The ability to take instructional components
developed in one location with one set of tools or platform and
use them in another location with a different set of tools or
platform.
An example
Your web-based project management course is popular
and effective. Your counterparts at State and Tech
would like to use it, and you're happy to let them. You used "Brand
X," an authoring system that produces SCORM-conformant content
which works just fine on your school's management system. Over
at State they use "Brand Y," also SCORM conformant,
so getting the course up and running is fairly straightforward.
At Tech they have a custom system pulled together over
the years from open source components. When they tried the course
at Tech, you could see the pages, but all the navigation
was broken and there was no ability to track student progress
or record their answers.
Because of SCORM, your materials were interoperable
with other conformant systems. Other systems require unique custom
solutions that only work with the system they were designed for
and are therefore not interoperable.
SCORM features that support Interoperability
The SCORM addresses the Interoperability
requirement by standardizing communications between management
systems and content and specifying critical details about how
content is aggregated and packaged. There's a common way to initialize
and finish content, and content can only be launched by the management
system, not by other Sharable Content Objects. SCORM provides
a standard means and vocabulary for the exchange of data between
the materials a learner is working on and the management system
that is monitoring their progress.