I am running some SCORM modules via an LMS. These courses work fine on a windows platform, but don't on a Mac platform. I have been advised that this is an industry wide issue with SCORM courses.
Is anyone aware of industry problems with Mac supporting SCORM courses ? Are there any articles I can be referred to ? My understanding was that it is a non-proprietary data model.
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Anonymous
-
2003-01-29
SCORM is a web-based standard so it should work on every plattform which support webbrowsers. If a course doesnt run on a mac its maybe a problem with the sco-adapter-interface (JavaScript) or invalid HTML (uninterpretable by your browser) or you dont have needed plugins (should be declared in the metadata record of your course).
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> I am running some SCORM modules via an LMS.
> These courses work fine on a windows platform,
> but don't on a Mac platform.
That doesn't follow: SCORM is essentially a web-based spec. If your content is web standards compliant, the SCO will display on every standards-compliant browser. If it isn't, it won't.
Your content should conform to at least HTML 4.0 (or XHTML 1.0), CSS-2, and ECMAScript 262 (or JavaScript 1.3). If it does, your SCO will display properly in properly-designed web browsers. It's just that simple.
There is a consideration for cross platform compatibility that is dependent on the LMS. The LMS provides an API Adapter (usually an applet) that must work in the client's virtual machine.
Travis
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True, but I'm guessing that the old Apple JVM could be made to work. It's just a matter of each LMS building in support. Not real likely to happen in some commercial LMS systems. I expect that OpenLMS will get around to it though. I have several clients who use older Macs.
Travis
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Anonymous
-
2003-07-01
This thread didnt half make me giggle (insanely).
I've recently been testing a number of VLE/LMS/SCORM compliant platforms and have yet to find one that works correctly on the Mac [OS X] ( The best one can hope for is to be actually able to see and use the content and hope that the developers havnt made too much use of the SCORM API). Cross browser support is also an absolute joke. This isnt helped by ADL who also dont seem to care about this issue (their tools tend to only work with IE/Windows).
From my tests I have to agree that this is an industary wide issue (look at BlackBoard who now achieve SCORM compliance by using the MS LRN toolkit - Compatability IE 6.0+ and Windows only) and if OpenLMS can address it, I see it as a huge incentive to choose the platform over the commercial offerings.
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So the whole SCORM thing is a joke then, right? Anyone care to address that? I'm about to redesign my professional development course system (ColdFusion-based) to give some users access to creating their own courses. Should i bother making it SCORM-compliant? If it's not Mac friendly then it doesn't make sense in the education arena - though the Army might be happy with it.
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SCORM compliance has nothing to do with the Mac platform. There is no reason that you can't build a SCORM compliant LMS that runs on a Mac and SCORM compliant courseware that runs on a Mac.
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The only limiting factor is finding a consistent way to address the Java applet (API Adapter) that communicates between courseware and LMS. Browsers don't handle the DOM uniformly. Thus, it is hard to make one implementation of courseware that will work with all DOM implementations.
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I am running some SCORM modules via an LMS. These courses work fine on a windows platform, but don't on a Mac platform. I have been advised that this is an industry wide issue with SCORM courses.
Is anyone aware of industry problems with Mac supporting SCORM courses ? Are there any articles I can be referred to ? My understanding was that it is a non-proprietary data model.
SCORM is a web-based standard so it should work on every plattform which support webbrowsers. If a course doesnt run on a mac its maybe a problem with the sco-adapter-interface (JavaScript) or invalid HTML (uninterpretable by your browser) or you dont have needed plugins (should be declared in the metadata record of your course).
> I am running some SCORM modules via an LMS.
> These courses work fine on a windows platform,
> but don't on a Mac platform.
That doesn't follow: SCORM is essentially a web-based spec. If your content is web standards compliant, the SCO will display on every standards-compliant browser. If it isn't, it won't.
Your content should conform to at least HTML 4.0 (or XHTML 1.0), CSS-2, and ECMAScript 262 (or JavaScript 1.3). If it does, your SCO will display properly in properly-designed web browsers. It's just that simple.
See also:
http://webstandards.org/
There is a consideration for cross platform compatibility that is dependent on the LMS. The LMS provides an API Adapter (usually an applet) that must work in the client's virtual machine.
Travis
Hmm. So if it's a Java applet issue, then we're basically talking OS X and up. Apple is reluctant to support the Java VM on their legacy OS versions.
True, but I'm guessing that the old Apple JVM could be made to work. It's just a matter of each LMS building in support. Not real likely to happen in some commercial LMS systems. I expect that OpenLMS will get around to it though. I have several clients who use older Macs.
Travis
This thread didnt half make me giggle (insanely).
I've recently been testing a number of VLE/LMS/SCORM compliant platforms and have yet to find one that works correctly on the Mac [OS X] ( The best one can hope for is to be actually able to see and use the content and hope that the developers havnt made too much use of the SCORM API). Cross browser support is also an absolute joke. This isnt helped by ADL who also dont seem to care about this issue (their tools tend to only work with IE/Windows).
From my tests I have to agree that this is an industary wide issue (look at BlackBoard who now achieve SCORM compliance by using the MS LRN toolkit - Compatability IE 6.0+ and Windows only) and if OpenLMS can address it, I see it as a huge incentive to choose the platform over the commercial offerings.
So the whole SCORM thing is a joke then, right? Anyone care to address that? I'm about to redesign my professional development course system (ColdFusion-based) to give some users access to creating their own courses. Should i bother making it SCORM-compliant? If it's not Mac friendly then it doesn't make sense in the education arena - though the Army might be happy with it.
SCORM compliance has nothing to do with the Mac platform. There is no reason that you can't build a SCORM compliant LMS that runs on a Mac and SCORM compliant courseware that runs on a Mac.
The only limiting factor is finding a consistent way to address the Java applet (API Adapter) that communicates between courseware and LMS. Browsers don't handle the DOM uniformly. Thus, it is hard to make one implementation of courseware that will work with all DOM implementations.