If you’re choosing to release your course as a SCORM package, you have the option to choose from two different SCORM versions (or tracking modes). These are SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. Each version has slight differences in the way they track success which you may want to consider before releasing.
SCORM uses two verbs to define a learner’s success status. These verbs are Completed and Passed. A learner can achieve these statuses depending on the actions they’ve taken in the course. Completing pages and interactions contributes towards progress which is then used to determine whether or not the learner achieves the Completed status. Answering questions on scored pages contributes to a learner’s score. This is used to determine whether or not the learner achieves the Passed status.
Another way in which they differ is how much suspend data the Backup SCORM release type can hold for bookmarking. Backup SCORMs are the only release type we offer which uses suspend data for bookmarking. The other release types use our own bookmarking micro-service and aren’t subject to these limitations. You can read more about this in Understanding bookmarking in Elucidat.
SCORM 1.2
SCORM 1.2 is the most widely adopted version of SCORM and it is considered the industry standard. You’ll find that most LMSs will be able to support SCORM packages created in this version. With SCORM 1.2 courses, you’re able to select whether it uses one of two possible success verbs: Completed or Passed. Only one of these can be used and which one you select will depend on your course and how you define success for your learner.
SCORM 1.2 Completed
A SCORM 1.2 Completed course will report only the learner’s progress to the LMS and use their progress percentage to determine whether they’ve been successful. A learner who is successful will receive the Completed success verb. If the learner has achieved a score, this will still be recorded in the course (which means that you can still use features like Clips showing a score or score-based Rules) but it will not be reported to the LMS or used to determine whether or not they’ve been successful.
This tracking mode would be suited more to courses where the learner is required to complete pages and interactions in order to learn. There typically won’t be any scored pages in these courses, or if they do have scored pages, the learner’s score and whether they pass or fail is not the primary definition of success.
SCORM 1.2 Passed
SCORM 1.2 Passed course will use the learner’s score to determine their success instead of their progress. A learner who is successful will receive the Passed success verb. When this is selected, progress is still recorded in the course so you can still use features like progress-based Rules and progress locking but it will not be reported to the LMS or used to determine whether or not the learner has been successful.
This tracking mode would be suited more to courses where the learner needs to achieve a certain score in order to prove their knowledge or pass a set of questions for compliance training.
SCORM 2004
SCORM 2004 is the current version of SCORM. While it has been widely adopted, it isn’t as broadly compatible as SCORM 1.2. As a result, you may want to check with your LMS that it supports SCORM 2004 before you create a course using this tracking mode.
SCORM 2004 differs from SCORM 1.2 in that it is able to report both the Completed and Passed success verbs simultaneously. This means that you do not have to choose which definition of success you’d prefer to use for your course.
This is useful for courses where tracking both the learner’s progress and their score is required. However, this does also mean that it is also possible to achieve one of the success verbs without the other. For example, a learner can achieve Completed but not Passed if they have achieved a high enough progress percentage but not a high enough score.
For courses that don’t have scored questions or where the learner’s progress isn’t important, you may not need to track both. In this case, SCORM 1.2 might be more appropriate.
