Why don’t you become one of the Moodle hosting partners and as part of your value added proposition to the Moodle hosting is that those that use Rustici as a Moodle host will have the SCORM 2004 player available to them. There could be a tiered cost of hosting to reflect the added software value.
–Brian Caudill, JCA Solutions

Hej Tim,

interesting post! – I can definitely see the benefit of allowing a pluggable SCORM 2004 compliant engine into Moodle – even if it’s a “commercial” option. I’m interested to hear more about how you integrate with Moodle – do you use a new Module type or a course format?

You pose an interesting question “Hvad ville du være villig til at betale for at få dette problem løst” – IMO – this would likely be similar or more than the price the “bruger” paid for their SCORM Authoring tool…. I’d guess that users of the open source tools like eXe/Reload etc probably wouldn’t want to spend extra $$ on a SCORM engine when they can “make do” med 1.2 stuff in Moodle currently….dog – the users of some of the higher end tools may be happy to pay for a tool to get it compliant now. (as long as it’s easy to install)

I have absolutely no issues with adding detail about your tool to the documentation wiki for those looking for SCORM 2004 overholdelse. Or for you or others to promote it’s use in the SCORM forum – It’s definitely a worthwhile tool, and if it solves some users issues, and they can afford to pay for it, then great!

i appreciate your situation.

the most common approach for open-source software seems to be: give it away then charge people for support.

the moodle community is huge and still growing; there is a very large potential client base there, esp. if the rustici scorm engine is the default SCORM component in moodle. plus, it helps the community at large and is for the greater good.

perhaps you can open-source the PHP/moodle version but continue to sell ASP.Net versions — people who use ASP-based solutions are used to spending big bucks!

Godt indlæg, and follow-up comments.
I am the MD of a Moodle Partner (HRD in New Zealand), and I believe some commercial users of Moodle would be willing to pay for this.

Many Moodle users will use Articulate etc. to produce content for example ($$$’s).

Men, this should be balanced against the hundreds of thousands of smaller Moodle users who could/would not.

Can you provide a ‘trimmed down version’ perhaps for free? (Not sure of the technical challenges there!). This would be a great marketing opportunity for you, with a pathway for users to upgrade to a paid version (and I’m sure there would be a market in the colleges, polytechnics, universities, commercial companies).

I also like Philips idea of a PHP/Moodle OS version, and a paid for ASP.Net version (when did M$ last give you software for free?). Software such as DimDim and others use this type of strategy quite successfully

Eventually the day will come when the Moodle community’s own SCORM 2004 efforts will be ‘good enough’ for most folks. Not only will that be bad news for commercial LMS vendors, it will be bad news for companies like Rustici who will still have a great product, but a shrinking customer base. Selvfølgelig, it will be great news for everyone else.

How do you preserve your current sales channel while positioning for the inevitable changes coming?

I think you’ve got a couple of good options, but you can’t just open source your code and try to sell support. That model won’t work for the kind of product you provide. If you did that I guarantee I’d use your stuff and seriously doubt I’d need much support. It would be business suicide.

I stedet, you could either get into the hosted Moodle business or partner with someone else who will do that part. Bringing certified SCORM 2004 to the party will give you the upper hand over every other Moodle hosting company out there. It will also allow you to compete for deals previously available only to commercial products.

Anden, consider selling a Moodle drop-in SCORM Engine complete with management module on the cheap. Provide licensing that prevents distribution of your module, but make it affordable and standardize it enough that the masses can come to your web site, buy the thing, drop it in and use it. You’ll make money in your sleep.

Will the Moodle community go to school on you and just build their own version? Sikker. But they are going to get there at some point anyway. Perhaps work out some terms to be granted a period of exclusivity before any community release includes a competing capability.

Endelig, keep it affordable. Don’t tempt cheapskates with a good but unobtainable product and you’ll be amazed with how many of these you sell.

[...] just noticed this post on Rustici’s Blog -they’ve also mentioned in the past about the possibility of offering a commercial plugin for Moodle and their SCORM [...]

Hej
I’m developer of software for Scorm-courses creating.
I have a problem. My single item course open his single page in new window. How I can do it will be opened in the same window? (like courses with any items)

This varies. Certain LMSs, including those that use our products, offer controls that allow you to dictate the window opening behavior. (See our course properties for more detail.)

Other LMSs, selv, are not required to offer this functionality. SCORM itself does not dictate cosmetic behaviors such as this one.

How I can get total time for each sco? I need gen it by javascript inside html-file of sco.

Gir. I’ve answered your questions via email. Thanks.

Tenho o seguinte problema: o curso esta sendo feito em Flash AS2. Em uma determinada tela do curso existem 6 botões e cada um chama um HTML, preciso controlar quais foram os botões clicados e para no caso do aluno sair dos curso, antes de terminar de clicar em todos os botões preciso guardar quais ele já clicou e mostrar para ele quais estão faltando. Bom acho que expliquei o que queria. O que passa em minha cabeça e que tenha algum campo que eu possa jogar valores que seja do tipo ARRAY, para controlar por aluno. Obrigado!

I have the following problem: the course is being done in Flash AS2. In one particular screen of course there are 6 buttons, and each called an HTML, precise control which buttons were clicked and if the student leaves the course before you finish click all the buttons I need to preserve what he already clicked and show for it which are missing. Well I think I explained what I wanted. What goes in my head and that has some field values so I can play that’s an array to control for student. Thanks!