Instructions for Using the Simple Content API

The Simple Content API is designed to make your single HTML page, Microsoft Word document or other static content SCORM compliant. If you would like to convert more complex content that supports rich interactions (such as bookmarking and reporting test results), please consider using the Extended Content API. There are four manual steps necessary to use Simple Content API, if you would like an automated tool to perform these steps for you, please contact us for information about our content packaging tools.

Step 1 – Copy Files:

Copy all of the Content API files (imsmanifest.xml, index.html and a variety of “.xsd” and “.dtd” files – located in the “APIFiles” directory) into a directory containing the content you wish to make SCORM conformant. This directory will be referred to as CONTENT_DIR throughout this document.

Ideally, CONTENT_DIR will only contain files that are required by the content.

Step 2 – Edit the HTML:

Open the indexSCORM.html file in a text or HTML editor (note that some HTML editors, specifically Dreamweaver, may not display this file accurately in their GUI interface, learn why).

Scroll down to line number 235:

Replace #CONTENT_URL#, with the relative path to the start of the content you wish to display.

Ex: If the main page of your content is named “index.html” and resides in CONTENT_DIR, then insert “index.html”

Ex: If the main page of your content is named “mycontent.doc” and resides in a subdirectory of CONTENT_DIR named “wordfiles”, then insert “wordfiles/mycontent.doc”.

Step 3 – Edit the Manifest File:

Open the imsmanifest.xml file in a text or XML editor (note that some XML editors will not consider this document to be well-formed, learn why).

Scroll down to line number 115 at the end of the document:

Every file that is necessary for your content to play must be listed as a new file element here. At the very least, this will include the main page of your content listed in Step 2. This listing may also need to include images, Flash movies, embedded audio or video or any other type of file. A good rule of thumb is that if CONTENT_DIR contains all the files needed for the content, then you should list every file in every subdirectory of CONTENT_DIR. Note that you do not need to include the “.xsd” and “.dtd” files copied over in Step 1.

To create a new file element, simply copy the current file element and paste it onto the next line:

File Element: <file href="indexSCORM.html"/>

Then replace “indexSCORM.html” with the relative path to the file you wish to add. Repeat this step for every file that is needed for the content.

Step 4 (Optional) – Edit the content’s metadata

The SCORM allows the content author to include some information describing the content he/she is packaging, such as a title, description, etc. The Simple Content API includes generic information in each of these fields by default. If you would like to include your specific information, follow the instructions below.

Open the imsmanifest.xml file in a text or XML editor.

There are ten data elements that can be customized for your content; each is marked by a series of asterisks surrounding a numeric identifier. For example:

A description of each these data elements and instructions for customization is located in the Metadata Customization section.

For an example of a completely converted document, please see the files located in the Example directory. These files represent a converted version of this instruction manual.

To Use the Converted Content

· To send the content to a customer, simply send a copy of all the files in CONTENT_DIR. Alternatively, you can package all of these files into a ZIP file and send just the one file (be sure that the imsmanifest.xml file is located at the root of the ZIP file).

· To import the content into a SCORM compliant LMS, simply use the LMS’s import mechanism to select the imsmanifest.xml file located in CONTENT_DIR.

· To view the content outside of a SCORM compliant LMS, simply copy CONTENT_DIR to a web published directory. Point your browser to

http://yourserver/content directory/indexSCORM.html?StandAlone=true

and the content should play. The querystring parameter StandAlone=true prevents error messages that would otherwise result from the content not being able to communicate with a SCORM compliant LMS.

Metadata Customization

1 – Title

SCORM Description - The <title> element represents the name given to the learning object.

English Description – The title of your content

To Customize – Replace “Title” with the title of your content. Note - there are three instances of the Title element, you should replace all three of them.

Max length – 1000 characters

2 – Identifier

SCORM Description - The <identifier> element represents a mechanism for assigning a globally unique label that identifies the SCORM Content Model Component. The notion of assigning a globally unique identifier to a component is important when dealing with multiple facets of learning content development (e.g., versioning, maintenance, etc.).

English Description – This element is used as a way of categorizing your content. The best analogy would be a university that categorizes its classes into departments (catalogs) and class numbers (entries) – History 101 for example. Most content producers will use their company name as the Catalog and an arbitrary identifier for the Entry. In SCORM 2004, ADL now recommends using a more robust cataloging scheme such as URI’s, URN’s DOI’s, ISBN numbers, etc. We recommend using “URI” as the catalog entry and then a unique identifier based on your company’s domain name as your entry.

To Customize – Replace “Catalog” with your catalog name and “1” with your entry.

Max length – 1000 characters for each field

3 – Description

SCORM Description - The <description> element represents a textual description of the SCORM Content Model Component being described by the meta-data. The Description element allows for a narrative description of the component.

English Description – A description of your content

To Customize – Replace “Description” with a description of your content

Max length – 2000 characters

4 – Keywords

SCORM Description - The <keyword> element shall be used to define common keywords or phrases that describe the learning object. When creating keyword(s) the creator should pick words or phrases that are very succinct and specific to the SCORM component. The Keyword element consists of one word or phrase. If more than on

English Description – Keywords that users might use when searching for the content in a repository of many content modules.

To Customize – You can use up to 10 Keyword elements. Copy the entire Keyword block and replace “Training” with your keyword(s). Each block may more than one keyword if you would like. There is no standard for including more than one keyword in a given block, but many developers will simply separate the keywords with spaces.

Max length – 10 blocks each consisting of 1000 characters

5 – Version

SCORM Description - The <version> element shall describe the edition of the SCORM Content Model Component. A component may have several versions or editions during its lifetime. The <version> element allows for the description of the version of the component.

English Description – If you have issues several versions of your content, use this field to distinguish among the versions.

To Customize - Replace “1” with your version number

Max Length – 50 characters

6 – Format

SCORM Description - The <format> element represents the technical datatype(s) of all of the components used in the makeup of the SCORM Content Model Component. This element is used to identify any potential software needs to access and use the component.

English Description – If your content uses any applications other than a standard web browser (such as Flash, Windows media player, Microsoft Word, etc), then it can include a list of those applications here so that users of the content will know what they need in order to play the content. In most cases, if the application you use is fairly common and easy to install, then adding a format element won’t benefit you all that much, but it can’t hurt.

To Customize – Copy the entire format block and replace “text/html” with the MIME type of your plugin. A list of common MIME types can be found on the web at http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/Book/Book-3ed/appb/mimetype.html.

Max Length – 500 characters

7 – Cost

SCORM Description - The <cost> element represents whether or not the SCORM Content Model Component requires some sort of payment.

English Description – Is the content free or do you want to be paid for it?

To Customize – The default for this element is that there is a cost associated with this content. If you would like to indicate that it is free, replace “yes” with “no”.

Max Length – N/A

8 – Copyright and Other Restrictions

SCORM Description - The <copyrightAndOtherRestrictions> element describes whether copyright or other restrictions apply to the use of the SCORM Content Model Component.

English Description – Is the content copyrighted or is it in the public domain?

To Customize – The default for this element is that the content is copyrighted. To indicate that the content is in the public domain, replace “yes” with “no”.

Max Length – N/A

9 & 10 – Classification

SCORM Description - The Classification category describes where the SCORM Content Model Component falls within a particular classification system. Multiple Classification categories may be used to define multiple classifications. The Classification category is typically used to link to a controlled vocabulary or classification system.

English Description – A classification is basically another way of further categorizing your content. In all but the most advanced cases, you should simply copy the Description (#3) and Keywords (#4) from above into these elements.

Why Won’t Dreamweaver Display This Page Properly

The indexSCORM.html page contains a frameset that wrappers your content page. The frameset only exists to provide a single place for the required SCORM code and a place to capture the events of loading and unloading of the content. In most standard web design, a frameset is used to divide the page into multiple sections. In this case we only need one section, so only one frame is used. Dreamweaver apparently was programmed to only recognize framesets that contain more than one frame (as would be expected in most cases) and thus has trouble rendering singe frame framesets. This information is accurate for Dreamweaver 3 and may or may not apply to other versions of Dreamweaver and other HTML editors.