SCORM is 25+ years old. Why is L&D still using it?
Once upon a time in 1999, US President Bill Clinton established a task force to develop new standards for eLearning. The US Defense Department’s eLearning team, ADL, created a file type called a Shareable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM to its friends.
SCORM was designed to be a universal file type for eLearning. So, it didn’t matter how you built your digital learning, or what Learning Management System you hosted it on, you simply exported your module as a SCORM file, and it’d plug and play in any LMS.
So far, so awesome. Industry standard formats simplify compatibility, and up until SCORM came along, the budding eLearning industry was riddled with compatibility issues. SCORM made a lot of people’s lives easier. It became the universal standard all eLearning was saved in, and all Learning Management Systems were built to host and play SCORM files.
But after a few years the dew was off the rose, and the honeymoon was over.
How SCORM became an L&D handbrake
Most universal file types are owned and maintained by a commercial entity that profits from the file type being widely used and is highly motivated to keep the file type current and compatible with industry best practises. Take PDF as an example. It’s the universal file type for saving and sharing documents, and it’s owned and maintained by Adobe. CSV is the universal file type for data records, owned and maintained by Microsoft.
SCORM is owned by ADL, who are owned by the US Government. The US Government is not a commercial entity, and it’s got bigger fish to fry than maintaining SCORM. So, the last time SCORM 2004 was updated was 2009. And the version of SCORM most widely used by the L&D industry, SCORM 1.2, dates from 2000, making SCORM a living fossil in digital terms.
As the rest of the digital world evolved at lightning speed, SCORM stayed still. This has created a raft of frustrations for L&D professionals, but the most significant handbrake is lack of data. SCORM does not support analytics. So, while every other industry is able to make data driven decisions, L&D operate on hypothesis and observation alone.
ADL themselves recognise SCORM has limitations. Following a 2008 report that highlighted a number of issues with SCORM, including security risks and its lack of data capture, they began work on an alternative. ADL state, “to track performance data on emerging learning capabilities (e.g., mobile learning), DoDI 1322.26 has been updated to allow a more capable standard called the Experience API, or xAPI ...”
A legacy of L&D underinvestment
L&D is an industry hampered by a legacy of underinvestment.
L&D and marketing perform much the same function in an organisation, creating communications to change the way people think, feel, and act.
But while marketing is outward facing, revenue generating and measurable, L&D is (usually) inward facing, resource consuming, and struggles to prove return on investment. Therefore, many L&D teams operate with shoestring budgets, unable to invest in the latest tech.
The lack of competition led to complacency. Many Learning Management Systems mirrored SCORM’s lack of evolution with lack of investment in user experience or even responsive tech, leading to slow, clunky learning platforms difficult for content creators and learners to use.
The SCORM & LMS symbiosis
SCORM and Learning Management Systems have built a symbiotic ecosystem. SCORM was designed to talk to Learning Management Systems. Learning Management Systems now continue to keep SCORM alive by supporting it, even though it’s a shambling zombie.
What’s in it for Learning Management Systems? Quite a lot, actually. If you're selling a Learning Management System and SCORM is the standard, you don't have to invest in innovation. You can charge organisations for hosting and playing 20-year-old tech, indefinitely, with no competitive pressure to do better.
Cynics might even say LMS vendors are actively disincentivised to adopt new file types, because their margins depend on the status quo. And because the market was so sleepy for so long, this stranglehold went largely unchallenged.
None of this would matter much — if it weren't for the fact that it makes your life significantly harder.
How SCORM makes your life harder
So, you’re an L&D professional and you’ve just made a juicy new learning module. You export your new module as a SCORM file and upload it to your LMS. Then you set up your (very limited) reporting, so you get notified when people complete the module. The whole process takes about half an hour, and you’re feeing pretty good about life, until you realise your mate using Chameleon just accomplished those three tasks in two clicks and a few seconds.
The combination of an outdated file type with archaic learning management systems makes for a perfect shitstorm of horrible user experience.
We hear from L&D designers who admit they leave typos uncorrected in live modules because the update-export-upload-reconfigure cycle is simply too painful. Teams tell us they dread being asked to create new content because they know how long the setup will take. They tell us the limited data they do get is often unreliable. They tell us their LMS is so difficult to administer that they have to hire specialist contractors just to keep it running.
Worst of all, they tell us they feel like they're wasting their time — because the learner experience on legacy platforms is so grim that people arrive irritated before they've even started a module. And if your learners are checked out before they begin, it doesn't matter how good your content is.
What options are there to SCORM?
There are SCORM alternatives, although some are evolutions and companions, rather than true choices.
Experience API or xAPI
Tracks learning across mobile, simulations, real-world activities, offline experiences, and more. It gives L&D teams actual behavioural data. It doesn't require an LMS. In theory it's exactly what the industry needed. In practice, it requires technical investment and LMS support that most organisations haven't made.
Cmi5
Built by ADL to bridge the gap — essentially a set of rules for how an LMS and xAPI content talk to each other. It makes xAPI workable in LMS environments, but you still need an LMS capable of supporting it, which is far from universal.
Learning Tools Interoperability or LTI
Allow any LMS to integrate with any learning application. It's common in higher education, less so in corporate L&D.
HTML5
HTML5 is a web standard file type that defines how digital content is displayed in browsers. Some LMS function as web browsers and will display HTML5 files. However, HTML5 does not communicate with most LMS, so you would lack even the completion data SCORM provides, and it may also impact on learner UX, by not bookmarking their progress. But HTML5 and SCORM can be compatible, as some authoring tools publish HTML5 content for SCORM.
The honest summary: there's still no single file type that delivers ease of use, universal LMS compatibility, and robust analytics in one package. But there's a different question worth asking — do you need a file type at all?
But what if you’re stuck with SCORM?
We get it. Most of the organisations we work with were reliant on SCORM before they switched to using Chameleon. And it wasn’t just they were reliant on SCORM. They’re often also heavily invested in a legacy LMS that is integrated with their HR system, tracking course completion for regulatory requirements, managing CPD points, handling event bookings.
So, despite the clunky interface, the poor learner experience, and the frustrating lack of insight, moving feels overwhelming.
If that sounds familiar: it's not your fault you're stuck. For a long time, there genuinely weren't better options. The L&D tech industry let you down. The question now is whether you want to stay stuck.
Opt out of the whole sorry mess
If you're done with the limitations of SCORM and the LMS treadmill, the exit is easier than you think.
Chameleon isn't an LMS. We're a design-first authoring tool with built-in hosting — which means you can build beautiful learning content and get it in front of your people without touching a SCORM file or logging into a clunky platform.
With Chameleon Hosting, you publish directly to a branded learner portal in one click. Learners access content on any device, in a clean experience that doesn't make them want to immediately close the tab. You get individual learner tracking, campaign-level pathways, group management, and engagement analytics — not just a completion tick, but actual data on how your content is performing.
We’re a fast, easy, beautiful content authoring tool that anyone can use, and a hosting platform, where you can host, share, and report on your learning content. Find out more about our hosting here or view a demo.
