Think xAPI is Next-Generation SCORM? Think Again

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Occasionally, we invite learning community experts to share their advice with our readers. Today we feature a post by Anthony Altieri Founder of Omnes Solutions. Anthony is an independent xAPI evangelist and Instructional Developer for the Internet of Things.

If you’re an elearning professional, you’ve probably seen or heard the term xAPI countless times. But are you still fuzzy about where SCORM ends and xAPI begins? And why you should care, anyway?

After years of educating people about xAPI (aka Experience Application Programming Interface), I find that it is still one of the least-understood concepts in the digital learning world. So I’m on a mission to clear the air.

I want everyone to recognize xAPI as a solid and surprisingly simple foundation for next-generation learning experience measurement. But that does not mean xAPI is a next-generation version of SCORM (aka Sharable Content Object Reference Model). It is not. And that’s a good thing. Let me explain.