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processes involved in the development of adapted and integrated with one another to
content to address the above said issues. form a more complete and easier-to-
implement model. SCORM has implemented
the Learning Object Metadata (LOM) from
Standards impose certain order, providing IEEE standards and content packaging
more uniform and precise access and specifications from IMS. SCORM has
manipulation to e-learning resources and become widely accepted e-Learning
data. Designers and developers of on-line standard in content development and most
learning materials have a variety of software of the vendors are providing support in their
tools at their disposal for creating learning products to test SCORM compliant content.
content. These tools range from It defines a Web based learning Content
presentation software packages to more Aggregation Model and a Runtime
complex authoring environments. They are Environment for learning objects. Content
very useful by giving the opportunity to the Aggregation Model Content Aggregation
developers to create learning resources that Model (CAM) provides means to identify and
might otherwise require extensive describe the learning content. Asset and
programming skills. Unfortunately, a number Sharable Content Object (SCO) are the
of software tools available from a wide components of the content as defined under
variety of vendors produce instructional CAM. Asset is an electronic representation
materials that do not share a common of media, text, images, sound, web pages,
mechanism for finding and using the assessment objects or other pieces of data
resources. In addition to this, the content that can be delivered to a Web client. A
developed for one Learning Management SCO represents a collection of one or more
System (LMS) may or may not be launched Assets that include a launching mechanism
by another LMS. So there is need for through SCORM Run-Time environment
standards to define the framework for e- (RTE) to communicate with LMS. A SCO
learning content. So standards are desirable represents the lowest level granular learning
for interoperability, convenience, flexibility, resource that can be tracked by an LMS
and efficiency in the design, delivery and using the RTE. Asset and SCO are
management of the learning content. associated with metadata to identify and
describe the content and to make them
2. Content development reusable.
Standards and SCORM
The SCORM Content Aggregation Model
further defines how learning content can be
There are number of organizations working aggregated into a course or portion of a
to develop specifications and standards course. Content Organizations provides
such as IMS, ADL, ARIADNE, IEEE, ISO etc different paths of learning by aggregating
to provide framework for e-learning different SCOs. Content packaging provides
architectures, to facilitate interoperability, a standardized way to exchange SCOs
content management, Learning Object Meta between different systems or tools. Content
data, course sequencing, content packaging Packaging also defines the structure and the
etc. One of the widely accepted content intended behavior of content organizations.
development standards is Sharable Content
Object Reference Model (SCORM) defined
by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) 3. Run-Time Environment
initiative.
SCORM is a suite of technical standards The purpose of the SCORM Run-time
that enable e-learning environments to find, Environment is to provide a means for
import, share, reuse, and export learning interoperability between SCORM content
content in a standardized way. SCORM packages and LMS. A requirement of the
provides adilities such as content SCORM is that learning content should be
Reusability, Accessibility, Interoperability, interoperable across multiple LMSs
and Durability. SCORM references regardless of the tools used to create the
specifications, standards and guidelines content.
developed by other organizations and For this to be possible, there must be a
common way to launch learning content, to
communicate with an LMS and a predefined activities of this course development include
language or vocabulary forming the basis of formulation of course syllabus based on
the communication. These three aspects of SCORM standards, Identification of SCOs,
the RTE are Launch, Application Program Identification of metadata specific to the
Interface (API) and Data Model. The Launch course, defining a learning path for content
mechanism defines a common way for delivery and evaluation methodology.
LMSs to start learning content. The
communication protocols are standardized 4.2 Design of Course Syllabus
through the use of a common API. The API
is the communication mechanism for The syllabus of the course was designed in
informing the LMS of the state of the consultation with domain experts. The
learning content such as initialized, finished structure of the course is also important as it
or in an error condition. Also the getting and defines the learning paths for different target
setting data (e.g., score, time limits, etc.) audience. Design of course syllabus is the
between the LMS and the SCO is achieved basis for identifying the SCOs.
through the APIs. A Data Model defines
elements that both the LMS and SCO are 4.3 Identifying the SCO
expected to “know” about such as the status
of the learning content. A SCO can contain a single learning object
or a collection of learning objects, tests,
Understanding the importance of standards scenarios etc. Additional aspect of SCO
conformance in a e-learning course, we that one has to keep in mind while designing
decided to implement SCORM in the Cyber it is, a SCO must be standalone. This
Security course. restricts a SCO from having any
dependencies with other SCOs.
4. Design and development of an The contents of Cyber Security is structured
e-Learning course with SCORM in a hierarchical fashion. Unit is at the
highest level of this hierarchy and lesson at
specifications the lowest level. In this hierarchy a lesson by
itself can provide learning experience to the
To develop a course that follows the user. So we have identified lesson as a
specifications of SCORM, we need to SCO as it forms the most granular object
implement the process to perform all the that can be tracked and delivered by an
steps involved. The process is discussed LMS. The structure of a unit is shown here.
here.
4.4 Course: Cyber Security
4.1 Development of Cyber Security
Course confirming to SCORM Unit – 2: Network Security
Module-1: Access Control Systems and
We have developed course content for Methodologies
Cyber Security, which is intended for Lesson-1:Identification and
System administrators and Information Authentication Techniques
security officers. This course has a Lesson-2:Various Identification and
requirement of being offered through e- Authentication Techniques
learning mode. In view of delivery of the Lesson-3: Access Control Issues
course in e-learning mode, we took an
approach to implement the SCORM Module-2: Virtual Private Network
standards to make it interoperable with Lesson-1: Introduction to VPN
LMSs. This activity required a study to Lesson-2: Cryptography for VPNs
understand SCORM in depth, chalking out a Lesson-3: Layer-3 IP VPNs
process to implement it specific to the Lesson-4: Securing Application
course and meeting the course objectives at Streams
the same time. After thorough study of Lesson-5: IPSec VPN Design &
SCORM, we have come out with a process Deployment and VPN Case Study
for implementing it in the course. The major
4.8 Generating the Metadata entry of all the metadata values and
generates an XML file for the inputs given.
For the purpose of generating the metadata, Below is the snapshot of the interface
a web-based application has been developed for generating metadata in XML
developed. It provides the GUI to facilitate format.
4.9 Validating the SCO metadata and the Metadata Generator for all the SCOs and
Package Descriptor using ADL Test Suite the package descriptor generated by Reload
Editor after packaging the content have
ADL has provided a test suite using which passed the ADL SCORM conformance
the SCO metadata and Package descriptor tests.
can be validated. In this cyber security
course, the SCO metadata generated by the
Conclusion
Developing online courses using SCOs has
a lot of future potential. This provides the
ability to access a repository for anytime,
anywhere and reusable learning content. At
the same time we should be conscious
about the issues related with the
implementation. They are, identifying SCO,
which can be standalone and reused and
repurposed in different contexts. Next is the
selection of metadata specific to the course.
Development or using the existing tools for
metadata repository and learning content
repository decide the ease of maintaining
the course. Based on our design team
experiences, we believe these efforts are
possible for implementing SCORM
standards in e-learning course content
development.
References
http://www.rhassociates.com/scorm.htm
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http://www.lsal.cmu.edu/lsal/expertise/techn
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http://www.techniques.org/product.php
http://www.e-learningzone.co.uk/links.html
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http://www.jointadlcolab.org/v2/lit.htm
http://www.learninglab.org.uk/ADL/homepag
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http://www.ieee.org/organizations/eab/tutoria
ls/refguide/mms01.htm