xAPI Learning Log

This week we started "road schooling" Max and Charlie and I began recording the results in an xAPI learning log:

Date	Person	Action	Description	hours	Topic/Standard
1/10/2015	Max	learned	about cultural universals and worked with the family to complete the tab in this workbook.	2	Cultural Universals
1/10/2015	Charlie	learned	about cultural universals and worked with the family to complete the tab in this workbook and focused with his dad on the timeline of American and Japanese history. He noted that he was not yet comfortable enough with US history, so we agreed to do a timeline for both. He now has a much better framework of major milestones.	3	Cultural Universals, US History, Japan History
1/11/2015	Max	tested	on 8th grade math using TenMarks	2
1/11/2015	Charlie	tested	on 4th grade math using TenMarks	1.5
1/12/2015	Max	prac-tested	Geometry using TenMarks. He was frustrated with his low score due to the platform.	1.5
1/12/2015	Charlie	prac-tested	5th grade math using IXL. He felt good about his progress.	1	H.1 Division facts to 12 - Mastered H.2 Division facts to 12: word problems - Mastered H.3 Divide multi-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers - Proficient
1/12/2015	Charlie	wrote	a blog about the book he read, Blue Fingers.	1
1/12/2015	Max	expienced	independence, navigating through Kyoto by himself to play MTG with Japanese adults.	2

Learning Logs - xAPI

A learning log is a close cousin of a learning blog.

xAPI is a new specification for learning technology that enables data to be collected about the wide range of experiences a person has (online and offline). This API captures data in a consistent format about a person or group’s activities from many technologies. Different systems are able to securely communicate by capturing and sharing this stream of activities using xAPIs simple vocabulary.

xAPI advice from Jim Goodell

From Jim Goodell:

An online activity might track every click, as a separate verb, but for offline activities I'd say the statement might represent a completed activity, something like:

URLs can be used as parts of the statement...

Actor = "https://plus.google.com/108636986437967834022/posts"
[identifier for Charlie, e.g. blog profile page URL, so...]

Verb = "https://ceds.ed.gov/CEDSElementDetails.aspx?TermId=7869#Completed "
["Completed"]

Object = [URL to "Bird House Activity" ...which could be the blog page in this case, but normally just describe the activity or learning resource, not the personal experience]

Result = "http://scrollsfromsircharlie.blogspot.com/2014/12/carpenter-who.html"

...then the "Bird House Activity" page should have human readable info describing the activity and LRMI metadata tags that give info including the alignment to learning objectives, e.g. LRMI has alignmentObject, CEDS has Learning Standard Item Association Type, e.g. "Bird House Activity" "assesses, requires, teaches" "[URL to adding fractions learning standard]"

So the statements are just identifiers, URIs that can be resolved to discover richer meaning.