Registry Update: Details on Activity Streams Additions

The Registry has been up for a few weeks. A number of people have created profiles and started using it to catalog their data types. It’s great! There are a couple things here, and it really comes down to the fact that we’re looking to…

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Part 2: Tracking Software Clicks with xAPI

// This is a follow-up blog from the amazing Sean Putman, who originally guest blogged for us in March. You can read his first post here. Huge thanks to Sean for writing up these posts to share his real world-experience with the API. We have a…

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A Step Forward: The Registry

Collectively, we could make a big mess of xAPI data. Let's try to avoid that. At this point you likely know that xAPI communicates activity data in the form of statements. Each statement is required to have some pieces like actor, verb and object. They…

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Deep Dive: Object

So many objects, so little time..."Guacamole is extra, is that okay?" Most anyone first encountering xAPI will find the "I did this" or "I did something" pattern for statements, we've used it once or twice ourselves on this site. This refers to the overall basic…

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Why Have E-learning Tools Adopted?

We spend a good amount of time working with software companies who build learning technology. The main question in these conversations is “Why should we adopt?” There are many reasons, some more theoretical than practical today (but who doesn’t love the ideal present?!) To break…

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xAPI projects underway at UMHS

Note: this is a guest blog from Ellen Meiselman, who does technical strategy and analysis for the UMHS. I work for the University of Michigan Health System, on the Learning Management Team. We run the enterprise LMS, create online learning activities for use across UMHS,…

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The Open Source Landscape

“If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you” — Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar Open efforts and open source are a big part of how the spec and adoption have made it to where we are today. Without the…

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Deep Dive: Activity

Anecdotally, the most common question asked when starting down the xAPI development road is: "How do I get/create an activity ID?" It seems the simplest place to start with xAPI is sending a simple statement, and when showing xAPI to someone new we often start…

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How do you build an LRS?

We get this question a lot. To do xAPI properly, you need an LRS to send your statements to. Statements are generally the focal point of xAPI, but LRSs play a vital role in creating rich collections of data and making the data interoperable. To…

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Designing for Conscious Decisions

I wrote an article for Learning Technologies Magazine this month. The premise of the article is that in a world where data is being collected in droves, we need to design better ways for people to understand what they’re giving up and ways for them…

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