This is an excerpt from Sharon Boller’s newest white paper, Learning Trends, Technologies and Opportunities. The white paper describes today’s learning landscape… then predicts 7 trends for the next 12 – 18 months. Here is Trend 3:

Less Focus on the LMS; More Focus on Tin Can API

Over the last decade the learning management system (LMS) has become a fixture inside organizations. There are well over a hundred LMS products on the market for learning functions to choose from.

Yet few organizations seem to really use the data generated by an LMS or use the LMS for any purpose other than to house courses. Our clients consistently ask for SCORM-compliant courses without even knowing what SCORM is or why it was created. As mobile devices and the concept of “social learning” have edged their way onto the learning scene, the LMS has become a problem. Suddenly learning professionals everywhere have a conundrum: How do we track what learners are doing?

Tin Can API (also known as Experience API or “xAPI”) is a solution that drew a lot of buzz at mLearn 2012 and Devlearn 2012 as the eventual replacement for SCORM. Why is it getting the buzz? Because it tracks “experiences” learners have – rather than course completion. An experience MIGHT be completing a course, but it could also be playing a game, participating in a Twitter chat, reading a blog, or viewing a video.

It will take time for organizations who have made a major financial commitment to traditional LMSs to abandon them completely… but look for Tin Can to make major inroads in 2013. We are already seeing our clients talking to their LMS providers about Tin Can – and letting them know they want the LMS to be compliant with it.

Learning Trends, Technologies and Opportunities White PaperClick the image to download the white paper.

Check back next week for Trend 4, or download the entire white paper now.