LSCon 407 Building the xAPI Learning Ecosystem of Your Dreams
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You’re excited about the promise of an xAPI-enabled world, but you’ve got a learning management system, a catalog full of SCORM-based courses that you need, and a handful of learning tool vendors that don’t use xAPI. What if you could get the most out of an LMS and an LRS at the same time as you move to your next-generation learning and performance infrastructure? This session will start with the learner-facing tools that will capture your xAPI data: eLearning, mobile tools, performance support, social and informal activities, and data sources from the business. You’ll review your options when it comes to LRSs and how they work (or don’t work) with your LMS. Will you work with a standalone LRS? A front-end xAPI solution with a built-in LRS? Or an LRS that is aligned with your LMS and your current learning infrastructure? You’ll hear real-world stories of three different xAPI implementations to help you plot your organization’s course toward your next-generation learning ecosystem.
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LSCon 407 Building the xAPI Learning Ecosystem of Your Dreams
- 1. Building the xAPI Learning EcosystemMegan Torrance, TorranceLearning Learning Solutions 2018 Session 407 Rob Houck, UL
- 2. ROB HOUCK Director of Technology Innovation MEGAN TORRANCE Chief Energy Officer
- 3. xAPI is … X = experience API = application programming interface Specification for sending, storing, retrieving activity about learning and performance experiences Not so much “next generation SCORM” as it is “what will replace SCORM.” Experience API is … Tin Can API is …
- 4. SCORM Time Score Location Status Answers Actor verb object Actor verb object context xAPI lego.com
- 5. Learning Record Provider Content Activity Statement Learning Record Store You Other & Legacy data Adobe Stock 158410923
- 6. Why xAPI? Measurement & analytics Move data across courses, platforms, functions Record more than just course data Personalize learning Track activity of multiple people at once Offline storage
- 7. What can you do with xAPI? • Learn more about the learning experience – not just elearning • Learn more about the performance • Correlate learning with performance • Offer more targeted training • Support performance in better ways • Use data to learn with others • Compare performance and learning across learners • Deliver and track training outside of the LMS
- 9. STEP 1: Send the data Use your current elearning authoring tools Get your product vendor to send the data Use xapiapps to assemble things that aren’t xAPI into a thing that is Write some custom code
- 10. AUTHORING TOOLS Out of the box: • SCORM-like transactions • Individual page views • Actions and triggers (depends) With a little JavaScript: • Any action or trigger you want More info: www.xapiquarterly.com (Sean Putman), xAPI Cohort Fall 2017 results THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 11. MISC OTHER OPTIONS Not really “authoring tools,” but very deep learning experiences, LMCSes, etc. that send xAPI data. THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 12. First tool we’ve found outside L&D that uses xAPI THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 13. xapiapps
- 14. Riptide Elements : xAPI Statement Inspector The xAPI Inspector allows developers and xAPI practitioners to view, validate, and copy xAPI statements as they are sent to a Learning Record Store (LRS). This extension displays both the full statement and a simplified header highlighting the actor, verb, and object for an easy-to-read version of the statement. https://learning.riptidesoftware.com/
- 17. STEP 2: Receive the data Adobe Stock 134669543
- 18. The integrated approach Users Course s Enrollments SCOR M Data Reporting Courses Classe s Certs Badges SocialLearning Messaging Performance,Talenthooks Reporting Game s Sims Perf Supp Dash boards eCommerce Import/Export to Biz Data LRS SCOR M data
- 20. The sidecar approach Users Course s Enrollments SCOR M Data Reporting Courses Classe s Certs Badges SocialLearning Messaging Performance,Talenthooks Reporting Game s Sims Perf Supp Dash boards eCommerce Import/Export to Biz Data Learning Record Provider Learning Record Provider LRS
- 21. LEARNING RECORD STORES Out of the box: • Data storage & retrieval • Visualizations & reporting Connecting to analytics • Tableau, Microsoft BI, Envision BI, etc. UP TO DATE LIST OF CONFORMANT LRS: https://adopters.adlnet.gov/ THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 22. LMSes WITH LRS INSIDE Out of the box: • Learning management functions • SCORM They may struggle with: • Accepting statements from outside the LMS • Reporting data in extensions UP TO DATE LIST OF CONFORMANT LRS: https://adopters.adlnet.gov/ THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 23. LMSes THAT CONNECT TO YOUR LRS What you can expect: • xAPI statements from courses & experiences • Non-SCORM LMS activity, too THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE THIS LIST IS GROWING
- 26. Start where you are Launch xAPI record providers from the LMS* (cmi5): • Digital Chalk • Learndash • Moodle (with plugin) • Other non-xAPI LMS Send xAPI from triggers in a SCORM course Export SCORM data from LMS to LRS * This is an incomplete list.
- 27. Wait for your LMS to adopt xAPI Offer to beta test. Get a sidecar LRS for your special projects and new projects. • Two sets of reports • Export xAPI “Completions” LMS
- 28. Start shedding SCORM Stop using SCORM where you can. If you have to, build for SCORM knowing you’ll use xAPI. • Flexible tools that do both • Follow best practices for xAPI now (xAPI Quarterly) Start asking the “x” question.
- 29. Start learning more … Vendor sites www.learnxapi.com and www.xapiquarterly.com xAPI Learning Cohort xAPI Camps & xAPI Party
- 30. FORMING STORMING NORMING PERFORMING xAPI needs geeks Geek-free tools emerge Communities of Practice work to define usage Conformance & Certification emerge Project Tin Can Specification Standard More common than SCORM Is xAPI ready for prime time?
- 31. Get started! www.torrancelearning.com/xapi- cohort Free 12-week, vendor-neutral learning-by-doing-in-teams experience. Weekly web meetings 2-3pm ET (recorded). Winter/Spring & Fall Ad hoc teams form to tackle a project together and provide weekly report- outs.
- 32. Adobe Stock 100125220 How ready are you?
- 33. Community-driven effort to highlight xAPI use by: • Tools • Platforms • People • Spaces • Events * Implies no conformance, certification or warranty. More info: www.xapi-ready.com | http://www.cafepress.com/xapi_ready
- 34. ROB HOUCK UL, Director of Technology Innovation rob.houck@ul.com MEGAN TORRANCE CEO, TorranceLearning mtorrance@torrancelearning.com
Editor's Notes
- They say that the easy way to learn is from others’ mistakes. The hard way is from your own mistakes. The tragic way is not learning from either.
- xAPI is … X = experience API = application programming interface Specification for sending, storing, retrieving activity Some say that xAPI is next gen SCORM Like my smart phone SCORM only tracks 5 boring things
- There are three “parts” to xAPI: The Learning Record Provider, the Activity Statement and the Learning Record Store. The Learning Record Provider is what’s sending the data – if it’s an elearning situation, then the activity provider is the course. You are the one doing the thinking here. The content is what you’re talking about. Again, if we’re talking about elearning, the content is … your content. The Activyt Statement is the format with which we’re sending the data. To be honest, the funnel doesn’t really hold up well as a metaphor. And we’re pouring all these statements into a Learning Record Store, which is a database that stores it all. At some point it may or may not have to mix in with some legacy content and data in order to make sense.
- “X” for Experience, not LAPI – “learning” … track all sorts of things. And here’s the thing: you can do all of these things without xAPI. You just build them yourself. The technology is there – actually, its existed for years and some of you are already doing this. When you do these things with xAPI you are using an interoperable platform for communication – you can add and change pieces, vendors, platforms with far greater ease.
- That’s because it’s all about interoperability. You’re building a large platform … not continuing a bunch of silos held together with bailing twine and bandages. But that’s a completely different story for a different day. Few other industries have attempted this degree of interoperability. This is the real positive legacy of SCORM – it has allowed this industry to boom.
- Out of the box, you can expect data that’s a lot like SCORM, plus individual page views, question answers and a few other things you couldn’t get with SCORM. dominKnow and Lectora support a wider variety of statements based on actions and triggers. All of these tools you can add custom JavaScript to action triggers and send statements to the LRS. ADD SLIDE: For example, our project with University of North Carolina – see us at DemoFest – where we have custom JS added to all sorts of actions in a Storyline course – question sets individually and totals, downloading resources, entering text on screen.
- With xapiapps you’ll get transactions like
- With the integrated approach, a single platform does all the things, including both SCORM and xAPI. It’s all the things that you have come to expect from your LMS provider, with xAPI thrown in, too. One of Megan’s clients has a major integrated learning management system and that platform is adding xAPI support. This means that all the work they did in the last two years to select and implement a major piece of software doesn’t have to be undone, or they don’t have to start over in order to support xAPI projects they have waiting in the wings. Rob’s clients use xAPI-enabled training to train non-employees, where they access the training completely outside the LMS. The integrated LRS permits tracking of the training no matter if the user takes the course on the LMS as an employee, or on a website for business partners… it’s integrated and seamless from a reporting perspective.
- The managed system approach usually puts the LRS at the center of a whole set of systems all talking together. The core system desired around and optimized for xAPI, that then lets you get best-of-breed tools to hook into it. Since you don’t have to be confined to just elearning courses in an LMS for tracking, you you’re tracking things that happen in the real world, and you’re able to go out and do all sorts of things outside your LMS and that pretty well rocks. One of Megan’s clients currently doesn’t have a strong LMS. In fact, their LMS is so “weak” within their organization that the L&D team is using a Wordpress site as a Content Management System from which to offer training – not a WordPress LMS, mind you. An internally hosted Wordpress site. They’re bringing on an LRS product that will be a hub for xAPI transactions from courses launched from the WordPress LMS. And as they bring on other xAPI conformant tools – right now we’re putting in a Curatr learning platform for a key customer group – all of that will feed back into the LRS.
- The Sidecar LRS is a nice happy medium to get started.
- Out of the box, you can expect data that’s a lot like SCORM, plus individual page views, question answers and a few other things you couldn’t get with SCORM. dominKnow and Lectora support a wider variety of statements based on actions and triggers. All of these tools you can add custom JavaScript to action triggers and send statements to the LRS. ADD SLIDE: For example, our project with University of North Carolina – see us at DemoFest – where we have custom JS added to all sorts of actions in a Storyline course – question sets individually and totals, downloading resources, entering text on screen.
- This is my super-un-scientific way of testing for xAPI conformance. If I get this when I search an LMS vendor’s site, I then do also search Experience API, Tin Can API and then, just to be safe, SCORM. If I come up blank, I make the call that this is not an xAPI conformant or ready LMS
- Ask your LMS provider – it’s entirely possible that they’re planning on implementing LRS support within the year. In this case, you have a few options. You can sit and wait, and you could offer to beta test. (Megan) is a huge fan of being a part of your vendors’ beta testing process – there’s a lot of bonus points you can gain with your vendors and you can call in some chips. In the meantime, you can get a “sidecar” LRS for all your xAPI projects, something that you’re planning to discard once your LMS capability comes online. It’s a nice hedge against the promises of integration for the future that your LMS vendor makes. You’ll have two sets of reports in the meantime and you may need to export your xAPI “completions” to your LMS in case you need a single point of truth and reporting. But it’s not the worst thing in the world. You’ll want to make sure that you’re careful to keep your login information – your actor definitions – consistent between the two systems so that your hair doesn’t fall out trying to match up your data.
- Wikipedia: Dr Bruce Tuckman published his Forming Storming Norming Performing model in 1965. He added a fifth stage, Adjourning, in the 1970s. The Forming Storming Norming Performing theory is an elegant and helpful explanation of team development and behaviour (US spelling: behavior).
- Included with this session is a sheet you can use to assess (roughly) various components of your organization’s ecosystem to see if you’re ready.