Learn · Standards
Interactive video vs. SCORM e-learning
SCORM is a packaging standard: it lets an e-learning module run inside a learning management system (LMS) and report completion, score and time. Interactive video is a format: a video that stops for the learner to act. They answer different questions, and they can work together. An interactive video can send each learner's interactions to an LMS or learning record store as xAPI statements.
What SCORM does
SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) was published by the US Advanced Distributed Learning initiative, with SCORM 1.2 in 2001 and SCORM 2004 after it. A SCORM course is a zip package that the LMS launches. While it runs, the course talks to the LMS through a small JavaScript API and reports values such as completion status, success status, score and session time. SCORM also defines an interactions record, but many LMS reports surface only completion and score.
What xAPI adds
xAPI (the Experience API, once called Tin Can) came from the same initiative in 2013 and is now an IEEE standard. It records learning as statements in the form "actor, verb, object", such as "Priya answered the lockout question", with a result attached. Statements go to a learning record store (LRS), and they can come from anywhere: a video, a simulation, an app, or a job task.
Side by side
| SCORM module | Interactive video (Video++) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A packaging and runtime standard for e-learning | A video format that stops for the learner to act inside the scene |
| Where it runs | Inside an LMS | From a link or an embed, in any modern browser, or inside your portal |
| What it usually reports | Completion, pass or fail, score, time | Each choice, answer, attempt, rewatch and drop-off, per learner, sent as xAPI |
| Learner experience | Slides and questions built in an authoring tool | Narrated video with the interaction inside the picture |
| Changing content | Edit, republish and re-upload the package | Edit the scene and publish again; existing links can be updated |
Which to use
- Use a SCORM package when your LMS requires one, for example for a compliance record of completion.
- Use interactive video when you need to know what people understood and where they got stuck, or when learners are outside your LMS, such as customers and partners.
- Use both by sending interactive video results to your LRS as xAPI, next to the completion records you already keep.
Questions
Is SCORM outdated?
SCORM is still the most widely supported way to run e-learning inside an LMS. Its reporting is narrow: most LMS reports show completion, pass or fail, score and time. xAPI was created to record richer learning activity, including activity outside an LMS.
Can interactive video report to my LMS?
Yes, if your LMS or learning record store accepts xAPI. 4K Labs sends each learner's interactions as xAPI statements, and the player can be embedded in your portal. If your LMS only accepts SCORM packages, talk to us about connecting it.
What is an LRS?
A learning record store: the database that receives and stores xAPI statements. Many LMSs include one.
See it on a real video
The homepage has a working example: a video that stops, waits for you, and shows what 4K Labs captured.