Presentation about a proof of concept development project integrating Caliper MediaEvent metric profile events with LMS activity data from Blackboard Learn - presented at #BbWorld16 on July 12, 2016

1. Deep Caliper Event Integration
Blackboard Learn and Kaltura Video Platform
Dan Rinzel, Senior Product Manager, Analytics @ Blackboard
Jeff Rubenstein, VP Product Development @ Kaltura

2. Session Agenda
• What is IMS Global & Caliper Learning
Analytics?
• Why does it matter and how are
Blackboard & Kaltura involved?
• Project goals for integrated events
• Spec maturity & lessons learned
• Demonstration
• Key takeaways

3. Statements regarding our product development
initiatives, including new products and future
product upgrades, updates or enhancements
represent our current intentions, but may be
modified, delayed or abandoned without prior
notice and there is no assurance that such
offering, upgrades, updates or functionality will
become available unless and until they have been
made generally available to our customers.

4. The New
Learning
Experience
A new approach
to education that fosters
better engagement,
interaction and quality
learning through
the delivery of leading-
edge technology, services
and data capabilities
A focus on
the learner
Connected and tightly integrated
workflows
A delightful
new user experience
Integrated
data and analytics
An accessible and always-on
environment

5. The Challenge
Lots of Data
Currently
accessible only
through Kaltura

6. The Goal
Integrated insights
for teachers into
what students are
doing across tools
and experiences
Usage data first,
progress data to
come

7. Caliper Learning Analytics
• IMS Global as an organization
• Interoperability Standards – LTI, LIS,
Common Cartridge, Extended
Transcript, Caliper
• Create a viable tool ecosystem for
.edu that avoids vendor lock-in
• LTI focuses on launch semantics and
SSO, includes grade post-backs
• Caliper focuses on learning event
interoperability, to get away from the
data silo problem

8. Project Goals
Overall Goal: prove out event interoperability between a launch system and a tool
provider.
Leverage existing event instrumentation (native or Caliper) in both systems
 Send instrumented events from the tool provider, including metric profile
events not “known” to the launch system
Leverage existing integration mechanics between systems, including LTI
 Extend the LTI launch handshake in the existing B2 securely to include
Caliper semantics
Leverage existing event capabilities in the launch system
 Integrate events correctly alongside “native” events in the launch system
 Use the launch system as (interim or final) Caliper LRS

9. Development Process
Lightweight internal
milestone deliverables (by
month or quarter) – best fit
with mainline dev
schedules on both sides
DevOps coordination of
Test/Dev systems for
integration testing
Periodic check-in status
meetings & email threads
for real work

10. Spec maturity and workarounds
Caliper’s third actor – the Learning Record Store is neither a tool
consumer nor a tool provider, but could have capabilities of
either/both
Complicates relays between potential event “receivers”
Preserving identifiers from the launch system is not mandated
Object life cycles on the launch system and the tool could impact the
record store
Event payload size and the describe operation
Group membership and contextual relevance

11. Demonstration

12. Today and Future - Kaltura
Today: Media
Metric Profile
Next: Assessment
Metric Profile
Other parameters

13. Today and Future - Blackboard
Today: Caliper
event collection &
relay
Next: Enterprise
Learn deployment
support, Discussion
profile
Next next: xAPI
support

14. xAPI & the future
There is a similar specification in the
world of SCORM – Blackboard is
working with both IMS & ADL to drive
towards a convergence that we hope
will make it easier on everyone in the
ecosystem.
Other goals for Blackboard & Caliper
• Support for Caliper 1.1 Discussion
profiles
• Certification as a record store when
that is available
• Convergence or “ambidexterity”
• Support for 9.1 Enterprise releases

15. Key Takeaways
Co-development against the spec for systems already instrumented for
events is largely enabling the correct handshake and mapping/
transforming event syntax
Metric profiles and object extensions provide a great mechanism to
support workarounds to enable success between any two systems
The context identifiers matter, and are not uniform across system
boundaries
Some level of interoperability between Caliper & xAPI is highly desirable to
avoid competing event ecosystems, but which actor’s responsibility is it?

16. Thank You!
Dan Rinzel
Senior Product Manager
for Analytics @ Blackboard
dan.rinzel@blackboard.com
Jeff Rubenstein
VP, Product Development
Kaltura, Inc
Jeff.Rubenstein@kaltura.com

17. Don’t forget!
Rate this session
in the BbWorld App.