Contemporary digital learning technologies generate, store, and share terabytes of learner data—which must flow seamlessly and securely across systems. To enable interoperability and ensure systems can perform at-scale, the ADL Initiative is developing the Data and Training Analytics Simulated Input Modeler (DATASIM), a tool for producing simulated learner data that can mimic millions of diverse user interactions. view image full screen DATASIM application screen capture. DATASIM is an open-source platform for generating realistic Experience Application Programming Interface (xAPI) data at very large scale. The xAPI statements model realistic behaviors for a cohort of simulated learner/users, producing tailorable streams of data that can be used to benchmark and stress-test systems. DATASIM requires no specialized hardware, and it includes a user-friendly graphical interface that allows precise control over the simulation parameters and learner attributes.

xAPI profiles make learning design, development, and analytics better.

The video profile of the xAPI was created to identify and standardize the common types of interactions that can be tracked in any video player.

xAPI Wrapper Tutorial Introduction This tutorial will demonstrate how to integrate xAPI Wrapper with existing content to capture and dispatch learning records to an LRS.

Storyline 360 xAPI Updates (Winter 2021)Exciting xAPI update for Storyline users! Articulate has updated Storyline 360 to support custom xAPI statements alongside a few other xAPI-related updates. (These changes will likely come to Storyline 3 soon, though not as of November 30, 2021.)

Making xAPI Easier Use the xapi.ly® Statement Builder to get more and better xAPI data from elearning created in common authoring platforms. xapi.ly helps you create the JavaScript triggers to send a wide variety of rich xAPI statements to the Learning Record Store (LRS) of your choice.

Here you will find a well curated list of activities, activity types, attachments types, extensions, and verbs. You can also add to the registry and we will give you a permanently resolvable URL - one less thing you have to worry about. The registry is a community resource, so that we can build together towards a working Tin Can data ecosystem.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.

The xAPI Vocabulary and Profile Server is a curated list of xAPI vocabulary concepts and profiles maintained by the xAPI community.

xAPI Foundations Leverage xAPI to develop more comprehensive learning experiences. This on-demand e-learning course is available online immediately after purchase. Within the course, you will have the opportunity to personalize your learning by viewing videos, interacting with content, hearing from experts, and planning for your future. You will have access to the course(s) for 12 months from your registration date.

Learning program analytics seek to understand how an overall learning program is performing. A learning program typically encompasses many learners and many learning experiences (although it could easily contain just a few).

Learning experience analytics seek to understand more about a specific learning activity. 

Learner analytics seek to understand more about a specific person or group of people engaged in activities where learning is one of the outputs.

There are many types of learning analytics and things you can measure and analyze. We segment these analytics into three categories: learning experience analytics, learner analytics, and learning program analytics.

Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners, learning experiences, and learning programs for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and its impact on an organization’s performance.

xAPI

Social learning This is a feature the LXP has really expanded. Although some of the more advanced LMSs boast social features, the Learning Experience Platform is better formatted for them and far more likely to provide.  Firstly, the LXP caters for a broader range of learning options than the LMS. It’s usually not difficult to use your LXP to set up an online class or webinar.  LXPs also provide a chance for learners to share their opinions on content: liking, sharing, or commenting on an article or online class. Users can follow and interact with others, above or below them in the organisation. Sometimes LXPs even provide people curation, matching learners and mentors.  Users also have a chance to make the LXP their own by setting up a personalised profile page. It might seem low-priority, but a sense of ownership usually corresponds with a boost in engagement.  As well prepared as Learning & Development leaders are, there’ll be things that people doing a job every day will know that you won’t. They can use their personal experience to recommend or create learning content in an LXP. This helps on-the-job learning and gives employees a greater chance of picking up the skills they need to progress in their role. 

How, exactly, can we design for engagement and conversation? In comparison to content-focused educational technology such as the Learning Management System (LMS), our (not so secret) recipe is this:1. Eliminate the noise2. Bring people into the same room3. Make conversation easy and meaningful4. Create modularity and flexibility

To learn more, there are two books I highly recommend. "Digital Body Language," by Steve Woods, and "Big Data: Does Size Matter?" by Timandra Harkness. If you would like a deeper dive into data-driven learning design, there's a free e-book and toolkit you can download from my blog. You can also reach me there at loriniles.com. Remember, start with the data you have readily available. Data does not have to be intimidating Excel spreadsheets. Be prepared with data every single time you meet with your stakeholders. And before you design any strategy, ask what data you have to support every decision. You're on an exciting journey to becoming a more well-rounded HR leader. Get started, and good luck.

LXPs and LMSs accomplish two different objectives. An LMS enables administrators to manage learning, while an LXP enables learners to explore learning. Organizations may have an LXP, an LMS or both. If they have both, they may use the LXP as the delivery platform and the LMS to handle the administrative work.

4. Highly intuitive interfaces

3. Supports various types of learning

2. Rich learning experience through deeper personalization

Here are some other characteristics that set LXPs apart from LMS’s: 1. Extensive integration capabilities

The gradual shift, from one-time pay to cloud-based subscription-based business has lead learning platforms to also offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models to their clients. As such content becomes part of digital learning networks, they are integrated into commercial learning solutions and then become part of broader LXPs. Looking back at all these developments, from how new data consumption platforms evolved, to the emergence of newer content development approaches and publishing channels, it’s easy to understand why LXPs naturally evolved as a result of DXPs.

The growth of social learning has also created multiple learning opportunities for people to share their knowledge and expertise. As they socialize on these platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and many others), individuals and groups learn from each other through various types of social interactions – sharing content, exchanging mutually-liked links to external content. LXP leverage similar approaches in corporate learning environments, and scale learning experience and opportunities with such user-generated content as found in social and community-based learning.

Integrations are also possible with AI. If you integrate LXP and your Human Resource Management (HRM) system, the corporate intranet, your Learning Record Store (LRS) or the enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and collect the data from all of them, you can identify many different trends and patterns. And based on those patterns, all stakeholders can make informed training and learning decisions. Standard LMS’s cannot do any of that. And though LMS developers are trying to get there, they’ve still got a long way to go to bridge the functionality gap with LXPs. As a result, there was an even greater impetus to the emergence of LXPs.

Another driver for the emergence of LXP’s is the standards adopted by modern-day LMS’s – which are SCORM-based. While SCORM does “get results”, it is limited in what it can do. One of the main goals of any corporate learning platform is to connect learning with on-the-job performance. And SCORM makes it very difficult to decide how effective the courses really are, or how learners benefit from these courses. Experience API (xAPI) on the other hand – the standard embraced by LXPs – offers significantly enhanced capabilities to the platform. When you use xAPI, you can follow different parameters both while you learn and perform on the job tasks. And, what’s even better is that you can do that on a variety of digital devices.

LMS’s primarily served as a centralized catalog of corporate digital learning assets. Users of those platforms often found it hard to navigate through vast amounts of content to find an appropriate piece of learning. LMS providers sought to bridge that gap by introducing smart searches and innovative querying features – but that didn’t entirely address the core challenge: LMS’s were still like huge libraries where you should only go to when you have an idea of what you need, and then spend inordinate amounts of time searching for what you specifically want!

Experience API (xAPI) is a tool for gaining insight into how learners are using, navigating, consuming, and completing learning activities. In this course, Anthony Altieri provides an in-depth look at using xAPI for learning projects, including practical examples that show xAPI in action.

Intro to xAPI: What Do Instructional Designers Need to Know

The xAPI Learning Cohort is a free, vendor-neutral, 12-week learning-by-doing project-based team learning experience about the Experience API. (Yep, you read that right – free!) It’s an opportunity for those who are brand new to xAPI and those who are looking to experiment with it to learn from each other and from the work itself.

If your current course development tools don't create the activity statements you need, keep in mind that sending xAPI statements requires only simple JavaScript, so many developers are coding their own form of statements from scratch.

An xAPI activity statement records experiences in an "I did this" format. The format specifies the actor, verb, object: the actor (who did it), a verb (what was done), a direct object (what it was done to) and a variety of contextual data, including score, rating, language, and almost anything else you want to track. Some learning experiences are tracked with a single activity statement. In other instances, dozens, if not hundreds, of activity statements can be generated during the course of a learning experience. Activity statements are up to the instructional designer and are driven by the need for granularity in reporting.

xAPI is a simple, lightweight way to store and retrieve records about learners and share these 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 (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 experience API or xAPI you can track classroom activities, usage of performance support tools, participation in online communities, mentoring discussions, performance assessment, and actual business results. The goal is to create a full picture of an individual's learning experience and how that relates to her performance.

For any xAPI implementation, these five things need to happen:A person does something (e.g., watches a video).That interaction is tracked by an application.Data about the interaction is sent to an LRS.The data is stored in the LRS and made available for use.Use the data for reporting and personalizing a learning experience.In most implementations, multiple learner actions are tracked by multiple applications, and data may be used in a number of ways. In all cases, there’s an LRS at the center receiving, storing, and returning the data as required.

Experience API (also xAPI or Tin Can API) is a learning technology interoperability specification that makes it easier for learning technology products to communicate and work with one another.

Instructional DesignerWhen implementing xAPI across an organization, there isn’t usually a need for instructional designers to take on new roles or duties. However, they may experience a learning curve that presents an opportunity to understand how to best package and effectively deploy xAPI in newly created content. Your learning designer(s) is a key partner in getting good data, so keep them in the loop regarding your strategy, goals, and expected outcomes.