TinCan API v Experience xAPI.
Recently, a colleague and I attended D-Conf in Milan. Hosted by our partners at Docebo, the event focused on cloud apps and eLearning. As usual at conferences the agenda documentation was teasingly thin. You have little more than the session title to guess exactly what the speaker will cover.
Day 2 had interesting sounding back-to-back sessions. One was on 'Tin Can API' by Mike Rustici and one was on 'Experience API' (or just 'xAPI') by Aaron Silvers. Both were engaging speakers worth listening too. Both spoke of a new API in an infant state. They evangelised about how with a little momentum they will be on the cusp of the beginnings of something that will eventually change everything. Good. SCORM sucks.
For me, the really interesting insight was clocking my colleague’s reaction to these talks. She is a bright, switched-on, graduate, eLearning professional. She is no mug. She’d been looking forward to the Tin Can presentation having followed some of the buzz about it over the last year. She hadn’t previously heard of the Experience API. She listened to both forty-minute presentations in full. Yet when I spoke to her about it afterwards it dawned on me that she hadn’t connected that both presentations were talking about exactly the same thing.
Neither script referenced that there was any debate about the name. Yes, there were aggressive questions alluding to it after Mike’s talk, but these had a level of assumed knowledge in the way they were asked and answered that went over the audience’s heads. For those who live and breathe working on delivery of the post-SCORM standard, any vibrant debate about the name and any trademark issues may be boring and done to death. However, outsiders being introduced to the topic for the first time will not be aware there has even been a discussion.
My colleague is the target audience that these pioneers want to convert into the first wave of early adopters and sales-people. They diluted their message to her. Not because she is stupid, far from it, but because they didn’t explain themselves properly. She cares about this stuff. If they confuse her, they'll certainly confuse more generalist HR professionals.
The dual branding is plain confusing. Having folk going on road-shows and calling it two different things in the same meeting is simply nuts. The confusion will delay that last bit of momentum they crave to get vendors like us to tell our clients they have to jump on this wave. Only when we're pushing compatibility as an essential feature in any buying decision will it truly take off.
If I had a vote, and I don’t, nor do I deserve one, I’d say Experience API is a far better, more obviously relevant name. I’d go for that. I appreciate that there has been a chunk of work put into pushing the ‘Tin Can’ brand out there over the last few years, but let’s face it, it does sound like the code-word for a product in beta. You’d also struggle to sell something with such a whimsical name as an essential upgrade to a typical knee-jerk finance director. Worse, it does sound ‘suspect’ having a private company trademark the name of an open standard. I say that no matter how honourable or benign their actual intent.
Whichever name they settle on, they need to settle on it quick and stop the road show confusion. The benefits of this new standard, whatever it is called, means promoting this stuff to eLearning professionals should be pushing on an open door. Adding this confusion pulls the door back. Guys, sort it out.
Guy McEvoy is Managing Director of GuyKat, he’s looking forward to Tin Can or Experience or whatever it’s called freeing up eLearning content from the restraints of SCORM compliance. He hopes if you take nothing else from this article it’s that, for now, Tin Can API and Experience xAPI are exactly the same thing. Oh, and that whatever it is called Docebo LMS already supports it!
A Complete LMS Ecosystem?
Our partners at Docebo are making available for free a report by Craig Weiss from eLearning 24/7 about the features that make a complete LMS ecosystem. It's no wonder they're pushing the report as Docebo comes out as the front-runner when judged against Craig's criteria. You can take a look at the report yourself by downloading it from here.
If you're based in the UK, looking for an LMS, and interested in finding out more about Docebo, then please do get in touch directly with us here at GuyKat. We can arrange a free, fully functional trial, a demonstration and access to 'quick start' training videos to get you up and running.
Getting Business Going In the UK
GuyKat Managing director Guy McEvoy was a guest at an event hosted by Goldman Sachs in London. Also present were entrepreneurs such as Sir Charles Dunstone (Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk), Gerry Ford (Cafe Nero), Julian Metcalfe (founder of Pret A Manger and Itsu) and about 300 other leaders of small businesses who have received support from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Programme.
Much of the day's discussion focussed on the economic outlook for the UK in the near-to-mid term. The Global CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein comments at the event were picked up by much of the media.
Opinion remains split between optimists and pessimists on the UK's prospects. However, everyone seemed to agree that it will be growing SMEs that eventually kick-start the economy. GuyKat are proud to consider themselves of one these growing businesses, and proud to help our peers achieve the same through developing their people and lowering their training costs.
Seeking an Aston University Graduate/Student for a Paid Summer Internship
This position has now been filled
eLearning & Marketing Internship
Hours of work; 26 hours per week across 4 days.
Pay rate of £7 per hour. From LATE MAY 2013. (or sooner, can be arranged around finals)
Do you have an interest in any of the following?
- Sales & Marketing?
- Digital Media and IT?
- Business Communication?
- Creative Media/Design?
If so then this internship could be the one for you!
We are a well-established and innovative provider of eLearning and communication solutions who are experiencing growth in our business. We are looking for an enthusiastic Aston University graduate or final year student with excellent communication skills and a passion for technology (though not necessarily a technology graduate) who is able to provide support in one or more of the above areas.
As the successful applicant you would be provided with an internship which may encompass some or all of the aspects listed above depending on your own interests. This will provide you with the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience to assist with developing your career. This internship will provide a real insight into working as part of small team of entrepreneurs with a valuable exposure to the business environment.
Attitude, enthusiasm and work ethic are more important than previous experience for this role.
Essential Skills
Excellent communication skills are essential. To be considered for the internship you must be either a final year student of Aston University, or have graduated from there.
Additional Company Information
The company is based near Aston University and so is ideally located with easy links to public transport. There is also parking available on site.
The offices are based in a modern business centre with excellent facilities available.
The recruitment for this post is being managed through Graduate Advantage. Closing date for applications 3rd May - THIS IS NOW CLOSED.
Aston University is participating in the Santander Intern Programme, connecting talented graduates with some of the UKs fastest growing, most exciting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Santander is part-funding 3 month internships for final year students and recent graduates. If you would like to kick-start your career and build valuable experience fast, this is a great way to do it.
Please note that internships advertised for the Santander Internships Programme are only available to recent graduates or final years students of Aston University.
Are you ready for Tin Can?
Did you know that Tin Can API version 1.0 is scheduled for formal release on April 26, 2013?
The Tin Can API is a new standard for data flow between learning technologies. It's tempting to describe it as an update to the venerable SCORM standard. For years SCORM has been allowing eLearning modules developed in authoring tools such as Adobe Captivate, or Articulate Storyline to 'talk' to the Learning Management Systems on which they are hosted. However, saying it's just a SCORM replacement sells Tin Can short - it brings much more to the table. There's a great description of Tin Can here.
At GuyKat we're proud to be working with our partners Docebo to ensure that clients can release the benefits of Tin Can quickly. We can help them wrap their heads around the new concept of the LRS (Learning Record Store). You're all going to be hearing a lot about Tin Can API over the next few years. If you want to know more now - get in-touch.
GuyKat MD in Midlands Goldman Sachs 10KSB Cohort
GuyKat Solutions MD, Guy McEvoy, has been selected to participate in the 10KSB program at Aston Business School. The 3-month program is fully funded by Goldman Sachs and aimed at supporting business with high growth potential. Guy said, "This is good news. I'm looking forward to having time to reflect on the next stage of growth for GuyKat and this program will provide some structure to make that happen. I'm also looking forward to working with other business leaders from our region. It will mean a few days away from the office over the next couple of months, but the team back at base will rejoice at that!"
Find out more about the program by clicking here
Learning Technologies 2013
GuyKat was represented at last week's Learning Technologies conference by Hannah Quinton. The event is London's showcase industry gathering for eLearning vendors. The big trends under discussion included the shift to mLearning (mobile), and the latest thinking on instructional design. One of the key things for us was to see what else is happening in the LMS space. Having had a good look at the competition it is our strong belief that the business case for adopting docebo is as compelling as ever.
GuyKat is UK's First Docebo Partner
We've been keeping an exciting secret. Back in November we signed an agreement with Docebo to become the first of their UK Partners. You may be familiar with the concept of a Learning Management System (LMS). You may also be familiar with the concept of Software-As-A-Service (SaaS). Docebo brings these together. With style.
Since November, without fanfare, we've been learning about the Docebo product in depth and have begun introducing it to several clients. Selecting an LMS partner was a challenging process and we trialled numerous alternative products. At the end of our assessment exercise we found Docebo the most compelling value proposition. In our opinion it balances being user-friendly, feature-rich and simplicity-to-deploy whilst still being surprisingly competitively priced. Docebo is the LMS we use ourselves. We think our clients should too.
Keep an eye on the website. In the coming months you will see far more information about the Docebo product and the formal launch of the additional services we can provide to help you get up and running. However, in the meantime if you are based in the UK and want a free-trial or demo then please find out more by clicking here.
This article was published Jan 2013
GuyKat in the Community
Global corporations like to blow their trumpets about their 'work in the community' and 'putting something back'. Small businesses aren't quite as good at the PR, but we like to think we quietly do our bit. So, with that in mind here's an interesting factoid about GuyKat in 2012: We have a timesheeting system that records how long people are working on various things. Of total hours booked in 2012 around 5% was on non-billable community focused work (mainly relating to Schools and the NHS). OK, that hardly gives us the virtue of the Bill Gates Foundation, but it is a little something.
Developing in Captivate 6 as Standard
GuyKat have been trialling Captivate 6 since its release last summer. Since then our default development platform remained Captivate 5.5, but we have used the new software for a number of pilot client projects. The pilot testing is now over. Following our evaluation we're confident that the new version brings numerous advantages that speed up our work-flow, and that the few bugs at release have now been resolved. Therefore, from Jan 2013, our standard development environment will now be Captivate 6.0.
For legacy projects (or by request) we still retain the ability to develop in 5.5, pure Flash, or with Articulate/Storyline however our starting position for client projects is to develop with the technology that we think is best: Captivate 6.0
This will be an invisible change for most clients - hopefully all you will notice is that our deliverables look ever better, and our production time gets ever quicker!