Ten Resources: Getting Started with the Experience API and LRSs

By now, many eLearning professionals have at least heard thebuzzwords: Experience API, xAPI, and Tin Can. And many more have implementedthe Experience API as a way to capture the formal and informal learning that istaking place in their organizations.

For those who haven’t started yet, or who have questions,I’ve pulled out five resources from The eLearning Guild’s archives, andidentified five sessions at the DevLearn 2015 Conference & Expo, where there are plenty of answers and guidance toget started. There are also articles in the LearningSolutions Magazine archive as well; to find them, just enter “xAPI”(without the quotation marks) in the search box at the top of this page.

From the archives

Research Library: The Experience API—Liberating Learning Design. PeterBerking, Steve Foreman, Jason Haag, Craig Wiggins. Research report. (Paidmembership required for access.)

Online Events Archive: Learning Platform Strategies: LMS, LRS, or Both?Robert Gadd, Craig Wiggins. Handout and recording (1:16). (Paid membershiprequired for access.)

Conference Archive: The ABC’s of xAPI: Lessons Learned and Shared. Robert Gadd, Dave Smelser. Handout,video (59:18).

Online Events Archive:LRSs: What You Need to Know Now. Rob Houck, Megan Torrance. Handout, recording (1:14:53). (Paid membership required for access.)

Conference Archive: Break Out of the Web Browser Box with the Experience API. David Smith. Handout.

Sessions at DevLearn 2015

xAPI Camp. Case studies, ideas, solutions, and community. Aaron Silvers, Megan Bowe. Pre-conference workshop,September 29. (Separate registration required.)

The ABCs of xAPI: Lessons Learned and Shared. DaveSmelser, Robert Gadd. In this session, you will learn what xAPI is and what it isn’t. You willlearn how statements are generally structured, and how it is typically beingput into practice. You will explore how xAPI is being leveraged by progressiveorganizations to improve the learning experience, streamline tracking, performcommon tasks, and drive engagement. Finally, we will look at the myriadchallenges. Just because it’s out there doesn’t mean your team will have theright platforms, tools, practices, and mind-set to take advantage of all thefeatures (attributes) and benefits xAPI has to offer.

Improving Patient Safety Using xAPI and LRS. Ali Shahrazad. In this session, you will learnabout the resources, logistical issues, and planning that were required toimplement the Experience API (xAPI) and a learning record store (LRS) in aneffort to reach specific desired outcomes at uOttawa. You will learn howuOttawa leveraged an LRS to capture the data from a content management system(CMS) with a combination of HTML and rapid authored content and then designedadvanced reporting functions not found in other tools on the market.Additionally, you will review the future expansion plans and vision that theuOttawa Faculty of Medicine has for the xAPI in medical education.

Analytics and xAPI: Measure Your Way to Success. AndyJohnson, Craig Wiggins, Steve Foreman. In this session, you will learn how theExperience API (xAPI) is allowing us to look deeper at what is happening andhow that data can influence future design and learning environment decisions.You will explore a detailed use case involving the analysis and resolution of aproductivity challenge in a large sales and marketing organization. The usecase will include descriptions and explanations of how learning analytics andthe xAPI can be applied, including needs analysis, solution design, datacollection, data visualization, solution monitoring, and building on success.You will learn how analytics can be used to address workplace performancechallenges and how to leverage the xAPI.

Becoming a Learning Experience Designer. Marty Rosenheck In this session you will learn the importance of buildingexperiences in the form of online scenarios, simulations, and real-worldon-the-job tasks. You’ll leave understanding better how to apply research-basedguidelines to design, structure, and sequence experiences into optimizedlearning paths. You’ll see to how to leverage technology, especially mobile andthe Experience API (formerly Tin Can) to deliver, capture, and track learningexperiences. Finally, in this session you’ll see examples of howlearning-experience designers are transforming how people learn professional,technical, sales, and leadership skills.