EXPERIENCE API (xAPI)

THE ULTIMATE BEGINNERS GUIDE

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION

1
A BRIEF HISTORY BEHIND THE EXPERIENCE API (XAPI)

2
WHAT IS XAPI?

3
THE ANATOMY OF AN XAPI STATEMENT

4
WHAT IS A LEARNING RECORD STORE?

5
THE IMPORTANCE OF XAPI CONFORMANCE

6
THE “SO WHAT” OF XAPI

7
SELECTING AN XAPI VENDOR

CONCLUSION
 SMARTER LEARNING. SMARTER ANALYTICS. SMARTER PEOPLE.

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Elements makes Digital Learning

easier through enabling, behavior-focused
learning technology that provides learning
activity streams and insightful analytics
(Storepoints Learning Record Store) and
walk-through software training (Waypoints).

STOREPOINTS LEARNING RECORD STORE (LRS)

Storepoints Learning Record Store (LRS) helps you gather and evaluate contextual
learning activity streams and performance data that has historically been unavailable.
With Storepoints you have access to all the LRS data. You can provide live data views
to multiple audiences and easily build any visualization. Move beyond “tracking
completions” and unlock the full potential of your learning data. Determine the most
effective learning for your staff, improve your learning program, and gain the data to tell
a compelling talent development story around training impact. With Storepoints as your
learning technology foundation, you can take your evaluation to an entirely new level.

WAYPOINTS INLINE SOFTWARE TRAINING

Say goodbye to software training manuals! With Waypoints, you can author and deliver
an interactive, guided training experience so learners train while using the software.
Waypoints allows you to tailor lessons to match each software release. With competency
based assessments, the learner performs workflows as Waypoints verifies the correct
software use. You can also use Waypoints to build and deliver a Certification program
on the use of your software.
 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Nick Washburn
Director, Learning Division & xAPI Evangelist
Connect with Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-washburn-1b51177/

Currently the Director of the Riptide Learning Division, Nick Washburn has 17 years of
experience working with hi-tech entrepreneurs, distance learning, and for some of the world’s top
brands. Nick is a member of the workgroup that created the Experience xAPI (xAPI), and he continues
to work in and be involved in research and development for xAPI/LRS strategies for today’s learning
enterprise. Since 2005, Nick has led the development of award winning distance learning solutions
used by Fortune 50/500 and U.S. DoD.

Christy Puller
Marketing Specialist, Learning Division
Connect with Christy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christypuller/

Christy is a full-stack marketer who manages all marketing efforts for Riptide’s Learning
Division. Part of her day-to-day involves bridging the communication gap between the technical and
non-technical aspects of new technologies in learning and development through content creation
and education. Christy is also an xAPI-evangelist and actively works to rally interest and adoption of
the specification.
 INTRODUCTION

T
hroughout the years, we’ve spoken with store (Storepoints LRS) since 2014, so we know a thing or
clients and prospects who have come from a two about the spec! This publication is intended to first,
variety of backgrounds when it comes to their help you conceptually understand this powerful data
understanding of the Experience API (xAPI). specification and second, show how you can immediately
The knowledge we’ve seen ranges from knowing almost begin applying xAPI to your business or educational use-
nothing about xAPI, but wanting to learn more, all the way case.
to experts in the field who need our technical expertise
for a particular integration or consultation service. Our Concepts in this guide will be covered in a fairly non-
team at Riptide are part of the workgroup that created the technical manner so everything can be communicated as
xAPI specification and we have been serving enterprise clearly as possible!
customers with a functioning enterprise learning record

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

1. A BRIEF HISTORY BEHIND THE EXPERIENCE API (XAPI)

2. WHAT IS XAPI?

3. THE ANATOMY OF AN XAPI STATEMENT

4. WHAT IS A LEARNING RECORD STORE?

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF XAPI CONFORMANCE

6. THE “SO WHAT” OF XAPI

7. SELECTING AN XAPI VENDOR

 A BRIEF HISTORY BEHIND THE
EXPERIENCE API (XAPI)

W
ith the adoption and growth of the been important to gain insights and evaluation about the
internet in the late 20th century, a digital effectiveness of the instruction. We are all familiar with
revolution began. Training was no longer the ADDIE model, and the “E” stands for formative and
bound to the confines of instructor-led or summative “evaluation.” The Scorable Content Object
a correspondence course, where one had to be in the Reference Model, or SCORM specification, was created
classroom to learn or communicate with the instructor to provide this evaluation data, but unfortunately, was not
through mail. The internet was a technological disruption created for the interconnected, multi-device world we
which radically began changing the ways that we think live in today. The SCORM specification was developed
about education and training. With the adoption of the in the late 90’s early 2000’s and it built upon the work
internet, we find that instead of learning simply happening of the Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training
in a controlled (synchronous learning) classroom Committee (AICC), originally to make courseware
environment, with controlled assessment strategies, content interoperability between various LMS’s. These
learning is happening more and more in many uncontrolled specifications are also dependent upon maintaining a
(asynchronous learning) digital environments. constant connection with the LMS. This early SCORM and
AICC did not forsee the interconnected world we have
Along with widespread internet adoption, the mid- today.
late nineties introduced Flash (shockwave) multimedia
technology. Flash technology brought an amazing learning
experience (UI/UX) into the digital learning mix and
IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN IMPORTANT TO
helped to further revolutionize distance learning for the GAIN INSIGHTS AND EVALUATION
next decade. Multimedia technology was also expanding ABOUT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE
to include content management systems, youtube videos,
social platforms, and many other mediums. INSTRUCTION

The cognitive science of learning dates back to the

early 20th Century, during wartime when it was critical to Today, digital learning happens in all types of
get large amounts of diverse people trained to a minimum environments (not just the LMS). Due to SCORM’s various
standard (ex. Given X Conditions, can the learner perform limitations, only a few points of evaluation data are
X Action to X Standard?). This led to the documenting available in spite of its wide adoption. Today’s SCORM
and hypothesis of findings starting in the 1940’s and 50’s. reporting provides barely more than a “completion”
From the beginning of the cognitive science of learning and very little insight about the learners activity. There
(and especially digital distance learning), it has always is a collection of white papers and research for SCORM
2.0 that eventually helped inspire the development of In addition to this work, the ADL is constantly striving
something more appropriate for today and tomorrow - towards continuing development efforts as cited below:
xAPI. xAPI does not rely upon an LMS, anything digital can
report contextual xAPI data streams to a Learning Record
Store. ADL current focus around xAPI Data Visualization
and Associated Learning Analytics
In 2010, the governing body for distributed learning “The xAPI specification provides the opportunity
initiatives in the government, the Advanced Distributed to conduct micro-level, semantically-defined
Learning Initiative (ADL), began looking for a new, behavior tracking. However, to date, organizations
standardized, experience tracking model that would be typically measure and store primarily macro-
able to future-proof organizations who adopted it. What behaviors, such as test scores and course
this means is having xAPI built in a way of being able to completion data. We believe the next step to
support current as well as emerging learning technologies. widespread adoption of micro-level behavior-
There was already considerable work being done in the driven learning systems is the development
high technology sector around Activity Streams. The of models, prototypes, and specifications for
thought behind xAPI is that it would provide any type of analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing this data.”
digital learning experience data that could be analyzed
and used to correlate productivity and performance ADL current focus around xAPI Content and
metrics. Pedagogical (Andragogical) Models
“...capabilities such as competency management,
learning profile stores, learning analytics, and
meta-adaptation...will enable personalized
(adaptive), career-long, ubiquitous learning (i.e.,
truly anytime, anywhere, and integrated across
any platform/device).”

(Source:https://adlnet.gov/collaboration/baa-fy2018)

So, xAPI isn’t a specification that just appeared

out of thin air. There has been considerable planning
and research throughout the years that serve as a solid
foundation for xAPI. The initial requirements for xAPI were
funded with Research and Development (R&D) money
from the U.S. Government and the effort has remained
completely open-sourced, community-based, and built
from a passion to bring big data and activity
stream technology to education and
training. Since the beginning, xAPI has
YES - YES YOU CAN always been about understanding
effectiveness and evaluating the
effect of the learning content on
the learner.
 WHAT IS XAPI?

S
imply put, the Experience API (xAPI) is a technical between disparate systems. The Experience API is
data specification that, when implemented supported and recommended by the US Department
correctly, is agnostic about any type of digital of Defense (DoDI 1322.26) and the US Department of
learning content being delivered and consumed. Education (Ed Tech Developer’s Guide).
It allows completely flexible and customizable tracking
of behavioral learning activities through activity streams. EXAMPLE: ACTIVITY STREAMING
These activity streams break down into Verbs and
Activities. The xAPI statements follow a very simple WITHIN WEB BROWSERS
format: Actor, Verb, Object or someone (or something),
did (doing), this. This pattern, repeated, can create
a contextual activity stream which produces a clear
SOCIAL MEDIA
recording of the learning experience. This data can also

be cross referenced with performance data so that you
can map the training to performance.

xAPI can track moment-by-moment contextual

actions such as: what is happening in a simulation
or game, geographic location, browser connection,
answering a question, the text of the question, the weight
of the answer, credit earned, watching a training video,
pausing or seeking video at xx:xx time, and so
much more. xAPI was designed to address
gaps in the existing SCORM standard, such
as offline training, mobile training,
AR/VR, and any digital training
within or outside of a web
browser. xAPI data is easily
readable by humans and
computers, and allows
for simple integration
and interoperability
To clearly articulate the power of activity-streaming These personas cover a wide range of details about
technology, think about social media. This powerful social people (including you!) using the social media platforms
platform gathers so much data from all of the users of which may include: what you like/don’t like, who your
their product, that they are able to create demographic friends are, where you live, your education level, your job
categories or “personas.” This has a direct application in title, and much more.
learning. Formal education uses techniques to diagnose
and categorize the ways that learners may be struggling Scary, huh? It’s true that marketers use this kind of data
or excelling at concepts. Activity Stream technology is a every day to understand what efforts resulted in sales and
way to provide the data needed to understand the learner learn more about their customers to help businesses best
and adapt for the learner’s benefit or in the case of social serve them. The good news is, learning and development
media, adapt for the advertisers and consumers benefit, is using and harnessing the power of xAPI for similar
in real-time. purposes. Visualizing who your learners are, how they’re
interacting with content, and what digital content they’re
As you can see, social media captures a seemingly interacting with, can help you gain insights to serve them
endless amount of information around their users through (and the business) in the best ways possible.
big data and activity streaming technology.

EXAMPLE: ACTIVITY STREAMING WITHIN APPS OR OTHER PLATFORMS

Activity streams are not limited to simply web browser derive insights on what they may need to improve on in
activities (like we saw above). They can also be found their next games.
and captured in platforms and software such as mobile
phones, AR/VR devices, and video games. Activity stream data can be captured from anything
digital as we’ve seen with our web-browser and non-web
VIDEO GAMES browser examples. It is possible for all of these types of
data to be captured as xAPI.
The screenshots below show metrics from a popular
So, why xAPI? Why don’t we just use one of the above
multiplayer video game, Overwatch. This game can be
proprietary technologies? Using proprietary technology
played on the PC or on other platforms like XBOX and
is an option. But if we do that we are now locked into the
Playstation 4 with players from around the world. There
solution and it is difficult to transition to another. xAPI is
are a ton of metrics and data that the Overwatch team
open and non-proprietary. With xAPI you are not locked
captures from their players. These metrics are not only
into a proprietary struggle; the vendors must comply with
useful to the company behind Overwatch, but also to
the specification and this should be encouraging to the
individual players to see how they are performing, what
learning technology consumer.
characters (roles) they do best with, and areas they may
need to improve on.
The typical LMS business case can provide a good
example here. For many companies, choosing and
The screenshot below is from a player who played
implementing an LMS is very costly and time consuming. It
Overwatch as the character “Hanzo.” As you can easily
is also difficult when converting from one LMS to another
see from the data collected, this player has played this
and very often data is lost with that conversion. With
character for a total of 13 hours, had 49 wins, and a 15%
xAPI and an LRS you should be able to easily swap out
weapon accuracy. The player can use this information to
the old and bring in the new. If the important
data is in a non proprietary format (xAPI),
you can future-protect your technology and
your training program. Right now, very few
training organizations have good evaluation
data nor do they have historical data and it is
largely due to limited reporting technology
(SCORM) and these proprietary roadblocks.
 THE ANATOMY OF AN XAPI STATEMENT

R
emember the activity streams we just spoke the “response” of “b.” You can also get even more data,
about? These behavioral learning activities may including how many points the question was worth.
happen within an e-learning course, performance In this case, 0.04. Another tangible example might be
systems, social learning, and informal learning. “Nick discovered a new pizza recipe.” This simple activity
could lead to other xAPI statements documenting Nick’s
The simplest way to understand the format of an experience making this pizza. These might include
xAPI statement is “Person”, “Did”, “This” or Actor, Verb, activities such as all of the steps in preparing the pizza,
Object. This is the structure that can provide information the technological tools that Nick used in making the pizza
about all activities. An example of this structure put to (scale, stove, etc), the results of informal judging by his
work might be: family, all the way to Nick snapping a photo of the pizza
and posting it on Instagram.
“Nick Answered Question 1”
* Actor: “Nick” This may be more data than you can get now,
• Verb: “Answered” but the power of xAPI goes far beyond
• Object: “Question 1” this rudimentary description. You

If you look at the first xAPI statement

on the next page, you’ll see
that you can also get more
context around Question
1 if you so desire. In
this example, you
can see that Nick
answered with

?
can easily track the weight of the question, the name of Don’t be intimidated by the screenshots below. This
the course, the name of the test, the id of the question, is simply an example of raw xAPI data, and you can easily
metadata about where the question came from, the create charts and graphs of exactly the types of data and
question and answer text itself, time of day, device(s) being analytics you want to see.
used, and much more within the xAPI activity stream.
Now, every behavioral action on anything digital
If you continue to track these activity streams for Nick can be captured with xAPI. Imagine you have a bunch of
and start adding some more context to your activities, learners that you’re wanting to capture data from (that could
such as these, you can easily string along all of the things potentially be millions of activity stream statements!). So,
that Nick did as an activity stream. The resulting data from you might be wondering where this xAPI data is stored
what Nick experienced and how he performed during the and how you can actually begin using it? That brings us to
course may verify competencies if you have information our next topic of discussion: The Learning Record Store.
about performance or behavior after the training. If your
objective is to map training to performance, xAPI is how
you get there!
 WHAT IS A LEARNING RECORD STORE (LRS)?

S
imply put, a Learning Record Store (LRS) is a systems might be a Learning Management System (LMS),
database implementation according to the xAPI Sharepoint, Youtube, Social channels, learning portals,
Specification. There is an LRS Conformance test performance systems, HR systems, or anything digital
to verify that an LRS is, in fact, an LRS. It is not where you learners might go to get information or take
important for you to understand all of the technical jargon, assessments. With today’s technology, it is relatively
but it is important to know that if what someone is calling simple to get data from systems to report to an LRS
an “LRS” does not conform to the xAPI specification, it is endpoint and, if it is done correctly, the work is done
not an LRS. once and you’ll be receiving xAPI data without constantly
requesting data from the system or department where the
The LRS and xAPI are intrinsic to each other. An LRS system resides. The immediate benefit to working this way
is where Experience API (xAPI) activity stream data is is that you limit data transformation. With xAPI you can
stored, and it is where you go to get the data. The LRS use single data transformation on multiple systems to get
can connect to any of the systems in your organization all of the data into one format. This can give you the power
that you want to get data from. Examples of these over all of the data in your ecosystem in a way that has not
been available before.

Once you have your important systems reporting

to an LRS, all of your learning activities will be speaking
the same “language” making it easier for you to view and
analyze this data in one place (see graphic below).

xAPI is big data for learning but we don’t have a

magic xAPI wand you can wave, or a big data for
learning switch we can turn on. We often use a crawl,
walk, run strategy when engaging with our clients.
This strategy is about starting simple and adding
complexity. It sets them up for success whether they
are looking for something simple like getting more
data from a SCORM package, or something more
complex like connecting all of their critical business
systems to an LRS and adapting to the data through
analytics and correlations.
 THE IMPORTANCE OF XAPI
CONFORMANCE

N
ot all learning record stores are created equal. The xAPI-Conformance test for the LRS covers
In April of 2017, the governing body for the 1,389 specific tests that an LRS must pass in order to
xAPI specification and learning record stores, be deemed “xAPI-conformant.” The current list of xAPI-
the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative Conformant Learning Record Stores can be found here:
(ADL), released a conformance test for the Experience ADL Conformance Test.
API.
When you start considering an LRS vendor, or an
HERE’S A SIMPLE WAY TO THINK OF LMS vendor who claims to have an LRS, you should
verify that they are conformant or can
THE LRS CONFORMANCE TEST: provide a verifiable date that they will be
conformant.
Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google
Chrome, etc) have to support the HTML5 specification. If you’re interested in reading
The technology used to create these browsers must be more about conformance, check
conformant to this specification in order for users to make out our full-length article on the
content that can work on any HTML5 conformant web topic: LRS Conformance - A
browser. An example of this would be creating content, Call to Action for Industry
such as a blog post, through Google Chrome. This piece and Academia
of content should work and show up exactly the same on
Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.

An LRS must support the xAPI

specification in the same way that your
web browser has to support the HTML5
specification to function properly. If
you’re collecting xAPI data in one
LRS, these statements should show
up and work exactly the same way if
you switched LRS’s.
 THE “SO WHAT” OF XAPI

1.“UNDERSTAND HOW LEARNING

RESOURCES ARE BEING USED:
Tracking usage of learning resources and categories
of resources to plan future investments, processes and
intuitives.

2.BETTER UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT

OF LEARNING:
Capturing existing training and learning that is taking
place in an organization and correlate to employee
behavior and business metrics. For example, sales data
could be mapped to your learning intervention data
(xAPI statements) to show the return on investment.

S
o, what’s the big deal about xAPI? In addition 3. IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF
to xAPI being a unifying concept, in that LEARNING INTERVENTIONS:
you can gain data and insight from anything
By capturing all learning taking place, the value
digital that your learners/customers might be
of specific learning activities can be evaluated
accessing, you’ll also be able to find trends in your data.
to understand their impact and improve the
Once you implement xAPI and start getting data from
commissioning of future learning and overall quality.
learning/training activities, you’ll be able to start setting
quantifiable business and learning goals for your L&D
team. This quantifiable goal-setting can be accomplished 4. FACILITATE INTEGRATED LEARNING
since you’ll have access to analytics that you’ll be able to ECOSYSTEMS:
tie to business goals.
xAPI is an interoperability specification and as such,
data from any number of learning activities can be
The business value of xAPI presents itself in a variety
shared between systems both internally and externally
of ways. Here is some of the “So What” of xAPI, quoted
to your organization. It can be used to help facilitate
from a draft of the IEEE LTSC TAG xAPI 2018 Technical
more complex learning ecosystems than might
Report on xAPI:
otherwise have been practical.
5. GAIN VALUABLE INSIGHTS ABOUT Need a visualization? Check out the diagram below.
You don’t have to get this complex right off the bat. But this
LEARNERS AND LEARNER BEHAVIOR: is a generic example of how you might connect different
xAPI data from different demographics, cultures, systems within your learning “ecosystem” to gather data,
industries, age groups, may be analyzed to better build reports/data visualizations, and distribute them to a
identify and more effectively teach to learner needs, variety of audiences. The awesome part about this? You’ll
types, trends, audiences, and preferences.” have enough data to map your training to performance,
and change/react your approach depending on the
results you find!
 SELECTING AN XAPI VENDOR

AS LONG AS THE LRS CONFORMS TO THE SPECIFICATION, THE DIFFERENCES IN

VENDORS IS GOING TO BE FOUND IN TWO AREAS: PRODUCT AND SERVICES:

PRODUCT
The LRS can be differentiated through the product Quality of Service (QOS), and Master Services Agreement
itself, the features of the product, the technology stack, (MSA). It is important for you to understand exactly what
the way the vendor implements and deploys their you need and what the prospective LRS does. Very often
solution, how it is hosted, and where it is hosted. Most the acquisition process in businesses takes care of this,
vendors today will have a reporting position as well but it is not difficult to navigate if you understand your
which is the ways for you to report, visualize, analyze, and requirements (the way you intend to use xAPI now and the
distribute dashboards, etc. Business software comes with near future).
some or all of these: a Service Level Agreement (SLA),

SERVICES
The LRS can also be differentiated through the customers of our Storepoints LRS are the subject matter
professional services or support the vendor offers and experts and instructional designers. It is our philosophy
these will often appear as a Statement of Work (SOW) in all of our learning technology products to provide
in the contract. The MSA will often have language that the tools for the educators and trainers. We are not the
essentially puts the vendor at your service to do work instructional designers, rather, we serve the practitioners
upon your approval. This work might be to get a system of pedagogy and andragogy. It is very much a relationship
or training package reporting xAPI to the LRS. At this of scientist and engineer. We are the engineers serving
time, xAPI/LRS is a fairly new endeavour and the LRS the learning scientists. You have to figure out what level of
vendors are trusted technology partners with their service you want from the vendors because you are going
customers. Some of them roll up their sleeves and get to need to trust them as you modernize your approach.
into the Instructional Design process with you. All of our

CONCLUSION
We trust that you enjoyed and learned something If you’re ready to begin with xAPI in your organization
from our Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to xAPI! If you have and gather more meaningful insights for your team or
any questions around concepts covered in this guide, or customers, check out our 1 or 2 day onsite xAPI workshop.
thoughts about anything xAPI-related not covered here, We’ll travel to you and give you all of the information and
our team is always ready to help! strategies you need to make xAPI a holistic part of your
learning strategy.

Contact Riptide Learning Division at [email protected]