The Experience API (Tin Can) Introduction to xAPI The Experience API (Tin Can)

Agenda Definition History xAPI Benefits xAPI Statements What is an LRS? xAPI Myths Definition: What is xAPI? History of development; how’d we get here? TLA – ADL’s design for the future, which contains xAPI as a component

Definition: What is xAPI? “The purpose of the xAPI is to store and provide access to learning experiences. The xAPI enables tracking of learning experiences, including traditional records, such as scores and completion. It also (can) records learners’ actions, like reading an article or watching a training video.” -ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) Tin Can and xAPI are the same thing -xAPI is designed to track all types of learning experiences, not just those you might consider “traditional learning”. We’ll talk about the types of learning experiences xAPI can track later in this presentation. -Technically, Tin Can as the project to collect and collate the problems and develop a new standard, the result of which is xAPI. However, most people now use the terms interchangeably.

How did we get here? AICC (1988) SCORM Sharable Content Object Reference Model 2001, 2004 Initially based on AICC Most people don’t know that SCORM was originally based on the AICC standard

SCORM LMS to training content communication Designed for the desktop Uses a common packaging, communication and launching mechanism

What’s wrong with SCORM? All learning MUST be launched from LMS Content must reside in same domain as LMS Cannot put content on CDN to improve performance Inefficient SCORM is complicated SCORM content MUST be run in a browser No mobile “apps” No “off line” (yet…but it is more than 10 years old) Easily Hacked - Old technology …and on and on… -Launched from LMS How much learning today occurs in the LMS vs. outside the LMS? -Easily hacked It is just javascript; A clever user can set their own score. ADL has white papers on its web site listing problems with SCORM

The changing landscape Proliferation of mobile devices (BYOD) Social networking / Social Learning Gaming Simulations YouTube How can we track it? -Proliferation The number of connected devices exceeds the world’s population (Cisco) SCORM is not designed for mobile -Social Networking includes: Yammer, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc -Gaming & Simulations Company using Second Life to teach customer service skills -YouTube Videos for “how to” -Tracking If we only have SCORM and the LMS, are we really tracking what and how our students are learning?

xAPI Benefits Learning can be recorded wherever it occurs Learning content does not have to reside in a browser Learning does not have to be “launched” from an LMS Mobile apps Social Networking Gaming & Simulations

xAPI Benefits (cont) Learning content can be distributed Uses modern, common technology (REST, JSON) Much simpler than SCORM -Learning Content -Modern -Much simpler than SCORM - Some developers told me they have adapted content to xAPI in just a few days

xAPI Statements I did this. Statements: Actor, verb, object Based on work done by Google, Facebook and others: Activity Stream Examples: “Jack completed safety training.” “Christie experienced the Great Wall in Second Life” I did this. Second example -This is an example of a complex statement. We’ll take a look at in just a moment.

Verbs xAPI does not “require” any particular verbs http://adlnet.gov/exapi/verbs https://registry.tincanapi.com/#home/verbs Each verb has description and can be translated Verb “ID” should be unique iri ex: http://adlnet.gov/expapi/verbs/completed ADL has registry that can be downloaded Rustici Software has an extensive registry of verbs Verb Descriptions -This allows distinguishing similar verbs -If what you need does not match the description, don’t use it – avoid confusion!

xAPI has many layers Complex Statements [In the context of ___] Actor [ or group ___] verb object [with these results] Examples: “On an iPad, while offline, John completed Sales Training 101 with a score of 100.” “In WordPress Tim contributed to an article called ‘The Emerging Standards for Mobile Learning’” Team-based statements “Team 3 completed special ops training” -after examples Imagine the analytics we can get from this statement. Is training more effective (i.e. are higher scores achieved) on an iPad than the desktop? Do our students prefer training offline or online?

Learning Record Store (LRS) Stores xAPI statements Also required to “return” statements when queried with valid credentials. Implications Data can be fetched from one LRS into another An organization may implement multiple LRS, each specializing in some type of reporting Can be standalone or integrated into an LMS -Stores xAPI Statements -Must return statements One of the problems with SCORM is that there are no reporting requirements. xAPI requires the LRS to have basic query functionality. LRS’s can import data from other LRS’s. Concept of Personal Data Store; learner’s take their training with them

LRS Data Sources LRS ??? E-Book LMS Social Network Blog Game Examples: Several e-book products that write to LRS RISC has a PDF Annotation tool that stores student annotations in the LRS Tappestry social network product writes to LRS SharePoint plug-in that writes document views to LRS “Scanvenger Hunt” game at mLearnCon 2012 wrote to LRS Explosives storage game Game SharePoint E-Learning

Myths: xAPI replaces SCORM SCORM is not going away…yet ADL may develop a SCORM version that uses xAPI as its transport layer At the moment, ADL is not updating SCORM Conflicting stories Or…see CMI5

Myths: LRS will replace LMS Scheduling Learning Records Requirements Tracking Assessment Sequencing Certification Competencies User Management Curricula Definition LRS is only a small part of an LMS LRS allows training from all sources to be accessible to LMS reporting, or stand-alone LRS can get data feed from LMS for analytics Delivery Reports Search Course Management Player Preferences

Who’s using xAPI? xAPI was released April 26, 2013 >70 Adopters listed on TinCanAPI.com website Examples: Articulate Storyline (adopted) Adobe Captivate (announced) Blackboard (adopted) DomiKnow Claro (adopted) Float Mobile (adopted) RISC VTA LMS (adopted) Saltbox LRS (adopted) Lectora (adopted) Web sites in references have list -Really fast adoption; compare to SCORM

What’s Next Analytics reporting from LRS is just getting started Additional protocols will be developed on top of xAPI Example AICC CMI5 Libraries are available to create your own apps write to LRS Ex: Float Mobile has free iOS library for sending xAPI statements Too new for their to be great reporting from the LRS. What’s old is new again; AICC CMI5 project is supported by ADL Plug-in for sharepoint

References ADL http://www.adlnet.gov/tla/experience-api xAPI Specification https://github.com/adlnet/xAPI-Spec Tin Can Project http://tincanapi.com Layers of the Tin Can Onion http://tincanapi.com/wp-content/assets/Onion/Layers-of-the-Tin-Can-Onion.pdf Good overview of xapi at ADL, along with free presentations; your tax dollars at work! Tin Can Onion document is great, in-depth look at xAPI

Introduction to xAPI Thanks for attending Art Werkenthin artw@risc-inc.com @RISC_INC @AWerkenthin