Last updated: 7/6/2018
xAPI has been around for over 5 years now and it's finally starting to pick up momentum. I started my journey working with xAPI a little over a year ago and there has been so much I continue to learn along the way.
The following resources I have used to learn more about xAPI and get started with xAPI enabled projects. I hope they'll help you too!
Get started with these resources
xAPI may still seem mysterious to some but there are a ton of resources out there to help you learn more. Check out some of my favorite resources to help you get going.
SCORM vs. AICC vs. Tin Can (xAPI): Why xAPI Is the Only Way Forward
A great overview of the differences between SCORM, AICC, and xAPI.
A Quick Intro to xAPI (and Data Logs)
Ben Betts recalls stories from his family's past in order to describe xAPI. A really quick and great overview!
Check out what xAPI statements elearning authoring tools offer out of the box.
When a course uses SCORM it might report something to the Learning Management System like completions, scores, or slides viewed. With xAPI you can report anything to an Learning Record Store (LRS) and it reports to the LRS in the form of a statement. You get to pick what your statement will say (with a few guidelines you'll need to follow). Learn more about how to construct a statement with this resource.
HT2Labs has come out with a MOOC on xAPI in June 2018. I have not had a chance to try it out yet but you can sign up now.
The xAPI Cohort occurs a few times a year. It's almost like free classes on xAPI. You get as much out of the cohort as you put into it. You meet weekly on Adobe Connect to learn about xAPI and then on your own time you work in teams to create an xAPI project and give updates to the group weekly. We also stay connected via Slack. You don't have to join a team to participate, you can enjoy coming and going during the cohort as you please.
The xAPI Wrapper will allow you to configure a way to send statements from projects where you've built out customized xAPI statements.
The verbs in the xAPI Wrapper are those verbs that you can use in statements in conjunction with the xAPI Wrapper. In order to use more verbs you would need to customize the verbs listed in the JSON in your xAPI Wrapper.
Try out these Learning Record Stores (LRSs)
There are a lot of LRSs out there but how do you choose one? Here are a list of my favorite ADL Conformant LRSs (in no specific order), listed by trial versions so you can test em out! There are other LRSs out there but I only wanted to share those I have seen myself and that are ADL conformant.
I've been using the Yet xAPI LRS for awhile now. Some of the features I love are the drag and drop customizable activity stream, the ability to create multiple LRS instances, and the live updates of the activity stream. Test out this trial version and keep your user's data for 30 days.
Learning Locker is an LRS that you can install on your own server for free or you can purchase a SaaS version. The installation process of Learning Locker has been made easier due to an AMI that you install on AWS.
While I have not personally used Watershed's LRS but I have seen it demoed. Watershed's Essentials LRS allows you reporting on up to 300 learners and unlimited tracking
The Veracity LRS is one of the new players to the game. It's another one of those that I have seen demoed but have not personally used. They have a free version you can install and manage yourself or enterprise versions.
Although Riptide does not appear to have a trial I was able to demo their LRS, so I wanted to add it on here. Contact them to check it out!
There are more LRSs out there to take a look at, although I have not tried all of them. Check em out for yourself here.
Case studies and miscellaneous articles
Learn more about how other organizations are using xAPI and discover more articles on xAPI use.
xAPI April presented by Watershed
Check out some of these recordings on how companies like Behr, Caterpillar, PwC and more are using xAPI.
View articles on xAPI that have been published to Learning Solutions Mag.
View articles on xAPI that have been published to eLearning Industry.
Search xAPI in TD Magazine's search field to find articles on xAPI.
Other tools
The following are tools that can be used to create xAPI enabled experiences but are not LRSs. There are of course way more tools than these but here are few hand picked ones.
xAPI Adopters are companies that the signed up for an account and chose to publicly list itself as an xAPI adopter. For example, Articulate is listed as an adopter, you can publish an Articulate Storyline course to TinCan/xAPI. xAPI used to be called TinCan.
Zapier with Watershed allows you to easily track experiences in other tools such as Salesforce and send them to your LRS. For instance, you can track Salesforce tasks and send them over to your LRS. It's a great way to automate some reporting.
The xAPI Statement viewer allows you to create an activity stream of statements that can be hosted and sent to others.
Automation is one of my favorite things because it allows less work for your team but gets the job done. Reach is an app for Enterprise Learning Locker that will automate tasks for you. For instance, you can set a survey to send to a user when a user has completed a course or you could send a course suggestion based on their outcomes or interactions in a course. Automation is really where xAPI will be shining in the future.
There are a ton more apps out there for Learning Locker. Check em out here.
— Mel