Opticentre Opticentre

What is SCORM and how does it work with translated content?

ELearning Localization Frequently asked questions

  1. Home
  2. faq
  3. eLearning Localization
  4. What is SCORM and how does it work with translated content?

What is SCORM and how does it work with translated content??

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a set of technical standards that govern how eLearning content communicates with a Learning Management System (LMS). It defines how courses are packaged for distribution, how they launch within an LMS, and how they report learner progress — including completion status, quiz scores, time spent, and interaction data. The two versions still in wide use are SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (editions 2, 3, and 4).

When localizing SCORM-compliant eLearning, the translated course must maintain full compliance with the standard so that it tracks and reports correctly in the client's LMS. This requires attention to several technical details beyond the visible content translation.

First, the manifest file (imsmanifest.xml) contains metadata including the course title, description, and organizational structure. These text fields should be localized so that the course appears correctly in the LMS catalog for each language version. We update the manifest during the engineering phase and verify the XML validates against the SCORM schema.

Second, any JavaScript that handles LMS communication (the SCORM API wrapper) must not be altered during localization. Our engineers verify that translation processes have not introduced changes to runtime scripts, which could break completion tracking or score reporting. This is a common risk when courses are localized using find-and-replace methods rather than structured extraction.

Third, the published SCORM package must be tested in an LMS environment. We use a SCORM Cloud testing environment to verify that each localized version launches correctly, tracks progress through all content objects, reports quiz scores accurately, and records completion status. We provide a test report for each language confirming LMS compatibility.

For clients moving to newer standards, we also support xAPI (Tin Can) and cmi5 packaging, which offer richer tracking capabilities including offline learning and cross-platform activity statements.

Comments