The reason you can't get a straight answer to your question is simple - it doesn't make any sense! An API is not something you can "initiate." You can "define" an API, you can "call" and API, you can "program for" an API, but "initiate" doesn't parse here.

An API is a set of functions, methods and/or objects that define the way you access a service. For example, the API for HTML::Template specifies that to create a new object you call new():

   my $template = HTML::Template->new(...);

The API further defines what goes in the "..." above. The API is not the code for HTML::Template itself, it is the mechanism by which the code is accessed. This distinction isn't always honored though - some people talk about an API as if it encompassed the code behind the interface.

I'd suggest you try again with the SCORM folks. Ask them how you can make API calls from Perl (if that's what you want to do) or how you can implement a SCORM-compliant API in Perl (if that's what you want). Most likely they'll respond by either pointing you to existing Perl libraries or describing the interface style they're using (SOAP, REST, etc.).

-sam