eLearning standards experts since 2002

Working with standards is hard work

Standards are important. At their best, they allow software and systems from independent vendors to function well together without custom work for each combination of systems.

Ideally, standards would be precise, and narrow, and suitable to the specific problem they are intended to solve. They would be consistently implemented by all parties, and these disparate systems would just work well together without any hassle. In eLearning, this isn’t the case. Getting things to work well together is frequently difficult.

At Rustici Software, we have experience ensuring eLearning technologies work well together. We focus primarily on eLearning standards (some may say, “LMS standards”) focused in corporate learning and development. Yes, this is a little niche. We found our way to this business by solving problems for customers who didn’t want to be bothered with the minutiae of thousands of pages of arcane specifications.

Over the past 15+ years, we have helped hundreds of systems and tools implement support for eLearning standards. As a result, the vast majority of transactions across the eLearning ecosystem depend on software created by Rustici Software. You can see this in action on our SCORM Stats webpage, which tracks how people are using SCORM in SCORM Cloud. Since Cloud is a well-used community tool for those testing and developing SCORM, its usage is illustrative of the overall adoption of SCORM.

Why we consider ourselves experts in the eLearning standards

• We read the specifications. First SCORM 1.1, 1.2, and then 2004 in all its incarnations.
• We answered questions and consulted with companies that were trying to implement these standards and work well together.
• We discovered that the letter of the specifications wasn’t enough, and we found solutions that tolerated a variety of implementations.
• We contributed to the evolution of SCORM, from 1.2 to 2004 4th Edition and everything in between.
• We built software that integrated elegantly into other companies’ solutions and sold it to more than half of the LMS and content providers in the eLearning markets.
• We support our customers and anyone who asks us for help with eLearning or LMS standards problems.
• We collaborated with the industry to identify SCORM’s shortcomings and developed the initial version of xAPI (called Tin Can API) and cmi5 (to handle all of the behaviors associated with launching xAPI content) while contributing to their evolutions today.
• We collaborated with the DoD and cmi5 Working Group to launch project CATAPULT, which created development tools and a conformance suite to help support the adoption of cmi5 and xAPI across the DoD, federated platforms and eLearning industry.
• We continue to expand eLearning standards support for xAPI used to collect data about the wide range of experiences a person has within online and offline training activities.
• We continue to expand eLearning standards support for LTI, which is used by technology suppliers and institutions serving in educational settings like universities.
• We support at least 300 LMSs, more than half of the LRSs that exist and millions of content deliveries every month with our various products.