This document discusses the use of experience API (xAPI) statements and metadata standards for learning analytics. It provides an example of an xAPI statement in JSON format and describes how xAPI works by sending statements about learning activities and experiences to a learning record store. It also summarizes the Dutch xAPI specification for learning activities (DSLA) which includes a registry and repository of xAPI statements to support interoperability. The document advocates for the adoption of xAPI and DSLA to facilitate learning analytics and data sharing across systems in the Netherlands.

1. Dutch Cooking with xAPI Recipes
The Good, the Bad and the Consistent
Alan Berg1, Maren Scheffel2, Hendrik Drachsler2, Stefaan
Ternier2, Marcus Specht2
1 University of Amsterdam, 2 Open University Netherlands
28.07.2016, ICALT 2016, Austin, Texas, USA

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• Hendrik Drachsler
Associate Professor
Learning Technologies
• Research topics:
Personalization,
Recommender Systems,
Learning Analytics,
Mobile devices
• Application domains:
Schools, HEI, Medical
education
WhoAmI
2006 - 2009
@HDrachsler

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28/07/16Hendrik Drachsler 3

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Research activities

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Greller, W., & Drachsler, H. (2012). Turning Learning into Numbers. Toward a Generic
Framework for Learning Analytics. Journal of Educational Technology & Society.
http://ifets.info/journals/15_3/4.pdf

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@HDrachsler, #LASI_NL, Zeist, Netherlands
Slide 6 / 29 June 2014
1. Why LA data
standard?
2. What data
standards are
out there?
3. Indepth
exampe xAPI
Lecture structure
4. Outlook

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Sophistican model
Siemens, G., Dawson, S., & Lynch, G. (2014). Improving the Quality and Productivity of the Higher
Education Sector – Policy and Strategy for Systems-Level Deployment of Learning Analytics. Canberra,
Australia: Office of Learning and Teaching, Australian Government. Retrieved from
http://solaresearch.org/Policy_Strategy_Analytics.pdf

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Heterogeneous TEL systems …
… not made for Learning Analytics
Pagina 8
• Various heterogonous
data sources
• No metadata standards
• No proper description of
data fields
• No unique user ID in the
different systems
• Not intended for
evaluation and
educational interventions
• No comparison of
effective methods

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Educational Data
Drachsler, H., et al. (2010). Issues and Considerations regarding Sharable Data Sets for
Recommender Systems in Technology Enhanced Learning. 1st Workshop Recommnder
Systems in Technology Enhanced Learning (RecSysTEL@EC-TEL 2010) September, 28,
2010, Barcelona, Spain.
Verbert, K., Manouselis, N., Drachsler, H., and Duval, E. (2012). Dataset-driven Research
to Support Learning and Knowledge Analytics. Journal of Educational Technology &
Society.
Important to report effects from algorithm X to a reference dataset, to
gain common knowledge, and have reproducible results.
ACM Recommender Systems, and KDD cup work like this since years.

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Aggregated Paradata
Drachsler, H., Bogers, T., et al. (2010). Issues and considerations
regarding sharable data sets for recommender systems in technology
enhanced learning. Elsevier Procedia Computer Science: Volume 1,
Issue 2. (pp. 2849-2858). doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2010.08.010.

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1. More useful analysis through the
combination of data from different
sources
2. A critical mass of data for learning
science research
3. Sufficient scale of data to determine
relevance and quality of educational
resources
4. Reproducibility and transparency in
learning analytics research
5. Cross-institutional strategy comparison
6. Research on the effect of education
policy
7. Social learning in informal settings
8. Learner data as a teaching and learning
resource
Aims for Data Standards
http://www.laceproject.eu/deliverables/d7-2-data-sharing-roadmap/

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MOLAC Innovation Cycle
Drachsler, H. & Kalz, M. (2015). The MOLAC Innovation cyle. Journal of
Computer Assisted Learning. (in press).

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@HDrachsler, #LASI_NL, Zeist, Netherlands
Slide 13 / 29 June 2014
1. Why LA data
standard?
2. What data
standards are
out there?
3. Indepth
exampe xAPI
Lecture structure
4. Outlook

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Pagina 14
• Content metadata (e.g., IEEE LOM).
• Personal Data (e.g., IMS ePortfolio, IMS LIP,
or HR-XML)
• Social metadata (ratings, tags or comments
that were intentionally contributed by the
users)
• Paradata (automatically tracked by the
system)
• Linked Data (interlinked datasets on the
web using the RDF standard)
Types of Data
Dietze, S., Drachsler, H., Giordano, D., (2014). A Survey on Linked Data and
the Social Web as facilitators for TEL recommender systems, in:
Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning: Springer, 2014.

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Context Attention Metadata
Scheffel, M., Niemann, K., Leony, D., Pardo, A., Schmitz, H. C.,
Wolpers, M., & Kloos, C. D. (2012). Key action extraction for
learning analytics. In 21st Century Learning for 21st Century Skills
(pp. 320-333). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Nikolas, A., Sotiriou, S., Zervas, P., & Sampson, D. G. (2014). The
open discovery space portal: A socially-powered and open
federated infrastructure. In Digital Systems for Open Access to
Formal and Informal Learning (pp. 11-23). Springer International
Publishing.

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Context Attention Metadata
Wolpers M., Najjar, J., Verbert, K., Duval, E. (2007). Tracking Actual Usage: the
Attention Metadata Approach, Journal of Educational Technology and Society,
10 (3), 106-121.

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How Tin Can API works
Tin Can enabled activities send simple statements to a Learning
Record Store.
LRS
Elearning Game Simulator Blog YouTube
Grafik by Christan Glahn (@phish108) http://www.slideshare.net/phish108

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Most strong candidates, right now
Released since 2012 First release October 2015
• Tracks experiences, scores, progress, teams, virtual media, real-world
experiences (not just completions)
• Allows data storage AND retrieval (ex. 3rd party reporting and analytics tools)
• Enables tracking mobile, games, and virtual worlds experiences
• Developed by open source community

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Activity driven data model
John added a photo to Open U Community Environment
Jim commented on John’s photo on Community Environment
John watched How to save energy video on ARLearn at 22.05.2014 3pm
John subscribed to Sustainable Energy on Open U at 24.05.2014 1pm
John posted My first blog post in Open U Community Environment

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Metadata standards for Learner
Tracking

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Onderwerp via >Beeld >Koptekst en voettekst
Pagina 21

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Example: xAPI statement in json format
'{
"actor": {
"objectType": "Agent",
"name": ”Hendrik Drachsler",
"mbox": "mailto:hendrik.drachsler@ou.nl"
},
"verb": {
"id": "http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/access",
"display": {
"en-US": "Indicates the learner accessed a page"
}
},
"object": {
"objectType": "Activity",
"id": "http://OUNL/PSY/module1.html",
"definition": {
"name": {
"en-US": "Module 1: …."
},
"description": {
"en-US": "This lesson is an introduction to the Introduction into Psychology "
},
"type": "http://adlnet.gov/expapi/activities/lesson"
}
}
}'

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Although, there are standards there are
interoperability issues

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@HDrachsler, #LASI_NL, Zeist, Netherlands
Slide 26 / 29 June 2014
1. Why LA data
standard?
2. What data
standards are
out there?
3. Indepth
exampe xAPI
Lecture structure
4. Outlook

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Onderwerp via >Beeld >Koptekst en voettekst
Pagina 27

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ECO IT System

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Repository of xAPI statements
Scheffel, M., Ternier, S., & Drachsler, H. (2016a). The Dutch xAPI Specification for Learning
Activities (DSLA) – Registry. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/DutchXAPIreg
http://www.laceproject.eu/blog/xapi-dsla/

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Repository of xAPI statements
Onderwerp via >Beeld >Koptekst en voettekst
Pagina 31
http://bit.ly/DutchXAPIreg

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Repository of xAPI statements
Pagina 32
http://bit.ly/DutchXAPIspread

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@HDrachsler, #LASI_NL, Zeist, Netherlands
Slide 33 / 29 June 2014
1. Why LA data
standard?
2. What data
standards are
out there?
3. Indepth
exampe xAPI
Lecture structure
4. Outlook

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SURF SIG Learning Analytics
• We want to stimulate a standard
for xAPI
• Rollout of DSLA in NL over SURF
• If you plan to do xAPI come and
join us
• Use DSLA and enrich it
http://bit.ly/DutchXAPIreg
http://bit.ly/DutchXAPIspread

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