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Tin Can: Caution, may make aggravated reading!

Posted by Admin QL | Filed under ASTD, Better eLearning, Learning Resources, Learning Trends

By Neil Lasher

So what’s all the fuss about? You think I am going to tell you that you need a new management system or some expensive upgrade to the one you already have? No, actually I am not, unless of course you care about the work you are doing as a learning professional.

For all the years I have been involved with eLearning we have skirted around the truth, which is that the vendor has always failed to deliver what he promised. Before the web we had CBT and we told our clients that we had this fantastic system to deliver training at a fraction of the cost. No, not true. In those days, the cost was about $25-40k for an hour of learning. Historically when we look back and see how many people actually attended this learning, and if we are honest to ask ourselves how many came away with a changed behaviour, we have to own up and say it was pretty expensive and the delegate did not have a very good time! That early CBT was bordering on awful.

Since then we have seen many new promises with something new being offered with a latest buzzword every year or so. 15 years’ worth!

So why would I expect you to believe me when I tell you that the latest, newest, biggest, greatest, most spectacular thing to come out of eLearning is happening around you right now? Well, you believed all the other ideas, so why would you not!

But to be truthful, I am not a vendor, I have no product to offer and like you I have been duped too. However, this latest and greatest is so exciting I am struggling to contain myself.

For me it began back in about 1994, when I started to import the first systems we called authoring tools from the USA to Europe. I got screwed a couple of times on the way by greedy manufacturers and took the decision a few years ago to drop the sale of all product, to concentrate on being a knowledgeable consultant in the industry with many years of experience. I dedicated myself to the design of learning and helping other people understand how to create great learning. I made a name for myself along the way as one who is not scared to say it as I see it and who will work to break as many rules as possible to ensure success for the learner. I think you may have already got that idea.

Once we moved online and the web learning we know became known as eLearning (C.2000), the new game in town was the management system. It was simple in the early days; it told us who did what and when, and if we gave them a test, we knew whether they had passed or failed.

So what happened? We gave it to the DOD and we created a behemoth of a system that tells us everything and nothing. We actually can store who clicked what, record how long it took, capture metatags of information including….. Well, including what? If the truth be told, we still only care about who did what, and when, and if they passed or failed. By default we can tell who didn’t do what!! A whole set of useless numbers that gives us a history in metrics.

The challenge was, and is, how can we make this better? How can we get some data that tells us something we can use? OK, I hear you screaming we can use these metrics, we can show our boss how well we did, that we got all 1500 staff through a course and we ticked the boxes. If this is you, please stop calling yourself a learning professional—you don’t deserve the title!

What we need is a way to see who does course B after being prompted to do so by course Z. We need to watch where people go and the decisions they make, what prompted those decisions and the consequences of those decisions. We need to see who goes where after our course, what makes them decide to do so. And we need to see if there are patterns of groups of employees all doing the same and decide if we need to change these patterns to create a change in behaviour.

We need to create material not called a course–I call it an Environment–one that mimics our workplace where people can test their ideas in safe areas and see the consequences of their behaviour. We need to understand that courses go from A-Z and we need to discard that idea of isolated courses or even curricula and replace it with a free-form flow of information and decision-making. But to do this we need to be able to watch the paths the user takes, where they go, from which point to which and understand where they are likely to go next.

Pipe dream? No reality! Hail ‘The Experience API’ project named Tin Can. Created by the very people who created the behemoth SCORM, but this time they got it right straight out of the gate. Here is a system with few rules, other than those you build. Databases that will collate whatever you throw at them and redesign themselves to suit. It’s just data; collate enough and you will have ‘Big Data’. Learn how to understand the data and the Holy Grail of learning takes a step closer to you.

How does this work? Well, ask 10 designers who understand XAPI and you will get 10 answers. But the bare bones are that at points decided by you, a set of data called a statement is sent to the database in XML. This data contains a set of verbs (that you designed) and the data that goes with them. Collate enough of these and you will begin to see patterns. The term is Analytics.

Amazon is pretty good at recommending books and other items to buy based on this type of analytics. Based on who you are and what you have done before, they can predict what you are likely to buy next. So, using the same type of data and based upon who you are, what your role is and what learning you already undertook and the decisions you made whilst doing that learning, we should be able to predict what you are going to next. If that prediction says you are about to make a mistake that is going to be costly to our organisation, we can intervene—a good old intervention by a training professional who is going to create better value by changing your behaviour.

Simple to implement? No, not at all. To do so, you are going to need a new set of talents in designing learning content that creates the data you know you can use and want and need. Reuben Tozman said, “SCORM technology tells us here is the data we collect and here’s how to build web content that spits that data into our buckets. Tin Can is, what data points do you want to create, how do you want to collect that data and you decide how that data is meaningful.”

If that is not an exciting prospect in the world of learning, then you are never going to hear one. This is not a pipe dream; it is real. During 2013 it will be at every conference you attend, you will find it in all the magazines and in all the blogs and forums. Get on board early; understand what is coming and how the design of your learning is about to have the biggest shake up since you got that job.

Neil Lasher
neil@neillasher.com
@neillasher

Neil Lasher is a leading light in both the eLearning and ‘mobile’ industry. One of the pioneers of both of these methods of delivery, Neil has pushed the envelope at every opportunity and always challenges the existing rules of learning to forge new methods so that the end user takes away the very best content and has the most engaging experience. A lively speaker, Neil has been sought by many conferences around the world to present in his entertaining manner. Neil has published many new papers on Instructional Design and mobile learning techniques and creates high voltage learning events, all in plain speak and easily understood.

Neil sits on the advisory board of UK’s Learning and Performance Institute (LPI), is a past president of ASTD (UK Network) and past vice chair of eLearning network. Neil hosts a mobile ‘technical stage’ each year for the eLearning Guild’s mLearnCon (the world’s premier mobile conference) in the USA. A very experienced consultant, Neil ensures his clients can create the very best experience for the most discerning of professionals. His LinkedIn recommendations speak for themselves.

In the summer of 2012, Neil worked for London2012 Olympics helping to roll out 1 million hours of learning to 200,000 people. Events do not get more high profile or mission critical than this. Can Neil help you design your learning events?

Tags: ASTD, CBT, eLearning, Neil Lasher, neillasher.com, Reuben Tozman, SCORM, Tin Can

7 Responses to “Tin Can: Caution, may make aggravated reading!”

Alfred Low Says:
January 9th, 2013 at 11:38 pm

Neil

Thanks for your thoughts.

Exciting XAPI may be, but I shudder to think about interoperability.

You said “…you decide how that data is meaningful”

This may work for the original designer of the course but how will it work if the elearning module was made for that particular circumstance – how can I make sense of the results of an elearning module if there is no standardisation?

Me thinks XAPI might have some significant impacts on interoperability.

Having said that, I think those fears are based on not knowing how XAPI is to be used.

If nothing else, the adoption of XAPI will be interesting.
Raúl Cuéllar Says:
January 10th, 2013 at 1:43 pm

Hello Neil

I have a cusion about Tin Can, What happend with the colaborative activities?

You can share a Scorm activities for individual or “autolearning”, but is important the relasionship and the feedback with other course participants.

Where are the wiki, forum, chat, glossary?

Thanks in advanced.
Raúl
Neil Lasher Says:
January 14th, 2013 at 5:43 pm

Alfred, When I say you decide, I assume you are the designer of the learning. The issue we have is to get away from the concept of tracking who did what, but get more into the concept of ‘big data’.

Data that is meaningful would mean tracking the path of the learning, the actions taken and decisions made. The data you will get is what you have considered during the conception of the learning, you will get what you want not what the LMS developer thought you may like. As for interoperability I see far less issues than we have had with SCORM, but time will tell….

Raúl, The concept of collaboration is not a function of the management system Many management systems have added the functionality, and this will not change with xAPI in any way at all.

Designing eLearning with links to collaborative tools should not be under the control of the LMS, and in the model of xAPI there is no reason why you should not include xAPI statements in your collaboration tools. It is a system to track anything, not just learning material, this is what makes it so exciting.
David Grebow Says:
February 5th, 2013 at 7:53 pm

The biggest advantage over the behemoth LMS systems are for today’s continuous learners. Being able to track and record what employees are learning on their own, beyond the proscribed SCORM programs, really helps me increase my Corporate IQ and become a smarter company.

What will count is not how many butts I have placed into seats but how many people are really learning (as in able to adopt and adapt) what they need to know and know how to do.
Hechos en Mexico Says:
February 8th, 2013 at 5:43 pm

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Burl Kietzer Says:
March 29th, 2013 at 9:05 pm

Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?
Romelia Lapinsky Says:
April 15th, 2013 at 1:19 pm

Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to create a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and never manage to get nearly anything done.