LRS Centric

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Report learner progress to an LRS. Allow clients, including LMSs, to communicate to the LRS via the xAPI.

The LRS Centric approach begins to reduce an organization’s reliance on an LMS, but still contains an LMS due to existing investments and interfaces with other systems. The xAPI SCORM profile and any additional xAPI data is tracked by native xAPI content. Launch of this content is managed by a system other than the LMS. xAPI data which relates directly to LMS data may be synced between the LRS and LMS so existing system interfaces or reports continue to work. This is the first server-side requirement and potentially incurs cost, either financial or human resources.

Features:

  • Support content that is not managed by an LMS: mobile, simulations, games, etc.
  • Track data about individual learners, groups of learners, teams, instructors, mentors, peers, etc
  • Exposes learning data via standardized interface for reports and analytics.
image of content not launched by an LMS, that content reporting learner results to only the xAPI LRS, and the LMS querying the LRS for learner and content status updates
image of a checked checkbox

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. Launching content will likely need some initalization data.
    • Determine the data your content needs to initialize and run.
    • Read the SCORM Profile section on launching content.
    • Investigate other launch mechanisms such as CMI-5, IMS LTI, or Rustici xAPI Launch if the SCORM Profile does not meet all your launch needs.
  2. Determine identifiers for your activities and objectives.
  3. Determine the experiences to report and the mapping from SCORM data model elements to xAPI Statements.
  4. 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
  5. Configure your LMS to query the LRS. Since the LMS no longer knows that content has been launched and experienced, the LMS needs to be updated to query the LRS for records.