In this Dev Delve, we’ll explore a topic easily overlooked when viewing data science as a whole: What are the best practices for managing and transforming data to create the results that provide insights or predictions?

Whether it's tracking the performance of a Roth IRA or gathering demographics for product testing, data plays an important role in our personal and professional lives every day. And while data can provide helpful insights and ease everyday tasks, leveraging it for deeper insights can pose real challenges. In this Dev Delve, we’ll focus on two common issues when it comes to working with data—the prevalence of “data silos” and the work involved in solving the “data integration problem.” We’ll unpack these terms and uncover the underlying details that contribute to each of these challenges.

On Oct. 5, 2017, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced some exciting news regarding the adoption of the Experience API (xAPI), publishing an instruction mandating xAPI implementation for its distance learning systems. That might not sound like a huge deal (especially if you don’t work with the U.S. military), but to understand why this is important for the L&D industry, let’s review SCORM's history and how a similar instruction published several years ago impacted its adoption across the e-learning industry.

I try really hard to avoid being the stereotypical angry dev nerd who tells users they’re doing it wrong. In my mind, it’s completely unacceptable to tell users they’re using an application beyond its intended use. Besides, isn’t that the whole point—don’t you want people to use something you created in a way that’s beyond what you could have imagined?

And it’s one of these instances that left me with a challenge I was determined to figure out: How do I maximize the number of L&D reports per user dashboard while limiting load times and reducing latency?

Whether you have thousands of users, thousands of learning resources, or both, pinpointing the most beneficial training content and courses can be overwhelming for any L&D practitioner. In this post, we'll show you a simple way to get started and take a deep dive into the world of long-tail distribution. 

Many organizations use Excel or other spreadsheet software to evaluate and report on their learning programs. And, as you might imagine, this tedious reporting process comes with several challenges.

A learner has multiple accounts that require different login IDs. So, if you're tracking a single learner across many systems, how will your LRS know that the various login identifiers are for the same person so you can report on all of his or her learning? Find out more in this Ask the Expert blog post.

DevLearn 2016 is right around the corner, and it's the only place where you can play xAPIgo—an exciting game that allows you to experience xAPI firsthand while challenging your colleagues for the top of the leaderboard!

 xAPI version 1.0.3 was released today, representing the biggest step forward for the specification since 1.0.0 was released in April 2013. What's changed? What's the same? Find out right now.