As the year winds down, I wanted to reflect and take stock of just how big a year 2024 has been for me, both professionally and personally.
Kicking off in January, the Connect&Learn project with Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) that was completed in mid 2023 was put through its paces. We captured some 1.8Million xAPI statements from the Child Protection courses in 2 weeks. With only one small issue (running out of VM resources), the Digital Learning Eco System has proven its worth. The next question was ‘How do we use it and what can we do with these statements?’. It would take a few more months before I achieved this.
By February, AI was really starting to raise its head in the workplace. So much so that projects started popping up that I was to be involved in. I knew very little about AI and what it can do to improve productivity. As I always do, I had dived straight into the deep end and wanted to know exactly how it worked. I soon found that AI was teaching me how to use AI! I became familiar with local installations of AI including LM Studio and AnythingLLM. I also discovered that you need A LOT of processing power and managed to crash my Mac Book Pro many times. However, the learning was invaluable. I started to attend online webinars, youtube clips and white papers. As I learned more, I wanted to see how xAPI can adopt this technology.
By March, my personal life was about to change, the first of a couple of life moments. I became a Granddad. Whilst I openly admit I had no plans to be a grandparent (I also knew I had no control over this!), I was bespotted with my Granddaughter.
I’d also become a Fellow with the Institute of Learning and Performance, another career highlight for me.
The business I was associated with, QualNet was not doing as well as it could and we decided to wind it up. I took control of Remote Reviewer, and it was time for some clean up and start adding some features. I invested many hours in getting it to where it is and my own funding. It is ongoing work in progress, but very proud of where it is today and what the future holds for it.
March and April also presented some challenges at ISQ, not going to elaborate here, but needless to say it was a challenging month, but I got through it.
May saw the launch of an ambitious AI project at ISQ. This was to be yet another learning experience that will shape how AI can be used in education.
May also presented an opportunity. This was an all-expenses trip with two other ISQ colleagues to Seoul, South Korea to attend the inaugural Samsung Education Power Up Summit. This was an amazing trip, and I was able to network with many likeminded professionals and experience the Samsung way and South Korean culture. You can see my wrap up at https://digitallearningsolutions.com.au/samsung-power-up-education-summit/
June was a continuation of the steep AI learning curve. I was now deeply involved in a project that was pushing AI to its limits in the design of educational resources. You never stop learning!
My curiosity with xAPI and AI continued and I wanted AI to analyse xAPI and return meaningful data and reports with the goal of automating this. I started looking at how I can use ChatGPT to do this. After understanding how to ‘train’ an agent, I got it returning some reasonable results. You can see the Agent at https://chatgpt.com/g/g-W9s5JQgHt-xapi-reporting-assistant. I also learnt about the data you put into the Agent and how it should be formatted, so I created https://xapiai.com. A simple open-source tool to pull xAPI data from a Learning Record Store and format it for the Agent.
If you recall I’d captured some 2Million statements back in January – thought this would be an ultimate test for the new Agent. To my surprise, it accepted the data and provided some sensible results. What I did learn is ‘rubbish in rubbish out’. We used the built in xAPI functions in StoryLine. Whilst good, we knew we could do better. I set out to improve the JS library I had developed some time ago to gain better xAPI data and insights. The project is available on GitHub.
I also started building AI into Remote Reviewer. I find learning a new tool or product is so much more beneficial when you work on an ACTUAL project. The learning is relevant and meaningful.
By this time, I had become ‘the expert’ in AI at ISQ, simply because I took an interest. We rolled out CoPilot and I ran some presentations on AI and how it can improve your productivity. The project continues, so watch this space for what we find.
It was around August that I was also notified that I was a finalist in the Institute of Learning and Performance Learning Professional of the Year. What an achievement just to be recognized by my peers for work in digital learning. I was quite humbled.
End of August and into September was a challenging time for me personally. Needless to say, it all worked out and I’m in a better place for it, albeit with a little help of the 2-wheel kind.
Mid-October was the Institute of Learning and Performance Learning Impact Summit 2024. I presented at this conference on the project I led on the redevelopment of a complete Digital Learning Eco System at ISQ over just a 3-month time frame at ISQ (a monumental task!).
What was incredibly flattering was being awarded the Learning Professional of the Year. I was NOT expecting this and was blown away by the award.
End of October I headed to DevLearn2024 in Las Vegas. My first international conference. Whilst Las Vegas is not on my list of places to visit, this was the host city for the conference. Some 4,500 delegates, the biggest conference I have ever attended. Check out https://xapi.com.au/key-insights-devlearn-2024-xapi-ai/ to see my takeaways from the conference.
Back on home soil, I headed to Melbourne for the LearnX Awards. I had three entries in this, two for ISQ and one for Remote Reviewer. We walked away with two Diamond Awards for Best eLearning Project and Implementation for ISQ and a Gold Award for Best Edtech with Remote Reviewer.
We’re now in December and as I reflect on the year, there are so many highs and a few lows, but wow, what a year! If 2024 is any indication of what is to come, bring on 2025!
There’s lots in the planning, watch this space and always stay curious.