Remember our example of the proprietary LMS and custom-made SCOs? In the real world, complex e-learning content often works only with the system it was originally designed for, and might not work at all with other systems.

That’s precisely what the SCORM was created to address. Too often, costly e-learning content has been developed that stopped working when new generations of technology replaced the old. In addition, other organizations — or even other parts of the same organization — are often unable to take advantage of excellent materials because of system incompatibilities. It is very common for new materials to be developed when excellent materials already exist, because it is very hard to find out what exists and how to make use of it.

With the SCORM, ADL is solving many of the difficult issues surrounding the creation and use of sophisticated e-learning materials across disparate systems, within rich repositories, and into the future as systems change and improve.