How to Deliver Mobile eLearning

I hope that after you read this post, you’ll have all the information you need to answer this question.Hey, how come I can’t do my eLearning on my iPad?

The iPad

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in corporate settings.  The problem is that these devices are pretty much useless for eLearning applications because they don’t play Flash. In September, Microsoft announced that Metro, the mobile version of IE 10 due to be released in 2012 will not run Flash either.

HTML5

Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in.   Its core aim is to improve the language with support for the latest multimedia technology (you know the stuff we love about flash.) And it will deliver and record SCORM based eLearning material that will work with all computers and mobile devices.  But there a few problems.  Big problems,  As of today, the technology is still under development.

HTML5 won’t play on current versions of windows Internet Explorer. which is kind of a problem as According to Forrester Research IE has a 59% market share of the corporate browser market in 2011. .

OK so flash won’t play on mobile devices and HTML5 won’t play on the most popular Internet browser. That’s just Great!  John Blackmon, Sr. VP, Authoring Products, at Trivantis Corporation summed it by by saying and I quote”technology is moving in every direction  equally fast.”

So now what do you do?

Well the good news is that there are a number of new tools available that hopefully will ease your pain .

Adobe Captivate

Adobe the creators of Flash and one of the most popular authoring tools seem to be on top of things.
We spoke with Akshay Bharadwaj product manager for Adobe Captivate and the eLearning Suite.  He told us Adobe’s strategy is multi-screen – to simplify the authoring workflows for users to enable them to publish to multiple devices at once.  Akshay acknowledged there is a ton of Flash content out there today and to address the growing need for HTML5 content, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Lectora

John Blackmon, Sr. VP, Authoring Products, told me Lectora Online v1.5 supports the creation of courses that can be viewed on PCs, Macs, Apple mobile devices (such as iPhone and iPad) and other mobile devices with a single publish.

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  Chris Van Wingerden, VP of learning solutions at domiknow learning systems told me One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material that will play on multiple devices including the iPhone and iPad.

Articulate Storyline

We spoke with Mark Schwartz, Vice President of sales at Articulate to get the scoop on the much anticipated release of Articulate Storyline.   Mark told us that Articulate Storyline will enable beginners all the way through seasined instructional designwrs to create professional looking highly interactoive very customizable eLearning.

Mark told us that Articulate Storyline will publish eLearning content to HTML5 that will be optimized for the iPad.

End User Prospective

To get the view of HTML from the corporate end user side, we spoke with
Denise Farrar, Director of training and development at DISH Network.  Denise is currently testing the products we have covered in this post.  She told me her decision of who to purchase from will be based on price and track record as she does not want to go with a brand new product.

What Next?

Our recommendation, follow Denise and sign up for trial or beta versions of the tools covered covered in this episode. This exercise should give you the information you need to find the right fit for your organization.

We have placed links to all these products below.

So hopefully, the next time someone asks you

Hey, how come I can’t do my eLearning on my iPad?

You’ll know exactly what to say.

Links to additional resources…

HTML5 Converter for Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Lectora

http://www.trivantis.com/e-learning-software-tools

Claro

http://www.dominknow.com/

Articulate Storyline

http://www.articulate.com/storyline/

Denise Farrar’s Blog

http://virtualtrainingblog.blogspot.com/

 

Use animation to save a fortune, increase employee engagement and make everyone love you.