xAPI (TinCan) integration

ThingLink now offers an xAPI (also known as Tin Can or Experience API) integration that provides detailed data on how your learners interact with your ThingLink content.

Overview

ThingLink acts as an Activity Provider that generates statements (or events) that are then sent to your Learner Record Store (LRS). 

1. A learner engages with a ThingLink scenario that has the xAPI integration enabled
2. ThingLink generates different interaction statements 
3. The statements are sent to your LRS
4. You can retrieve statements from the LRS to analyze how learners engaged with the content

Note that learners must be signed in to their ThingLink account, otherwise, the content will not generate xAPI statements. We recommend using xAPI in conjunction with our LTI integrations or one of the single-sign-on options.

Availability

xAPI is currently available to eLearning Enterprise customers only. Administrator users can access xAPI configuration from the Organization page -> Integrations tab -> xAPI section.

If you cannot access the xAPI configuration section or would like assistance from our team, please contact us here.

Setting up the integration

Note that only administrator users can configure the integration on ThingLink's end. You may need to have admin access to your LRS as well.

1. Set up a new app/activity provider in your LRS
2. Sign in to your ThingLink account, go to the Organization page and open the Integrations tab:
   
3. Populate the xAPI configuration form. You will need to provide the following:
   • Statements URL: the xAPI endpoint of your LRS 
   • Username/key: app (or connection/provider) key defined in your LRS
   • Password/secret: app secret defined in your LRS
4. Enable the xAPI integration by clicking the 'Enable' button next to Status
5. [Optional] Change the 'Default status' to 'Enabled' to enable the xAPI integration for all scenarios created by your content creators. By default, the xAPI is disabled but can be enabled for each scenario individually via Scenario Settings. 

Compatible content

xAPI is currently compatible with the forthcoming iteration of ThingLink scenarios only.

At launch, xAPI cannot pass data on interactions with other types of ThingLink content, such as scenes (interactive images or videos). However, if a scene is part of a scenario, you will get events on learner viewing scenes within a scenario without detailed information on e.g. interactions with individual tags.

xAPI events

ThingLink currently sends 5 types of events: