Best Practices for Creating SCORM Courses / HTML that Work in zipBoard

Understanding zipBoard Functionality

zipBoard empowers users to review and annotate various web content formats, including webpages, courses, PDFs, and videos. While zipBoard excels at pinpointing annotations on standard formats like PDFs and videos, its ability to precisely tag comments on webpages and courses hinges on the underlying HTML structure.

Challenges with Webpages and Courses:

• Non-Standardized Code: Unlike standardized formats, webpages and courses often employ varying code structures depending on the authoring tool used. This inconsistency makes it difficult to universally support every authoring tool.
• Missing APIs: In cases where the authoring tool doesn't expose specific APIs, zipBoard is unable to achieve direct tagging functionality.

Requirements for Direct Annotation in zipBoard

For annotations to function directly on courses or webpages within zipBoard, the following information is essential:

1. Unique URL per Page: Every webpage within the course must possess a unique URL to reflect any content changes. This ensures annotations stay attached to the correct content.
2. JavaScript API for Location Tracking (Optional): Alternatively, the webpage can expose an API in the global scope, enabling zipBoard to read and set the current location within the course. This API typically takes the form of window.getPageId (to read) and window.setPageId (to set). The exact implementation may vary based on the authoring tool or webpage, but zipBoard is engineered to accommodate a wide range of variations.
3. Unique Element IDs and Class Names: Precise annotation positioning relies heavily on elements having unique IDs and class names. If the course content changes without altering the URL or exposing the JavaScript API for location tracking, and elements lack unique IDs/class names, annotations might appear in incorrect locations.

Authoring Tools Supporting Direct Annotations:

The following authoring tools have been tested and confirmed to work seamlessly with zipBoard's direct annotation feature:

• Rise 360 (Articulate)
• Adobe Captivate
• GOMO

Authoring Tools Requiring Screenshots:

Courses created using the following authoring tools currently do not allow for direct tagging of annotations within zipBoard. As a workaround, users can capture screenshots and add annotations to those screenshots:

• Articulate Storyline 360
• Elucidat
• Adapt

Please Note: This list reflects the authoring tools tested by zipBoard. If you have a specific tool you'd like zipBoard to test for compatibility, feel free to contact zipBoard support at [email protected].

Course Requirements for the zipBoard Player

While zipBoard doesn't mandate specific tracking standards for courses to function within its player, there are instances where enabling these standards might be necessary for optimal course operation. If the course engine relies on any of the following standards to function properly, the zipBoard player will require them as well:

• SCORM 1.2 / 2004
• Tin Can API

Additional Support

For any further inquiries or to report issues, please don't hesitate to reach out to zipBoard support at [email protected].