Combine Course Modules to Cut LMS Upload and Seat Costs
Five separate module courses can cost five times as much to host and assign. Merge them into one multi-SCO package that still tracks each module independently — without hand-editing imsmanifest.xml.
Plenty of LMSes and SCORM hosting services charge per course, per registration, or per upload. So when a designer ships training as five separate module courses — built that way so each could be tracked on its own — the bill, and the administrative overhead, multiply. The obvious move is to combine them into one upload. The non-obvious part is doing it without losing the per-module reporting that justified the split in the first place.
The right kind of merge
Combining into a single fused course would collapse five completion records into one — losing exactly the granularity you need. The correct approach is a multi-SCO package: one upload, one manifest, but each original course becomes its own SCO that the LMS still tracks independently. One enrollment, one progress bar for the learner; five distinct completion and score records for you.
Why this is painful by hand
Manually, merging means unzipping each package, reading every manifest, writing a new top-level imsmanifest.xml with one item and resource per module, assigning unique identifiers so packages do not collide, fixing every relative asset path, and zipping so the manifest lands at the archive root. A single duplicate identifier or a misplaced manifest, and the LMS rejects the whole thing — or accepts it and silently fails to report a module.
How ScormEdit handles it
- Upload all the module .zips and arrange them in the order you want learners to see.
- Choose to preserve per-module tracking — each module stays its own SCO.
- ScormEdit generates one valid manifest with unique identifiers, correct paths, and the file at the archive root.
- Validate and preview the combined package, then download a single course to upload once.
A note on ordering
If you need to force learners through modules in a fixed order, be aware that SCORM 2004 sequencing is supported unevenly across LMSes — test it on yours before relying on it. For the common goal of "one upload, independent tracking," a straightforward multi-SCO package is the most portable choice.
One upload, one assignment, one bill — and still five clean completion records. That is the merge worth doing.