More Information: The SCORM 2004 metadata XML format. The appropriate amount of SCORM metadata to use will vary widely depending on the intended use of the content, its anticipated longevity, and likelihood that the content will be reused. Metadata is typically optional, however SCORM 1.2 does place some restrictions on the minimal subset of data that must be specified if any data is specified.

Within the manifest file, metadata can either be specified inline within the XML (recommended for small amounts of metadata, especially at the course level), or it can be specified by linking to an external metadata file (recommended for large amounts of detailed metadata). Metadata can be applied to virtually any section of the manifest, for instance it can be applied to the course as a whole, to individual items, or even to individual resources and files to enhance their reusability. SCORM also permits the extension of LOM to allow organizations to specify additional metadata. LOM contains many predefined fields for describing learning content. SCORM metadata is recorded in a well-defined format known as вЂњlearning object metadataвЂќ, or вЂњLOMвЂќ. MetadataД®very piece of the manifest can be described in detail by associating metadata with it. More Information:The SCORM 2004 manifest XML format. Items that do have children are not allowed to reference resources, they are purely containers for other items.В (This can be thought of like the file structure found on a computerвЂ¦ items are either a folder or a file, but not both.В Folders may contain other folders or files, but вЂњempty foldersвЂќ are not permissible.) This resource is what is delivered to the leaner when the item is selected. Items that do not have any children are required to reference a resource. When an item has children, it is referred to as an вЂњaggregationвЂќ or вЂњclusterвЂќ. Any item can have child items nested beneath it. The nodes within this tree are known as вЂњactivitiesвЂќ (when referencing them in the context of sequencing) or вЂњitemsвЂќ (when referencing them in the context of content packaging). Organizations are always structured hierarchically, as a tree. A single manifest can contain more than one organization of the same content (for instance, to enable the content to be presented differently to different audiences), but typically there is just a single organization, the default organization. Organizations are logical groupings of the parts of a course (resources) into a hierarchical structure. Resources should also contain a comprehensive list of all the files required for proper functionality of the resource so that they can be ported to new environments and still continue to function. Any resource that can be launched by the learner contains a pointer to the page to which the LMS should redirect the learner in order to launch the resource. The key difference between a SCO and an Asset is that a SCO can communicate with the LMS, whereas an Asset is simply static content that is presented to the user. SCOs are almost always instructional parts of a course.

SCOs are units of instruction that are also composed of one or more files.

Assets can either be stand alone units of instruction (вЂњpartsвЂќ of the course), or they can be logical collections of files that are reused in other parts of the course (a common set of branding images for instance).

An Asset is a collection of one or more files that makes up a logical unit.

There are two types of resources, SCOs and Assets. Resources are a list of вЂњpartsвЂќ that make up the course.

It contains several essential pieces: Resources The manifest is an XML file that completely describes the content. The heart of the SCORM content packaging specification is the courseвЂ™s manifest file.

Scorm package definition