For years, any legitimate learning management system adhered to the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (or SCORM), which is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based learning. Nerd-talk aside, it was the “stuff” that recorded when someone took an e-learning course and recorded quiz results. If you created an e-learning course using software like Adobe Captivate or Articulate, then you could publish SCORM and upload to an LMS. The last major update to SCORM was in 2004.
Tin-Can API is the next evolution of the clunky and rigid SCORM specification. Tin-Can records learning in the form of “Action Statements”… For example: “John passed guitar 101″, or “Anna read Business Ethics”. These statements are sent to what is called a Learning Record Store, or “LRS”.