What Is SCORM And Is It Necessary For Selling Online Courses

TL;DR — What is SCORM And Does It Matter for Selling Online Courses?
SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) is a set of rules that make online courses work smoothly across different learning platforms (LMSs). For example, if you create a SCORM-compliant course on Platform A and later want to move it to Platform B, you can do it without rebuilding anything, as long as both support SCORM. It also helps track learner progress, quiz scores, and course completion in a consistent way.

✅ Who Uses SCORM and Why?
SCORM is mostly used by:
– Large companies for employee training
– Government agencies for compliance programs
– Schools and universities with formal learning systems
– Healthcare and finance organizations where accurate tracking is required
– Training companies that sell course packages to other businesses

These organizations often require SCORM because it ensures:
– Compatibility across different LMS platforms
– Accurate progress tracking and reports
– Compliance with industry regulations

🟢 When SCORM Matters
You should care about SCORM if:
– You’re selling courses to businesses or government clients
– You want to reuse or move your course between platforms
– Your industry requires proof of training or compliance
– You offer structured, multi-lesson courses with interactive content

🔴 When SCORM Doesn’t Matter
You can skip SCORM if:
– You’re a solo creator selling video-based courses to individuals
– You don’t plan to move your course or sell to organizations

🛠️ How to Make a SCORM-Compliant Course
To follow SCORM standards, you normally need:
1. An authoring tool to build your course in the SCORM format
2. An LMS to host and deliver your course
👉 But in most cases, you don’t need two separate tools. Platforms like LearnWorlds, TalentLMS, and iSpring Learn include both course-building and SCORM support, so you can create, upload, and track everything in one place without dealing with the technical stuff.

The Top SCORM Compliant LMS and Course Platforms
– LearnWorlds
– TalentLMS
– iSpringLearn
– New Zenler
– LearnUpon
– Adobe Captivate Prime

Bottom line: SCORM is important if you’re selling to organizations or want long-term flexibility. But for most solo course creators, it’s something you can safely ignore.

If you are looking for a platform to sell online courses, there is a good chance you will come across the term “SCORM” at some point. But what is SCORM? And, when it comes right down to it, does SCORM matter for selling online courses?

What is SCORM? Meaning And Purpose

SCORM, which is an acronym for the Shareable Content Object Reference Model, is the most widely recognized set of technical standards in the e-learning world.

SCORM was first introduced in 2000 by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, a project of the U.S. Department of Defense.

It provides a standardized way for online course content to communicate and interact with a Learning Management System (LMS).

When your content follows SCORM standards, you can easily migrate it to any SCORM-compatible LMS without building your course from scratch.

That’s a big deal for anyone with a high volume of online courses that rely on navigating through hundreds of HTML pages.

SCORM also defines a consistent way to track how students interact with your course content. For example, a course creator might want to know

• Whether a learner has started a particular piece of content
• How much time they spent consuming it
• Whether they completed it and passed or failed
• What’s their assessment score

SCORM does this by providing guidelines on the following aspects of course creation:

Packaging: SCORM defines how to package and structure your course content to easily import, launch, and track within an LMS.

Data Tracking: SCORM specifies how learner data (such as progress, completion status, scores, and interactions) should be communicated between the course content and the LMS. 

Navigation: SCORM provides guidelines for how learners should navigate through course content, enabling features like bookmarking and resuming from where they left off.

Compatibility: By adhering to SCORM standards, course creators can ensure that their content will work seamlessly across different SCORM-compliant LMSs, without needing extensive customization or compatibility issues.

LearnWorlds is one of the few platforms in its class that supports SCORM.

Does SCORM Matter And Is It Still Relevant?

Short answer – it depends on your target audience and course creation goals.

Let me explain in more detail.

Scenario #1: When SCORM Compliance Doesn’t Matter

The information that SCORM handles is pretty important. But it is also information that can be handled in other ways.

For example, many of the online course platforms most popular with solo edupreneurs feature authoring tools that enable you to create course pages within their systems and import video clips and other content elements. These systems usually have proprietary ways of tracking what learners do in a course and providing you with reports. They don’t rely on SCORM packaging, and arguably, they give you everything you need without SCORM.

But, here’s the rub – if you take your content out of these systems, it is highly unlikely you will be able to take it into another system and have it play and track in the same way – at least, not without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

Scenario #2: When SCORM Packaging Is Important

Creating SCORM content can be critical in the following scenarios.

Migrating Your Course To Another LMS

If you want to be able to migrate your course from Thinkific, Teachable, or any other platform that doesn’t comply with SCORM, you’ll have to build it from scratch.

This is where SCORM packaging can save you a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

You can easily migrate SCORM content to any other LMS without losing your tracking data or critical student information.

Selling to Corporations and Organizations

If your aim is to sell your online courses to businesses or governmental organizations, a large percentage of them are going to have learning management systems (LMSes) that are designed to play and track SCORM-based content, not the stuff that you create in the average $0 to $99-a-month online course platform.

Compliance and Accreditation:

SCORM compliance is often a regulatory requirement in industries such as healthcare, aviation, or finance. If you plan to sell courses to any such industry, follow the SCORM format for content creation.

How To Create SCORM-Compliant Course Content

SCORM has detailed content creation specifications that aren’t easy to understand for a regular non-technical course creator. 

So, the best way to create SCORM and HTML5 packages or courses is by using a SCORM authoring tool with a compliant learning management system.

Once you create your course content with a SCORM authoring tool, you can upload it to a compliant LMS. The best SCORM LMS platforms handle all the technical compliance issues in the background. 

SCORM Authoring Tools vs. SCORM LMS – What’s The Difference?

You cannot use SCORM authoring tools and SCORM LMS interchangeably.

Here’s how they’re different from each other.

SCORM Authoring Tools

These software tools allow you to create eLearning content following the SCORM guidelines. They provide the right environment to build interactive learning modules like quizzes, presentations, simulations, and assessments, and then save them as a SCORM package.

Some of the mainstream SCORM authoring tools include Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, iSpring Suite, Camtasia, and Elucidat.

SCORM Learning Management System (LMS)

These are eLearning platforms that host, deliver, and manage SCORM-compliant content. Once you create your course content using an authoring tool, you’ll use an LMS to deliver it to your students.

Many leading SCORM LMS platforms include authoring features as well. So, if you choose the right tool, you’ll get both functionalities at one price.

It is also possible that an LMS supports content created with specific SCORM authoring tools but cannot create SCORM content itself.

Popular SCORM Compliant Learning Management Systems And Course Platforms

Here are some popular SCORM-compliant eLearning platforms you can use for course creation.

Platform	Best For	SCORM Support	Notes
LearnWorlds	Course creators & training businesses	✅ Full support	Built-in authoring + SCORM upload. Great all-in-one option.
TalentLMS	Small businesses & corporate training	✅ Full support	Easy to use, SCORM 1.2 and 2004 support. Includes authoring tools.
iSpring Learn	Corporate learning & onboarding	✅ Full support	Works perfectly with iSpring Suite (authoring tool).
Absorb LMS	Mid-to-large businesses	✅ Full support	Strong SCORM support + analytics.
Docebo	Enterprise training & learning automation	✅ Full support	Scalable LMS with AI features.
SAP Litmos	Corporate training & compliance	✅ Full support	Used by many enterprises. Simple SCORM importing.
Moodle	Schools & universities	✅ Full support	Open-source and free, but needs setup and hosting.
Thinkific Plus	Enterprise course delivery	❌ No native SCORM	SCORM support only with paid integrations (e.g., via SCORM Cloud).
Adobe Captivate Prime	Corporate & enterprise training	✅ Full support	Pairs well with Captivate authoring tool.
Cornerstone OnDemand	Large-scale enterprise learning	✅ Full support	Enterprise LMS with full SCORM support.
Looop (by 360Learning)	Internal team training	✅ Limited support	Supports SCORM uploads, but better for microlearning.
New Zenler	Course creators who want built-in SCORM	✅ SCORM support	SCORM file upload available on Pro plans.
360Learning	Collaborative learning for teams	✅ Full support	Used by companies for employee development.
Elucidat	Large-scale content authoring & delivery	✅ Full support	Great for creating & hosting SCORM packages, but mostly authoring.
LearnUpon	B2B training providers & software companies	✅ Full support	Clean UI, easy SCORM upload, good for partner training.

Is SCORM Outdated?

SCORM has been around for over two decades, and while it’s still widely used, it’s starting to show its age.

If you’re creating or selling courses for corporate training, compliance, or government, SCORM is still very much alive. Several LMSs support it, and many organizations require it because they’ve built entire training systems around it.

But SCORM does have limitations:

• It only works inside traditional LMSs.
• It can’t track learning that happens outside the course, like watching a YouTube video, reading a PDF, or attending a live session.
• It offers only basic tracking (start, finish, score, time spent).
• It’s not ideal for mobile-first, modern learning experiences.

What are the newer SCORM alternatives?

Two more modern standards are gaining traction as SCORM alternatives:

• xAPI (Tin Can API): Tracks learning anywhere — not just in the LMS. It’s great for mobile apps, games, simulations, and even offline activity.
• cmi5: A newer format built on top of xAPI, designed to bring SCORM-like structure to modern platforms.

If your course needs go beyond the basics like tracking learner activity across different tools, delivering content on mobile devices, or getting deeper analytics, these newer standards may be a better fit.

Does SCORM Compliance Matter for Your eLearning Business?

So, there are definitely situations in which the answer to “Does SCORM matter?” is emphatically “Yes!”

The trick, of course, is you have to decide whether any of these situations apply to you.

If you offer only a handful of courses and they are not particularly complicated – mainly video files and a handful of quizzes, for example – then the upside of using a low-cost, user-friendly system now may far outweigh any future costs or pain associated with moving your content to a different system.

If, on the other hand, you intend to crank out a pretty high volume of courses and they rely on navigating through a significant number of HTML pages, think twice about ignoring SCORM. You don’t want to build out a ton of content now in a proprietary system only to figure out later that you should have built it in a tool that can easily create SCORM-compliant content (like IsEazy, iSpring, Adobe Captivate, or any of the Articulate products).

Similarly, if you really have no plans to sell to corporate or government clients, then worrying about SCORM may add a level of complexity to your business that just doesn’t make sense. But if you see these kinds of clients as integral to your business model, then SCORM does matter.

I suspect most solopreneur subject matter experts do not really need to worry about SCORM – which is why most of the platforms that target this group ignore it – but make that assessment as early in your planning as possible.

Bottom line: SCORM does matter in certain situations. Be clear about whether it matters in yours.

Jeff

*I’ve oversimplified my explanation a fair amount to stay focused on what I think matters most for my readers. If you want to dig into SCORM in more depth, though, I recommend starting with SCORM Explained.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I sell SCORM courses on marketplaces like Udemy or Coursera?
No. Marketplaces like Udemy and Coursera don’t support SCORM uploads. They use their own course structures and tracking systems.

What’s the difference between SCORM, xAPI, and AICC?
SCORM is the most widely used standard, but xAPI (Tin Can) offers more advanced tracking, especially outside LMSs. AICC is older and mostly outdated.

Do I need to know coding to create SCORM-compliant courses?
No. Authoring tools like iSpring Suite or Articulate Storyline handle the technical parts — no coding needed.

Can I use video-based courses with SCORM?
Yes. SCORM packages can include videos, but they often include quizzes, interactions, and progress tracking as well.

Is SCORM free to use?
SCORM is an open standard, but most tools that help you create SCORM-compliant content are paid.

What happens if my LMS is not SCORM compliant?
You won’t be able to upload or track SCORM packages. Your content may not play correctly, and learner activity won’t be tracked reliably.

Can I convert an existing course into SCORM format?
Yes, but you’ll need to rebuild it using a SCORM authoring tool. It’s not an automatic process unless you already have structured files.

Does SCORM work on mobile devices?
Yes, most modern SCORM content supports mobile responsiveness, especially if created with mobile-friendly authoring tools.

What LMS features should I look for if I need SCORM support?
Look for: SCORM 1.2 and 2004 compatibility, detailed learner analytics, version control, and mobile support.

Can SCORM help with course certification or issuing CEUs?
Yes. SCORM can track completion, scores, and time spent, which are often required for issuing certificates or continuing education units (CEUs).

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.