Sunday, April 26, marked two years since xAPI was released. It was released with much celebration and promise. I went back and looked through my old blog to see what I said about it back then… and apparently I was mute on the subject. The post written for ADL was pretty matter-of-fact.
Looking back, I was exhausted and believed taking up skateboarding was an appropriate “next challenge.”
That didn’t lead to an enduring success like xAPI. 😉
Two years ago, the community unleashed an opportunity for change. In its first year following xAPI’s release, innovative practitioners and teams began their experiments and proofs-of-concept with xAPI. Their sharing of stories caught steam and by November 2014 we began to see just want was happening in xAPI’s second year.
This week we’ve begun sharing video presentations of the case studies shared at xAPI Camp-Orlando. Starting with John Delano of Saltbox talking about using xAPI as a means to speak the language of business, and with more than a dozen presentations, we’ll be sharing them all over the next month.
Just as a community came together to create the specification, a community is devoting resources now for learning and experimenting with xAPI. It is getting better and easier for non-technical and novice folks to understand how to design and develop with xAPI with a depth and breadth that is stilllacking with SCORM. Here is a list of just a handful of activities coming up in the next month:
- A LEARNxAPI MOOC is launching on May 12, hosted by HT2 with help of an all star team including Ben Betts, Sam Burroughs, Martin Couzins, Janet Laane-Effron, Sean Putman. It’s free and sign-up starts today.
- Riptide Software is launching a new website linking success stories with xAPI (case studies) with open source tools that can help practitioners replicate those success stories in their companies. TRYxAPI’s launch is happening March 16 at ATD ICE, from 12:30-5pm. This is also free and with limited space, RSVP now.
- A “Bar Camp” for xAPI will be hosted by Rustici Software and Saltbox on Tuesday evening, from 6-7pm at Taverna Opa. Not only are there free drinks, there is free hummus and pita bread. No, I’m not making that up — free. pita. bread. RSVP here.
- Sean Putman and Janet Laane-Effron are taking on more formal instructional approaches with LEARNxAPI for folks to learn to design and code with xAPI. They’re getting the mailing list ready and will open registration by the end of May.
Beyond May, what’s to come with and around xAPI is nothing short of extraordinary. We’ve been going non-stop beyond the past few weeks’ efforts with xAPI Camp-Orlando, launching RISC, Inc.’s PDF Annotator at Learning Solutions, Up to All of Us 2015. Even with both TRYxAPI and LEARNxAPI initiatives, there is so. much. more.
Stay tuned 😉