xAPI Introduction - TorranceLearning xAPI Party Download May 2019
1. xAPI:
An Intro for
Instructional Designers
Megan Torrance | mtorrance@torrancelearning.com
xAPI Party | May 2019
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2. Where are you on your xAPI
journey?
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3. As an
instructional
designer …
What is xAPI?
How do I send data?
What data do I send?
Where do I send it?
How do I keep it organized?
How do I learn more?
5. Onboarding Plan BOnboarding Plan A
Tour the campus & buildings
Class: Your benefits & you
Take a skills assessment
Webinar: LMS & Your Learning
Class: Finance 101
Rate your experience
Elearning: Our Customers
Observe the work process
Receive coaching from a mentor
Watch a video
Follow a blog
Read a book by an expert
Elearning: Welcome & virtual tour
Elearning: Log into LMS
Elearning: Tour our Campus
Class: Your benefits & you
Class: Email and You
Elearning: Who’s who
Elearning: Our customers
Class: Finance 101
Recorded webinar: Our LMS Part 1
Webinar: LMS & Your Learning
Multiple choice test: Your Job Role
Practice activities on work process
Job shadow an experienced employee
Class: Using the intranet
6. 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 …
9. Actor verb object
Actor verb object result context
Claire read Business Writing for
ProfessionalsJohn practiced frosting birthday cakes
Lindsey watched the Company History video
Rashad completed Oil Change Upselling
10. Mohammed
published
a blog post titled “10 Ways xAPI is better than
SCORM”
Oron rated event xAPI for Instructional Designers 5 stars
“coffee rocked, nice use of PowerPoint” with
@MMTorrance
Cynthia sold premium synthetic oil
Ladan simulated landing at DTW successfully
Arthi simulated landing at DTW successfully with a score of 98%
in SimSuite #4 by Instructor Tim
Claire read Business Writing for
ProfessionalsJohn practiced frosting birthday cakes
Lindsey watched the Company History video
Rashad completed Oil Change Upselling
Cynthia completed Oil Change Upselling score
60%
Actor verb object result context
12. 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
14. 5 ways to
send the
data
Use your current elearning authoring tools
Get your product vendor to send the data
Use aggregator like xapiapps to assemble things
that aren’t xAPI into a thing that is
Write some custom code
Import from business data
15. AUTHORING TOOLS
Out of the box:
• SCORM-like transactions
• Individual page views
• Actions and triggers (depends)
With a little JavaScript or with xapi.ly:
• Any action or trigger you want
THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE
THIS LIST IS GROWING
17. OTHER ACTIVITY PROVIDERS
Not really “authoring tools,” but very deep
learning experiences, LMCSes, etc. that send
xAPI data.
THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE
THIS LIST IS GROWING
21. The
Learning
Record
Store
… receives, stores, gives back xAPI data
… can be tested for conformance which
ensures interoperability
(https://adopters.adlnet.gov/)
… is not a learning management system (LMS)
22. 2 ways to
receive data:
the Learning
Record
Store
You send data to an LRS separate from an LMS.
Your LMS has an LRS inside it.
23. What can
you do with
the data?
Evaluate & improve the learning experience
Dashboards and visualizations for decision-
making
Personalization of pathways
Recommendations for content
Action triggers & rules
26. 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.
Poll Question: Where are you on your xAPI journey?
Stay standing if you can spell xAPI
Stay standing if you know what the x stands for in xAPI
Stay standing if you have sent an activity statement
Stay standing if you have received an activity statement in an LRS
Stay standing if you have made a business decision based on an activity statement you’ve received in the LRS
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 …
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.
The pattern is that there’s an Actor, a verb, and an object.
We can also add context about any of the items – actor, verb, or object
“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.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Pick a first project
Platform & tools you’ll need to get started
What I’ve learned in working with vendors & partners
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.