Real activities, not one SCORM file

There are two ways to get a new course into a learning platform. You can package the whole course as one SCORM file and upload it. Or you can build it from the platform's own activities. MagiCastor does the second, and uses SCORM where SCORM is the better fit.

What one SCORM file means

A SCORM package is a closed box. The platform plays it and records a score, a status and where the learner stopped. What happens inside the box stays inside the box.

That has consequences:

• The questions live inside the package, not in your question bank, so you cannot reuse them in other quizzes.
• The gradebook usually sees one score for the whole package, not a grade per activity.
• To change one sentence, you edit the package somewhere else and upload it again.
• If the package came from an authoring tool, changing it later usually means going back to that tool.

What native activities mean

MagiCastor builds the course from the activities your platform already has, such as lessons, pages, books, quizzes, assignments and H5P. It only uses the ones your site has switched on.

• Quiz questions go into your question bank, where you can reuse and edit them.
• Every graded activity has its own place in the gradebook.
• Completion tracking is switched on, so you can see who did what.
• Teachers edit the course the way they edit any other course. No extra tool is needed.
• The course lives in your platform, not ours. If you stop using MagiCastor, it stays exactly where it is.

When SCORM is the right choice

Sometimes you do want a package: an interactive module that plays the same everywhere, or content for a platform that MagiCastor does not build into directly.

For that, MagiCastor makes SCORM modules in its own player. You can add a module to a course, make it a new course, or download it as a SCORM 1.2 package for any platform that plays one.

If you need to change the words in a published module, you can update it in place. Learners keep their place, their score and their bookmark.

In short

Use native activities for the course. Use SCORM for the modules that need it. MagiCastor does both, and you choose which one you need.