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Hi! my name is Julian and I'd like to
welcome you to an introduction to

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Learning Record Stores. This short video
will provide you with a snippet of

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information that you can take as a
starting point to understanding what a

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Learning Record Store is. By the end
of this video, you'll be able to provide

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an overview of the purpose and the
function that a Learning Record Store

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does, learn how to read an xAPI
statement in a Learning Record Store and,

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also understand the different Learning
Record Stores currently available on the

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market. Before we get started, let's recap
on what our Learning Record Store is. From

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our previous video on introducing
experience API in under 5 minutes, we

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know that xAPI statements are stored in
a database. We also know that the correct

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term for the database is called a
Learning Record Store, or LRS for short.

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We know that the LRS has the ability to
accept xAPI statements from different

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platforms, devices and applications,
making it incredibly flexible. An LRS

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also allows for data to be pulled or
query. This allows for other applications

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to query the xAPI data. This, for example,
could be used to see if a user has

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completed a specific course or activity.
The xAPI statement is designed using

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JSON, which stands for JavaScript object
notation. JSON is a lightweight data

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interchange format that is used to pass
data between systems. It's also fairly

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easy for humans to read as well! Although
it is easy to read, initially it can seem

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a little complexed. I'm going to use an
online JSON viewer to describe what's

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happening. By using xapi.com, I will use
one of their simple examples to show how

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a statement is read. Using Google or your
favorite search engine, search for

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'JSON viewer'. You'll get a few, but the one
I'll be using is called code beauty. With

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the viewer open, I'll paste the JSON data
from the application. This data is the

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one that came from xapi.com. Recall
that an xAPI statement is broken up

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into 3 components: the actor, verb and
the object (or activity). The viewer easily

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allows us to see each component of
statement, without the need to know

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JSON. Using the tree view, you can see
that the data becomes much easier to

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view. We can clearly see the 3
components, and how many items are in

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each component. Looking at the object (or
the activity), the tree view makes it

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easier to see that there is nested data,
where we can simply drill

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down in see what is in there. Now we know
how the xAPI statement looks in JSON,

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let's see how it looks in an LRS. To get
the data into an LRS, I'll be using

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another tool on xapi.com to allow me
to connect it to an LRS and send the

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information. For the demonstration, I'm
going to be using an LRS called SCORM

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cloud that has a free LRS plan to allow you to
test and learn how the LRS works. On

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xapi.com, I simply paste the small
xAPI statement into the statement editor

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and validate that the JSON is correct.
Once it's correct, I then have to go and

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set up the connection to the LRS. this
takes 3 items: there is the endpoint,

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the username, and the password.
These are all available from the LRS

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once setup.

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I think simply click on send statement
to send the statement to the LRS. When I

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access the particular LRS that the xAPI
statement was sent to you, can see the

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xAPI statements. Do you notice the
structure? it's separated into the 3

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components and comes back to the Someone -
Did - Something. We can see that someone

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(info@), did (attempted) and something
(the golf game). By clicking on the summary

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of the statement, you can see the entire
xAPI statement. You may notice how it

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seems to have a lot more complex data than
there than we originally had in ours.

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This is because the LRS has had to add
more detail to the statement. This will

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include a unique ID, the time it was
captured and stored the authority which

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is the LRS details, and the version of 
xAPI. There are quite a number of LRS

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providers that have both software as a
service and on-premises or local

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instances of the applications. My
recommendation would go with the

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software as a service, unless you know a
little bit about installing web-based

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applications on local machines. The one I
used in this demonstration was called

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SCORM cloud, and it's one of the easiest
LRS' to start with. I have used in a

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large organization Learning Locker. This
in my opinion is one of the leading LRS

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solutions. They don't offer a free
software as a service, but you can

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download and install their full
application. But, like I said, this can be

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a little tricky. Another LRS is yet
analytics. They offer a software as a

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service and give you full access to
their LRS for free, with the data only

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being made available for 30 days. It's a
great way to learn and evaluate the LRS.

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There are other LRS' that are available
but don't offer the free options to get

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you started. You should now have a better
understanding of what a Learning Record

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Store does, reading of an xAPI statement
and some of the Learning Record Stores

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currently available.