How Does xAPI Work?

As a first step, the instructional designers or L&D teams must decide what specific actions to track. These are called statements and are written in JSON (Javascript Object Notation Language), a language similar to XML. For instance, Tom, who works at company X, was asked to undergo a mobile-based tutorial on CRM software. But after the session, how does the company know if the training helped at all? Is Tom using CRM actively to manage sales activities? Is he assisting new colleagues in finding the ‘merge opportunities’ section in the CRM? xAPI helps answer these questions. It produces simple statements that follow basic grammar rules. xAPI statement features “noun, verb, object” (e.g., “Tom completed a mobile tutorial.”). Here, the noun is the learner (Tom), who can have multiple accounts (depending on the system) and is identified by e-mail address or OpenId. The verb describes the learner’s action (completing a course), while the object (mobile tutorial) is what the learner interacted with. Many such detailed statements help you understand what eLearning content Tom has interacted with and how he fared at each step of the exercise. Now imagine that, apart from the online tutorial on the desktop, Tom is also learning about CRM via an educational game on his phone and a video on the corporate LMS. xAPI helps extract click-by-click details about how each of these courses is navigated and records data about which parts of the course Tom struggled with and where he breezed through – in real time. It also extracts from the CRM updates on how Tom’s interaction with the software has changed post training. All these particulars are then stored in a learning record store (LRS) or a data storage system.