Stay Current at the Experience API (xAPI) Camps

The Experience API (xAPI) continuesits expansion into the marketplace of learning and beyond. Further, itspotential to enable learning ecosystems that act more like GPS (the GlobalPositioning System) than an LMS (learning management system) is also buildingdeep conversations about how to accelerate its proliferation.

Like any good specification orstandard, the xAPI should operate in the background; but during adoption, discussionneeds to be in the foreground. We don’t talk about how electricity gets fromthe power plant to the inside of our walls: Our tools just plug into the system.This is where the xAPI is going, but first we need real dialogue aboutpotential, design, and examples.

The adoption of the xAPI isgaining momentum from a variety of activities put on by key industry players. Activitiesaround the world, from those sponsored by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative to the xAPI Camps hosted bythe Connections Forum, are moving thework along.

Entire products built from theground up on the xAPI have appeared, including robust commercial learning recordstores and more. Even further, a new nonprofit, the Data Interoperability Standards Consortium (DISC), has emerged to shepherd data interoperability with theExperience API and beyond over the long term. The recent acquisitionof Rustici Software and the investment activity in its spinoff Watershed LRS arefurther evidence of the moving market and value creation potential around the xAPI.

One campfire at a time

If it were up to Aaron Silvers andMegan Bowe of the Connections Forum,there would be a perpetual campfire conversation around the xAPI and whatpeople are doing with it. To move in that direction, the Connections Forum hashosted a half-dozen xAPI Camps in North America since March 2015, with four upcoming in 2016 (includingone in London next week). More are planned in 2017.

The xAPI Camps serve as clearinghouses for knowledgecentered on real and potential needs. People interested in becoming users andearly adopters of the standard have been attending the camps in order to sharetheir experiences around solution, product, and technology development. Theirgoals have been to increase their knowledge and to decrease the effort needed toimplement the xAPI. Sean Putman, vice president of learning development forAltair and a presenter at past camps, says, “There aresome great projects underway providing use cases which will help L&D professionalsunderstand the benefits of the xAPI.”

Each camp attracts people like Sean. He says, “I am trying to help L&D professionals who are uncomfortablewith programming start to use xAPI. I am also giving some best-practice tips,where pertinent, to help people new to xAPI get the most out of their tool ofchoice.” Janet Effron, a data scientist at HT2, says that in herexperience, “it was really helpful to hear a variety of industry perspectivesabout needs as well as about barriers with respect to using learning data.”

Enabling ecosystems

Regular xAPI Camp attendee Ben Betts, CEO of HT2, feels thatthere is a better way to connect learning to performance and business results thanthe current LMS-centric technology model. He says, “We’re trying to enable moreorganizations to switch away from monolithic ‘one-system-to-rule-them-all’ learningtechnologies to an ecosystem of tools and practices that best fits theirlearning culture.” This ecosystem-based approach of best-of-breed technologiesin organizations continues to be a common theme of conversation at camps.

Ben says of the work at HT2, “We’ve created an open-source learningrecord store that can act as a repository for all of the organization’slearning and performance data, no matter in what system it originates. We’velowered the barriers to adoption in terms of cost and commitment.”

Discussion of the vision and functionality of learningecosystems, adaptation, and resiliency carry over from the camps to the hostingconferences, such as The eLearning Guild’s events: the just-concluded Learning Solutions and Ecosystem Conference & Expo, the upcoming FocusOn Learning, and this fall’s DevLearn Conference & Expo.

Big ideas

The xAPI enables some potentially huge affordances. A recentpaper publishedon research funded by the US Army shows a 40 percent reduction in time forteams to get up to task using the xAPI and adaptation. (Editor’s Note: To readthe paper, you must register with the site; registration is free.) That is a potentiallymassive measurable ROI!

Having a “quiver” of xAPI-enabled products working inconcert potentially supports many new capabilities for organizations of allsizes. “The xAPI provides a foundation on which to build an organization’sMission Control for all human capital data. More than capturing learning data,xAPI provides a means of capturing the data of formative experience,” saysShelly Blake-Plock, CEO of Yet Analytics. Implications for fields such ascompetitive intelligence and econometrics are also under discussion.

Adam Menter, a learning strategy program managerat Autodesk and recent host of an xAPI Camp in San Francisco, has big ideas forwhat organizations can do. “We are trying to better connect ourlearning ecosystem, both inside and outside our walls, to enable more effectiveand personalized learning experiences,” Adam says. The Autodesk ecosystem ismassive, and it touches many lives. Adam’s talkat the February xAPI Camp focused on the potential of that ecosystem and theimportance of understanding the intersection of humanity, technology, andcommunity. Many organizations have the same goals for their ecosystems.

Practical problem solving

The xAPI can enable big ideas, but many participants at therecent camps are also having conversations around simple projects that wereproduced quickly. Tracking and visualizing progress and learning paths in simpleways is easy with current LRS capabilities and tools.

Robert Gadd, president ofOnPoint Digital, says, “The xAPI provides easy-to-implement and flexibleapproaches to solving many of the real-world problems. xAPI-based tools andtechniques regularly serve as a trusty Swiss Army knife to help us overcomeissues ranging from integration to information consolidation to tracking acrossany formal learning assignment or informal learning interaction.”

Improving the future

“The xAPI presentsan incredible opportunity to gain insight into what works and what doesn’t inlearning, and from that understanding, to improve design,” Janet of HT2 says.

Looking toward the future, Robert says, “The training and development world increasingly needs tosupport their on-the-go workers and extended learning ecosystems usingwhatever creative and flexible methods make the most technical and economicsense. The xAPI can serve as both a bright new future as well as an innovativeway to breathe new life into legacy platforms that aren’t easily updated orreplaced.”

People at camps are willing toshare and are helping one another to build a bridge toward future learningecosystems. If you can’t be in London on April 22, then join the conversation June 7 inAustin!Register for the June event by April 22 and save $100!

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