Integration of experience API into CDET's e-learning

Abstract

The increased availability and use of online devices has the Marine Corps College of Distance Education and Training (CDET) looking at Experience API (xAPI) for ways to improve the accessibility, effectiveness, and efficiency of the educational instruction they provide. This thesis recommends a way for CDET to incorporate xAPI into the courseware currently delivered by their learning management system (LMS), MarineNet. Research was conducted into how learning objectives, online assessments, and xAPI can create a learning objective performance value (a measurement of a student's proficiency in a specific learning objective). A prototype system consisting of a LMS, Learning Record Store (LRS), and xAPI courseware was developed, and learning experiences linking course assessment questions to learning objectives were extracted to the LRS. The learning experiences were then analyzed to calculate learning objective performance values, which provide the ability to determine students' strengths and weaknesses in specific subject areas. This enables tailored curriculums that allow time and resources to be spent in subject areas that most benefit the student and the Marine Corps, while maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of their e-learning courseware.