Dual Tracking

Dual Tracking uses the existing SCORM infrastructure to deliver content and both SCORM and xAPI to record the learner's progress.

ADL recognizes that many organizations already have an e-Learning infrastructure in place. The costs in building up those systems, experience, and content makes it cost prohibitive to make a complete switch to xAPI. But the Experience API was designed with the understanding that the API may be part of a larger system, such as an enterprise LMS. Also, the xAPI is effective as a stand-alone system to collect, and provide access to, learner experiences without the coupling to content required by SCORM LMSs. This first approach of leveraging the xAPI understands that organizations have a dependence on an LMS and offers a low-impact solution to xAPI adoption, with benefits such as:

• Current investments in SCORM are not lost.
• Content is still launched by the LMS.
• Learners' progress and status is still stored in the LMS.
• Minimal effort to begin using the xAPI. See below

Free the data

SCORM has been available for over 10 years. It is stable and has a large community. The reference model describes many aspects about progress reporting and learners' interactions within the content. But there is no defined behavior for accessing that data outside of the content. This means that consumers - students, teachers, administrators - are at the mercy of the LMS vendor to develop reports and tools for accessing the data. The Experience API was partially developed to address this omission in SCORM. By tracking to an xAPI LRS consumers can get access to relevant learner experiences. This makes possible:

• Support for 3rd party / custom reporting and analytics tools.
• Simple data export to other systems, such as various organizational LMS/LRS servers, personal data lockers.
• Visibility into previous learner attempts.
• Access to data beyond the current learner, like class trends or group results.

Implementing this Approach

Applying this approach to content development requires some steps to consider. The following are those steps and links to get started.

1. Determine identifiers for your activities and objectives.
• Read about IRIs in the SCORM Profile
• See guidance on creating IRIs consistent with SCORM Profile Guidelines
2. Determine the experiences to report and the mapping from SCORM data model elements to xAPI Statements.
• Review the General Guidance on Statements in the SCORM Profile
• Determine if the content needs to report experiences within the SCORM Temporal Model. Do things like sessions and attempts matter for reports or evaluation?
• Create the Statements the content should report, mapping them from the equivalent SCORM data model
• Verify the Statements using the ADL LRS Statement Validator
3. Register accounts on the LRS for your content.
• For HTTP Basic Auth, register for an account on the ADL LRS
• For OAuth credentials, follow the instructions on the ADL LRS home page
4. Update the SCORM content to report xAPI Statements when chosen SCORM data model requests are made
• Update content using the SCORM to xAPI Wrapper.