Comments on: SCORM Engine http://danmarsden.com/blog/2009/05/27/scorm-engine/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:00:53 +1300 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: dan http://danmarsden.com/blog/2009/05/27/scorm-engine/comment-page-1/#comment-823 dan Thu, 28 May 2009 01:40:14 +0000 http://danmarsden.com/blog/?p=89#comment-823 The SCORM in a Cloud idea looks like a solid one! - great business model too! :-) will you publish the pricing structure for this publicly? by the way - any moodle module you create to allow interaction with your cloud will need to be open source as it will be based on existing Moodle code which means it automatically becomes GPL - doesn't mean it needs to be useful to anyone not using your Cloud based service though! - I look forward to seeing it in action! The SCORM in a Cloud idea looks like a solid one! – great business model too! :-)

will you publish the pricing structure for this publicly?

by the way – any moodle module you create to allow interaction with your cloud will need to be open source as it will be based on existing Moodle code which means it automatically becomes GPL – doesn’t mean it needs to be useful to anyone not using your Cloud based service though! – I look forward to seeing it in action!

]]> By: Tim Martin http://danmarsden.com/blog/2009/05/27/scorm-engine/comment-page-1/#comment-816 Tim Martin Wed, 27 May 2009 14:09:49 +0000 http://danmarsden.com/blog/?p=89#comment-816 Dan. First off, thanks for taking the time to pay attention to us and what we're doing. We're obviously very aware of Moodle, and particularly its impressive worldwide adoption. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you've had an open mind in considering our approach to the SCORM Engine and whether or not we should open source it. Without a doubt, a substantial portion of our revenue comes from SCORM Engine licenses. Your read on our direction (at this time) is a good one. We do not intend to open source the Engine for the time being. We believe that licensing the SCORM Engine allows us to focus all of our energies on it in such a way that we're able to move quickly as the standard evolves AND achieve remarkably high levels of compatibility. My partner Mike just posted on the latter topic here [http://www.scorm.com/blog/2009/05/true-interoperability-requires-intent/], and I think it tells a good story about what we're doing well. Everybody wants to make this stuff work right, but it does take a lot of time and focus. (SCORM 2004 and sequencing and navigation, in particular, require time and focus.) We've actually chased two separate paths to this point with regard to integrating the SCORM Engine and Moodle. The first path is our typical SCORM Engine path, where we have an application that integrates with Moodle and requires installation, etc. This carries headaches of integration, maintenance, etc. The path about which I am more excited is the SCORM Cloud path [http://www.scorm.com/blog/category/products/scorm-cloud-products/]. Basically, we've created a hosted version of the SCORM Engine in the Amazon Cloud. This allows us to have an in-place instance of the SCORM Engine, accessible via web-services, for use from any application. Fees will be tiered and based on your usage. This means that by installing a simple Moodle mod and requesting a SCORM Cloud app_id, that you'll be able to take advantage of the SCORM Engine's great compatibility and SCORM 2004 and AICC support with almost no integration work at all. We'll host the content (thereby providing another service) and deliver it, then inform the host Moodle install of the state. If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about the possibilities. The initial costs on the SCORM Cloud are substantially lower than the SCORM Engine, so I'm optimistic that this will be useful for a lot of Moodle folks. The Moodle extensions to interact with the Cloud are underway (we'll make those open source, for what it's worth, I think). I hope to have something posted for you to mess with in the near future. I wouldn't presume that this would make a SCORM 2004 extension of Moodle unnecessary, but hopefully it will fill a gap in the interim and serve a different role. Dan. First off, thanks for taking the time to pay attention to us and what we’re doing. We’re obviously very aware of Moodle, and particularly its impressive worldwide adoption.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you’ve had an open mind in considering our approach to the SCORM Engine and whether or not we should open source it. Without a doubt, a substantial portion of our revenue comes from SCORM Engine licenses.

Your read on our direction (at this time) is a good one. We do not intend to open source the Engine for the time being. We believe that licensing the SCORM Engine allows us to focus all of our energies on it in such a way that we’re able to move quickly as the standard evolves AND achieve remarkably high levels of compatibility. My partner Mike just posted on the latter topic here [http://www.scorm.com/blog/2009/05/true-interoperability-requires-intent/], and I think it tells a good story about what we’re doing well. Everybody wants to make this stuff work right, but it does take a lot of time and focus. (SCORM 2004 and sequencing and navigation, in particular, require time and focus.)

We’ve actually chased two separate paths to this point with regard to integrating the SCORM Engine and Moodle. The first path is our typical SCORM Engine path, where we have an application that integrates with Moodle and requires installation, etc. This carries headaches of integration, maintenance, etc.

The path about which I am more excited is the SCORM Cloud path [http://www.scorm.com/blog/category/products/scorm-cloud-products/]. Basically, we’ve created a hosted version of the SCORM Engine in the Amazon Cloud. This allows us to have an in-place instance of the SCORM Engine, accessible via web-services, for use from any application. Fees will be tiered and based on your usage. This means that by installing a simple Moodle mod and requesting a SCORM Cloud app_id, that you’ll be able to take advantage of the SCORM Engine’s great compatibility and SCORM 2004 and AICC support with almost no integration work at all. We’ll host the content (thereby providing another service) and deliver it, then inform the host Moodle install of the state.

If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities. The initial costs on the SCORM Cloud are substantially lower than the SCORM Engine, so I’m optimistic that this will be useful for a lot of Moodle folks. The Moodle extensions to interact with the Cloud are underway (we’ll make those open source, for what it’s worth, I think). I hope to have something posted for you to mess with in the near future.

I wouldn’t presume that this would make a SCORM 2004 extension of Moodle unnecessary, but hopefully it will fill a gap in the interim and serve a different role.

]]>