Extending the SCORM Specification for References to the Open Content Object

The Open Content Object (OCO), which was put forward in the author’s previous paper, is an object that has the function of requesting services and providing services through the messages-passing mechanism, which relies on the Learning Management System (LMS) as the scheduling center of messages. The OCOs can offer a particular and flexible approach to designing the interoperable web-based content aggregation through its containers and organizing the learning sequence through the associational relationships between OCOs. This paper discusses how to extend the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) Specification for applying the Open Content Object. The extensions to the SCORM Specification include extending SCORM’s Content Aggregation Model and Run-Time Environment in light of the OCO’s open characteristic. The paper also presents the XML binding and implementation of extending SCORM’s Content Aggregation Model and some simple examples of using this extended reference model. The Open Content Object can be applied to the web-based learning contents through the extended SCORM specification presented by this paper, and it is hoped that the Open Content Object will offer some references for the next generation model of ADL/SCORM’s content object.