• Track diverse user learning experiences such as social media, mobile learning, games, simulations, and mixed modality exercises.
• Move beyond the single-learner model to allow team-based exercises, collaboration, and direct instructor intervention.
• Eliminate out-of-date technology practices such as the idea that all content needs to fit into a “package”.
• Improve or eliminate the content sequencing and ineffective requirements.
• Include tools, guides, and best practices to make the learning curve for Next Generation SCORM easier.
• Provide clearer instructions and more efficient testing to make content work across systems.
• Allow content to function in situations where access to network infrastructure is limited or intermittent.
• Provide a means to expose user data to instructors while keeping assessment data secure.

ADL is pleased to announce the release of the Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit. The toolkit is the result of an ADL Technical Team research and development project that focused on using games and simulations as part of an e-learning curriculum. After an assessment of the most common questions submitted to the ADL Help Desk and after gathering additional requirements from 3rd party outreach efforts, we began a project to make creating SCORM-Conformant games and simulations efficient and cost effective. Unity was selected as the game development tool for our prototype due to its ability to create web-based content.

The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit allows Unity developers to use simple methods, provided by a “ScormManager” object, to set the SCORM Run-Time Data Model elements without having prior experience with SCORM. For example, developers are able to make simple calls like ScormManager.GetLearnerName() to get the user’s name from the LMS. In addition, the ScormManager can be used to set values including scores, objectives and interactions. For advanced users, the entire SCORM data model is available for use.

The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit also contains a packaging tool that can be used to create a simple SCORM Content Aggregation Package. The ScormManager and packaging tool support both SCORM Version 1.2 and SCORM 2004 4th Edition. With minor tweaks to the resulting package, SCORM 2004 2nd and 3rd Editions can also be supported.

The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit is a demonstration of how content developers can use a game engine to create SCORM-Conformant content. The source code is provided with the download and can be used by a 3rd party in their content and systems. In the future, ADL may release a version for open source development if a community need is identified.

• Learning Record Store (LRS)
  The LRS is a prototype system that stores learning records and allows for the subsequent retrieval of those records. In addition to storing a learner’s interactions while actively viewing content, an LRS can store and retrieve information without an active learner-content session. An LRS is a component found in many of today’s LMSs. The LRS concept grew out of the vision that future learning systems will be split into several separate sub-systems that communicate through predefined interfaces. The LRS is a mandatory component for all other iFest Prototypes. Each prototype will use the LRS as its tracking system.


• Content as a Service (CaaS) Course
  The CaaS Course prototype comes installed with the LRS. The CaaS prototype illustrates how content can be hosted anywhere, not just in an LMS. There is no “import” process and there is no requirement that content be on the same server or domain as the LMS. The CaaS prototype illustrates:
  
  • tracking learning experiences hosted outside of an LMS
  • moving away from a content package and import process
  • a solution to the SCORM cross-domain issue
  • and using existing standards such as SOAP, REST and JSON for run-time communications


• Android Tablet Native Application
  The Android Tablet Native Application illustrates several requirements of the next generation learning architecture. This includes:
  • support for out-of-browser content such as mobile applications
  • content for roles other than the learner, in this case an instructor
  • and tracking of content not launched by an LMS


• Game Engine Integration
  The Game Engine Integration prototype illustrates how a serious game or simulation may track data with a future learning system. This prototype integrated a Unity game, deployed as an executable, with the LRS. Requirements include:
  
  • tracking “long-running” content,
  • support for out-of-browser content,
  • and tracking of content not launched by an LMS
  In addition, the prototype enables multiple-learner tracking, although it was not included in the ADL demonstration.


• Legacy Content Wrapper
  Let’s face it… there is a LOT of SCORM-Conformant content out there. In the past, when new versions of SCORM were released, they were not backward compatible, causing complicated and costly upgrade projects. What would a new learning architecture mean for existing SCORM-Conformant content?
  
  The Legacy Content Wrapper illustrates how existing SCOs (in this case, SCORM Version 1.2 SCOs) can be “wrapped” so that they communicate via a web-service interface. Our example does not change the existing SCOs. The prototype requires a change to the manifest and addition of a new JavaScript file. Although this approach requires some intervention, it dramatically reduces the effort to move existing SCORM content to a service-based architecture.