xAPI as successor to AICC and SCORM. The promise of xAPI and why it's important.

1. AICC, SCORM,
and xAPI
A Brief History of e-Learning (CMI) Standards in the US
Eytan Klawer 12/07/2016

2. What is xAPI?
• xAPI is the next generation
e-learning standard,
following AICC and
SCORM

3. Why is it important to have a
standard for e-learning?
• Allows courses created by any vendor to communicate
with an LMS created by any other vendor
• The impetus for the creation of an e-learning standard
was quite mundane: cost savings
• This story begins when the bean counters at large
aviation companies in the mid 80s put the nerds to work
on a scheme that would save millions of dollars and give
birth to an industry, and a practice, that will totally
change the way we teach and learn, but first, some
history:

4. Once upon a time in...
• 1988 The Aviation Industry Computer-Based
Training Committee (AICC) is formed by aircraft
manufacturers (Boeing, Airbus, and McDonnell
Douglas) in order to create a standard for CMI
(Computer Managed Instruction)
• 1993 The AICC produced what is widely regarded
as the first runtime interoperability specification
(CMI guidelines) for Learning Management
Systems for CD-ROM/LAN

5. Once upon a time in...
• 1998 Web-based interface called HACP (HTTP-based
AICC/CMI Protocol) is added
• 1999 The CMI specification was updated to add a
Javascript API runtime interface. The runtime
environment data model and API used in the SCORM
specification is a derivative of this work.
• 1999 Executive Order 13111 signed tasking the DoD to
develop common specifications and standards for e-
learning across both federal and private sectors which
lead to….wait for it….

6. Once upon a time in...
• 2000 SCORM Version 1.0 (Sharable Content Object
Reference Model)
• 2000 SCORM 1.2, which is arguably the most prevalent
eLearning standard used today
• 2004 SCORM 2004 (1st Edition) Added concept
sequencing course objects, as well as the ability for the
LMS to manage navigation of the content
• 2006 Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI)
1322.26 Requiring DoD Use of SCORM

7. Once upon a time in...
• 2009 The first three specification books were adopted as technical
reports by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36, standard number ISO/IEC TR
29163.
• 2010 ADL awards a Broad Agency Announcement to Rustici
Software to conduct research and community interviews in an effort
to begin the creation of the next generation of SCORM. This is
called Project Tin Can.
• 2011 The initial draft of the next generation of SCORM (named the
Tin Can API) is released.
• 2013 1.0.0 version of the Tin Can API is released, project name was
changed to "Experience API" or xAPI, but many still refer to it as the
Tin Can API.

8. Which leads us to the
present…
• What’s going on now:
• The work on this standard (contracted to Rustici
Software with project name Tin Can) has been
passed to the ADL, and is actively being
developed today
• cmi5 is a “profile” of xAPI, meaning that it is a
standard set of xAPI statements that a course
must use to communicate to a cmi5 conformant
LMS. (a standard for the standard?)

9. Why is xAPI being
developed?
• Requirements for the new standard:
• Taking e-learning outside of the browser
• Take e-learning out of the course (The ability to track games and simulations)
• Take e-learning off -line
• E-learning in native mobile applications
• More control over learning content
• Solid security using Oauth
• Platform transition; e.g. start learning on one device, finish on another
• The ability to track real-world performance
• Team-based e-learning
• Tracking learning plans and goals

10. How will xAPI enable us to have
these wonderful new capabilities
• The most important (and beautifully elegant and
simple) feature of this new standard is it data
structure.
• The structure of an xAPI statement is very
important because it makes it possible for data to
be captured about any type of actor in any kind
of activity
• Readable by both humans and machines, data
statements in xAPI format are structured like this:

11. Actor-Verb-Object
• Actor - Verb - Object
• Jennifer - Satisfied - Requirement 1
• This is, in essence a data sentence
• Actor: the simple subject of your sentence, a noun, ...can
be a person, a group, a machine or device, a network etc
(who or what the sentence is about)
• Verb: the simple predicate of your sentence (describes
what the actor did)
• Object: the direct object of your verb (reveals the context
of what the actor did and how)

12. Actor-Verb-Object
• There is a little more to it, in that we can add some context
around the statement by adding to the xAPI statement’s JSON
representation file.
• So that this: Jennifer (actor) satisfied(verb) the
Requirement(object).
• Becomes this: Jennifer (actor) satisfied(verb) the Harassment
(context) Course Requirement(object) on
2015-04-09T11:08:00Z (context)
• Continuing our grammatical analogy this extra context might
be thought of as other parts of speech: indirect objects,
complements, adjectives, etc

13. Other characteristics of the
xAPI format:
• Interoperability
• Immutability
• Large data sets
• Controlled Vocabulary

14. Why should we care?
• Participate in a much larger learning economy
• Learning happens everywhere (!!!) Start thinking outside
the course, outside the LMS, outside the browser
• We’re not the only company providing e-learning (what?
us? share? with other companies? Absurd! ;)
• Better understanding about how learners interact with our
courses (capture every click with a standard language for
what each click means)
• Interoperability even within our own applications ecosystem