Works with Watershed: Connect Your Ecosystem for Enhanced L&D Insights

One of the biggest challenges our clients face is getting good data from their learning ecosystem into Watershed in a reliable manner. Without good data, Watershed just doesn't work. There aren’t any dashboards, reports, insights, or watershed moments for our users when they discover the impact training has on their organization.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce you to "Works with Watershed"—a list of fully managed and supported integrations that mean you’ll always have reliable access to your learning ecosystem insights.

What Is “Works with Watershed,” and Why Should I Be Excited?

Works with Watershed is a partnership program that builds on our ethos of forging relationships with the biggest vendors in the world of Learning and Development.

We’ve connected to these data sources time and time again. So rather than set up a bespoke connection each time a client requests it, we want to make these connections reusable.

We’ve worked with these vendors to ensure our data integrations are managed, supported, and reusable over time. You can connect your learning ecosystem more quickly, and more reliably, than ever before—meaning you’ll always have the best insights into what's going on in your ecosystem.

It’s sustainable too. Thanks to our formal partnerships and reusable connections, if one of our data source partners launches a fancy new product feature, we’ve got you.

We’ll work with them in the background before it’s even launched to ensure we’re ready for the new data outputs. From your point of view, this data will appear in your Watershed dashboard as you’d expect.

Great, So What Data Sources Can Watershed Connect to?

Let’s start by pointing out that we can connect to virtually any data source, and we normally do so via three routes: xAPI feeds, custom APIs, and (commonly) via CSV imports. Our data experts then convert everything to “speak xAPI” so all learner records align.

So don’t stress if you don’t see your LXP on the list. We can still provide you with enhanced learning insights—simply contact us to learn more. Saying that, we cover a lot of big-name vendors with our reusable connections.

Platinum-Level Data Partners

These are formal partnerships where new features and product updates are automatically included, and our reusable connections can be quickly connected.

Gold-Level Data Connections

Like our platinum-level data partners, these sources feature reusable connections for quick integrations; however, we do not have “formal” partnerships in place—but we do have years of great working relationships!

How Is “Works with Watershed” Different from “Certified Data Sources”?

For those of you who may think you’ve seen us list our data sources before, you’re not mistaken. Our legacy “Certified Data Sources” ended up being an outdated set of solutions that once sent good xAPI data and worked well with Watershed. Here’s a bit of the background:

In 2018, we started maintaining a list of xAPI-enabled systems that sent reliable data to Watershed to help make the process of getting good data easier for our clients. This list was helpful, but it had its flaws.

Specifically, it relied on the systems’ xAPI data regarding quality, verbosity, and robustness. So if those data sources added new features but didn’t implement xAPI statements for them—or worse, deprecated their xAPI functionality altogether—our list would become inaccurate and complicated to maintain.

Furthermore, our clients wanted data outside many of the systems xAPI data scope, so we had to build API-based integrations to supplement the xAPI data to meet their needs. This actually meant Watershed was (already) maintaining a full suite of data integrations that often used both xAPI and API data to provide a complete picture of a learner’s experience across our clients’ ecosystems.

But these integrations became more and more detailed—often pulling in not just learning interactions but also skills, multimedia consumption, and group data.

As a result, many of our clients often use these integrations. And because we’ve connected with these data sources time and time again, we decided to fully productize these integrations so our clients can quickly and efficiently implement them and benefit from the vast amount of detailed data.

**Ready to Check Out Works with Watershed?**

Discover more about the systems and solutions that are part of Works With Watershed. Click on any of the data sources listed on that page to find in-depth descriptions that explain what data is included and how you can use it to tell better stories about your learners' experiences across your ecosystem.

If you're an L&D solutions or provider and want to become a partner, contact us. We’d love to chat with you about how to make it happen.

About the author

Peter Dobinson is passionate about developing connected learning ecosystems that empower organizations to deliver exceptional learning experiences. With a strong foundation in product design and management, eLearning interoperability, system integrations, user-centered design, and data analytics, he thrives in helping organizations get the most out of their L&D data. Peter's background in learning technology means he has the knowledge and expertise needed to drive the implementation of innovative solutions such as xAPI within the L&D industry. In other words, Peter helps organizations unlock the true potential of learning—one ecosystem at a time.

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Works with Watershed: Connect Your Learning Ecosystem for Enhanced L&D Insights