eLearning & Learning Systems Glossary

A set of technical standards that defines how packaged eLearning content and a learning management system talk to each other.

The differences between the two SCORM editions in common use: status tracking, suspend data size, sequencing and how widely each is exported.

An open specification that records learning experiences anywhere as Actor-Verb-Object statements sent to a Learning Record Store.

An xAPI profile that sets rules for how an LMS imports, launches and tracks content, often described as a modern successor to SCORM; not yet widely adopted.

A data store that receives, validates and serves xAPI statements, either on its own or built into a learning platform.

A 1EdTech standard that lets one learning system launch a tool hosted by another, securely and without a second sign-in.

An older eLearning standard from the aviation industry that launches content and exchanges tracking data over HTTP, known as HACP.

A 1EdTech packaging standard for moving whole courses, with content, links, quizzes and tool launches, between learning platforms.

An open standard that lets an identity provider create, update and deactivate user accounts in other applications automatically.

An XML-based standard that lets people sign in to many applications with one corporate identity provider login.

A sign-in standard built on OAuth 2.0 that lets an application verify who a user is through a trusted identity provider using signed tokens.

How the two single sign-on protocols, SAML and OIDC, differ from each other and from SCIM, which manages user accounts rather than sign-in.

A database feature that filters which rows each user or tenant can read or change, enforced inside the database rather than in application code.

A software design where many customer organisations share one system while each one’s data, settings and users stay separated.

An arrangement where a customer supplies its own AI provider or encryption key to a software product, keeping its own provider relationship.

A four-level framework for evaluating training: reaction, learning, behaviour and results.

An approach that delivers learning in short, focused units, each covering one objective, that people can finish in a few minutes.

A hierarchy of thinking levels, from remembering to creating, used to write learning objectives and design matching assessments.

A rule of thumb that most workplace learning comes from experience, some from other people, and a smaller share from formal training.

A structured process for finding the gap between the skills people have and the skills their work needs, before any training is built.

A study technique that schedules reviews at growing intervals, just before an item would be forgotten, to make memories last.

An open-source spaced repetition algorithm that models each card’s memory stability and difficulty to choose when to review it next.

The number of distinct people who use a product at least once in a calendar month, often used as a billing unit by software vendors.

A pricing model where you pay each month only for the people who actually used the product, at a published rate per person.

The practice of charging much more for single sign-on by placing it only in a software product’s top, enterprise-priced plan.

A usage currency that software products use to meter and price AI features, with each kind of AI action costing a set number of credits.

A record of who did what and when in a system, which can only be added to, so past entries cannot be quietly changed or removed.

Renewing a certification before it expires by retaking training or an assessment, so a person’s qualification stays current.

A request from a person to an organisation to exercise privacy rights over their personal data, such as access, correction or erasure.

How a learning experience platform, built around discovery and engagement, differs from a learning management system, built around assignment and records.

Delivering lessons, practice questions and reminders inside the chat tools people already use at work, instead of a separate learning portal.