Mobilemind

If you use the current release of Captivate 2 to make elearning intended for an LMS, then do not use the built-in FTP. Likewise, do not use the current Captivate 2 release with FTP and PENS.

When the FTP box is checked, Captivate 2 makes invalid SCORM 1.2 and invalid SCORM 2004 packages. Under these conditions Captivate 2 puts the required zip-archive root-level files like "imsmanifest.xml" down in a directory structure 4-5 levels deep.

This means that when FTP is used, the resulting zip file that gets transferred to the server is NOT valid, whether it is SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004. Adobe was notified of this issue last Fall and confirmed the problem. At the time of this post I can not find a tech note about this issue.

The workaround is to not use the built-in FTP. Instead, use the Publish Dialog to publish for Flash (SWF), select the "Output Options" to Zip files and under "Project Information" select the desired eLearning output format for your package. Finally, after Captivate publishes the zip package locally, use a third party FTP tool or other LMS import capabilities to transfer the valid SCORM package to the LMS. This will give you a better shot at having the package import into your LMS (or LCMS).

Two final notes on this topic. First, this bug means PENS doesn't really work. The work around there is to "trick" Captivate 2 by publishing to one FTP address, and then configuring the Captivate PENS settings to use an alternate URL that has a valid package staged by other means. For anything other than testing the capabilities of an LMS server, I wouldn't bother with this approach-- it sort of defeats the intended simplicity of PENS to manually FTP and publish twice to order to get a single package to an LCMS/LMS.

The second note is that there may be other issues with Captivate content communicating to an LMS. I've received private email from one content developer about some issues and heard from another contact that other settings may not work as intended/advertised. I've yet to verify these, but will post more information once this can be confirmed or denied.

Labels: Captivate, LMS, PENS, SCORM

Late last year the ADL reached agreements with several other elearning standards organizations, including AICC, IEEE and IMS. The agreements allow the relevant work of those groups to move forward with SCORM as this portion of the ADL effort transitions to a new stewardship organization.

This is a significant achievement. It indicates the maturity and stability of SCORM, yet also recognizes the criticality of on-going maintenance and refinement. The SCORM 2004 specification is also being formally submitted to ISO, where the technical committees will review it and allow member nations to vote on it. In 2007 we will see more SCORM work being done within other standards work groups and organizations.

The February IMS meeting in San Francisco is an important transition as SCORM moves into this new phase. On February 7 there will be a workshop that is open to the public for discussion of IMS-related work with SCORM. ADL representatives will be presenting and facilitating discussions on how the groups can work together, and on content packaging, a key technical component shared between the organizations. Content packaging includes the organizational and metadata "wrappers" for shareable content objects and is a critical feature for supporting reusable learning object strategies. The ADL will also present information on CORDRA, an architecture for structuring searches and sharing across repositories, and Simple Sequencing and Navigation within courses. See the IMS website for the agenda information, IMS membership is not required, but there is a meeting fee for attendees.

During March there will be a kick-off meeting for a new stewardship organization to coordinate SCORM evolution and maintenances. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 meetings in London. This meeting about the stewardship organization is preliminary. An official charter and transition is likely to take until the Spring of 2008. Those interested in participating in this meeting or the stewardship organization committee in general can directly contact the ADL or request that I forward information.

Labels: LMS, SCORM

I added several 2007 events to the Elearning Events Google calendar, including:

• SALT New Learning Technologies (Jan 31 - Feb 2)
• ID+SCORM (April 5-6)
• IMS Learning Impact (April 16-19)
• Energy Industry CBT Alliance (April 23-25)

I have entries clear out until the end of November 2007. However, oddly there are no May events (?yet). If you know of an event (in May or not) send an iCal invite or email message to

Link: Elearning Events Calendar

Labels: events

Larry Israelite is the editor and one of the authors of Lies About Learning. I came to know Larry through Elliott Masie and the Learning Consortium, and I love his frankness on this subject, starting with the subtitle of the book, Leading Executives Separate Truth from Fiction in a $100 Billion Industry.

In the book, Larry and the gang take on a bunch of lies and myths, sometimes alternating sides, but always making strong statements. For example, Murray Christensen on Personalization: Learners Are Essentially the Same. Heresy you say? Last year, I saw a few presentations from Will Thalheimer on use of learning styles (or the "lie" about learning styles), and I have to agree, though I am not as courageous as Dr. Thalheimer with his $1000 USD challenge to the first person to demonstrate meaningful benefits from using learning styles in an instructional design.

Back to the book- I've lived and seen some other favorite lies from both the side of the consulting/vendor organization and the customer side of the fence, like:

• This is the team that will work with you on this project (at an early sales meeting; who know where these people will be staffed then).
• (All) the content and materials will be custom built for you.
• ... and from the client side, We have full support for this project and our SMEs will be available whenever you need them.

What about you? Are your pants on fire? Is your nose as long as a telephone wire?

To hear, discuss and share more lies... and how to actually learn from them, check out the free seminar on Lies About Learning this Friday, January 19.

Lies About Learning January 19, 1:00PM Eastern [GMT -05:00] Register here

The seminar looks like it will be a good discussion of some key topics. You can also get the book from Amazon- Lies About Learning. Note that is not an Amazon Associate link so I get squat for the referral, other than karma.

Labels: learning, SCORM