Leveraging Online Educational Content: A Guide for Associations & Nonprofits

One would imagine that after the panic of the pandemic, the popularity of online educational content would have dwindled back to pre-pandemic levels. Well, it clearly didn’t, and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a great opportunity for associations and nonprofits (who thrive on information), to reach their members in ways, unlike ever before.

In this article, we’ll explore why digital education remains as popular and how you can leverage it for your organization.

What Makes Online Educational Content So Popular?

Apart from the obvious benefits for users such as convenience and portability, online educational content has a host of other advantages. For example, it makes learning content accessible to anyone, irrespective of their abilities or disabilities. To do this it offers features such as text-to-speech, speech-to-print, alt-text & audio descriptions.

Digital content also minimizes interruptions in the learning process. Yes, you read right! This is because it is usually accessible both online and offline, so poor internet connectivity is no longer a concern, and of course members can access your content anytime and anywhere.

As for content publishers like you, digital publishing platforms allow for access to learning analytics. These analytics are in-depth and share insights into member behavior and preferences. They also show you how engaging your content is or isn’t. Plus, you can easily tweak your content based on these insights.

So now that we’re all on the same page, let’s explore how you can make the most of your treasure trove of information.

Enhancing Educational Content via SCORM 

SCORM is a set of standards that streamline the delivery of these online learning materials. We’ll explain how.

Education thrives on communication. If an educator doesn’t understand their learners or vice versa, the material being taught loses its effectiveness. The same applies to eLearning technology. Communication gaps in eLearning technology can be bridged through what is called SCORM.  

Communication Gaps in eLearning Technology

Before we dive further into SCORM, let’s understand what these communication gaps might be. To do that, we must first establish the parties that need to communicate during eLearning.  

Any online learning course has three main components i.e.  - the course, the tool needed to create said course, and a platform via which to distribute the course. Here, the course refers to the text, visuals and other components of the learning material you provide i.e. - the content. The tool is the software you’ve used to create your course. Most often, this would be an authoring tool. The platform is a Learning Management System (LMS) through which learners access your course.

So, for an eLearning course to be delivered successfully, the content, authoring tool and delivery platform must all be able to communicate with each other. However, every individual software is built differently.

Enter SCORM

SCORM is a set of technical instructions that define how the different components of an eLearning course need to communicate with each other. S-C-O-R-M stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. Let’s break this down further.

Taking the first two alphabets(S-C), we get Sharable Content. As the name suggests, this refers to any educational content that one needs to share online.

Lessons in a SCORM course are called Objects. Each individual lesson or object may need to follow different rules.

SCORM was created on the basis of other existing standards and hence the term Reference Model (R-M).

So, a SCORM course is a collection of objects(lessons) that contain instructions to allow them to be shared across multiple learning management systems.  

Why Be SCORM Compliant?

Interoperability:

The primary goal of SCORM is to ensure smooth integration between online courses and LMSs. With SCORM, the educational content created can be integrated into almost any LMS, allowing you to accommodate more members. 

Setting a Course Structure:

SCORM allows content creators to set the sequence of content consumption. This maintains the effectiveness of lessons taught in the classroom. For e.g. - You can specify that learners should read a lesson completely and only then attempt a quiz. 

Saving & Tracking Progress:

By saving progress, SCORM allows learners to take breaks in between their lessons. The tracking ability gives educators and publishers insights into learner behavior as well as the quality of content. 

Some of the data SCORM tracks includes the time a learner spends on the course or part of the course, the results of an assessment and the individual answers submitted during an assessment. 

Reusability:

Once a course is SCORM compliant, the same instructions can be applied to other courses as well, even if the content differs. This not only saves you time, it also helps maintain consistency across all the courses created.

Increase Revenue:

SCORM is a widely accepted international standard. Making your content SCORM compliant hugely increases the number of avenues of revenue generation from your eLearning products. 

Conclusion

Here’s a bonus tip for you. Did you know, most digital publishing platforms allow for white labeling? Essentially, what that means is you not only get to make the most of your eLearning content, but you also continue to build a relationship with your members. No wonder online educational content is as popular as it is!

For more ways to reach your members digitally, check out our previous article on making your content more accessible.

For those of you, who are willing to take a deep dive into the process of digitally transforming your content, download our guide that gives you a step-by-step account. 

Thanks for reading! 

With over 5 million active users, KITABOO is a high-scale digital publishing platform that helps you create, publish & distribute your academic content.