3 Ways to Host Your SCORM Courses Without an LMS
When you have a SCORM file on your hands that you want to make viewable online, that doesn’t mean you need an LMS to do so. SCORM packages are usually HTML content at their core, which means they behave just like other webpages. A few simple steps will allow you to host a SCORM course and turn it into a link you can share online.
Here are the methods of SCORM hosting that I’ll cover for you in this article:
Note: The options above, except for SCORM Cloud, won’t let you collect any stats from your SCORM package. So, they can’t be considered alternatives to using a learning management system. If you’re here to capture SCORM stats without an LMS, opt for SCORM Cloud.
1. Upload SCORM to a Website via FTP
In this post, I’ll show you step by step how to upload an eLearning course to your website if you’re a Windows user. If you have a Mac, go to this article .
Step 1. Find out if your website allows uploading HTML
There are services like wordpress.com that would only let you upload HTML files one by one, and that, unfortunately, won’t work for us because we need to upload an entire folder.
There are also services like Dropbox or Google Drive that may seem like a good fit since they allow you to upload not only files but folders as well. However, while the folder-uploading aspect is true, they can’t really “play” HTML files like a website does. Instead, they will simply serve those files as downloadable text documents.
So, in this step, you need to find out the following from your website provider:
- Can I upload HTML projects that comprise more than one file to my website?
- Can my website display uploaded HTML?
If you got positive responses, move on to step #2. If luck wasn’t on your side, opt for GitHub or SCORM Cloud options instead. Scroll down to the end of the article to learn more about those.
Step 2. Extract the ZIP
Find the SCORM file on your computer, right-click on it and select Extract All. Then, open the extracted folder and look for any files with the .html extension. Open them one by one in your browser to see what file should be your “landing” point when you upload the entire folder to your website. Write down the name of that file.
Remember — the HTML file alone is not enough. There are images, audio, video, and fonts that can’t be removed from your course if you want it to work. So, you will need to upload the entire extracted folder to be sure that there are no glitches.
Step 3. Upload the course folder
Now it’s time to get your hands dirty using FTP. This is the name for a protocol that will allow you to manage your website’s file structure and upload new files in batches (and that’s exactly what we need to upload our SCORM package)
Install an FTP client. If you’re not sure which one to download, try FileZilla. Run it and enter your FTP credentials that you should’ve received from your hosting provider:
After you’ve connected to the server, you should see its folder structure on the right in FileZilla’s interface. Find the folder for HTML uploads on the server and click on it. Usually, it’s named www or public_html (this is something your hosting provider should know best).
Locate the course folder on your PC on the left, right-click on it and select Upload. Now, your course folder should appear in the website’s file structure.
Step 4. Create the URL
When uploading is finished, open the folder on the server-side. Then, right-click on the main HTML file that you figured out in step 2 and select Copy URL(s) to Clipboard
Combine your website address (starting with http:// or https://) and the link to the HTML file you just copied from FileZilla (ftp://), like this (only copy the parts in bold):
+
2. ftp://davidwebsite.net/htdocs /LMS_SCORM_1_2/story_html5.html
And you should end up with something like this: http://davidbrandt.website.com/LMS_SCORM_1_2/story_html5.html
Step 5. Test in a browser
Paste the link you got into your browser and press Enter. Ta-da, now you should be able to view your course online and share it.
2. Upload SCORM to GitHub
GitHub is where a large part of software development happens these days. Devs make “commits” and “fork” others’ projects using this service. What has that got to do with SCORM, right?
Turns out GitHub lets you have your own online space for your coding projects for free, and that’s what we can use to host a SCORM course.
Check out this article to learn the ropes of it. Your humble servant tried it out and was able to upload a SCORM online in just 15 minutes.
3. Upload to SCORM Cloud
SCORM Cloud is a web service that allows its users to host SCORM packages, retrieve and analyze stats on them, and dispatch uploaded modules into LMSs that are far from 100% conformance with the SCORM standard.
Overall, I would call it a solid alternative to SCORM hosting on a website. However, SCORM Cloud requires users to enter their information (name/email) before they can open a module. Hence, there will be an additional step that not every person will be willing to take to view your course.
If you haven’t tried it out, check out my article on SCORM players to learn how to use SCORM Cloud.
To Sum Up
Hosting SCORM courses on a website is a great way to showcase your e-learning online. The biggest downside is that you won’t get any of the stats that SCORM would let you acquire when used in an LMS. So, if you’re trying to up your e-learning game, definitely start looking for an LMS.
If your goal is just to showcase your e-courses, choose one of the methods described in my post. There might be some alternatives to them, so if you have one in your scope, let me know in the comments.
Originally published at https://lmschef.com on October 31, 2019.
