Firmwater

General frequently asked questions

Answers to the most common questions about Firmwater LMS, organized by category.

General questions:

1. What is an LMS?
2. What type of content can be loaded and delivered by the system?
3. What is SCORM? What are its benefits?
4. Where can I get more information about SCORM?
5. Is Firmwater LMS SCORM compliant? What versions?
6. How can I create SCORM content?
7. Does Firmwater offer content creation services?
8. How is Firmwater LMS priced?
9. Can we install Firmwater LMS on our own server?

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1. What is an LMS?

   A learning management system (LMS) helps manage an organization's learning activities and competencies. It allows you to load content (courses, tests, resources), specify who receives what content, and tracks and reports on its use.

2. What type of content can be loaded and delivered by the system?

   Firmwater LMS supports the loading and delivery of SCORM content, either SCORM 2004 content (the latest version) or older SCORM 1.2 content. You can also load stand-alone files directly, such as PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and images. Firmwater LMS also supports loading assessments authored in QTI, which get delivered by the built-in assessment engine.

3. What is SCORM? What are its benefits?

   The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of specifications that provide a suite of e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility and reuse of Web-based learning content. It is widely adopted by many huge organizations and is the de facto industry standard. The standard is administered by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative from the Department of Defense.

   The latest version of the standard, SCORM 2004, contains three specifications:

   1. The SCORM Content Aggregation Model (CAM), which describes how content should be packaged and delivered in a physical sense.
   2. The SCORM Run-Time Environment (RTE), which describes how the content 'talks' to the LMS while the content is playing. This allows the content to save status and interaction data back to the LMS.
   3. SCORM Sequencing and Navigation (SN), which describes how content can be sequenced to a learner through a set of navigation events.

   SCORM is a powerful tool for anyone involved in online training — it offers plug-and-play functionality. Content can be created once and used with any compliant system. With proper content organization, it allows you to reuse your content in many different situations without modification.

4. Where can I get more information about SCORM?

   Some more information about SCORM:

   • ADLNet.gov website (official site and specifications)
   • The One Minute SCORM Overview for Anyone from Rustici Software
   • SCORM Primer from Philip Dodds, available on the ADL Community Site

5. Is Firmwater LMS SCORM compliant? What versions?

   Firmwater LMS was designed from the ground up to support SCORM 2004.

   Firmwater LMS also fully supports the older version, SCORM 1.2, with the highest compliance rating of "SCORM 1.2 Run-Time Environment Conformant - Minimum with All Optional Model Elements (LMS-RTE3)".

6. How can I create SCORM content?

   There are many products that can produce SCORM content. Most of the options are general purpose content development environments — generating SCORM packages is just one of their output options. Some of the more popular content creation tools are:

   • Adobe Captivate
   • Articulate Studio
   • TechSmith Camtasia Studio
   • Adobe Authorware

   Our advice for which of the products to choose really depends on what you want to use it for. Each has its own strengths. You can find evaluations and how-to guides on using some of these products in our resources section.

7. Does Firmwater offer content creation services?

   Firmwater has partnered with several great content developers to help our clients with content development and conversion. If you have a specific need, please contact us.

8. How is Firmwater LMS priced?

   Firmwater LMS is competitively priced. With no upfront setup fees, you can get started right away. We only charge for actual usage and have several volume-based pricing options designed to fit with your business model.

   Call us now at +1. 877.347.6928 (toll-free in US & Canada) to discuss your needs and we'll help you find a winning option.

9. Can we install Firmwater LMS on our own server?

   We currently don't offer an installable version of Firmwater LMS. It is only available as a hosted service. We maintain the servers, the security, all the updates and improvements so you don't have to worry about anything.

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