Custom xAPI Statements in Articulate Storyline - First Impressions

Articulate Storyline 360 has just revealed a big, long-awaited xAPI update. Now users can send custom Experience API (xAPI) statements from their eLearning experiences without using any code.
In this video, I’ll share what xAPI is, discuss my first impressions, and imagine the possibilities of what will come in the future.
xAPI is a technical specification that helps eLearning developers collect granular data about how users engage with their learning experiences. Before xAPI, instructional designers and eLearning developers had to rely on SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference) to collect learning data, and the data that SCORM provides is very limited.
Implementing custom xAPI has been quite an undertaking in the past (involving custom JavaScript), but Storyline 360 is working on removing this barrier.
This Articulate Storyline 360 update means that you can now track exactly how users engage with the content and activities on your slides. This data includes how long users spend on a course, where users are losing interest, and which choices they make on multiple-choice questions.
If you have other ideas about what we should track with functionality, please leave a comment down below. Which form of user engagement would you like to record?
IMPORTANT NOTE: As you’ll see me discuss in this video, the functionality is not all the way there yet. There are some technical shortcomings that will stop me from using this functionality for now, but it is promising for the future.
Finally, if you’ve been following the channel for a while, you’ll know that I started this channel by uploading videos about xAPI. I have a whole playlist to help people learn more and avoid the shortcomings of this tool at the moment: • How to Write an xAPI S...
What is the Experience API (xAPI)? • What is the Experience...
What is a Learning Record Store (LRS)? • What is a Learning Rec...
How to Write an xAPI Statement from Scratch • How to Write an xAPI S...
How To Send Custom xAPI Statements in 2021 www.devlinpeck.com/tutorials/...
Send Custom xAPI Statements Without Code www.devlinpeck.com/posts/send...
Storyline Project Lab www.devlinpeck.com/storyline-...
Using the affiliate links below will help support the content on this channel.
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The Non-Designer's Design Book: amzn.to/3kP0reO
Map It: amzn.to/3f137mR
eLearning and the Science of Instruction: amzn.to/3kNuBiF
Design For How People Learn: amzn.to/3CLtrNMMichael
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Full writeup: www.devlinpeck.com/posts/vide...
0:00 Introduction
0:37 What is xAPI?
3:20 Creating the “Send an xAPI statement” Trigger in Storyline 360
6:08 Building and editing an xAPI statement
6:34 Building a custom xAPI statement
7:28 Editing the full xAPI statement
9:27 Executing a custom xAPI statement & uploading to an LMS
9:57 Articulate Storyline 360 xAPI announcement
10:37 Storyline xAPI statement reporting and tracking options
12:39 Providing actor information through Query String Parameters
14:36 Reporting to an LMS and an external LRS
16:08 Veracity LRS
17:19 TalentLMS
21:36 Final thoughts

Пікірлер: 54

  • @elyselasalle1657
    @elyselasalle16572 жыл бұрын

    More xAPI content please!

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Heard! :)

  • @saukathali304
    @saukathali3043 ай бұрын

    Thanks, i learnt more about xAPI. Your videos are helpful.

  • @saukathali304

    @saukathali304

    3 ай бұрын

    I am a novice in xAPI. I have shared a xAPI test package (developed in SL 360, have quiz and result slide) to saba lms. But in Saba lms, status changed to completed, upon launch and exit the course without passing the quiz.

  • @saukathali304

    @saukathali304

    3 ай бұрын

    Can you give your suggestion for changing the behavior? I need a user to pass the quiz for completed status.

  • @talkmastery
    @talkmastery2 жыл бұрын

    I have learned so much from your videos. Thank you Devlin!

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    You’re welcome! Thanks for watching 😃

  • @vibhagulati892
    @vibhagulati8922 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Devlin for such a nice video. I appreciate your sincere efforts for helping others.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    You're welcome! I'm glad that it helps :)

  • @josephsuarez4994
    @josephsuarez49942 жыл бұрын

    Wow, there's quite a few issues that still need worked out before this is ready for serious use. If we have to go back to writing our own statements to get around them, it really defeats the purpose of this update. Thanks for digging into it with the mindset of real-use development and sharing your findings.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Of course. I was going to plan a more structured how-to video, but after seeing these issues, figured it would be better to wait until the functionality is in a better spot.

  • @WillPrestes
    @WillPrestes2 жыл бұрын

    Your xAPI tutorials are still saving lives 😏 Definitely SL is not there yet.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hopefully it will be soon! And I hope all has been going well with you :D

  • @piricampo4714
    @piricampo47142 жыл бұрын

    Hi Devlin, thanks for explaining how this works. I agree that, if Storyline can clean this up, it sounds much more time-efficient that Java script. (and user-friendly for me!) It could also give L & D clear uniform feedback, so L & D can, perhaps, reset the standard for clients because they'll have some new uniform expectations to request. It seems that unless there is a clear-cut term for businesses to use, they automatically default to whatever term they can grab, even if the term and its supported research is decades-old.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    You're welcome, Piri. Thanks for checking out the video and sharing these thoughts here. Will be interesting indeed to see how Articulate progresses with this (and how our field as a whole progressed with xAPI).

  • @trishsanchez5591
    @trishsanchez55912 жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    You’re very welcome. Thank you for watching 😊

  • @CryptoPlan
    @CryptoPlan2 жыл бұрын

    Perfect timing on the video. I just had a meeting with the IT team regarding testing this. I want to learn more about query strings to get the actor when publishing as scorm.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for letting me know! Hopefully this helped point you in the right direction. May need to work with the LMS admin to figure out how to add query string parameters to the launch URL.

  • @glowman71

    @glowman71

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@DevlinPeckYT Could you just grab the user name, email from the LMS and add those variables to the xAPI statements to keep things consistent SCORM to xAPI? (If you haven't seen Jeff Batt's video, it seems like this could be possible).

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@glowman71 Possibly! I tried hard-coding in the actor in an HTML5 package and it didn't work, but maybe it would work with SCORM? Did Jeff do that in his video as a SCORM package (and include the actor as a variable)? If so, that could be promising. I also heard from someone, though, that they were unable to pass a variable's value into the statement...it was only passing in the variable name as a string. I should have tested that for this video but just assumed it would work, lol.

  • @alexstar25686

    @alexstar25686

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@DevlinPeckYT I had that issue when trying to pass Project Variables, the "built in" variables like %Project.ElapsedTime% did work though. Example Built In "en-US": "Total Activity Time: %Project.ElapsedTime%" works, the statement in the LRS looks like this: "en-US": "Total Activity Time: 53632" Project "en-US": "Section1 Duration: %Section01_Duration%" Does not work, the statement in the LRS looks like this: "en-US": "Section2 Duration: %Section01_Duration%"

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@alexstar25686 Very frustrating! Seems they need to get that fixed quickly.

  • @marceloappezato4501
    @marceloappezato45012 жыл бұрын

    Hi Devlin. First of all, great video and very helpful. I´m trying to figure out if it would be possible to gather comments made during the creation of a training material on Articulate (not by the end user of the material). I couldn´t find any actions related to that, but the final idea would be to capture these comments and add them to a BPM software that is managing the creation process of the material. Any ideas?

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Marcelo. Nothing comes to mind immediately other than Articulate Review, but that wouldn't let you bring the comments into a BPM software. You could add a widget that sits on every slide of the course during the review process, and then when people open that widget, they can provide feedback (then, with JavaScript, you can either capture that information with xAPI or with another API to bring the data into your tool of choice)

  • @CryptoPlan
    @CryptoPlan2 жыл бұрын

    Keep us posted on your testing.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Will do!

  • @chirpybee
    @chirpybee2 жыл бұрын

    Hi Devlin - thank you for the review. I found the channel while trying to discover more about xAPI and Moodle LMS interaction via Storyline. I am still seeing the same issues you mentioned here - duplication and too many unwanted statements. Have you heard of or identified any changes to the functionaliy since publishing this video? Thanks for sharing your experience (pun intended)

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for supporting the channel! And yes, i did record an updated webinar about how to send xAPI statements from Storyline. But we were publishing as HTML packages, not SCORM,

  • @lernstil
    @lernstil Жыл бұрын

    Hi Devlin, thanks for this Video! I´m building an Escape-Room in Storyline right now and would like to add some Tracking with xAPI to see if people get stuck at a point. But the Escape Room should be published on a website so that everybody can access it. Do you know if there has been an update, so that I can use the build in xAPI statements from Storyline?

  • @dasalsakid
    @dasalsakid2 жыл бұрын

    sweet beard brotha!

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thank you!!

  • @alexstar25686
    @alexstar256862 жыл бұрын

    Hi Devlin, Thanks for putting together this video. I am not seeing duplicate statements in my LRS (Learning Locker) when using the built-in custom xapi statements. I was really hoping I could publish to SCORM and have the activity also write to an LRS. That would solve a lot off the issues I am having collecting data where SCORM is required. I wonder why Storyline can't access the actor details as it does when you publish for SCORM. It would be nice if articulate provided a little bit more information on configuring the actor with SCORM. I am able to do what you were hoping for though: I publish xapi to the web without an LMS. At times, we ask the user to put in their first name and last + email, and then create the url with the query string for them. Alternatively, i may just set the user as anonymous.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Nice, glad to hear that you're having some success with this. And I imagine that they don't get the actor via SCORM because it tends to vary so much from LMS to LMS. But there is some code that works for most of them...would have been nice to see that here. Hopefully this makes it back to them and they update it soon?

  • @jamesericmartin
    @jamesericmartin Жыл бұрын

    I'm just starting to use it and, like you, have found the difficulty in capturing and shuttling the Actor info for the LRS troublesome.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    Жыл бұрын

    Hey James! There's an updated video on the channel that may help with this.

  • @jamesericmartin

    @jamesericmartin

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DevlinPeckYT Thanks Devlin. Is it this one? kzread.info/dash/bejne/amVmlNGikZybh6w.html

  • @onboard3441
    @onboard34412 жыл бұрын

    Storyline have just updated the xapi in the latest update 😉

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Nice!

  • @randymiller2916
    @randymiller29162 жыл бұрын

    Devlin, I am well aware of your work. It seems like none of this is getting any traction, and part of the reason is that many training organizations live in never never land. They really don't want to see data. They want to imagine things out of their heads whether it helps an organization or not. Most audits of training organizations (and even entire Universities for that matter) would fail on most metrics that compare training and education outcomes to real life and since these organizations do not have worthwhile data we just have to go along and take some administrator's word that they are doing something useful for society (the company, the non profit, the college, the military unit, etc. etc.).

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    I definitely understand your frustration, Randy. I've been feeling that for a while... L&D is behind the curve for sure when it comes to data-driven decision-making. It hurts seeing how far ahead marketing teams are and we're still looking at quiz scores and completion percentages. And I like your point about accountability. I imagine that many training teams / departments would become defunct rather quickly if people actually started measuring impact.

  • @MotionHouseInc
    @MotionHouseInc2 жыл бұрын

    Followed what I think was step-by-step. Tested LRS connection - Good. Published course - opened sl course and navigated pages. No statements are in LRS. What do you think is the most probable mistake I have made?

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    Not sure! What are your publish settings? And did you add custom statements?

  • @MotionHouseInc

    @MotionHouseInc

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@DevlinPeckYT Publish settings are basic SL default with my endpoint Key & Secret. No custom statement - just an "experienced" for 2 slides.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@MotionHouseInc Is the experienced via a trigger? That would be a custom statement if with the trigger. And did you publish for xAPI, SCORM, cmi5, etc?

  • @MotionHouseInc

    @MotionHouseInc

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@DevlinPeckYT trigger was when timeline starts, but I also tried an interaction with a "button". Published xAPI to LRS

  • @w.duncanwelderivwelder872
    @w.duncanwelderivwelder8722 жыл бұрын

    Uh, you can't select a verb without knowing the iri linked to the verb definition. It will destroy your ability to report. Launching a course and launching a missile are not the same thing. It would have been nice if Articulate had joined the Rustici conference last week where they announced that the "tin can package" was never intended to be used and will not be supported.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    I know! It’s frustrating for sure 😔

  • @randymiller2916
    @randymiller29162 жыл бұрын

    To be honest, I am sick and tired of having to be both Instructional Designer and try to explain things to entire companies that don't get it. I see no other option than to send Devlin to Articulate and explain to them how xAPI is supposed to work. Without the email address of the actor the whole thing is useless. That means that every course developed needs to have the user enter their email address at the beginning and be captured as a variable. There is no other option since we may nor may not be using an LMS. Articulate should have understood this and have solved the actor email variable before they released this product. One company waiting for another company to solve these basic issues is NOT WORKING. Somebody like Devlin is going to have to go to work for Articulate and push them forward or they just will never get it.

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    2 жыл бұрын

    I feel ya, Randy. It's definitely frustrating. On the bright side, it does look like it should be possible to launch the package from an LRS and get the user info sent along automatically from that. Will be interesting to see if this more advanced xAPI adoption from a tool like Storyline (even though it has a long way to go) sparks more innovation / interest in data-driven decision making in the learning space.

  • @hathspider9763
    @hathspider97634 ай бұрын

    Anyone still using xAPI in 2024?

  • @DevlinPeckYT

    @DevlinPeckYT

    4 ай бұрын

    Yes! It really depends on the scope of the project or the company. You can check out some alternatives here too: www.devlinpeck.com/content/track-elearning-without-lms