder or recycle bin that piles up all your garbage. Well, we don’t like garbage—it takes up space. We think our customers are just as smart (or smarter) than we are so we try to be particular and intentional about the way we make our product decisions. So, we set up the "delete" button to do what its name promises. When you hit "delete" in SCORM Cloud, it really means delete. The course, invitation, or registration doesn’t go to a graveyard where it waits to be resurrected. Instead, it disappears, as if it never existed. Don’t worry, you’ll still have access to the reporting data connected with that course, but the course and the invitation links associated with it are gone. Why does this matter? If you’re in the habit of hitting "delete," you may end up getting rid of important info for good. We suggest you don’t delete anything unless you really mean it. Here are a few tips to save yourself from saying "what now?!" when working in the Cloud: Don’t click "delete" unless you never want to see that item again. Don’t invite learners to a take a course if you’re just testing the API. If you happen to delete the course, any user that tries to launch an invitation or link to that course can’t do it anymore. If you’re paranoid about deleting your courses, don’t worry, we added a built-in feature that automatically keeps them safe. If you just want to test the API, create a test realm. You can delete everything you want in there and it won’t affect your live environment. In summary: The post SCORM Cloud: What Now?! Delete Button appeared first on SCORM - .

  It’s a lot of fun working with both hosted and locally installed platforms. Yes, technically the deployments vary a lot (and I’m thankful for our super talented developers who manage both worlds), but it gives us the chance to work with many types of companies and products. Some folks gravitate towards the flexibility of SCORM Cloud as a hosted solution that scales with them as their business grows. Other folks require a more controlled, locally installed solution and need our Engine player for those very reasons. Recently we’ve noticed another benefit of offering both deployment options— migrating from one deployment method to the other as business models change. Case in point? Atomic Learning. Check out their story: Atomic Learning was a SCORM Cloud customer from the early days. They leveraged the SCORM Cloud API to integrate SCORM functionality into their K-12 Assessment platform. The flexibility of SCORM Cloud licensing worked great with their initial business model where usage spiked dramatically in May and September, coinciding with the start and end of the school year. Atomic Learning could simply scale their account size up and down to align with that usage pattern. Last year, Atomic Learning shifted their content strategy—going from two assessments per user annually to delivering smaller bites of learning more frequently. It quickly became apparent that the registration-based licensing would not be feasible with this new business model. The SCORM Engine Web Services option provided a way for Atomic Learning to move to an annual user based licensing model that better supported the fact that users who previously only took 2 courses per year could now generate as many as 20-30 registrations. And, because they had built an integration against the SCORM Cloud API, the transition to the locally installed version was fairly seamless. Once they had the server configuration set up on their end, they simply redirected the Cloud API calls to local calls and they were off and running. Need help figuring out which deployment method is right for you? This chart should help- and you can always ask us. The post What happens when your business model changes? appeared first on SCORM - .

There has been much concern of late regarding the Court of Justice of the European Union’s declaration that the US-EU Safe Harbor framework is invalid.  The implications for data protection are significant, and Rustici Software is fully committed to ensuring that we are able to protect your privacy and security and to fully meet our commitments in this matter. The situation is still fluid, and we await further information from the European Commission and related authorities.  There are indications from the EC and US authorities that they wish to complete a new framework as soon as possible.  The US Department of Commerce has indicated that it will continue to administer the Safe Harbor program in the interim. Until the authorities reach a new agreement, two alternatives are available:  EU Model Contract Clauses and Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs).  Because of the significant administrative burdens and lengthy approval process of BCRs, many companies have elected to implement Model Contract Clauses in the interim. Rustici Software currently uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for all data transfers between the EU and US that are affected by the recent ruling.  AWS released a Customer Update on October 9th where they announced that they have fully implemented Model Contract Clauses: Today, we’d like to confirm for customers and partners that they can continue to use AWS to transfer their customer content from the EEA to the US, without altering workloads, and in compliance with EU law. This is possible because AWS has already obtained approval from EU data protection authorities (known as the Article 29 Working Party) of the AWS Data Processing Addendum and Model Clauses to enable transfer of personal data outside Europe, including to the US with our EU-approved Data Processing Addendum and Model Clauses. AWS customers can continue to run their global operations using AWS in full compliance with the EU Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC). The AWS Data Processing Addendum is available to all AWS customers who are processing personal data whether they are established in Europe or a global company operating in the EEA. For additional information, please visit AWS EU Data Protection FAQ. The full text of the AWS advisory is available here. AWS’ Data Protection whitepaper further describes the effect of the Model Contract Clauses: On March 6, 2015, the AWS data processing addendum, including the Model Clauses, was approved by the group of EU data protection authorities known as the Article 29 Working Party. This approval means that any AWS customer who requires the Model Clauses can now rely on the AWS data processing addendum as providing sufficient contractual commitments to enable international data flows in accordance with the Directive. For more detail on the approval from the Article 29 Working Party, please visit the Luxembourg Data Protection Authority webpage here: http://www.cnpd.public.lu/en/actualites/international/2015/03/AWS/index.html. It appears that AWS’ implementation of Model Contract Clauses will allow our EU-based clients that utilize our Cloud Services to continue to comply with all relevant laws and regulations.  However, we are currently making a closer examination of these matters to ensure that we are correctly protecting our EU clients’ interests and fully complying with all applicable regulations. We will update this page and our privacy policy as developments warrant.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via your normal support channel, or send an email directly to our privacy team at safeharbor@scorm.com. Warm Regards, Your Friends at Rustici Software   The post Regarding The US-EU Safe Harbor Framework appeared first on SCORM - .

"When we were looking out for partners to validate content created with Adobe Captivate, Rustici Software was the automatic choice. With the SCORM Cloud now integrated within Adobe Captivate 9, our users can now validate their eLearning content easily" -Akshay Bharadwaj -Senior Product Manager - Adobe Captivate A lot goes into building an elearning course. From subject matter expertise to instructional design and more, creating quality content is hard. And it gets more complicated when you consider how your content will behave in the LMS that ultimately delivers it to your learners. Testing how content will behave in an LMS before you hand it off to your client can help identify unexpected behaviors and allows you to correct them before those issues are out in the wild. We see about 70,000 courses uploaded to SCORM Cloud each month so authors can make sure that what they created actually behaves as they expect in the SCORM player. That’s why we’re super excited about a recent collaboration with Adobe that integrates SCORM Cloud directly with Adobe Captivate 9 for testing. Now you can directly preview courses you build in Adobe Captivate 9 on SCORM Cloud to see how it behaves within an LMS player, without the hassle of uploading the content to your LMS for testing. With just one click, you can automagically see your content play in SCORM Cloud. No more downloading/ uploading/overwriting/versioning steps. One click handles all of that and gives you immediate insight into how your course will play in an LMS. "When Adobe first approached us about connecting Captivate 9 to SCORM Cloud for testing, we were really impressed. Helping their users streamline the testing portion of content development is so important, and building it into the authoring tool eliminates a lot of extra steps for their customers. We’ve had a long history of working together to help solve the complexities of implementing e-learning standards, and this collaboration is a great reflection of that partnership." -Tim Martin -President, Rustici Software To see how it works, check out this walk through. Pretty cool huh? The post Adobe Captivate 9 + Cloud - One click testing is here! appeared first on SCORM - .

accessplanit has been chosen by Herefordshire based leadership development specialists, The Leadership Trust, to provide a fully integrated training management system to support their expanding business.