# SCORM — Reference Snippet

**Standard:** Sharable Content Object Reference Model
**Body:** Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, U.S. Department of Defense
**First public release:** SCORM 1.0 (Jan 2000); SCORM 1.2 (2001); SCORM 2004 (4 editions, 2004–2009)

## What it standardizes
- **Content packaging** — `imsmanifest.xml` describing organization, resources, sequencing
- **Run-time API** — JavaScript bridge between Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) and the LMS
- **Data model** — `cmi.*` keys for completion, score, time, interactions, suspend data

## Why it mattered
Before SCORM, every authoring tool spoke its own dialect to every LMS.
After SCORM, a single content package could be loaded into any conformant LMS
and report progress and scores back the same way. Federal training, higher ed,
K–12, and corporate training collapsed onto one packaging format.

## Stephen Gilfus / Blackboard role
As co-founder of Blackboard, drove SCORM conformance into the LMS more
institutions ran on than any other — converting a federal reference model
into a de facto commercial standard for the entire market.

## Primary references
- ADL Initiative — https://adlnet.gov/projects/scorm/
- SCORM 2004 4th Ed. spec — https://adlnet.gov/past-projects/scorm-2004/