Camy Anderson, Negosentro | Teaching and training people online is a great technological advancement that has allowed organizations to improve learning results. Although many organizations have already recognized and tapped the potential of cloud-based learning management systems , there is still a long way to go. Earlier, SCORM used to drive majority of learning experiences and still does, but now has a counterpart. Tin Can, as the successor to SCORM is all set to create a landslide change in the way learning used to happen. SCORM has many limitations that Tin Can successfully covers. New to Tin Can and want to learn more what good it can do to your learning initiatives. Read the blog post to understand what exactly you are missing out by not utilizing a Tin Can compliant LMS.
Better Control of Learning Content
With a Tin Can compliant LMS, course designers have better control over creating courses and learning content. A designer is not limited to browser applications or to one browser alone. For instance, with other options, you had to stick to JavaScript alone to create online courses. Instead, course designers now have the power to develop courses in any form they are comfortable with and make lessons that can work on any platform learners prefer. At the same time, all learning progress and activities can still be tracked remotely.
Using Learning Content Outside LMS
Ever thought about tracking learning experiences outside your traditional LMS environment? Tin Can is the answer. Tin Can tracks how a learner interacts with a piece of eLearning content and sends the data to the learning record store through which it is delivered to the LMS.
Your courses can be used by learners anywhere and through any device that has internet connection. This makes courses more agile, effective and it improves the educational experience. When a learner watches a video online, reads an eBook, posts comments on some forum, or interacts with any content online, that is considered an act of learning and their activity is tracked.
This is how learning managers can have a better perspective on the whole learning process. They will get a full picture of how users learn and what information they look for online, outside of the learning management system. This gives better context for managing training, creating courses, and improving content.
Understanding How Learners Interact With Content
For people managing learning processes, one of the most important things they need to understand is how individual learners interact with their content. With this kind of information, they can make an analysis, understand learning experiences better, learn what their courses lack, and work on the improvement areas.
Sadly, this information can’t be accessed with SCORM compliant Learning Management Systems. Most of them can only track when a learner has started using content and ended their training session. Some can tell you in which period did learners interact with the content and when the interaction ended.
This is simply no enough information to gather valuable insights from which course designers and training leaders can draw valuable conclusions. A Tin Can compliant LMS can give information about which pieces of content the learner got stuck with the most, what they paid attention to, which actions they repeated, and what sections of the content they skipped.
This detailed information can provide a lot of valuable knowledge that can lead to creating better learning content that is directed towards the course users.
Providing Portable Learning
To provide real portable and online learning, users need to be able to start and stop their learning experiences on any devices whenever they see fit. They need to have this freedom without having to worry about their progress getting lost.
With a Tin Can compliant LMS, the API is at the center of it all. Through it, all of the learning data is stored within the learning record store no matter if the learning was online, offline, within the LMS, or somewhere on the web. This information is always sent to the record store and, through it, all of the progress is updated.
This means that users can freely switch different devices and continue where they left off. At the same time, all of the learning data is in one place, making it easier for learning managers to keep track of activities and act accordingly without missing anything important.
Tracking Offline Learning Experiences
Learning management systems need an internet connection to be functional while the Tin Can API doesn’t. Even if a user is offline performing learning activities, Tin Can allows storing and tracking information in many different situations.
This can be done for as long as necessary and, when the learner does go online, all of the information will be gathered within the record store and passed to the LMS. So, Tin Can stores actions and statements that took place on different devices even while they are offline.
This is a very important functionality learners often interact with their courses while on the go and when they are not connected online. This is yet another reason why a Tin Can API gives a fuller picture of training activities.
Upgrade to a Tin Can Compliant LMS Today
No matter if you already have an LMS or you plan on getting one, make sure that it is Tin Can compliant. If not, you will never be able to get all of the benefits mentioned above. Remember that online learning methodologies are all about revolutionizing learning experiences and content creation, you will not be able to do this unless you have a Tin Can compliant LMS.
—
Author Bio:
Kamy Anderson is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of corporate training and education. He is an expert in learning management system & elearning authoring tools – currently associated with ProProfs.
