The 'Actor' element of xAPI statements

The following contains information about single actors and group actors in xAPI statements.

Click here for a deeper dive into actors in xAPI statements.

SINGLE ACTOR

All of our statements send the same actor information. Generally, the main actor for a statement is the learner, and if an observer or coach is involved, then they are sent as a secondary actor called 'instructor', under the context attribute of the statement.

We can set up a custom actor format for you. This can be a common part of reporting solutions for clients, and is usually designed to accommodate a custom attribute for your solution, like an Employee ID, which is often the best unique identifier for users. Our system can obtain this unique identifier information from your HR system, for example, when an integration is in place.

Please contact support if you need to discuss custom statements or integrations. 

Here’s an example of a custom actor format using Employee ID...

{
  "name": "Joe Bloggs",
  "objectType": "Agent",
  "account": {
    "name": "E1023099",
    "homePage": "https://myorg.example.com/empid"
  }
}

If the 'Actor' in our system (primary or secondary) has an email address and has the custom attribute “use_email_for_xapi” set to true, we use the standard email actor format...

{
  "name": "Sally Glider",
  "mbox": "mailto:sally@example.com"
}

Lastly, if none of the above conditions apply, then the our system user key format is used...

{
  "name": "Emily Snow",
  "objectType": "Agent",
  "account": {
    "homePage": "http://acme.xapiapps.com/k",
    "name": "d5f55057-b5e7-4753-9290-4d795c461287"
  }
}

GROUP ACTOR

In our Group Training application, roll call statements can be about groups of actors (i.e. everyone who appears on the roll).

To accommodate this, we use group actors. This is simply the standard format for groups of actors in xAPI, containing details for each individual actor as above. 

{
        "member": [
            {
                "objectType": "Agent",
                "account": {
                    "homePage": "https://devops-dot-tes-dev-core.appspot.com/k",
                    "name": "3e02672a-d335-84ab-d96d-606630ad3e07"
                },
                "name": "Amy Way"
            },
            {
                "objectType": "Agent",
                "account": {
                    "homePage": "https://devops-dot-tes-dev-core.appspot.com/k",
                    "name": "3becf2ab-3c84-52ca-4251-12246cc93445"
                },
                "name": "Melanie Moggs"
            }
        ],
        "objectType": "Group",
        "account": {
            "homePage": "https://devops-dot-tes-dev-core.appspot.com/g",
            "name": "ed2ccdf9-effd-9ec0-b103-b2ab5bf10ac6-new"
        },
        "name": "xAPI example session"
}

Article ID: xapimedA_20200331_32