SCORM Tracking Options

To publish for SCORM, simply create your content, publish for SCORM, and upload or import your Captivate published files to your SCORM-compliant LMS. This process is very simple, just like publishing for other tracking mechanisms. However, there are more options and files that may be generated when you publish for the SCORM standard. Captivate supports two SCORM standards: SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. The runtime files that Captivate generates are the same for both SCORM versions; however, the packaging files are different.

Runtime files are the content or HTML and SWF files that Captivate generates. These files are used to display the content to students and communicate tracking data with the LMS at runtime. The runtime files are exactly the same for both SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. Captivate is capable of communicating to both versions of the SCORM standard but uses the appropriate standard by dynamically determining which one to communicate to at runtime.

Packaging files are the XML, XSD, and other related files that Captivate creates when you publish. They are used to import the content into your LMS. Although the packaging files that SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 require are different, some of the names may be the same (for example, imsmanifest.xml). Due to SCORM requirements, you need to specify which SCORM version or standard you are publishing for, so that Captivate generates the appropriate packaging files. Click the Manifest button in the Quiz Manager to specify the SCORM version and properties when populating and generating the manifest files (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Selecting the SCORM version (for Publishing Manifest)

Captivate allows you to create two types of "packaged" content for SCORM: non-PIF and PIF. Non-PIF files are all the files you create when publishing content without creating a ZIP file. Non-PIF files are all the XSD, XML, and related packaging files and the Captivate runtime files in a folder. You can upload all these files to your LMS or reference the imsmanifest.xml file for importing the files into your LMS, as required by your LMS vendor or administrator.

PIF files are generated when you create the ZIP file in the Publish dialog box. This ZIP file is essentially all the non-PIF files compressed, with the files and folders in the root of the ZIP file. Some LMSs allow you to upload or import this packaged file. At the least, this ZIP file makes it easy to transfer SCORM files because you have to upload or send only one file to your LMS administrator. For more information on PIF and non-PIF files, visit the Advanced Distributed Learning website.

Changes to the SCORM standard also include two-way tracking between Captivate and the LMS. For Captivate, two-way communication allows students to maintain both location and "state" data when launching from an LMS. For example, when a student launches a Captivate file with tracking, Captivate sends the LMS data regarding where the student left off and additional state data (or information about how they answered specific questions), so that when students relaunch a Captivate file, it remembers the information from previous sessions. This allows students to launch Captivate files across multiple sessions and still track their overall progress.

General SCORM Experience

Launching and tracking a Captivate file successfully through a SCORM-compliant LMS requires several steps (including a number of hidden steps that aren't exposed to students). The typical process is as follows:

1. SCORM-compliant content is created using Macromedia Captivate.

   Note: This is not exposed to the student.

2. The LMS is launched.
3. The student logs in to the LMS.
4. The student navigates through the course structure to find a Sharable Content Object (SCO). In this case, assume it's content created using Captivate.
5. The student launches the Captivate content.
6. The content is located on a web server (for example, "http://myserver/captivatecontent.htm").

7. The LMS creates a JavaScript API that is used to communicate to the LMS.

   Note: This is not exposed to the student.

8. The student progresses through the Captivate content.

9. Captivate content sends tracking data to the LMS by calling the appropriate JavaScript API methods. The tracking data is sent when the student answers a question and progresses through a Captivate quiz.

   Note: This is not exposed to the student.

Captivate Publish Process

To publish Captivate projects for the SCORM standard:

1. Create your Captivate project.

2. Add interactivity, such as questions or click box, push buttons, or text-entry fields.

   Note: In addition to the sample files included with this article, there are several articles on the Developer Center that describe building interactive Captivate files, including:

   • Exploring Quizzing in Macromedia Captivate
   • Output Options in Captivate – Part 1: An Overview of Tracking Options
3. Select Movie > Quiz Manager from the menu.
4. Check Enable Output Options in the Quiz Manager dialog box.
5. Click the SCORM option.
6. If you are publishing for a specific version of SCORM and need to generate the SCORM Manifest (or IMSManifest), click the Manifest button and edit the fields that are appropriate for your file.
7. Click OK to close the Quiz Manager dialog box.
8. Select File > Publish from the menu (or use the shortcut key Shift+Ctrl+P or click the Publish button on the button bar).
9. In the Publish dialog box, make sure Export HTML is selected; all other settings are optional.
10. Click the Publish button.

11. After you publish, you should expect to have a number of files (assuming the ZIP option wasn't selected):

    • Content HTM file: File used to launch the content from your LMS
    • Content SWF file: File generated from your Captivate project that represents your content
    • SCORM_support folder: Used to help track to the SCORM standard at runtime
    • IMSManifest.xml: Describes the course hierarchy and structure; used to import the Captivate file into your LMS
    • XSD files: A number of files used during the import process into your LMS

In most cases, you can copy these files to your content server. You could also manually compress or provide a ZIP file from the publish process to your LMS administrator to import into your LMS system. Captivate automatically generates the IMSManifest.xml file for you, which may be used by your LMS or LMS administrator to upload or import the content into your LMS. More information on the Manifest is available in the next section, "Metadata and Manifest." If you leave the Zip Files option unchecked in the Output Options section of the Publish dialog box, the files that are created when the publish process is completed will be considered non-PIF files. If you want to create a SCORM-PIF file, check the Zip Files option of the Publish dialog box or otherwise zip the contents of the published folder.

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