SCORM or Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products which tells programmers how to write their code so that it works with other e-learning software.

In fact, it is the industry standard for e-learning interoperability.

SCORM is purely a technical standard that governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other.

The SCORM standard makes sure that all e-learning content and LMSs can work with each other, just like the DVD standard makes sure that all DVDs will play in all DVD players. If an LMS is SCORM conformant, it can play any content that is SCORM conformant, and any SCORM conformant content can play in any SCORM conformant LMS.

SCORM is all about creating units of online training material that can be shared across systems and defines how to create ‘sharable content objects’ or ‘SCOs’ that can be reused in different systems and contexts.

However SCORM isn’t actually a standard itself, it simply references existing standards and tells developers how to use them together.

SCORM is produced by ADL, a research group sponsored by the United States Department of Defense (DoD). In the nineties, the US government was doing a lot of online training across all of their different departments which operating autonomously developed their own training courses and delivering them via the LMS of their choice but without any standards, there was no interoperability between the various departments’ content and all of the proprietary LMSs being used.

In 1999 the Department of Defense tasked a research group called Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) with the job of developing a set of standards, which later became known as SCORM.
So, if you design e-learning content using tools like Articulate, Captivate, Camtasia or Raptivity and you want to upload that content in to an LMS like Litmos, SCORM enables you to do that.
If an LMS is SCORM Certified, it means that the product has passed the SCORM 1.2 Edition LMS certification process and ADL has confirmed that the SCORM 1.2 standards have implemented correctly.

The future
The next generation of SCORM is called the Tin Can API (otherwise known as Experience API or xAPI) , which is a huge leap forward for the e-learning community. The Tin CAN API is simple and flexible and it lifts many of SCORM’s restrictions. It will help with mobile learning and anywhere that informal learning takes place.

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