Many practitioners think that learning research is pie-in-the-sky information that is of value for academics but of little value for practitioners. But good practitioner research is practical research that points practitioners and their managers towards better practice and helps them make the important decisions.

In this session, you will hear the main conclusions from the recent Guild research report, The Experience API: Liberating Learning Design. You will explore the various findings of the report and how the information is valuable for day-to-day practice. You will have the opportunity to discuss the research and ask questions. You will leave this session with a deeper understanding of the Experience API and how it can be used to enhance your learning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• The interesting data, charts, and insights from Guild research reports you can use
• The main conclusions from recent Guild research reports
• How Guild research helps you improve your practice and make better decisions
• What experts in the field are thinking and doing

Audience:
All.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI.

There are a number of misunderstandings and misconceptions about the Experience API (xAPI). Many learning departments and organizations aren’t quite sure what the benefits are of xAPI and how to integrate it into their learning solutions. In a time when mobile technologies and informal workplace environments are on the rise, designing comprehensive learning programs to take advantage of these devices and environments can be daunting without the right technology to tie it all together, one that will help improve learning overall.

In this session you will discuss ways the xAPI can improve your learning programs. You will examine the authoring tools that publish for xAPI and how xAPI can drive leaderboards to make learning more engaging. Participants will discover that the effort to implement xAPI is smaller than expected and absolutely worth it. This session will demonstrate seven novel ways that xAPI can be used to overcome some of the most common learning challenges organizations face today.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to describe xAPI in your own words and explain how it works
• Innovative ways to use xAPI to make learning more engaging and fun in your organizations
• How other organizations have used xAPI
• How to find xAPI resources and communities online

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, and executives with a basic understanding of eLearning design and development as well as a basic understanding of learning goals and objectives.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI, learning record stores (LRS), the LMS and LCMS, Articulate Storyline, Lectora, WordPress.

The tools and technologies that exist today in large learning and development organizations are complex, and they don’t always play nice with each other. This makes it very difficult to build useful reports from the results of learning experiences in multiple systems. One of the new tools that is available that can address this problem is the Experience API (xAPI).

In this session, you will learn about the Sears rollup reporting infrastructure for dozens of competencies across over 200,000 people. You will examine the processes and underlying technologies that are working together as part of the competency reporting system, including the xAPI, HRIS, reporting system, and LMS. You will explore a real example of how to leverage the xAPI and existing systems to reach desired business outcomes. You will discuss implementation challenges and share learnings about the design and planning stages of an enterprise LRS implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Sears is using an LRS to aggregate data from multiple LMS systems
• How to translate and migrate historical data from existing systems into an LRS
• What tools and techniques were used to drive large scale near real-time competency rollup reporting
• How to sync HRIS data with an LRS to define groups of people

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic high-level knowledge of the xAPI and related LMS/content technologies.

Technology discussed in this session:
Reporting systems, HR information systems, multiple LMSs, the xAPI, learning record stores.

Interest in the Experience API has grown steadily in the last few years, but most of the conversations exploring the topic were either conceptual or technical in nature. There have few case studies showing the xAPI in practice, and those that did exist focused more on the technical application of the specification rather than on business value.

Adoption of the Experience API (xAPI) continues to grow, and we are now seeing examples of xAPI case studies that focus on the business value that is being provided by the use of the specification. In this session, you will learn from the three winning entries from xAPI Hyperdrive, the competition that took place before DevLearn began. You will leave this session better understanding the business value that innovative use of the xAPI can provide to organizations.

In this session, you will learn:

• From examples of the xAPI being used to innovate learning
• How the xAPI can provide business value
• What the business case is for xAPI use
• The future potential of the xAPI

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
The Experience API.

We have all experienced huge courses, documents, and texts that are barely manageable by the instructional designer. In fact, much of how we design courses and even our documents makes it impossible for an employee to find the one piece of information they need at the time they need it. Since content is so dense, it makes finding meaningful information difficult, and it makes tracking anything useful in it even more difficult.

In this session you will explore the big picture of what technology is capable of today. You will dive into practices that will extend the lifespan and reduce the headache of how we create and manage content. You will learn tips on how to create content that is easier to track, can be used in many different areas (including mobile), and helps to populate more meaningful reports (both for management and the designers). You will discuss the value that content management systems (CMS) and learning record stores (LRS) play in forward-looking technology infrastructures.

In this session, you will learn:

• How today’s technologies make creating content easier and more effective for designers
• How today’s technologies make accessing content easier and more effective for workers
• How you need to structure content so that it works on all devices
• Why the LMS alone isn’t the backbone of your technology infrastructure

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.      

Technology discussed in this session:
LMS, CMS, LRS, the xAPI.

As you start to explore the Experience API (xAPI), it is easy to feel intimidated. If you lack the necessary coding skills to build a solution from the ground up, taking advantage of xAPI might not be possible without outside help since being able to prototype a solution is critical to the success of your project. Successful prototypes can help show what data is important and what changes you could make before creating a final product for release.

In this session you will discover how non-developers can create xAPI projects and start to see the power and capabilities of using xAPI. You will examine components that, with some minor coding, you can combine to build custom platforms. You will discuss available HTML elements that come equipped with easily edited code to build solutions around content. You will learn how to use basic HTML coding to implement data gathering using xAPI. The session will approach this topic from the viewpoint of a non-developer who was able to implement and prototype xAPI implementations.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the Experience API works
• What is required to implement xAPI
• How to use various HTML-based elements to produce working xAPI implementations
• How to adjust elements after reviewing the initial data you collected

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers with basic HTML skills and a basic understanding of the Experience API.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, the Experience API.

The Experience API is still an emerging technology. While the specification has matured over the last few years, most organizations approach xAPI conversation with more questions than answers.

In this session you will join a no-holds-barred Q&A exploring all aspects of the past, present, and future of the Experience API. You will learn about the IEEE group that is taking the xAPI into international industry standardization. You will discuss who’s doing what with the technology and what the roadmap looks like for the next several years. The greatest value of the session comes from the questions that are asked from the audience, so be sure to bring your questions with you to the session.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the xAPI is evolving
• How organizations are adding the xAPI to their strategy
• What the future of the xAPI holds
• Answers to your burning xAPI questions

Audience:
Novice to advanced project managers, managers, directors, and VPs.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI.

The Experience API (xAPI) has become a very popular topic in our industry. It seems everywhere you look someone is talking about it and how it will change the way we look at learning. And it may well do that. But is the xAPI right for you and your organization? Is now the right time for the xAPI?

In this candid session you will explore questions that put the xAPI into context so that you can determine if it is right for you and your organization. You will discuss what xAPI provides and how that matches against your organizational needs. You will examine how the xAPI relates to your existing LMS system and how it relates to SCORM, and you will leave this session with a better understanding of the xAPI in the context of your own work so that you can decide if this is the right path, and the right time, for your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• If the xAPI will provide your organization what it needs
• How the xAPI relates to your LMS and SCORM
• If the xAPI provides actionable data to measure and impact learning
• What you can do yourself without the xAPI

Audience:
Beginning to advanced developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
The Experience API.