According to xAPI.com, a Learning Record Store (LRS) is the heart of any xAPI ecosystem. If you are unsure what an xAPI ecosystem is, please check out our previous blog here. Essentially, xAPI-enabled applications generate metadata in the form of ‘statements.’ The application sends these statements to an LRS server that then receives, stores, and forwards statements to other LRS servers.
With an LRS server and strong analytical reporting tools, you can capture information about any experience, regardless of where and in what format it takes place. An LRS is a standardized tool for receiving, storing, and forwarding metadata for a wide variety of activities and events that may or may not be delivered and tracked within your learning management system (LMS).
xAPI-enabled applications can include but are not limited to:
- traditional self-paced eLearning modules
- videos (including YouTube and MP4 files)
- articles, web pages, or entire websites
- VR/AR simulators
- gaming
- observation tools
…and many other offline real-world experiences that a learner may encounter. By gathering data about all experiences, you can better measure the business impact of your training resources to determine which methods and tools are most effective.
For example…. one organization may require all employees to take a course in cyber security and then measure the effectiveness of that content by sending out a company-wide phishing email as a ‘test’ to see how well staff follow the security protocol covered during their training.
Another organization may follow up on training provided to its sales teams by reviewing xAPI data generated from its corporate CRM to determine the impact of training and assign additional learning interventions as needed to improve results and productivity.
Business unit leaders are not interested in post-training satisfaction surveys and comments on how the learners ‘felt’ after completing the course or taking a test. Rather, they want insightful details on the impact of training on the business and how it is helping to achieve corporate goals – or, in the public sector – a government agency’s mission.
In order to better position your training team within your organization, determine what types of information can lead to true insights and pave the way for improvements and real change. You may want to ask questions like:
How has training impacted customer satisfaction levels?
What training is utilized by our most effective sales reps?
Are resellers driving more revenue post-training? If so, how long after training is completed are increased revenues sustained?
Next, think about what data you need to answer those questions and what systems you need to enable to capture it. xAPI, via the LRS, gives you an easy, standards-based way of capturing that data. Rather than investing in an expensive, one-off custom data integration project, you can use xAPI statements to send the information to an LRS. You can combine it with existing LMS data and close the loop for a complete picture there.
Interested in learning more about how you can benefit from the LRS and xAPI? Download our new report, The xAPI Experience today!
And if you would like to learn more about Meridian LMS, which includes a fully capable LRS out of the box, visit our solutions page.