EXPERIENCE API VS SCORM – HOW XAPI BENEFITS TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING

The eLearning specifications SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and experience API (xAPI, former TinCan) aim at tracking user's learning progress and experience made in a virtual (learning) environment. However, the actions that can be tracked as well as the way of tracking can significantly differ if using one or another specification. This paper compares SCORM and xAPI and elicits their strengths and limitations based on sample learning scenarios defined for formal and informal learning settings. Syntax and semantics as well as technologies required by both specifications are analysed in relation to different learning contexts. The paper summarizes that the xAPI specification is not a "new SCORM", but more than that, it opens wide opportunities for implementation of innovative learning approaches, like mobile and social learning.