The truth is that most learning analyses stop short of numbers of participants and percentage of active promoters. Excel, powerpoint, survey monkey and mentimeters are used to their full extend, but soon the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve trolls the L&D department and the “lessons learnt” are lost.
Is there another way?
We humans, or should I say: I can only process so much. I remember last years introduction group, but what do I remember of that marketing course last May, that ran in five locations, in three countries?
As a learning & development manager, I recently changed to a forerunner of digital learning. Now I feel humbled and lucky to get the chance to see how learning analytics can support business strategies.
I already had the knowledge of statistics and organizational dynamics. I desired to improve human skills and business performance. And now I discovered the two missing links: xApi and LRS.
According to Wikipedia an xApi is Experience API (Tin Can API), an e-learning software specification that allows programmatic inclusion of the learning content.
Basically it says: ‘I did this’ (also known as an actor-verb-direct object) statement, alongside a variety of contextual data. “I” stands for an individual user, “did” stands for a relevant learning verb and “this” stands for a learning-element. Any element: stopping a video, restarting, completing an e-learning, joining a class or finishing a book!
A Learning Record Store (LRS)[1] is a data store system that serves as a repository for learning records collected from connected systems where learning activities are conducted. Great you may say, so what?
Well the LRS, with all the XAPI can be used within a business intelligence tool: 60% of learners exited the course 3 minutes into the video. 80% of learners who completed the course produced 60% less compliance fails. 75% of users that completed this course generated 20% more sales, etc.
xAPI and LRS may improve the quality of future lessons, they may start to improve business results, but I hope these two missing links will future proof you when you prepare to measure, store and analyse your next valuable learning intervention.
Better every day 