PowerSCORM

Project Description
An open-source project to build a PowerPoint toolbar add-in that will enable the user to create simple SCORM compliant packages directly from a presentation.

The focus is not on building a comprehensive SCORM authoring package but rather on providing an extremely simple solution that teachers can use with a minimal learning curve to deploy SCORM content and in particular SCORM quizzes.

The pre-alpha release of the toolbar add-in is now available (limitations listed below).

Screenshots

View screenshots (PDF)

Some qualifications for the project's scope:

• We will initially target and test deployment within a SharePoint Learning Kit framework in a SharePoint environment and within a Moodle environment.
• Export will generate a simple SCORM quiz where each page is worth one mark and consists of one task, a reading or a question.
• We will initially allow for the following content : lightly formatted text (bold, italic), images (photos/diagrams), textbox questions, radiobutton questions and checkbox (multi-select) questions
• There will be a maximum of one question per page.
• The mark for each question will be determined by the first attempt (and the stored result will become visible to the user and reviewer on that page).
• The user can review (i.e. attempt again) the question after completion however this will not affect the stored result from the first attempt.
• The exported package will be SCORM 2004 compliant.
• The add-in will be written in VBA using "object-oriented" approaches where possible.

SCORM Package format

To define the target SCORM package format that the add-in should create we have made extensive use of "In the eye of the SCORM" by Claude Ostyn:

http://www.ostyn.com/resscormtech.htm

Please note that although this project (i.e. the toolbar add-in) is made available under the GNU GPL licence, the exported packages that are created contain a script of Claude Ostyn's that is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License so any commercial use of this program would have to replace use of that script.

Limitations of Pre-Alpha release

• Error trapping structure in place but not yet fully implemented.
• Only one acceptable answer for textbox question and case-sensitive and spacing sensitive.
• Object settings button on toolbar not yet implemented (have to use insert... and page templates instead).
• Inserted slides always added at end of presentation (not at current location).
• Exported images not listed in manifest file
• add-in not digitally signed and so macro-security level needs to be medium or lower when adding in the add-in. (although it can then be returned to a higher level).
• relies on LMS to provide navigation inbetween pages (this may be correct and unavoidable in fact).
• Resulting packages not yet tested on Firefox.
• Code could do with a little tidy up (although generally fairly carefully constructed).
• A "read" page is worth one mark which may often not want to be the case (e.g. instructions at start of quiz).
• All text is exported as unformatted (plain text no bold/italic support etc).
• documentation needs writing.
• No font support for exported text so any symbols etc would usually be lost when exporting.
• Stores SCORM interaction types as Other rather than using intended SCORM interaction types. Does not make full use of SCORM 2004 interaction type fields such as correct answer.
• No easy way to run or test SCORM package outside of a LMS environment.