Friday, January 15, 2010

A Ha Foot Of The Mountain CD


 am a huge A Ha fan, from way back, and was excited about their latest, and ninth album release. This album has the traditional sounds that fans love with a new spin to keep it current for new fans to enjoy. A Ha is a Norwegian band with an incredible sound, that gets better with each album they release.

11 Damaging Mistakes Guitar Players Make and How To Avoid Them


Do you know how some guitar players practice most days of the week, work hard, and are passionate about their guitar playing, but they always struggle to be able to play guitar the way they want? They are frustrated because they don’t improve fast enough, begin doubting their guitar playing potential, or even feel discouraged or angry with themselves when thinking about how long it is taking them to become a better guitar player.

Piano Teaching Tips: Have Your Own Studio Website


Are you a music or a piano teacher? Do you want to enhance the academic performances of your students? Do you wish to achieve both personal and professional growth through useful music teaching resources, websites and strategies? If yes, read on, learn, adopt and get hooked with various music teaching strategies and piano teaching tips that will surely appreciate by most of your learners.

Don't Make Simon Cowell Do Your Parents' Dirty Work


Simon Cowell, as a judge on American Idol, has earned himself somewhat of a reputation of being cruel when telling contestants when they haven't quite measured up. People are often shocked at his brutal honesty and (perhaps) lack of tact. But, in some ways, he may just be doing the contestant a favor. One the contestant's parents should have done.

Best Action Movie Ever: James Cameron's Terminator


"The Terminator" is an true blockbuster classic; for me personally, it's the best action movie I've ever seen (to me, of course!). Although its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is far superior technologically and visually, this first film in the franchise is by far the best of them all, and in no small part thanks to James Cameron's brilliant script and direction in which he creates a moody, atmospheric landscape within which a battle between man and machine is waged, and yet a love story about star-crossed lovers is the true heart of the movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger found his signature role, and some might say the only role he truly fits like a glove, a killer robot from the future with a deadly mission to kill Sarah Connor, the future mother of the human resistance leader against the machines in the future. Unlike other sci-fi films, which tend to border on the silly or amusing side, this is a film you can take absolutely seriously, even with Arnie in the lead, and is a thrilling ride from start to finish.

Rebooting Your Viewing Habit


Now here's an interesting cartoon, not only for the kids, but also for the young at heart. Reboot is one really fascinating series, as it combined a rather interesting concept with nice visuals. And with as good dose of humor too.

Reboot follows the the exploits of a fictional world that resides inside a computer system. The world is known as Mainframe, and the citizens must battle in the “Game Cubes” in order to save parts of the city from being destroyed. Most of the series focuses on the adventures of Bob and his groups of sprites. Later seasons shifted the story to the characters Enzo and AndrAIa (that's actually how they spell it).

Master & Learn Guitar - Revealed: Detailed Instructions On How To Properly Hold Your Guitar Pick


While you are learning to master and learn guitar playing techniques with your left hand, you will want to ensure that you are also not forgetting about your right hand technique.

Many new guitar players when learning to play the guitar are unsure of how to properly hold a guitar pick. Holding a guitar pick properly is imperative in order to play your guitar chords and guitar scales like a pro.

Practice Guitar - Revealed: 4 Easy Tips To Practice Your Guitar Chord Changes


One of the first things a new guitar player will learn is how to play basic guitar chords. As soon as you learn how to play a minimum of two chords it is time to learn how to practice your guitar chord changes.

Guitar chord changes are when you switch from guitar chord to another guitar chord in a smooth and flawless motion.

If you are finding chord changes to be challenging while you practice guitar, let’s take a look at four easy tips on how to practice your guitar chord changes.

1. Memorize your guitar chords: The best way to practice your guitar chord changes is by memorizing your guitar chords. By memorizing your guitar chords you will be able to know where to place your left hand fingers on the fret board more quickly and more efficiently than if you are just guessing where your fingers go on the fret board.

2. Practice chord changes without strumming: Practicing your guitar chord changes is challenging enough without having to worry about the rhythm aspect of your guitar chords. Don’t worry about practicing your right hand rhythm technique for right now. Once you have mastered your guitar chord changes, you can incorporate switching your guitar chords with the various strumming patterns you have learned.

3. Keep your fingers on the strings: Try not to move your left fingers away from your guitar fretboard. By moving your fingers away from the guitar fretboard, while you are switching guitar chords, you will not be able to change chords as quickly. As you memorize your basic guitar chords, you will recognize that some of your left fingers will barely have to move. You will also begin to recognize that some guitar chords have the same notes which means that your fingers may already be in position to play part of the notes for the next guitar chord.

4. Know what chord is coming up: If you walk, drive a car, or ride a bicycle you will understand that you just don’t stare at one object while traveling. If you do, you will crash into something else. The solution from crashing is to look all around your surroundings and know what’s coming up ahead. The same goes with guitar chord changes. The more you look ahead of your music, the more you will avoid crashing into the wrong guitar chord. The more you know what guitar chords are coming up, the quicker you will be able to switch to the next chord.

5. Practice in the dark: By allowing yourself to practice guitar in the dark, you will be forced to ensure that you have memorized the right fingering for your guitar chords. Once you are able to play your guitar chords in the dark, the next step is to practice your guitar chord changes in the dark as quickly and smoothly as possible. If you’re not sure if you are playing the right guitar chord in the dark then practice guitar near a light switch. As soon as you think you have the right chord, turn the light on, and then check your left hand fingering to make sure your fingers are positioned correctly on the fret board.



About The Author
Interested in learning to play the guitar?: CLICKHERE FOR FREE GUITAR VIDEO LESSONS:practice guitar 

Practice Guitar - Revealed: 4 Easy Tips To Practice Your Guitar Chord Changes


One of the first things a new guitar player will learn is how to play basic guitar chords. As soon as you learn how to play a minimum of two chords it is time to learn how to practice your guitar chord changes.

Guitar chord changes are when you switch from guitar chord to another guitar chord in a smooth and flawless motion.

Learn Guitar: Beginners Guitar Chords: How to Play the C Major Chord


As a new guitar player one of the first things will want to learn is how to play your guitar chords. There are many different kinds of guitar chords. When starting out, however, you will want to learn what are called your basic guitar chords.

Basic beginner guitar chords are located within the first three frets of your guitar. Beginner guitar chords are great way for guitar players to get started without feeling overwhelmed by all of the note possibilities on the guitar neck of the guitar.

Beginner Guitar Online - Super Easy Introduction to Guitar Strumming


n the process of learning how to play your guitar chords, you will want to get started and apply these chords to a musical situation like a favourite song.. If you have learned even just one guitar chord, then you are ready to begin learning how to strum on your guitar.

Strumming on the guitar can seem like a mystery when watching other players flawlessly play rhythm on the guitar. What looks difficult, is in reality, a combination of practice and what are called strumming patterns.

How to Play Your Guitar - Revealed - Super Quick Chord Changes


As you’re practicing guitar, you will reach the point when you will know more than three chords. It is at this point in learning how to play your guitar that it is imperative to begin practicing your chord changes.

When learning how to play your guitar you will encounter what are called chord changes. Chord changes are switching from one guitar chord to the next guitar chord in a smooth and fast motion. One of the most challenging things that hinders a new guitar player when learning to do chord changes is accurately and quickly switching from chord to chord.

How To Play Guitar Good - The Mysteries of Alternate Picking Revealed.


Once you have begun to learn all of your beginner guitar chords, and basic guitar scales, you will want to make sure that you are utilizing the best right hand technique possible in order to play your guitar is accurately and as fast as possible.

In order to learn how to play guitar good you’ll need to learn the right hand guitar technique called alternate picking. Alternate picking is also a great way to learn how to play your guitar chords correctly, and introduce the concept of arpeggio playing.

How To Play Guitar - Beginner - 4 Must Have Guitar Effect Pedals: Distortion, Delay, Chorus, and Reverb.


If you don’t own them already, at some point, you will encounter what are called guitar effects. Guitar effects are used to enhance the tone and sound of your instrument. Guitar effects can dramatically change your guitar sound, or simply make your guitar sound sonically rich.

When you enter the world of guitar effects, it can be quite overwhelming to know what the best guitar effects to purchase are. From stomp boxes, to full rack mount guitar effects, there is an unending supply of sound available to enhance your guitar playing sound and abilities.

How To Play Guitar Good - The Mysteries of Alternate Picking Revealed.


Once you have begun to learn all of your beginner guitar chords, and basic guitar scales, you will want to make sure that you are utilizing the best right hand technique possible in order to play your guitar is accurately and as fast as possible.

In order to learn how to play guitar good you’ll need to learn the right hand guitar technique called alternate picking. Alternate picking is also a great way to learn how to play your guitar chords correctly, and introduce the concept of arpeggio playing.

How To Play Guitar - Beginner - 4 Must Have Guitar Effect Pedals: Distortion, Delay, Chorus, and Reverb.


If you don’t own them already, at some point, you will encounter what are called guitar effects. Guitar effects are used to enhance the tone and sound of your instrument. Guitar effects can dramatically change your guitar sound, or simply make your guitar sound sonically rich.

When you enter the world of guitar effects, it can be quite overwhelming to know what the best guitar effects to purchase are. From stomp boxes, to full rack mount guitar effects, there is an unending supply of sound available to enhance your guitar playing sound and abilities.

Learn Beginner Guitar - 6 Easy Steps To Finger Tap Like A Pro


There are some very fun and exciting things that are unique to the guitar. One of these unique items is called finger tapping. Although the theory behind finger tapping is nothing new, there is just something about guitar player finger tapping that sounds totally cool. Many other instruments such as the piano and saxophone have tried for years to emulate the sound of a guitar finger tapping. At the end of the day however, there’s nothing like a real guitar player finger tapping like pro.

Guitar Practice - Secrets Revealed Here: 4 Uplifting Methods To Relieve Depression By Practicing Guitar


There are many newspaper and psychology reports that claim the benefits of listening to music in order to relieve depression. There’s just something about music that can soothe the savaged soul.

Another great way two relieve depression is by going beyond listening to music, and learning how to play an instrument. Guitar is just one of those instruments that you can learn how to play very quickly and easily with proper guidance and instruction.

Depending on how much guitar practice is accomplished by the depressed individual, you can quite literally learn all of the basics of beginner guitar within 3 to 6 months of practicing your six string instrument.

"Miss Congeniality" Had an Identity Issue, Sandra Bullock Saved It From Disaster


Miss Congeniality - 2 Stars (Average)

"Miss Congeniality" had a real identity problem as a movie. Unfortunately for Sandra Bullock, the star of the film as FBI agent Gracie Hart, Miss Congeniality could not take her as far as her performance merited.

She did win a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy; her first was the same nomination for her role as Lucy in "While You Were Sleeping".

Released in 2000, Miss Congeniality is not a drama, an action adventure, a police flick, a comedy or a romantic comedy. It is a mismatch of all and a master of none. When you add in the corny, juvenile, inappropriate dialog, the film is lucky it had Sandra Bullock as its centerpiece because without her, it would have been beyond dismal.

"Radio" Is One of the Most Under-Rated and Under-Appreciated Films in Movie History


Radio - 4 Stars (Excellent)

"Radio"—the true story of high school football coach Harold Jones and a mentally-challenged young man named James Robert "Radio" Kennedy—might well be one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated movies in film history.

James Kennedy was nicknamed "Radio" by the townspeople of Anderson, South Carolina because he was always listening to discarded radios. As a youth he would push or ride a grocery cart down the street, talking to no one. It was 1976 and Radio did not attend school because he was mentally challenged, and an easy target for kids more fortunate.

"Kingdom of Heaven" Sought to Be an Epic Film, But Became a Disaster in Production


Kingdom of Heaven - 1 Star (Terrible)

Unfortunately for the "Kingdom of Heaven", what started out as an ambitious epic film about a little known time in history, became an almost disaster at its release and was only average at best. There is enough blame to spread around.

First, there is a reason why the immortal "Gone with the Wind", which involved a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction, took almost 4 hours to see. You apparently cannot make a quality, classic film about the Civil War in less time. Ken Burns' acclaimed documentary film "The Civil War" consisted of 9 episodes and took 11 hours to view.

10 Dance Career Tips From Professional Dancers


Dance careers can be difficult to jump-start, so why not listen to some advice from professional dancers?

This past weekend, we had some additions to our usual group of friends, professional dancers. After I got over my initial sense of awe, we began to talk about their dance careers. I’ve always been fascinated with how people rise to the top of their profession. Professional athletes, movie stars and bands, they all have a unique story but there are usually some core similarities. This article outlines the basic things you should do to start your career in dance to become a professional dancer. Now, you’ll need a little bit of luck, good timing and connections as well, but you could get all of that while getting a Big Mac at your local McDonalds. Natural talent is a good base, but it won’t take you to the top. You need to nurture that talent, develop it and present it to the right people. This article shows you the basics. Some are more obvious than others. Most of you just need some reassurance that you’re taking the right steps to reach your goal, while others have no idea where to start. I believe that not all people in the “know” have the level of talent they need, and not all people with talent are in the “know”. I want to change that, so let’s start!

Email Frenzy

“I know that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”
RICHARD NIXON

According to the Radicati Group an estimated 183 billion emails are sent every day. That’s around 2 million emails every second sent by 1.2 billion email Users! Moreover, there are an estimated 516 million business email boxes worldwide. That’s a heck of a potential for mis-communication, misunderstandings, angry words, bad feelings and loss of productivity if the messages go wrong.

Communication experts say that email is good for INFORMATION and CONFIRMATION. However it’s not good for EMOTION or PERSUASION. It is very difficult to convey enthusiasm, empathy or sincerity via email. You can type the words, but one doesn’t get a sense of the way the words are conveyed, and therefore the message can be misinterpreted.

Software Development: Outsourcing is the New Mantra for Success


They say profit maximization is the prime goal for any management team and those managers are successful enough who are capable of controlling their subordinates. In today’s web driven world, the role for managers has increased manifold. A project manager is not only responsible for bringing good amounts of projects, but also need to look after it besides making its final delivery to clients. The software industry has been going under severe competition presently and in order to sustain in the retrace, project managers are conceiving new strategies so that business goals can be achieved on the behalf of the organization without compromising on quality of deliverables. Most of the companies have chosen outsourcing as a means of achieving targets at without investing much on cost. In a recession hit economic scenario, outsource software development firms are still shoeing good amount of courage thus retaining clients.

Implementing New Business Management Software: 7 Ways To Make It Smooth and Seamless


As a small business or a business just getting started, you might be using an entry level accounting system where the investment in training and configuration is minimal because the product is fairly easy to use. Often these systems are ideal until your business begins adding more users and your business processes become more complex than what the system can support.

When a small business decides to implement a new accounting or business management system, it cannot shut its doors or stop day-to-day responsibilities to install, configure, and test a new system. Also, it cannot expect to start using a new system without investing time to consider potential improvements to existing business processes or train end users and migrate historical data.

Blog Optimization


Search engine optimization is the process done to generate traffic through search engines. It became a need for websites because 80%-90% of visitors come from major search engines. Higher rankings mean greater number of visitors. The same concept applies to blogs. However, many blog owners are not aware of their chances of being more visible on the web. They just update it once in a while and that's it. Considering the great number of blogs on the net today, from personal to corporate blogs, all their efforts will just go to waste if they do not optimize it.

Just Twitter FIND IT!




On their website, I 80-Equipment invite the online truck shopper to “Just say FIND IT!” (http://www.i80equipment.com/locator.html) and they promise to help you find whatever you’re looking for. It’s only a matter of time before twittering truckers adopt this on Twitter too.

Remember two months ago, when people asked what Twitter was. Now if you’re a business and you’re worth your salt, you want to be Twitterin’.

For any business though, it is a calculated decision to twitter. You don’t want to start Twittering until you’re sure that you’ll have followers. It’s probably a costly mistake in the business world, to be seen Twittering with only 5 followers in tow. You want to start twittering when you’ve got a solid client-base who would do repeat business with you, if the need arises, and who will happily follow you, if invited.

The Real Reason for CRM implementation Failure



You can search the Internet and look at technology trade magazines and find list after list of why CRM (Customer Retention Management) implementations fail. To me, most of these "articles" are laundry lists from many "post mortem meetings". We can talk for days about "How the executives did not buy in to the solution", or "the employees, especially users, did not believe in the selected system" even "poor project management" are great excuses for spending thousands and even millions of dollars. Please don't misunderstand me; these are all valid reasons to project failure while the blame is placed on users, executives, project managers and even the solution itself. No one discusses the beginning of the failure point.

How Can A Website Benefit Your Business

by: Vignesh Rajendran


1. Why should you have a website?

In order to succeed in today's world, you must have an Internet presence. More and more people log on to the internet everyday; there are billions of users world-wide and there are several reasons why one needs a web site. A website is a powerful first impression. Placing your business on the World Wide Web, gives your business the potential for global exposure, no matter the size of your business – be it large or small; singular or multi-national. To have your own website gives your business invaluable advantages, which is illustrated in the answer to the next question, viz-a-viz:

Developing Documentation During System Development

by: Narain Balchandani
System documentation and user documentation are the two types of documents. System documentation is required for better understanding and maintenance of the application software. User documentation is designed to help the user operate the system. A good-quality document requires designing the documents, writing and editing the text, and testing them, and hence takes longer time for documentation. Lower-quality documentation can be produced faster. Nowadays online documentation is becoming more important compared to traditional paper-based manuals. Users are more familiar with paper-based documents and these are simpler to use. Although online documents require people to be familiar with additional software commands, searching for information is easier in online documents. These also enable the users to interact with the document.

There are mainly three types of user documentation: reference documents, procedure manuals and tutorials. Reference documents are used when the user needs to learn how to perform a specific function. Procedure manuals describe how to perform business tasks. Tutorials teach people how to use major components of the system.

Introduction

There are two types of documents.

System documentation is intended to help programmers and systems analysts understand the application software and enable them to build it or maintain it after the system is installed. System documentation is a by-product of the system analysis and design process, and is created as the project unfolds.

Each step and phase produce documents that are essential in understanding how the system is built or is to be built, and these documents are stored in the project binder(s).

User documentation (such as user’s manuals, training manuals and online help systems) is designed to help the user operate the system. Although most project teams expect users to have received training and read the user’s manuals before operating the system, unfortunately this is not always the case. It is more common today – especially in the case of commercial software packages for microcomputers – for users to begin the software without training or reading the user’s manual.

User documentation is often left until the end of the project, which is a dangerous strategy. Developing a good documentation takes longer than many people expect because it requires much more than simply writing a few pages.

Producing documentation requires designing the documents (whether paper or online), writing the text, editing them and testing them. For good-quality documentation, this process usually takes about 3 hours per paper page (single-spaced) for paper-based documentation or 2 hours per screen for online documentation.

Thus, a “simple” set of documentation such as a 20-page user’s manual and a set of 20 help screens take 100 hours. Of course, lower-quality documentation can be produced faster.

The time required to develop and test user documentation should be built into the project plan. Most organizations plan for documentation development to start once the interface design and program specifications are complete. The initial draft of documentation is usually scheduled for completion immediately after the unit tests are complete.

This reduces – but does not eliminate – the need for the documentation to be tested and revised before the acceptance tests is started.

Although paper-based manuals are still significant, online documentation is becoming more important. Paper-based documentation is simpler to use because it is more familiar to users, especially novices who have less computer experience; online documentation requires the users to learn one more set of commands. Paper-based documentation is also easier to flip through to gain a general understanding of its organization and topics, and can be used far away from the computer itself.

There are four key strengths of online documentation that all but guarantee that it will be the dominant format form for the next century. First, searching for information is often simpler (provided the help search index is well designed). The user can type in a variety of keywords to view information instantaneously, rather than having to search through the index or table of contents in a paper document. Second, the same information can be presented several times in many different formats, so that the user can find and read the information in the most informative way.

Third, online documentation enables the users to interact with the documentation. For example, it is possible to use links or “tool tips” (i.e., pop-up text) to explain unfamiliar terms, and programmers can write “show me” routines that demonstrate on the screen exactly what buttons to click and text to type. Finally, online documentation is significantly less expensive to distribute and keep up-to-date than paper documentation.

Types of Documentation

There are fundamentally three different types of user documentation: reference documents, procedure manuals and tutorials. Reference documents (also called the help system) are designed to be used when the user needs to learn how to perform a specific function (e.g., printing a monthly report, taking a customer order). Typically, people read reference information only after they have tried and failed to perform the function. Writing reference documentation requires special care because users are often impatient or frustrated when they begin to read them.

Procedure manuals describe how to perform business tasks (e.g., printing a monthly report, taking a customer order). Each item in the procedures manually guides the user through a task that requires several functions or steps in the system. Therefore, each entry is typically much longer than an entry in a reference document.

Tutorials teach people how to use major components of the system (e.g., an introduction to the basic operations of the system). Each entry in the tutorial is typically longer than the entities in procedure manuals and the entities are usually designed to be read in sequence, whereas entries in reference documents and procedure manuals are designed to be read individually.

Regardless of the type of user documentation, the overall process for developing it is similar to the process of developing interfaces. The developer first designs the general structure for the documentation and then develops the individual components within it.

Documentation and managing the documentation in company’s Intranet are critical for a company, and the resource spent on it is worthwhile. For more info on these topics and training refer to Business Analysis & Data Modeling Training Bangalore


About The Author

Narain Balchandani, Director of Integrated Quality Training Institute, Bangalore, has more than 14 years of experience in the field of teaching. His favourite subjects include Business Analysis, Data Modelling, writing, UML and so on. IQTI offers training in these topics. For more info, refer to http://www.iqtiedu.com

Integrated Approach to Internet Strategy for Business

Technology and the Internet have transformed business in ways that very few people could have predicted years ago. Increasingly the internet is being used as a cost effective solution for many of the business operations. An internet business strategy is basically a plan that how you want to manage your online presence for your business.

Adopting an integrated approach in devising a successfully internet strategy to benefit your business, a well planned web presence can increase the market awareness and branding of your business that brings you tangible results.

Just as you have a strategic plan to grow your business, you need to develop an internet marketing plan that integrates the most effective online strategies for increasing website traffic and converting visitors into buyers.

An internet strategy for any business includes website planning, development, marketing and management. Planning ensures that your content targets the right type of customers. For that you have to customize your web plan to fit your company rather than following any well-written formula. Even so, there are standard components you have to follow them such as market analysis, strategy, any specific development plan, marketing and most importantly expense budget.

1. Market research- It is a fundamental part of any business strategy. This normally includes a target market analysis, market research and a market forecast.

2. Website strategy- This includes your mission and objective of starting an internet business, web development and marketing strategy.

3. Specific development plan- Any web plan is measured by the result it produces. Therefore, implementation of your plan is more important than brilliant ideas. Start taking action on the tasks that you have created during the planning stage.

4. Identify your organization goals. Every company has a set of tangible and intangible goals and identifying yours will help you better focus on it and implement them in time.

5. Online marketing- Getting the most out of the online marketing channels requires specialized techniques like search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, social media optimization, e-mail marketing and many more to reach out to your customers.

6. Expense budget- This includes details to track expenses month by month and follow up with your plan vs. actual analysis.

7. Returns (ROI) - Business is driven by ROI and it is only natural that the online marketing efforts need to lead into a positive ROI determined by the key performance indicators.

8. Survey- Get feedback from website visitors regarding what bought them to you or how their experience has been on your website.

The Internet presents a wide range of marketing and communication opportunities for every business. Making those opportunities a reality requires careful planning, thoughtful assessment and directed focus.

Web design is very important to search engines. Messy, over-complicated or bad code give the search engine spiders a hard time crawling your pages. If the spiders/crawlers can't crawl your pages properly and retrieve all the data they need, the search engines can't rank them properly.

There are more effective methods of attracting your customers to your website than search engine listings. PPC is great for targeting potential leads in every phase of the buying cycle and it is measurable. Studies show that regular contact with customers helps to maintain your relationship with them and generates referral business.

Many companies consider web advertising a viable technique to benefit your online business. The ability to target has been one of the main things that have attracted people to the internet for advertising. You can target big to very small websites that give real, vertical information and at the same time, it is also interactive.

The scope for business on the Internet is fantastic-there is so much potential there and all you have to do is have an integrated strategy or plan to make it happen.

SCORM and the Learning Management System (LMS)

by: Stuart Campbell

What actually is SCORM? SCORM, Shareable Content Object Reference Model, is a standard for web-based e-learning that has been developed to define communication between client-side content and a runtime environment. In the context of this article, the client-side content would be the course launched by a student and the runtime environment would be a Learning Management System. The SCORM standard has undergone several version releases from SCORM v1.0 in 1999 to the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition in 2006. The purpose of this article is to look in a little more detail at the communication flow between the LMS and a course that is SCORM v2.1 compliant. The intention is not to review every possible communication but just the main calls. We will look at SCORM in the context of a SCORM course, i.e. a course that has been developed and built to communicate with a Learning Management System using the SCORM standard.

First of all, let me define a few terms that I will use and that you may hear in reference to SCORM courses:

• API (Application Programming Interface)

The SCORM standard has a defined API. The term API is not unique to SCORM but is a well known term in application development. The SCORM API is a documented set of messages that are sent between the course and the LMS. The message may require a response so that the sender of the message is guaranteed that the message has been received and processed appropriately.

• Manifest

The manifest is the master file for the SCORM course that contains references to all other files that make up the complete content of the course.

• Single SCO

A single SCO is the most basic and most common form of a SCORM course. All files that make up the course, regardless of the number of lessons in the course, are packaged as one SCO unit. When the course is launched within the Learning Management System, it communicates with the SCO.

• Multiple SCO

A multiple SCO is where a group of files within the course can be treated as an individual SCO but packaged together with other SCOs to comprise one course. For example, the files that comprise each lesson of a SCORM course can be grouped together so that each lesson is a SCO in its own right and all the SCOs will comprise the one course.

Course Installation

For the course to be available in the Learning Management System, the SCORM package needs to be installed on the system. The method of installation will vary from LMS to LMS but will typically go through the following steps:

1. The manifest file will be located and interpreted.

2. The course identified in the manifest will be created in the Learning Management System and the course properties will be populated with the values defined in the manifest. These properties may include course name, creator, etc.

3. The lessons of the course will be created in the LMS and the lesson properties will be populated with the values defined in the manifest. Lesson properties would include information such as the path to the lesson file, passing grade, etc.

The Learning Management System should provide a facility to overwrite an already existing SCORM course so that if updates are made to the existing course, an installation will deploy those changes.

Course Communication

Initialization

When the course is launched within its run time environment, which for our purposes is the LMS, it will detect the existence of the API and attempt to make initial communication with the Learning Management System. This is a one-time handshake to ensure that communication has been established. The SCORM course is responsible for locating the API in the child browser session that it has launched in from the parent. The API is typically deployed using JavaScript. The API call that the course uses to do this is the LMSInitialize call. When the Learning Management System receives this API message call from the course, the LMS will initialize and respond to inform the course that communication has been established. An object model has been created in memory and the properties have been initialized to default values.

Intermediary Course Communication

Once the course has been launched and initialized with the LMS, the interaction between the two is determined by the course. It will use LMSGetValue and LMSSetValue API message calls to retrieve or populate data in the object model. Bear in mind that the object model exists in memory and has not been sent to the Learning Management System.

When the course needs to write the data so it exists in the database, it will send the API message LMSCommit. The LMSCommit will be received by the Learning Management System and the data stored to the LMS. The course developer will determine when an LMSCommit is required and it will be sent to the LMS when the event is activated. This could be at the end of each lesson or it could be at the end of the course.

The LMSCommit is an optional message and does not require a response from the Learning Management System.

Finalization

When the course is completed, it will send an LMSFinish API message to the LMS. This may be triggered by an event in the course that activates the LMSFinish or it may be on the Unload event of the HTML page when the user closes the browser. The LMSFinish indicates to the LMS that the user has ended the course and any further communication between the two will be rejected. The LMSFinish also initiates the Learning Management System to store any data that has been populated in the object model and complete the unloading of the course.

The key difference between the LMSCommit and LMSFinish API message calls is that the latter will prevent further communication with the course.

The LMSFinish is a mandatory message and does not require a response from the LMS.

Learning Management System Considerations

When the LMSFinish is received by the LMS, there are several scenarios that may need to be taken into account. Some of these may be the product of errors in course development but are scenarios that have been experienced in interfacing with a SCORM compliant course:

1. The SCORM course may indicate the student has failed a lesson but the score passed from the SCO may be greater than the lesson passing grade that was installed from the manifest.

2. The SCORM course may indicate a lesson status for the user and pass the score of the lesson but there has been no passing grade defined for the lesson.

3. It would be advantageous for the Learning Management System to provide API message logging so that a communication history may be recreated for debugging or historical purposes. Consideration should be given to the following:

a. Method of storage, whether it is stored in a database or out to a file.

b. Is logging on all the time or is there a switch to turn logging on or off? (There will be some overhead when logging is switched on, as opposed to being off.)

c. If logging is to file, is there a log file for each course, each user, or one large SCORM log file?

d. How is log data purged? When logging is stored in the database, how often is the table purged? Can the data be deleted or does it need to be archived? If logging is to a file, does the file build in size until it is manually renewed or does the logging mechanism have a trigger that automatically generates a new file? (If the file is left to grow too big, it becomes very impractical to open it in a text editor.)

Conclusions

SCORM has a proven track record in the web based e-learning world and is the accepted standard in the industry. Reputable LMS vendors should support your SCORM course out of the box. The SCORM 2004 version has added much more control and sequencing at a more granular level than SCORM v1.2 however those differences are significant enough to cause the user base to be slower in adopting the SCORM 2004 version.


About The Author

Stuart Campbell is Director of Software Development for SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com), a privately-held supplier of e-Learning software and training. A native of the United Kingdom, he had previously served as a Principle Software Engineer, Senior Consultant, Senior Software Engineer, and Development Specialist for companies such as Brooks Automation Inc., Digital Equipment, and Honeywell Control Systems. His areas of expertise include Visual Studio.NET, C#, VB.NET, VB6, VBScript, XML, COBOL, WindowsXP, Windows2000, WindowsNT, VAX/VMS, UNIX, Oracle, SQLServer, Oracle Rdb, Oracle DBMS, and Agile Modeling Methodology.

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