Marc My Words: The xAPI Breakthrough

I admit it. I’m not a hard-core techie. I tend to look at whattechnology can do rather than how it works. So I’m not going to explain theintricacies of xAPI technology, but I am excited about what it all means. Actually,the xAPI itself is not a technology. It is a specification for buildingtracking mechanisms into applications and systems, referred to as “activity providers.”That said, there are technology products that support the xAPI, includinglearning record stores (LRSs) where xAPI tracking data is stored, “connectors”that xAPI-enable many commonly used systems, and a growing number of innovativeproducts for adaptive and experiential learning.

SCORM limitations

To understand the potential of the xAPI (formerly known as “Project TinCan”), you have to go back to SCORM. You remember SCORM, don’t you? Never likedthe acronym; sounded a little too much like a skin rash (oh, I have an outbreak of scorm on my arm!). But I digress. SharableContent Object Reference Model, aka SCORM, enabled interoperability across learningmanagement systems when it came to launching and tracking eLearning courses. Itwas widely adopted and helped fuel the boom in eLearning. This was a goodthing.

However, in order for it all to work, everyone had to agree on a set ofSCORM standards to follow. Content providers, LMS companies, and authoring toolvendors all had to buy in. And, for the most part, they did. So as long as yourcourse was SCORM compliant, all was fine.

That is, as long as you were building “traditional” eLearningcourseware. Yes, SCORM could track user interactions, but only the interactionsit was designed to track. Get too creative with your design or your evaluationmeasures, and SCORM can’t handle them. In some ways, the capabilities of SCORM defined the design of your course. Ascourses became more innovative, and as new informal learning strategies enteredthe arena, SCORM didn’t work as well. And, as we expand what we do beyond thecourse, this matters.

Beyond SCORM

Let’s look at the learning and performance ecosystem model (Figure 1). SCORMsupports only structured learning. What about the other components, especiallyperformance support, collaboration, knowledge management, and access toexperts?

Figure 1: The learning and performance ecosystem (graphic © Steve Foreman and Marc Rosenberg—used bypermission)

What if you wanted to track learning via any of these strategies? Orwanted to track a special project or work assignment as a learning experience? Whatif you wanted to get a complete picture of an employee’s skills, knowledge, andcapabilities, as well as his or her accomplishments, in addition to testscores? What if you wanted to see what an employee has learned on the job inaddition to what was learned in class?

That’s where the xAPI comes in. It provides a way to track almost anylearning activity using a simple rubric (Figure 2).

Figure 2: xAPI syntax

So, for example:

• David completed a special project.
• Susan compiled a research report.
• Josh created a new procedure.
• Louise reviewed a technical manual.
• My team finalized a new manufacturing process.

You get the idea.

So the other ways we learn—through resources, knowledge sharing,experience, etc.—are tracked by the xAPI and fed into a learning record store(LRS). With a little work, traditional LMS/SCORM training data can also feedinto the LRS, providing a much more robust picture of employee learning andabilities. Training records begin to look more like résumés, and the focusshifts from test scores to accomplishments.

Figure 3: xAPI activity providers and the learning record store(source: Steve Foreman; used with permission)

Training does not lose its importance in all of this, but we nowrecognize that it cannot drive high performance by itself. Maybe if people werein training all the time, it could dothe job, but most people get about two weeks of training a year if they’relucky. The rest of the time, they learn in the field from experience and one another.The xAPI can help track that and make that type of informal workplace learningsignificantly more meaningful.

So don’t be concerned if you don’t “get” xAPI technology. Don’t let itput you off. If you look into it, even just a little, you will “get” its value.

Thanks to Steve Foreman for his important contributions to this article.

Want more?

Ifyou’d like to learn what happened at the xAPI Camps held earlier this year, besure to read Michael Hruska’s spotlight, “Experience API (xAPI): One Camp at aTime,” which will appear tomorrow (April 13, 2016) in Learning Solutions Magazine. xAPI Camps are meetings of xAPIadopters sharing their stories around solution, product, and technologydevelopment. These xAPI Camps have been held as pre-conference events ateLearning Guild conferences this year and last, and more are planned.