The document discusses the Tin Can API and its role in connecting learning experiences. It notes that the API will help modernize aging learning management systems and enable the separation and specialization of learning components. This will allow for a more complete picture of learning by facilitating the capture of informal learning data from a variety of sources and systems. The API's support for personal data lockers and socialized learning is also expected to shift ownership of learning data to individuals.
Tin Can API: The Language of Action (from D-Conf 2013) - Mike Rustici
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Tin Can API: The Language of Action
“One small step for
e-learning
technology.
One giant leap for
the e-learning
industry.”
Photo Credit: NASA
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Emptying the Chamber Pots, illustration from 'Praxis rerum criminalium' by Joose de Damhouder,
1554 (woodcut) (b/w photo), Dutch School, (16th century) / Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art
Library
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"General Aspect of London, from Westminster Abbey, c.1850" oil on Canvas
Source: wikigallery.org
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―The British Medical Journal (BMJ) chose ―the
sanitary revolution‖ – connecting people’s
homes both to clean piped water and to
sewers to dispose of their waste – as the most
important medical milestone since 1840.
They thought it was more important than
antibiotics, vaccination or the discovery of the
structure of DNA."
―Sewerage Works: Public Investment in Sewers Saves Lives
http://www.psiru.org/reports/2008-03-W-sewers.pdf
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"General Aspect of London, from Westminster Abbey, c.1850" oil on Canvas
Source: wikigallery.org
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“One small step for
e-learning
technology.
One giant leap for
the e-learning
industry.”
Photo Credit: NASA
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“Big breakthroughs
happen when what is
suddenly possible meets
what is desperately
necessary.”
--Thomas L. Friedmanhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/opinion/fried
man-come-the-revolution.html
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Two Thrusts of Evolution
1) Disruption, evolution and expansion of the
enterprise learning architecture and LMS market
1) Personal ownership and tracking of learning
data
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CC image by Richard-G on flickr
Key Enabler:
Transfer of data between learning systems
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An industry in need of an update
“People think that the LMS does a
good job today for what it was
originally intended to do when it was
created 20 years ago.”
“45 percent gave their LMS a C, D, or
F rating—with an overall LMS
satisfaction of a B- average”
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Magazines/TD/TD-
Archive/2011/09/WhatS-Next-for-the-LMS
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Recap: Enterprise Learning
Ecosystem Evolution
1. Modernization of learning systems
2. Separation of learning components
3. LRS, TDS, and 50 more functions
4. Specialized components for verticals and niches
5. Capture of informal and unstructured learning
activities
6. Analysis and visualization of informal and
unstructured learning
7. Correlation of job performance with training
outcomes
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Recap: Personal Ownership of
Learning Data
1. Personal Data Lockers
2. Tools for capturing informal learning
3. Data security, brokerage and mining
4. Validation of learning experiences
5. Socialized Learning
Today we’re going to be talking about the compounding impacts of one core advance in technology.Sometimes what appears to be an incremental advance in technology is really the tipping point that takes us to a completely different world (or planet if you will)Let me tell you what I mean
This is where we started.Didn’t take long for people to realize this was a bad idea.“potty” comes from chamber pot
They could build buildings and roads, but there was something holding them back.Start of some system. They worked but the could only go so far.As early as 1245 “The Great Conduit” brought drinking water from the Tyburn to the city“cobs” carried water to households who couldn’t connect to the conduits1582 a waterwheel inside London Bridge started pumping water from the Thames to parts of London200,000 cesspits in the city – designated places to empty the sewage instead of dumping it all out on the streetInnovations: sewers began to dump waste into the ThamesFlush toilets increased water load on the systemThen it all broke down:Cholera outbreaksGreat Stink 1858An overhaul of the sewer system was in order.
Joseph Bazalgette Chief Engineer of Metropolitan Board of WorksBBC calls the result one of the “Seven Wonders of the Industrial World”This is a big deal. The mundane, foundational infrastructure is massively important.
So, SCORM got us here.This is where we are today. We have the technical capability to build things, but our ability is limited by our infrastructure.
We want to go here.We know how to build those buildings, it’s right in front of us, but the darn water and sewer systems can’t keep upTin Can will take us here.But it’s about much more than just big buildings. Think of the cultural impacts urbanification has had on the world.Lack of technology for removing waste capped the growth of cities. we made an improvement in plumbing, that did more than just make it smell better, it fostered massive growth of cities with their attendant cultural reformations
Let’s take a look at a more modern exampleMP3 audio format – introduced in 1995Digital music had already been around for several decades, but an seemingly incremental improvement unleashed the transformation of an industry
Woot! New feature, we can do MP3 now.This is the incremental advance
Ah, but wait, we can take this to the next level. Who needs the bulky CD part now.Next generation of evolution1998, about three years later
Who recognizes this?Ok, everybody who raised their hand, you’re all in trouble
Yes, that’s NapsterNow that we all have MP3 players, we need an easy way to get music on them. Who wants to buy and burn a CD when you can just click and download?We can put together with another new technology (peer-to-peer) and now we have something radically differentNapster is proof that new tech changes things. It’s also proof that we don’t always get the model right the first time around.1999
2001 Somebody big does it betterIt’s still incremental, but there’s a new vision
2010 Apple is the biggest music vendor in the worldSales of physical albums have plummetedNot just that, the concept of an album has virtually disappeared In 2010, about 100,000 albums were release, of them 81,000 had sales of less than 100
And today many of us don’t even bother with iTunes. We get our music from Pandora or Spotify. Completely new services iTunes also spawned PodCasts and Genius mixes
One small advance can be the tipping point that cascades to a new world
especially poignant in industries that are broken, with lots of frustrationsstagnation or change that hasn't happened for a long time, leads to massive pent up demand for changeindicator that conditions are ripe for massive change
I love this quote. It perfectly describes where eLearning is todayWe have so much technological ability to do things that just aren’t incorporated into elearningeLearning is 8-10 years behind the state-of-the-art
Why is this industry stagnant?Why are computers not being used to do new things?We have massive incentive. Education is in dire need of efficiency and improvement. We have a knowledge-based economy in which corporations have few imperatives more important that developing talentWe have the technology
What’s missing?
My contention: it’s interoperabilityWe currently have the ability to produce robust, effective, engaging e-learning, but we don’t have the ability to distribute itJust like before MP3 and emergence of the internet, we could produce digital music, but we didn’t have a way to distribute itIn the e-learning industry, our distribution technology (SCORM) is holding us back. It ties us to a model that is over a decade old
E-learning is an incredibly distributed marketover 1000 companies that are publishers of content in one way or another, over 500 LMS's that consume and manage this content (not even counting that thousands of home grown solutions)interoperability is vital since there is no Amazon or Apple to put it all together for us (yet…who will it be?)
SCORM did this to e-learning, created vibrant diverse marketplace, but it also has held us backsituation now: you can create a boring page turner and sell it seamlessly to anybody in the world - nice scalability graphnow: you can create a world class solution selling simulation and sell it precisely once, then customize it for every other client who wants itthat's not scalable - bad scalability graphWhich would you do
Enter Tin CanTin Can is the new interoperability standard for the elearning industryIt’s making things suddenly possible.In itself, it’s not enabling us to create new technology, rather it’s allowing all of the technology we can already build to enter the elearning ecosystem.It’s the distribution mechanismTin Can is the last missing piece to the puzzleSo what are some of the advances this is making possible?
People already doing it, can now do it at scaleCan also start to use mobile in ways that take advantage of mobile, not just as an alternate delivery mechanismNashville sites prototype, scanning QR codes to bridge the physical and virtual worlds
Technology incredibly powerful and becoming more readily available.Learning by doing works. Studying how people are doing while they learn provides powerful feedback loopsRapport from Paltech
Amelia Princess Math, Metryx, vision
Skilitix
MediaTechnics - BookOnPublish
AltairAssessing competency in real time based on system usage, then provided trainingReversed the model of train->assess->use. Instead, use->assess->train
Lots more we could talk about, but this isn’t a presentation on learning
So, we have a path, seven steps in our analogy. A new technology is introduced, we see some incremental advances, but what it fundamentally enables is radical transformation.
We are here.Technology is introduced and we are seeing the first incremental advances.We’re doing a lot of the same stuff in much better waysWe’re starting to incorporate some new things as well, but it’s only just the beginningThere is a huge pent up demand for these things that is driving rapid adoption of the Tin Can platform.Already leading to many business opportunities.Widespread adoption of a common platform is the catalyst for big change. That is happening rapidlyThings move faster these days. We’re already starting to see the bigger things fall into place.
We’re off to a good start
But what is going to happen here?
Diagram 1 – LMS as magical cloud of learning that learners enter intoThis is our corporate view of learningWhat percentage of what you’ve learned in your life comes from an e-learning course in your LMS? <1%?
Diagram 2 – LMS as magical cloud, but user goes to other places for learningBlogs, articles, youtube, schools, seminars, conferences, peers, booksThis learning happens, it is the majority of how/where people learn, but we don’t have any visibility into it, we don’t track itLearning happens at the point of need, in many contextsWhat good is a learning system if it only captures a miniscule fraction of what we’re learning
Diagram 3 – LMS functionality boxLMS’s do many things, try to be everything to everyone.50 functions, how many of them are really core?How many of them are best of breed?How many of them are just right for your organization?
Diagram 4 –Same LMS functionality box plus show broken connectors to HR Systems, Business Intelligence Systems, Reporting Systemswe're seeing trend of learning management systems morphing into other systems, or being subsumed by larger enterprise systems, that's because learning is just one piece of the puzzleLearning data is only marginally interesting on its own
These quotes come from an ASTD T&D (Training and Development) article based on survey conducted about 18 months ago.Similar results are common and easy to find.
Diagram 5 – highlight Content Delivery and tracking from diagram 3Two core pieces provide most of the utility of the LMS
Diagram 6 – same as Diagram 5, but arrows labeling them “Learning Record Store (LRS)” and “Training Delivery System (TDS)”With Tin Can we can separate these components, the LRS and TDS
Diagram 7a – just two bubbles, one labeled LRS and the other TDSIntroducing the LRS and TDScentralized components to allow learning data to be collected from anywhere and formal training to be accessed from anywhereThese are emerging tools in the marketplace. We don’t know exactly what their full set of features will be yet, but the concepts are gaining momentum.
Diagram 7b – LRS and TDS bubbles, now surrounded by many of the other LMS feature bubbles and also HR, BI, Reporting, etcall the other junk in an LMS can be best of breed components bolted onInherently open for integration with HR Systems, Business Intelligence Systems, Reporting SystemsPeople often want to mix and match parts of different LMS’s and systems. We’re starting to be able to do that.data that goes into the LRS can be read by any other system through an open protocolwe going to see an explosion of tools capable of interacting with this dataThere’s opportunity to create new tools that were formerly features of the LMS. Specialized, best of breed components.There’s opportunity tying all these adjunct tools together
Tin can allows us to capture informal learning data.This is where so much real learning happensCommon tools will come into the learning ecosystem. -internal social networks, video platforms, intranets, discussion boards – will all be making Tin Can statements soon
Tin Can does something else, it lets us start to correlate actual performance data with training and leaning data.There’s a massive opportunity for the companies that get this analysis toolset right
A learner owns all his/her own data from many sources, stored in a Personal Data LockerMassive change in the paradigm, but it’s the right modelTechnically this is now possibleLots of non-technical change to get thereOur informal surveys show that people seem to agree that we should head this direction
brokerage of data across organizations, protecting confidential or proprietary informationVarious people will claim ownership of data and have different conditions for its use, not to mention different countries will have laws about data ownership and privacy
authentication/validation of learning experiences - as we move to allowing people to get their content from anywhere, we need authorities to assert that people actually know something
socialized learning - follow great thought leaders
Hopefully have time for a few questions. We’ll also take some in the panel session after next.Tincanapi.com – other webinars, newsletter, blog