Do instructional designers still need dedicated SCORM software?
In a few hours I vibe coded a fully functional e-learning course with Claude Code—no Rise, Storyline, or Adobe.
In the AI era, do instructional designers still need dedicated software to build SCORM courses? The answer is no.
In a few hours, I vibe coded a fully functional e-learning course. I didn’t use Rise, Storyline, or Adobe. I just used Claude Code.
Here’s why I built it...
I've been building customer education courses for years, and I kept bumping into the same walls. Rise limits your branding, interactivity, and imagination. Storyline requires specialized skills that are harder to hire for. Adobe products are expensive. And building directly in your LMS means nothing is portable should you want to change vendors.
Meanwhile, the SCORM and CMI5 specifications are open source, which means that anyone can build to them.
So I asked a simple question: why am I paying for tools that limit what I can do when I could just build it myself? So I did.
I put Claude Code to the test and built a complete course from scratch in a few hours. It includes:
- A Space Invaders-style game that teaches product features (with a company-wide leaderboard powered by Google Sheets)
- Interactive software demos
- Drag-and-drop activities
- Knowledge checks and a gated final exam
- Certificate generation
- Full CMI5 reporting — including time on page, individual quiz responses, and button clicks
The reporting alone is worth it. Most LMS platforms give you completion status and maybe attempt count. I can track whatever I want because I control the code.
I recorded a quick walkthrough here: