What actually is SCORM? SCORM, Shareable Content Object Reference Model, is a standard for web-based e-learning that has been developed to define communication between client-side content and a runtime environment. In the context of this article, the client-side content would be the course launched by a student and the runtime environment would be a Learning Management System. The SCORM standard has undergone several version releases from SCORM v1.0 in 1999 to the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition in 2006. The purpose of this article is to look in a little more detail at the communication flow between the LMS and a course that is SCORM v2.1 compliant. The intention is not to review every possible communication but just the main calls. We will look at SCORM in the context of a SCORM course, i.e. a course that has been developed and built to communicate with a Learning Management System using the SCORM standard.

First of all, let me define a few terms that I will use and that you may hear in reference to SCORM courses: • API (Application Programming Interface) The SCORM standard has a defined API. The term API is not unique to SCORM but is a well known term in application development. The SCORM API is a documented set of messages that are sent between the course and the LMS. The message may require a response so that the sender of the message is guaranteed that the message has been received and processed appropriately. • Manifest The manifest is the master file for the SCORM course that contains references to all other files that make up the complete content of the course. • Single SCO A single SCO is the most basic and most common form of a SCORM course. All files that make up the course, regardless of the number of lessons in the course, are packaged as one SCO unit. When the course is launched within the Learning Management System, it communicates with the SCO. • Multiple SCO A multiple SCO is where a group of files within the course can be treated as an individual SCO but packaged together with other SCOs to comprise one course. For example, the files that comprise each lesson of a SCORM course can be grouped together so that each lesson is a SCO in its own right and all the SCOs will comprise the one course. Course Installation For the course to be available in the Learning Management System, the SCORM package needs to be installed on the system. The method of installation will vary from LMS to LMS but will typically go through the following steps: 1. The manifest file will be located and interpreted. 2. The course identified in the manifest will be created in the Learning Management System and the course properties will be populated with the values defined in the manifest. These properties may include course name, creator, etc. 3. The lessons of the course will be created in the LMS and the lesson properties will be populated with the values defined in the manifest. Lesson properties would include information such as the path to the lesson file, passing grade, etc. The Learning Management System should provide a facility to overwrite an already existing SCORM course so that if updates are made to the existing course, an installation will deploy those changes. Course Communication Initialization When the course is launched within its run time environment, which for our purposes is the LMS, it will detect the existence of the API and attempt to make initial communication with the Learning Management System. This is a one-time handshake to ensure that communication has been established. The SCORM course is responsible for locating the API in the child browser session that it has launched in from the parent. The API is typically deployed using JavaScript. The API call that the course uses to do this is the LMSInitialize call. When the Learning Management System receives this API message call from the course, the LMS will initialize and respond to inform the course that communication has been established. An object model has been created in memory and the properties have been initialized to default values. Intermediary Course Communication Once the course has been launched and initialized with the LMS, the interaction between the two is determined by the course. It will use LMSGetValue and LMSSetValue API message calls to retrieve or populate data in the object model. Bear in mind that the object model exists in memory and has not been sent to the Learning Management System. When the course needs to write the data so it exists in the database, it will send the API message LMSCommit. The LMSCommit will be received by the Learning Management System and the data stored to the LMS. The course developer will determine when an LMSCommit is required and it will be sent to the LMS when the event is activated. This could be at the end of each lesson or it could be at the end of the course. The LMSCommit is an optional message and does not require a response from the Learning Management System. Finalization When the course is completed, it will send an LMSFinish API message to the LMS. This may be triggered by an event in the course that activates the LMSFinish or it may be on the Unload event of the HTML page when the user closes the browser. The LMSFinish indicates to the LMS that the user has ended the course and any further communication between the two will be rejected. The LMSFinish also initiates the Learning Management System to store any data that has been populated in the object model and complete the unloading of the course. The key difference between the LMSCommit and LMSFinish API message calls is that the latter will prevent further communication with the course. The LMSFinish is a mandatory message and does not require a response from the LMS. Learning Management System Considerations When the LMSFinish is received by the LMS, there are several scenarios that may need to be taken into account. Some of these may be the product of errors in course development but are scenarios that have been experienced in interfacing with a SCORM compliant course: 1. The SCORM course may indicate the student has failed a lesson but the score passed from the SCO may be greater than the lesson passing grade that was installed from the manifest. 2. The SCORM course may indicate a lesson status for the user and pass the score of the lesson but there has been no passing grade defined for the lesson. 3. It would be advantageous for the Learning Management System to provide API message logging so that a communication history may be recreated for debugging or historical purposes. Consideration should be given to the following: a. Method of storage, whether it is stored in a database or out to a file. b. Is logging on all the time or is there a switch to turn logging on or off? (There will be some overhead when logging is switched on, as opposed to being off.) c. If logging is to file, is there a log file for each course, each user, or one large SCORM log file? d. How is log data purged? When logging is stored in the database, how often is the table purged? Can the data be deleted or does it need to be archived? If logging is to a file, does the file build in size until it is manually renewed or does the logging mechanism have a trigger that automatically generates a new file? (If the file is left to grow too big, it becomes very impractical to open it in a text editor.) Conclusions SCORM has a proven track record in the web based e-learning world and is the accepted standard in the industry. Reputable LMS vendors should support your SCORM course out of the box. The SCORM 2004 version has added much more control and sequencing at a more granular level than SCORM v1.2 however those differences are significant enough to cause the user base to be slower in adopting the SCORM 2004 version.

Royal Bank of Scotland

on Thursday said its loan impairments appeared to have peaked as it reported a smaller-than-expected £3.6bn pro forma net loss for 2009.

Shares in the state-controlled bank responded by rising 6.6 per cent to 38½p in mid-morning trading.

RBS made a pro forma £24.3bn net loss in 2008. Analysts had been expecting this to narrow to £5.2bn in 2009, according to consensus forecasts compiled by the company.

The group’s investment banking division – known as global banking and markets – was its best performer during the period, as was the case in Barclays’ results earlier in the month.

The unit produced an operating profit of £5.7bn compared to an operating loss of £1.8bn in 2008, dwarfing the contributions of RBS’s retail and commercial banking arms.

As expected, Stephen Hester, RBS chief executive, waived his 2009 bonus, a move that was in keeping with diplomatic acts of renunciation by other British banking bosses.

He declined to say exactly how much was being paid out in investment banking bonuses but confirmed that a widely-reported figure of £1.3bn was “in the right ballpark”. This bonus pool was understood to have been £900m in 2008.

Overall pay in the investment banking division – including bonuses – will be equivalent to 27 per cent of the unit’s income. This “compensation ratio” compares with a figure of 38 per cent at Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays.

The government holds a 70 per cent stake in RBS and an 84 per cent economic interest, making bonuses exceptionally sensitive given the large amounts of public money that has been spent on propping up the sector.

Mr Hester said RBS had been walking an “unenviable tightrope” on pay, adding that he had waived his bonus in an attempt to reduce some of the controversy swirling around the issue.

He insisted that the bank was not being run according to a political agenda: “RBS is being managed commercially.”

However, he said that the bank would still have a battle on its hands to retain investment bankers, predicting that staff losses would continue at a “damaging but not destructive” level.

A more normal investment banking compensation ratio would be a percentage figure in the mid-30s, he added.

Impairment charges were £13.9bn for the year – almost double the £7.4bn reported for 2008. However, they fell from £3.3bn in the third quarter to £3.1bn in the fourth quarter.

“Signs that impairments might have peaked appear to have been borne out in the fourth quarter,” the bank said.

It is calling the top of the impairment trend later than Lloyds Banking Group, which said in August that bad loans had peaked in the first half of 2009. Lloyds reports its annual results on Friday.

Under the terms of a toxic asset insurance deal with the UK government announced in late February 2009, RBS was supposed to increase its lending to UK homeowners and businesses by £25bn over the ensuing 12-month period, with a further £25bn increase scheduled for 2010.

RBS has so far fallen well short of these lending goals. It made £79.5bn of new loans in 2009 to businesses and home owners. However, a trend for companies to pay back their borrowings meant that net lending actually fell by £400m during the year, in spite of an £11.8bn net increase in mortgage loans.

The group said it had made almost £50bn more available to business clients that had not been drawn down. It added that it was in talks with the UK government over “potential adjustments to the lending commitments to reflect economic circumstances over the 12 months from March 2010”.

The better-than-expected net loss posted by RBS reflected a £2.1bn non-cash gain on the curtailment of pension benefits.

BBC WORLD NEWS, has secured a rare opportunity to broadcast two live programs from Cuba on Thursday 25 February and Friday 26 February at 7:00 pm ET/PT.

Anchored by Matt Frei from Havana, these two special newscasts will feature interviews with key players and in-depth pieces examining some of the major issues impacting Cuba and US-Cuban relations.

Executive Producer, Rome Hartman says: “There are very few international relationships as complex, fascinating, and important as the one between Cuba and the United States. The opportunity to do both in-depth reporting and live broadcasting from Cuba is very rare and very special, and we mean to make the absolute most of it.”

This evening, ahead of the two live broadcasts, the BBC’s full-time resident correspondent in Cuba, Michael Voss, looks back at the key events in the country’s recent history and what the future may hold under Raul Castro.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four detainees held at the controversial U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have been transferred to Albania and Spain, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Three detainees originally from North Africa were sent to Albania, the department said. They were identified as Saleh Bin Hadi Asasi, originally from Tunisia; Sharif Fati Ali al Mishad, a native of Egypt; and Abdul Rauf Omar Mohammad Abu al Qusin from Libya.

The fourth man, transferred to Spain, was not identified beyond that he was from the Palestinian Territories. Spain has said it is willing to take up to five prisoners from the Guantanamo prison.

The Justice Department said it worked with the governments of Albania and Spain to "ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures and consultations" regarding these individuals would continue.

There are still 188 prisoners at the facility that President Barack Obama has pledged to close. He has argued that anti-American militants have used it as a recruiting tool for their causes.

But the effort by his administration to shut it has been stymied by legal and political hurdles, including reluctance by other countries to take detainees when none are expected to be released in the United States.

Since the Obama administration took office in 2009, 48 detainees have been transferred overseas while one has been sent to New York to face criminal charges for the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa.

Separately, a U.S. judge in Washington rejected petitions by two Yemeni detainees -- Suleiman Awadh Bin Agil Al-Nahdi and Fahmi Salem Al-Assani -- to be released from the Guantanamo prison. The opinions by Judge Gladys Kessler were classified.

About 32 detainees have won release from the Guantanamo prison through habeas corpus petitions in U.S. court while 11 have had their requests for release rejected.

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Gold is the oldest and more enduring form of legal tender. It is universally recognized for its value and rarity. While financial markets make wild swings over short periods of time, gold prices tend to creep up and down. The patient investor can do quite well if they know what to look for. Follow these steps to learn how to make money buying gold.

(LifeWire) - Overview of this Business

Just because we live in a computer age doesn't mean that everyone is computer-savvy. That's where the computer tutor comes in. A computer tutor teaches individuals and businesses how to best use their computer programs and the Internet, typically at the client's location. Fluency in several popular computer applications, such as different components of Microsoft Office, is imperative for this home based business idea.

Because computer tutors are usually called upon to train on the customers' own computer at their home or place of business, travel should be taken into account when computing anhourly rate. Many tutors charge between $25 and $100 an hour for one-on-one time. Some experts recommend targeting high-income families and businesses for the obvious reason that they can afford a larger hourly fee and because they are more likely to have at least one computer in the home.

Tutoring can make a perfect part-time complement to a regular consulting gig or a day job. It can also spin off into pundit duty on radio or TV, which can provide free advertising for your computer tutoring home based business. Computer tutors must stay on top of the newest products and become familiar with features and shortcuts. The popularity of hand-held devices such as the iPhone presents a vast new clientele

Pros of a Computer Tutor Home Based Business

The overhead is low -- you'll often be using another's equipment and software, but you

• should own your own copy so you can learn the ins and outs on your own.
• A computer tutoring home based business can be grown seamlessly into a full-time job while you work a regular job. It can also help tide you over if you get laid off.
• Potential for this home based business is as large as your willingness to get the word out and keep up to date on computer technology.
• You can set up phone consultations when possible, or use web-based tools, eliminating travel.
• Simple instruction on such computer basics as backing up data can be a boon for anxious clients.

Cons of a Computer Tutor Home Based Business

• Making house calls requires a serious time commitment, and gas prices must be factored into your cost of doing business with this home based business idea.
• Clients can try your patience, especially when they are uncooperative or slow to learn.
• The job requires a vast knowledge of computers and software.

What You Need to Get Started in a Computer Tutor Home Based Business

• The knowledge -- and the know-how to impart it
• A love of teaching. There's no hiding a lack of it
• A few advertising outlets, including a simple website detailing your expertise and rates is a good idea, and flyers with perhaps an introductory discount. Pass them out near electronics stores, tech fairs and businesses.
• That first satisfied customer. Word of mouth will still be your best promotional tool with this home based business idea.
• Patience. You need to be able to keep your cool and not fly off the handle if a student forgets what you taught them or is unable to grasp a certain concept.

Rothschild 5 Tola Gold Bar

Johnson Matthey 5 Tola Gold Bar

Five Tola Bars

Tolas

The tola is an old Indian unit of weight. It was the equivalent of the silver rupee issued by the British East India Company, at 180 grains, which equate to 11.6638038 grams, so:-
1 tola = 180 grains
1 tola = 11.66 grams
1 tola = 0.375 troy ounces
5 tolas = 1.875 troy ounces = 58.3 grams
10 tolas = 3.75 troy ounces = 116.6 grams

Gold Tola Bars

The commonest and most popular size of tola bar is the ten tola bar, but bars of five tolas, and one tola also exist. These tend to be more popular in India than elsewhere, and there has been a move in India in recent years, to move towards metric units or troy ounces rather than the tola denominations. Tola bars are also popular in Pakistan and Singapore, and other parts of the middle east.
Often when Indians talk about "tola" bars, they are referring to 10 tola bars, which are the commonest tola size made, and are sometimes called "TT" (T.T.) bars.

Rounded Edges for Smugglers

Almost all tola bars are the cast type with rounded edges. This type of bar was always popular with Indians smuggling the bars into India, often concealed inside the body. Please don't ask us for details about which body cavities, we will leave this to your imagination. Please note that if you buy tola bars from us, we will send them in a plain cover!
The coined or stamped tola bars are often used in Pakistan incorporated into jewellery, particularly bridal pieces.

999, 9999 or 996 Fine

As you can see from our photographs, the 5 tola Rothschild bar is stamped 996 fine, denoting 996 parts parts per thousand (99.60%) purity of gold. We can only assume that this is quite an old bar, as most modern bars are .999 gold, (99.90%) or even .9999 (99.99%).
Some "experts" state that tola bars are made of .999 or .9999 gold. This is not correct, as you can see.

Specifications

Gold Bars For Sale
Although we do not always carry tola bars in stock, the range of gold bars we have for sale is listed on our Gold Bars For Sale page, and this page includes price indications for tola bars when we have them available. However the prices on that page do not include the more unusual and interestingcollector's bars, which we list here, and on other pages of our site.

Prices & Availability
These prices are sample prices based on gold at £600 per ounce.
Please telephone for current prices and availability.
The prices quoted in the US $ column may be out of date due to currency fluctuations.

We also have other Rothschild bars listed on their own page, and will be adding a Johnson Matthey page later.