What Is a SCORM Course? How We Built a SCORM Player to Track Progress in Our LMS

What is a SCORM Course? 

SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model. It’s a set of technical standards developed to ensure interoperability between e-learning content and Learning Management System (LMS) platforms. 

In simpler terms, SCORM is a standardized way for online courses to communicate with LMSs. It allows content from one source to be reused across multiple platforms and ensures that learner progress, quiz scores, and other data can be properly tracked. 

There are two major versions in use today: 

– SCORM 1.2 – widely adopted, compatible with most LMS systems. 

– SCORM 2004 – offers more advanced tracking and sequencing capabilities.

How SCORM Works with an LMS 

A SCORM package is essentially a ZIP file that contains HTML, JavaScript, multimedia files, and an XML manifest file (imsmanifest.xml) that defines how the content is structured. 

When this package is uploaded to a SCORM-compliant LMS: 

– The LMS launches the course using a standard API. 

– The course can send data like completion status, quiz scores, time spent, and more back to the LMS. 

– Learners can resume from where they left off, thanks to suspended data and bookmarking. 

– Our Custom SCORM Player: Built for Seamless Tracking and Integration 

To fully support SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 within our platform, we implemented a modular, PHP-powered system: 

SCORM Data Management in PHP 

We employed a PHP SCORM processing library to handle everything from extracting the ZIP file to parsing the manifest. It maintains key data like cmi.core.lesson_status, cmi.core.score, cmi.suspend_data, and automatically saves them in our LMS database. 

Browser-based Course Playback 

We selected an open-source JavaScript SCORM player for inbrowser launch and navigation of courses. While it provided a strong runtime environment, it needed deeper integration with our LMS. 

Custom Bridge Script (Middleware Layer) 

To connect our JavaScript player with the PHP backend, we wrote a custom bridge script. It: 

• Creates a SCORM API object to expose functions like Initialize, SetValue, GetValue, and Commit. 
• Records learners’ answers, progress, time on page, and course status, 
• Manages resume/bookmarking data so users can resume exactly where they left off, 
• Sends updates to the LMS in real-time for immediate tracking. 

By combining the PHP backend with a robust JavaScript runtime and custom middleware, our system ensures: 

• Full SCORM compliance, 
• Reliable real-time progress tracking, 
• Flexibility and future extensibility.

Benefits for Our Clients 

By integrating SCORM support into our LMS, we help educational institutions, corporations, and training providers: 

– Use content from third-party vendors 

– Track learners’ performance accurately 

– Provide a better, more interactive learning experience 

– Maintain compliance with e-learning industry standards