In my new job at “Agilix Labs” I have been introduced a lot of new –
and unknown to me – electronic learning technologies. We have
recently partnered with Blackboard, one of the leading creators of e-Education software and systems. I have also been educated about WebCT, another leader in this same space. In the Open Source community, there are also Open Source solutions like Sakai that are gaining ground at various higher education facilities.

Overall, I had no idea that so much was going on in the automation and
computerization of education systems. Of course it only makes
sense, but it is the extent of it – and the growing maturity – that I
was oblivious to.

Today I was quickly educated about SCORM
– the Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model. Amazing.
There is a good SCORM “brief description” here. It is actually a rich specification for the creation of courseware –
educational software – that includes the course material, coupled with
exercises and exams (assessments), and even some metadata about the
“flow” of the course – the order that students have to accomplish
different parts before progressing, and even scores that must be
attained – along with where to send the results.

I had my first demonstration of SCORM today in the form of a government
course being given by the Navel Postgraduate School. It was
pretty cool … a .zip file contained the entire SCORM course
(something on marine navigation) and once loaded into Blackboard there
was all of the course material, the exams, and for the student a way to
begin learning.