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3.1. Content Packaging Overview
Once learning content is designed and built, there is a need to make the content available to learners, authoring tools, repositories or LMSs. The IMS Content Packaging Specification was designed to provide a standard way to structure and exchange learning content.
The purpose of the content package is to provide a standardized way to exchange learning content between different systems or tools. The content package also provides a place for describing the structure (or organization) and the intended behavior of a collection of learning content.
Content packages are expected to be used to move learning content or collections of learning content between LMSs, development tools and content repositories. The IMS Content Packaging Specification provides a common “input/output” format that any system can support.
SCORM Content Packaging is a set of specific requirements and guidance, or application profiles, of the IMS Content Packaging Specification. SCORM Content Packages adheres strictly to the IMS Content Packaging Specification and provides additional explicit requirements and implementation guidance for packaging assets, SCOs and content organization.
This section is organized as follows:
Section 3.2: Content Package Components defines the key concepts that deal with a content package. These key concepts are useful for getting a base understanding of a content package before describing the specific requirements.
Section 3.3: Components of a Manifest defines the makeup of a content package manifest. The manifest acts as the “packaging slip” for the content package. It describes the components of the content package.
Section 3.4: Building Content Packages defines the process of building a content package. The section focuses on the creation of the content package and the manifest file. The section describes the XML components of the manifest and the requirements for using those XML components.
Section 3.5: SCORM Content Package Application Profiles defines specifically how to create SCORM conformant packages that contain assets, SCOs and content organizations. This section describes the two types of application profiles and the requirements associated with those profiles.
Section 3.6: Best Practices and Practical Guidelines defines a collection of best practices and guidelines when building or processing content packages.