Dear Instructional Designer,

We at VisionCor know the incredibly difficult process of designing quality instruction. We would like to help in making that process easier and faster.

VisionCor knows that an instructional designer is often given a situation that takes an experienced professional to organize and set instructional benchmarks while dealing with changing technology. We know that instructional designers achieve instructional goals by perceiving and interpreting existing resources, analyze current classroom and learning conditions with all their relative constraints, balance trade-offs during design and implementation, and deliver the best practices during the entire process.  While any basic instructional design course reduces design to its basic framework of perception, interpretation, analysis, balancing, and delivery, we know that what a designer does is far more complicated than that.

While the process is more complicated than its simple framework, it can be refined to become a streamlined process with a level of certainty in determining best practice and outcomes. This is where VisionCor places learning analytics as a priority in the process. Learning analytics is the branch of educational data mining that gives two guarantees in your design:

• Good instructional design is made better when you know what learners already know.
• Good instructional design that is based on current knowledge helps one to learn more effectively.

These two ideas are no-brainers when it comes to the goals of good design. How would one use learning analytics in the process of design? That is where a VisionCor professional should be brought in to look at the process, refine use of data, and trim away excess or extraneous activity to distill a solid instructional process.

Employing learning analytics will connect and interweave different components of any learning management system (LMS). For example, if an LMS is already using current industry standards, then SCORM (sharable content object reference model) is the standard that most instructional designers seek as a starting point when working. While SCORM deals with ensuring that content has maximum interoperability, there are ways of further maximizing both content and interoperability.

xAPI (also known synonymously as Tin Can xAPI or The Experience API) should be employed in order to mine data that would make SCORM more useful in regard to data that can be used to evaluate instruction, learning, and delivery. Remember that good design is guaranteed if the designer already knows what learners know. xAPI is an open protocol for capturing and exchanging data regarding interactions with web pages or applications. While SCORM makes content accessible and interoperable, xAPI shows a designer how well this accessibility and interoperability is working and how the learners are managing the system. Designers can see how to adjust content, design, and processes according to how learners act within the system in order to customize and streamline the design.

While instructional designers used to have to undertake a lengthy evaluation process when it came to putting education in place and determining how effective it was with specific learners, considering all parts of the process as it affects actor (the learner), verb (the action taken when learning, such as passing a test), and object (the task, training, or test). Evaluation could, at best, take considerable time to complete so that the process could be refined. At worst, it could determine that the process itself was ineffective and a waste of time. xAPI mines data that collects interactions about the actor, verb, and objectr that can be used immediately to refine SCORM. It is like getting the opportunity to look inside a learner’s mind as they interact with content and a delivery system to see what works and what does not.

VisionCor professionals are able to take that process further than SCORM and xAPI by employing cmi5. SCORM sets an effective platform, xAPI looks at the platform for proper evaluation and interoperability, and cmi5 bridges the divide between SCORM and xAPI. Cmi5 enables content to be placed within different systems and technologies, creating extensibility and further interoperability. Data regarding technological similarities and barriers can be mined to further refine and streamline processes. The data exchange between designed courses and the LMS become more secure both in content and in the way content can be transferred to current technologies. Cmi5 eliminates some of the drudgery of launch dates, information retrieval, and reporting regarding how material and learners are working within the LMS.

The question is not “does this work” but rather “how can I place this within my design for guaranteed outcomes?” While the above scenario is simply an example of how a VisionCor consultant may assess and work toward refining the learning and development process for an organization, it is by no means the only way that VisionCor tackle streamlining processes when employing learning analytics for guaranteed outcomes. VisionCor professionals want to look at each organization and LMS to determine and customize how learning analytics will make the design process easier, faster, and guaranteed.

Let us put learning analytics to work for you.

Sincerely, your partner for successful hybrid learning and learning analytics,

VisionCor