What is an Activity Provider?

What is an Activity Provider?

In the Experience API world, an Activity Provider is any system or thing that can be outfitted to generate xAPI Statements based on actions that occur with it.

An Activity Provider can be just about anything. A CRM, an email program, support software, videos, an LMS, a simulator, a forklift, a social media network, a medical device, a mobile app…the list goes on almost forever. Really.

When you think of an Activity Provider, it’s easy to think about it in comparison to traditional e-learning content—but that’s not seeing the entire picture. An activity provider doesn’t have to be just something that someone learns from—it can also be an action that someone performs in the real world. xAPI can be used not only to track learning activities, but also the performance data that comes after the learning.

Even when the Activity Provider is an e-learning course, xAPI allows us to track a level of detail beyond what was possible with older specifications. This includes question level tracking including the question text, supporting materials and learner’s response. It also includes detail about formative interactions and supporting features such as help or course preferences.

This means you can make correlations between learning data and performance data in a way that you just couldn’t before.

Questions? Contact us.