May 9th, 2019: xAPI Video Community of Practice is pleased to announce the release of Version 1.0 of xAPI Video Profile. This is first stable and production version xAPI Video Profile. We will update the contributors list and make any minor edits over next few days, but these edits will not effect the profile spec itself.

What is xAPI Video Profile?

xAPI Video Profile is a specification or set of rules that defines how xAPI should be used to track Video consumption or interactions. Videos are widely used in learning and otherwise, however, so far these was no standard way to track and analyse it. xAPI Video Profile is first such attempt to standardise the way video consumption is tracked using xAPI.

The video profile specification and related information is available at: xAPI Video Profile Specification

What is xAPI?

xAPI also popular as Experience API or Tin Can API, is a specification developed by ADL (An initiative of US DoD to improve learning)  that defines how eLearning experiences, or data should be formatted, sent, received, stored and retrieved. It is an updated to the older SCORM specification, however, is a major shift in thinking as it bring eLearning out of the bounds of an LMS, and allows any online or offline learning experience to be recorded and analysed. The Experience API is currently being standardised under IEEE P9274.1.1 Working Group.

What is xAPI Video Community of Practice?

This is an open community started by Pankaj Agrawal (Next Software Solutions) and sponsored by ADL (An initiative of US DoD to improve learning). The goal was to develop a common way of tracking videos using the Experience API, that is accepted and adopted by all stakeholders using and producing videos.

Working Demo of xAPI Video Profile

A working prototype of xAPI Video Profile and code is available at:  xAPI Video Profile Demo

Brief History

The seeds of the idea of a xAPI Video Profile, started with the xAPI Design Cohort#2 in early 2014. Pankaj Agrawal participated as Team YouTube trying to enable xAPI tracking for YouTube videos on WordPress. The effort concluded with inclusion of xAPI Video tracking feature being included in GrassBlade xAPI Companion plugin for WordPress for easy tracking of videos including mp4, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

The conclusion of this effort also started the new effort called xAPI Video Community of Practice to put together a community built specification that will be adopted by everyone intending to track video integrations using xAPI.The first meeting was held on Jan 21st, 2019.

After a period of about four and a half years, 43 meetings, and efforts from many individuals and organisations, we have the first stable release to see the light of the day.

Adopters

So far the following companies/products have announced supporting xAPI Video Profile in current or future version.

• GrassBlade LRS, Next Software Solutions – Already supported
• GrassBlade xAPI Companion, Next Software Solutions – Expected Support – mid May, 2019
• Veracity LRS

There are many other organisations internally using xAPI Video Profile, or working on it.

Thanks

I would like to thank all the participants and contributors to the profile. Special thanks to ADL and to Jonathan Mark Kevan (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Jason Haag (ADL & Veracity), Anthony Altieri (Red Cross), Patrick Selby (LexisNexis) and Mark Grant for their exceptional efforts in the group.

Pankaj Agrawal
Working Group Leader
xAPI Video Community of Practice