STANAG 2591 advanced distributed learning (ADL)

What it is

What STANAG 2591 covers

STANAG 2591 is the NATO standardization agreement by which participating nations agree to adopt SCORM 2004 as the standard for the conformance of Learning Management Systems, content packages and sharable content objects used in online education and training. A STANAG is not itself a technical specification: it is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement one, and here the technical detail sits outside the STANAG entirely, in the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series that SCORM 2004 is built on. STANAG 2591 responds to an interoperability requirement stated plainly in the document: "to have a standardized procedure for developing online education and training content and courses for NATO Education and Training Facilities and similar facilities in NATO and partner nations." Read plainly, that means the agreement exists so that training content built by one NATO nation runs correctly in another nation's learning management system, not so that a single national e-learning platform becomes the NATO standard.

This is Edition 1, promulgated 8 May 2013. The document states it "does not supersede any document."

Who ratifies it, and how it takes effect

The mechanism that matters here: a STANAG binds a nation, not a supplier or a training-content vendor. The letter of promulgation records that the agreement "has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database," and once ratified, "this STANAG is effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies." Partner nations are separately "invited to adopt" it, without the same ratification obligation. A national decision to ratify or implement is recorded in the NSDD, and nations "are invited to examine their ratification of the STANAG and, if they have not already done so, advise the NSA of their intention regarding its implementation."

A nation is considered to have implemented the agreement once it "has issued the necessary orders/instructions to adopt SCORM in the development of online education and training courses according to the technical specifications and guidelines described in the reference documents by ISO and IEC." A training-content developer or an LMS supplier meets STANAG 2591 only where a contract or a tender names SCORM 2004 conformance, not because the STANAG exists on its own.

Reporting and review

Nations report their effective implementation "using the form in Annex H to the AAP-03(J)"; partner nations report their adoption of the STANAG "using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J)." The STANAG "is to be reviewed at least once every three years," with the result recorded in the NSDD, and nations or NATO bodies may propose changes at any time through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority.

The technical content sits in ISO/IEC TR 29163

STANAG 2591 carries no technical detail of its own. The document names four "other related documents": ISO/IEC TR 29163-1 through -4, the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition specifications covering the overview, the content aggregation model, the run-time environment, and sequencing and navigation. Building or buying a Learning Management System, content package or sharable content object that actually conforms means working to those ISO/IEC documents, obtained from ISO or IEC on their own terms, not to the two or three pages of STANAG 2591 itself.

How it's evaluated

No certification exists here, and the document names none. What it describes is a national ratification, implementation and review cycle run through NATO's own machinery: a nation issues its own implementation orders, its ratification and implementation are recorded in the NSDD, and it reports using the AAP-03(J) forms. There is no accredited body, no notified body and no audit against STANAG 2591 as such. Whether a particular Learning Management System or content package actually conforms to SCORM 2004 is a technical question against the ISO/IEC TR 29163 series, which sits outside what this STANAG describes.