We’re winding down the requirements gathering phase for Project Tin Can, and have been making some decisions on what scenarios or requirements are in, and what’s out.  If you’ve posted to the Project Tin Can forum, you may have started to get email about ideas that are “planned” or “declined”.

Planned? Declined?

Note that “planned” does not mean that Project TinCan will directly address an idea, nor does “declined” mean there is to be no improvement in that area.  It’s a matter of focus.  Ideas that are planned will be goals for the new API to address, sometimes directly, sometimes we will just ensure the API leaves enough room for content or tracking system developers to solve the problem on their own.  Ideas that are declined will not be goals for the new API, though they may still be considered while developing the API.

Why?

When looking at the ideas to include, we consider:

  • can it be addressed with an API? Or as part of CMI 5 (data model)?
  • level of interest (rank on forum, plus feedback in interviews)
  • is this idea going to be more important in the future?
  • previously collected ADL list of DoD needs for the Future Learning Experience project
  • does it fit well with other planned ideas?
  • our assessment of ideas impact on: adoption, complexity, or the -ilities

Is that final?

We will be delivering the entire list of ideas to ADL, so even those ideas that are not included in Project Tin Can can be considered for the Future Learning Experience project.

These decisions are not yet final, but nor are they expected to change.  We are still conducting a few more interviews and reviewing transcripts from prior interviews.  We expect those interviews to help refine what we’ve already planned, but it’s possible we could hear something that would change these decisions.

What’s Next?

As we move into the technical solution & prototype phase, we’ll be looking for your thoughts on how to implement these ideas, and for volunteers to try out or write prototypes.  This phase will continue for the rest of the project, until the start of October  —  then we’ll hand off a final prototype API to ADL.

Ben is literally one of the top experts on SCORM and xAPI in the world. Heck, he wrote the first draft of xAPI. He’s the Lead Developer for Rustici Engine and enjoys visiting us because we usually get in a Magic: The Gathering draft or game of Commander when he's here.