HTML5 trends in eLearning
Posted by Simon | Filed under New Technology, eLearning
Being exposed to many technology platforms is one of the bonuses of operating as a Technical Director. When architecting a solution for a client, we get to look at the requirements and determine the best technology mix, to offer the perceived benefits and achieve the business outcomes.
Sometimes we propose a new technology, but our clients haven’t reached the technological maturity level within their business to support it, and other times we have a client who wants to push the boundaries of what is possible and embrace new technology.
So it is a breath of fresh air, when a client asks us to deliver a cutting edge, accessible and integrated eLearning solution.
eLearning projects let’s face it, are not known for their willingness to embrace new technology. Quite the opposite in fact, they tend to try and constrain us to this guideline, or that standard, which is all fine when education conformance is required.
If we look at how eLearning has evolved technically, it has been a slow process compared to the rest of the digital landscape.
We can disregard the early internet adoption and move straight to the first of what we could consider to be the beginning of interactive eLearning platforms, Macromedia Director.
The progress of eLearning development processes
After many years, we evolved the eLearning landscape to the Flash platform.
To create interactive eLearning, Flash has for long been the first choice with developers as it allows the rapid creation of interactive elements such as drag and drop exercises, click and replace, multiple choice quiz elements to be usable within the eLearning resource.
However to make SCORM, AICC or IMS compatible resources for an LMS, it requires such additional development to the learning resource within Flash that it can often be a barrier to entry.
Hello HTML5!
HTML5 is the latest implementation of the HTML language that we all know and have come to understand and tolerate its inconsistencies between browsers.
HTML5 will let us embed video without a video player such as Flash or Quicktime,
HTML5 will let us have drag and drop functionality without Flash,
HTML5 will let us enable multimedia integration not possible without plug-in technology.
HTML5 is really HTML + JavaScript + Cascading Style Sheets.
As our current SCORM and AICC wrappers are also JavaScript based, there will be a lot cleaner integration with these standards, not previously achievable without a significant investment in resource and budget.
It may be a buzzword for a while, where everyone wants an HTML5 website, and whilst it’s not fully compatible with every browser, in the eLearning environment where we are able to set the requirements for an eLearning course so much easier than a marketing or product website, we are best able to leverage off the additional functionality that HTML5 can offer.
So Subject Matter Experts and Online Learning providers…..start your HTML5 engines!
You can now create rich engaging interactive and compliant eLearning courses without the use of plug-in technology.
