SCORM to xAPI: How to use SCORM content with xAPI

SCORM to Experience API Cookbook

We’ve put together the SCORM to xAPI Cookbook to help you identify how to create xAPI data that is equivalent to SCORM data. The cookbook identifies a few ways to send xAPI statements based on the events that occur in the SCORM data model. It also includes SCORM data samples and recommendations for representing them with xAPI statements. If you have any questions about these, please get in touch with us. We love talking to people about xAPI.

ADL’s SCORM Profile

This SCORM to Experience API cookbook has been available for a while and has been followed by many authoring tools and content vendors. You’ll find the cookbook helpful, but you may find you want a little more detail. ADL are working on a SCORM Profile that’s a much more detailed version of this cookbook. The ADL SCORM profile is not complete yet, but is still a helpful reference alongside this cookbook.

SCORM Scenarios

Record attempt but not completion
Record completion with no score or pass/fail
Record completion with score
Record passing with score
Record fail with score

Interaction Data

The result object is included on some of these samples to show it is not required, but can be used to present more data from the action.

True/False
Choice
Fill-In
Likert
Matching
Performance
Sequencing
Numeric
Other

Bookmarking and SuspendData

Bookmarking and SuspendData can be handled with xAPI State API. This is a key/value database that can store these values and more.

Record attempt but not completion

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/attempted",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "attempted"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/sqyCkLBd",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {
                "en-US": "Example Activity"
            },
            "description": {
                "en-US": "Example activity definition"
            }
        }
    }
}

Record completion with no score or pass/fail

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/completed",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "completed"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "completion": true,
        "duration": "PT0H0M2S"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/sqyCkLBd",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {
                "en-US": "Example Activity"
            },
            "description": {
                "en-US": "Example activity definition"
            }
        }
    }
}

Record completion with score

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/completed",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "completed"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "completion": true,
        "score": {
            "scaled": 0.75,
            "raw": 75,
            "min": 0,
            "max": 100
        },
        "duration": "PT0H5M2S"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/sqyCkLBd",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {
                "en-US": "Example Activity"
            },
            "description": {
                "en-US": "Example activity definition"
            }
        }
    }
}

Record passing with score

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/completed",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "completed"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "completion": true,
        "success": true,
        "score": {
            "scaled": 0.9,
            "raw": 90,
            "min": 0,
            "max": 100
        },
        "duration": "PT0H5M2S"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/sqyCkLBd",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {
                "en-US": "Example Activity"
            },
            "description": {
                "en-US": "Example activity definition"
            }
        }
    }
}

Record fail with score

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/completed",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "completed"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "completion": true,
        "success": false,
        "score": {
            "scaled": 0.3,
            "raw": 30,
            "min": 0,
            "max": 100
        },
        "duration": "PT0H5M2S"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/sqyCkLBd",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {
                "en-US": "Example Activity"
            },
            "description": {
                "en-US": "Example activity definition"
            }
        }
    }
}

True/False

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "success": true,
        "duration": "PT0H0M3S",
        "response": "true"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question1",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US":"Question 1"},
            "description": {"en-US":"Does the TCAPI include the concept of statements?"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "true-false",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["true"]
        }
    }
}

Choice

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "result": {
        "success": true,
        "duration": "PT0H0M3S",
        "response": "golf"
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question2",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
	        "name": {"en-US": "Question 2"},
            "description": {"en-US": "Which of these prototypes are available at the beta site?"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "choice",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["golf[,]tetris"],
            "choices": [
                {"id": "golf", "description": {"en-US": "Golf Example"}},
                {"id": "facebook", "description": {"en-US": "Facebook App"}},
                {"id": "tetris", "description": {"en-US": "Tetris Example"}},
                {"id": "scrabble", "description": {"en-US": "Scrabble Example"}}
            ]
        }
    }
}

Fill-in

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question3",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 3"},
            "description": {"en-US": "Ben is often heard saying: "},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "fill-in",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["Bob’s your uncle"]
        }
    }
}

Likert

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question3",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 3"},
            "description": {"en-US": "How awesome is xAPI?"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "likert",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["likert_3"],
            "scale": [
                {"id": "likert_0", "description": {"en-US": "It’s OK"}},
                {"id": "likert_1", "description": {"en-US": "It’s Pretty Cool"}},
                {"id": "likert_2", "description": {"en-US": "It’s Damn Cool"}},
                {"id": "likert_3", "description": {"en-US": "It’s Gonna Change the World"}}
            ]
        }
    }
}

Matching

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question4",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition":{
            "name":{"en-US":"Question 4"},
            "description":{"en-US":"Match these people to their kickball team:"},
            "type":"http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType":"matching",
            "correctResponsesPattern":[
                "ben[.]3[,]chris[.]2[,]troy[.]4[,]freddie[.]1"
            ],
            "source":[
                 {
                     "id":"ben",
                     "description":{"en-US":"Ben"}
                 },
                 {
                     "id":"chris",
                     "description":{"en-US":"Chris"}
                 },
                 {
                     "id":"troy",
                     "description":{"en-US":"Troy"}
                 },
                 {
                     "id":"freddie",
                     "description":{"en-US":"Freddie"}
                 }
            ],
            "target":[
                {
                    "id":"1",
                    "description":{"en-US":"SCORM Engine"}
                },
                {
                    "id":"2",
                    "description":{"en-US":"Pure-sewage"}
                 },
                 {
                    "id":"3",
                    "description":{"en-US":"Tin Can xAPI"}
                 },
                 {
                     "id":"4",
                     "description":{"en-US":"SCORM Cloud"}
                 }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Performance

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question5",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 5"},
            "description": {"en-US": "This interaction measures performance over a day of RS sports:"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "performance",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["pong[.]1:[,]dg[.]:10[,]lunch[.]"],
            "steps": [
                  {"id": "pong", "description": {"en-US": "Net pong matches won"}},
                  {"id": "dg", "description": {"en-US": "Strokes over par in disc golf at Liberty"}},
                  {"id": "lunch", "description": {"en-US": "Lunch having been eaten"}}
             ]
         }
    }
}

Sequencing

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question6",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 6"},
            "description": {"en-US": "Order players by their pong ladder position:"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "sequencing",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["tim[,]mike[,]ells[,]ben"],
            "choices": [
                {"id": "tim", "description": {"en-US": "Tim"}},
                {"id": "ben", "description": {"en-US": "Ben"}},
                {"id": "ells", "description": {"en-US": "Ells"}},
                {"id": "mike", "description": {"en-US": "Mike"}}
            ]
        }
    }
}

Numeric

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question7",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 7"},
            "description": {"en-US": "How many jokes is Chris the butt of each day?"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "numeric",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["4:"]
        }
    }
}

Other

{
    "actor": {
        "mbox": "mailto:user@example.com",
        "name": "Joe User",
        "objectType": "Agent"
    },
    "verb": {
        "id": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/answered",
        "display": {
            "en-US": "answered"
        }
    },
    "object": {
        "id": "http://www.example.com/tincan/activities/uyheHUJd76s/question8",
        "objectType": "Activity",
        "definition": {
            "name": {"en-US": "Question 8"},
            "description": {"en-US": "On this map, please mark Franklin, TN"},
            "type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/cmi.interaction",
            "interactionType": "other",
            "correctResponsesPattern": ["(35.937432,-86.868896)"]
        }
    }
}

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SCORM to Experience API (xAPI) Cookbook