My just reposted notes on how to generate robust globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) available at
http://www.ostyn.com/standards/docs/guids.htm seem to be timely considering the discussion on the
adlnet forums of SCORM global objectives and what it means to have them "system global" or "local" in scope. The safe way, of course, is to always use globally unique objective identifiers, but lack of time sometimes make us take shortcuts we regret later. An identifier that is not truly unique can be like a time bomb.
You created a wonderful SCORM conformant SCO. Now you run it in a LMS. This particular LMS opens a new window and plays your content object in it. Or it plays your SCO in a frameset. All is well until the learner reaches the end of the SCO. But now it just sits there, even though the learner should no longer be able to do anything with it. The situation is confusing. How do you solve this problem? How do you explain it to your client or manager? Added an article to try to answer this question in plain English at
http://www.ostyn.com/resscormtech.htm#scripting
This week I broke the popular Resources page into several separate pages for different kinds of audiences. I am trying not to break any of the existing links so that shortcuts someone might have will still work. At the same time, a new navigation bar at the top of the main web site pages should make it a little easier to find things, and the pages have been reconstructed using CSS to make them more accessible.
Also added this blog. The blog allows comments. The comments will be moderated, since unfortunatelly blog spamming has become a fact of life. I hope that some interesting discussions will happen here. If not, the blog will at least be a journal of the updates and additions to the web site, in particular SCORM and competency data standards information.
