The document summarizes Megan Torrance's presentation on the xAPI and what instructional designers need to know about it. It discusses that the xAPI allows for tracking any learning experience, including informal learning outside an LMS. It provides examples of xAPI activity statements and encourages experimenting with creating statements. It also discusses how the xAPI enables tying learning to results and job performance better than SCORM. The presentation suggests instructional designers think about the questions they want to answer and what data would help, and provides examples of how the xAPI could be used now and in the future.
4. Tour the campus & buildings
Explore benefit package
Take a skills assessment
Attend webinar
Attend a class
Rate your experience
Complete online course
Observe the job being done
Receive coaching
Watch a video
Follow a blog
Read a book by an expert
Elearning: Welcome & virtual tour
Elearning: Log into LMS
Elearning: Plant tour
Class: Your benefits & you
Class: Email and You
Elearning: Who’s who
Elearning: Our customers
Class: Finance 101
Recorded webinar
Webinar
Multiple choice test
Practice doing the job
Job shadow
Class: Using the intranet
Onboarding Plan BOnboarding Plan A
5. What is xAPI?
“x” = experience
“API” = application programming
interface
Simple, lightweight way to store
and retrieve records
6. What is xAPI?
Answer #1
Next-generation SCORM
Answer #2
A protocol for recording any learning experience to give
of the development path.
Answer #3
A protocol and language for sending and retrieving data
experiences: activity statements
Answer #4
“the holy grail” where we can correlate job performance
data to assess people and training effectiveness
7. When we live in a SCORM world …
… we live in a box.
9. When we live
in a SCORM
world …
• We focus on the instruction & the
media in elearning.
• Developer tools do the heavy lifting for
SCORM.
• We don’t think much about data or
reporting.
• We may struggle to tie learning
“completions” to organization results.
We probably don’t track out-of-LMS
learning at depth or scale.
10. In an xAPI
world …
• We focus on the instruction & the
media & the data in everything.
• There are few rich developer tools do
the heavy lifting for xAPI yet.
• We now get to think about data and
reporting.
• We can tie learning & behavior to
results if we do it right.
We can track out-of-LMS learning
at depth and scale.
We can tie behaviors & results to
learning.
13. Claire read Business Writing for Professionals
John practiced frosting birthday cakes
Lindsey watched the Company History video
Rashad completed Oil Change Upselling
Actor verb object
Actor verb object context
14. Mohammed wrote a blog post about local theatre
that got 45 views and 3 comments
Oron rated ATD event Essentials of Creating
Learning Experiences with xAPI
@MMTorrance 4 stars “coffee
rocked, nice use of WebEx”
Claire read Business Writing for Professionals
John practiced frosting birthday cakes
Lindsey watched the Company History video
Rashad completed Oil Change Upselling
Cynthia completed Oil Change Upselling score 60%
Ladan simulated landing at DTW
Arthi simulated landing at DTW in SimSuite #4 and
was rated 98% by Instructor
17. Stop thinking about your courses
Start thinking about your questions.
Start thinking about what data would help
you answer those questions.
You’re already using some ID concepts
and techniques that will lend themselves
well to an xAPI world …
18. !
Designa solution to meet stated
needs
!
Respondtoquestions correctly
!
Decideacourse of action
!
Collect &enterdata
accurately
!
Nailroof shingles safely
PracticeinTraining
Know.. .
Business Goal
thatsolves a
Business Problem
Adapted from: Cathy Moore
Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping
19. Kirkpatrick’s Levels of Training Evaluation
Level 2 Level 2 Level 3 / 4 Level 4 / 5
Behaviors
!
Practice &
Testing
Knowledge &
Retention
Results & ROI
Level 1
Satisfaction &
Experience
SCORM
xAPI
21. Conrad gottfredson & bob mosher’s
5 (9) Moments of Learning Need
5 Moments of Learning Need: Gottfredson & Mosher
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/949/
9 Moments of Need: Torrance
https://www.td.org/Publications/Magazines/TD/TD-
Archive/2014/09/Nine-Moments-of-Learning
Apply
New
More
Solve
Change
SCORM
xAPI
SCORM Before
Prepare
Remember
Teach
22. An Experience Learning Model
Experience
Debrief
Reflection
Action
Planning
What
What
happened?
So what?
Now what?
23. What can you
do now that
you have
xAPI?
• Learn more about the learning
experience
• Learn more about the performance
• Correlate learning with performance
• Correlate learning with results
• Correlate performance with results
• Offer more targeted training
• Support performance in better ways
• Learn from others
• Share learning with others
• Compare performance and learning
across learners
• Deliver and track training outside of the
LMS
27. Reading back
from the LRS
to make
smarter
courses
From within the course:
Where are you?
What are you learning from other
courses?
What did you do before?
28. Reading actual
performance
data from
other systems
to make
smarter
courses
What are people doing that’s better
than before?
Which learning experiences work
best to improve performance?
Based on performance, what
learning do I need? Not need?
29. Handles some
things better
than SCORM
Social learning
Gamification
Badging & credentials
Aggregating across platforms
Formal & Informal learning
30. Plus a bunch
of somewhat
boring things
that learning
tech ought to
do but
couldn’t with
SCORM
Work offline
Work outside the LMS
Work on a different server than the
LMS
Complex interaction & question-
level data tracking
31. What’s an instructional designer to do?
Skills you need:
• Instructional Design
• Written Communication
• Visual Communication
• Developer Tools
• Project Management
• JavaScript
• Data Science
• Data smarts
• Good questions
• Business acumen
32. What is a day hike?
Those first-step projects that:
• Show real impact
• Help you figure out your data issues
• Prove your point
• Free or very low cost
• (Maybe even under the radar)
Things you can pick up and do
without breaking other things.
Dollarphotoclub_60078630
33. Why do you need a day hike?
You can’t sell xAPI. (no one cares)
You can sell the connection between
improved learning data and better
organizational outcomes.
You probably need a proof-of-
concept.
You have to show it.
ASK: Using your pointer tool, put your name on which onboarding plan you’d rather participate in.
DISCUSS: Why did you pick that?
xAPI is a simple, lightweight way to store and retrieve records about learners and share this data across platforms. These records (known as activity statements) can be captured in a consistent format from any number of sources (known as activity providers) and they are aggregated in a learning record store (or LRS). The LRS is analogous to the SCORM database in an LMS.
The “x” in xAPI is short for “experience” and implies that these activity providers are not just limited to traditional AICC- and SCORM-based e-learning. With xAPI you can track classroom activities, usage of performance support tools, participation in online communities, mentoring discussions, performance assessment, actual business results, and so on. The goal is to create a full picture of an individual’s learning experience and how that relates to her performance.
“API” stands for application programming interface, a common method for software systems to interact and share data. xAPI activity statements can be generated by activity providers and sent to the LRS, or they can be sent from the LRS to other systems. Many current applications offer APIs to make their data available in other systems, and vice versa.
Let’s go back to the ‘book”.. This is pulled from the xAPI documentation almost verbatim.. this is the “promise” of xAPI.
#1 – actually this answer makes people involved with xAPI cringe. It’s like saying your smartphone is a next generation book. But it’s a good place to start the conversation. And then quickly move along.
#2 – from the instructional design perspective, when your job is to build and track training. This is where it’s at. With SCORM you can track about 20 things, only 4 of which are interesting. (Location, Time, Score, Complete, Answers). Now that’s not to say that you can’t get really clever with SCORM and trick it into doing a few other things.
#3 – builds off this – reinforce that learning experiences in the future won’t come entirely from e-learning. Give examples (RFID, Ab Scex KPI’s, other “triggers” that happen in the real world.. Call center logs, manufacturing floor, blah blah)
#4 – xAPI won’t do this for you. It provides the data that my help you do it .. But it won’t do it for you.
It’s worthwhile to spend a little bit of time talking about what happens when we live in a SCORM world (which we all do) and how xAPI is different.
SCORM is a standard for the way that elearning courses communicate with their learning management systems. It tracks about 20 pieces of data, about 5 of which are interesting to instructional designers
SCORM is just fine if everything you need to learn and track can be housed in your LMS. And you only learn when you’re connected to the internet and logged into the LMS.