Question:
Does the SCORM standard define a way to set the minimum time that a student has to spend on a course in order to complete it? Thank you in advance for your answer.
Answer:
Quick answer? Nope. SCORM has no built in concept for minimum time whatsoever. Strangely, it does have a concept for maximum time, but that's a different beast a bit useless, frankly. (It allows for a minimum time to be specified in the manifest and requested from within the content. You could do something similar with minimum time, but you'd have to place it in "data from LMS" or something along those lines.)
There are certainly ways that it could be accommodated by a piece of content. You could simply keep track of time from launch, even recording it across sessions. This would allow you, the content author, to make determinations about whether the learner has spent enough time prior to sending an indication of completion to the LMS.
Timing is an interesting beast. Some would argue it's not a great measure because a learner could easily open a course and walk away for a period of time. Personally, I don't mind it as a metric. If someone's anxious to game the system, they can certainly do so. I think of it as a slight deterrent, and if that's understood, then there's no harm.
Lastly, there is no component of time as part of sequencing and navigation. Theoretically, time based logic could be part of sequencing, but it was thought to be too complicated. Personally, I'm grateful they excluded it. (See Mike's prior comment on the subject from this article here...)
The SCORM 2004 Sequencing and Navigation specification is derived from the IMS Simple Sequencing (IMS SS) specification. IMS Simple Sequencing is anything but simple. The “simple” refers to the scope of the sequencing that it enables. For instance, IMS SS enables the sequencing of asynchronous training delivered online from an LMS (precisely what SCORM enables), but it doesn’t include any concept of timed delivery, an instructor who can alter the learner’s path or many other concepts that could lead to “really complicated” sequencing. While its scope may be “simple”, the implementation and use of IMS SS requires a thorough understanding of its concepts.