I’m brand new to LMS/LRS systems and I’m trying to understand how Tin Can API fits into the whole picture. I work for a software consulting company and we maintain a custom application for a client that wants to incorporate an e-learning course into their application. The client had a different company develop the e-learning course using Articulate 360. Unfortunately the other company was under the impression that our client had a proper LMS that the course could be used with but that’s not the case. Basically we have a custom application that users can sign into with their own accounts. We have an e-learning course that was published using Articulate. Now we need to figure out how to keep track of what each user has completed in the e-learning course from the custom application. This is where I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Do we need to build a custom Tin Can API (or Experience API) implementation ourselves? It sounds like our custom application would essentially become the LMS (or would it be the LRS?) Am I totally wrong on all of this? Or is there is an easier/better way to achieve this?
You don’t need to, but I found that it was actually fairly straightforward to build an implementation yourself. The biggest barrier I found was that there is no ‘standard’ implementation because xAPI can be used for pretty much anything, so I couldn’t find any samples to get me started.
If you are comfortable with it, the easiest option would be to use WordPress + GrassBlade xAPI Companion + GrassBlade LRS.
Welcome to the wonderful world of e-learning standards! You don’t need to implement your own LRS. Learning Locker provides v1 of their product free/open source.
I think the first question you need to ask yourself is do you want to send xAPI statements from the custom application or the Articulate course?