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4.5. Metadata and SCORM Content Model Components
Thus far, the metadata sections of this document detailed the LOM information model, how this information model is bound to XML and ways to extend the LOM to potentially meet certain organizations policies or business needs. This section describes one way that organizations may choose to associate metadata to the SCORM Content Model Components (content aggregation, content organization, activity, SCO and asset).
SCORM enables a way of associating metadata to the SCORM Content Model Components through the SCORM Content Package Manifest. Each of the SCORM Content Model Components are represented in the manifest. The manifest provides a means for associating the metadata (refer to Section 3.4: Building Content Packages) to these components.
Content Aggregation Metadata: Content Aggregation Metadata describes the content aggregation (i.e., the content package) as a whole. The purpose of applying Content Aggregation Metadata is to enable discoverability of the content aggregation and to provide descriptive information about the Content Aggregation as a whole.
Content Organization Metadata: Content Organization Metadata describes the content organization. The purpose of applying Content Organization Metadata is to enable discoverability within, for example, a content repository and to provide descriptive information about the content structure, as a whole, defined by the content organization.
Activity Metadata: Activity Metadata describes an individual activity. The purpose of applying Activity Metadata is to make the activity accessible (enabling discovery) within a content repository. The metadata should describe the activity as a whole.
SCO Metadata: Metadata can be applied to SCOs to provide descriptive information about the content in the SCO independent of use. This metadata is used to facilitate reuse and discoverability of content.
Asset Metadata: Metadata can be applied to assets to provide descriptive information about the assets independent of any usage or potential usage within courseware content. This metadata is used to facilitate reuse and discoverability, within, for example, a content repository during content creation.
As mentioned earlier defining metadata in a SCORM Content Package is not required by SCORM. Organizations or communities of practice are encouraged to identify their uses cases and requirements for using such a mechanism for associating metadata. Some systems may or may not support the metadata defined in the content package. For example, some LMSs may be built to look for metadata associated with a content package and use that metadata to populate an internal catalog of content. It is important to know that this type of behavior is not mandated by SCORM. It is important for content developers to understand the purpose of the metadata being added to the content package and how it may ultimately be used by systems. These use cases and requirements are not defined by SCORM.