Many thanks to the folks at the E-Learning Guild for inviting us to share our experience finding xAPI and ultimately implementing it in learning games.  Our session 'SXAPI103 A Deep Dive on Implementing xAPI in Learning Games" reviewed how we started with silos of game data and create a learning game analytics platform at Dig-iT! Games using xAPI.  We shared how the project evolved, lessons learned and the importance of having an organized approach to context based URIs.  Participants were introduced to our open source community, the free Unity game engine API for using xAPI in serious games and additional tools.

Here was our intro video before the session started that included some game fun between SCORM and xAPI.  If you think it would be fun to finalize a game showing the benefits of xAPI in a game then give it a thumbs up and/or comment on the video.

The presentation from the session is provided below.

Here are some takeaways from our session.

xAPI is Here– But We Are All Experimenting in Production
Track Learning and Non-learning Events in Games
Create a xAPI Design Document
Context Data – Create A Vocabulary Catalog for Normalization
Use xAPI Profiles Wherever Possible
Prototype – Then Make Continuous Improvements
Use existing reporting software if possible
Have a Data Management Plan

Our current data flow/architecture is shared below.  We believe that for many organizations reporting with a separate BI tool is the best option; especially if you already use a tool like Power BI, Sisense, or Tableau.  These tools are innovating constantly for data analytics including features such as AI bots and natural language processing which is perfect for xAPI.

xAPI Links

Explore the xAPI Game Demo to see xAPI in real time reporting to a learning record store.

Get Access to the Unity 3D game engine API and Design Excel template.

Documentation for the Unity 3D API for implementing xAPI

The GBLxAPI profile.

The Serious Game profile.

Those that are creating serious games for the K-12 community should explore the GBLxAPI profile and the catalog of over 2400 permanent URI that help normalize and standardize contextual data reporting of xAPI in K-12 products.

We are offering free sandbox access to our community LRS and BI tool to help get you started with xAPI and serious games.  You can sign up for access here.

Thoughts on DevLearn 2018

As an xAPI evangelist my experience at the show has been investigating how xAPI is being used, are vendors improving being conformant for their customers and sharing why xAPI is the future.  It is clear the xAPI is on the horizon in a big way but vendors are only slowly adapting.  Customers are still exploring what it is and what do I need to know about it.  Confusion or should we call it exploration continues based on my conversations with many across various industries. Frankly, it is still in its infancy but that is fine as we are all continuing to experiment with best practices and where we can use xAPI.  We never imagined putting xAPI in our casual entertainment games but today that is happening with our LRS collecting millions of statements.  

Thanks to all that came to our session.  As always feel free to reach out to our GBLxAPI community via the google forums or directly via our website.