| Happy 10th Birthday Flash!
New report highlights authoring
tools to create engaging, interactive content in a bandwidth-friendly
Flash format
“Happy Birthday to You” is one
of the most popular songs in the English language. Adobe®
Flash Player® is one of the world’s most pervasive
software platforms. Yes, Flash is officially a decade old
and has gained quite a foothold as a platform for the delivery
of e-learning.
Organizations tell us that they’d
like to build more engaging, interactive e-learning content
as part of their blended strategy. Research suggests that
many organizations have moved out of the start-up (using minimal
off-the-shelf content) phase of e-learning and are now mature
practitioners. Statistics suggest that more e-learning content
will be developed in-house in the future. All this e-learning
content will be authored in many forms – from static
pages to rich, realistic simulations, games, scenarios, and
assessments. Our new report "Creating Content
in Flash Format: 41 Authoring Tools to Produce Engaging Online
Learning Experiences" highlights tools to create
engaging, interactive content in a bandwidth-friendly format.
Authoring tools presently available to create
e-learning content have never been more powerful. Modern authoring
tools produce e-learning content that is as varied in format
as in function and appearance. And, individual authoring tools
can often publish in different formats for specific situations.
Many of the tools in our "Creating Content in
Flash Format" report can output content in multiple
formats – including the Flash (SWF) format.
Flash files (output .fla file extension)
are sometimes confused with SWF files (pronounced “swif”
and output with the .swf file extension). They are not the
same. Flash is a complete solution – authoring, delivery,
and playback. Shockwave Flash Player® and Flash Player®
are both free web players from Adobe® and both are used
to play back content for the end-user. A produced Flash file
is known as a SWF which is closed and non-editable (the editable
version uses the .fla extension). Today, many authoring programs
allow developers to publish their content as a SWF file.
Why are we seeing so much e-learning
content published in the Flash (SWF) format?
Perhaps it’s because of the ubiquity
of the Flash Player® plug-in or its multi-platform capabilities.
Perhaps it’s because it’s fast to load, easy to
use, and stable on web browsers. Perhaps it’s because
it reduces file size, and minimizes security and IT issues.
Actually, e-learning is output in Flash® format for all
of these reasons and more.
If you’re not outputting your e-learning
content in a Flash format, have no fear because there are
some great authoring tools you can use to create Flash content
and you don’t have to be a Flash guru to use them. Both
SMEs with little experience and advanced content authors will
find products to suit their needs. Now that’s something
to celebrate!
Our new report "Creating Content in
Flash Format" contains profiles of 41 popular Flash-output
authoring tools you can use to create multi-platform online
courses, software simulations, tests & assessments, and
conversion of existing content, among other uses. Take your
organization to the next level by using bandwidth-friendly
authoring tools to create engaging, interactive e-learning.
Written by Janet Clarey, Adam Cunningham-Ried,
and the staff of Brandon Hall Research, "Creating Content
in Flash Forma" provides the information you need to
select the authoring tool that is right for your organization.
This report is also available through
a subscription to the Brandon
Hall Research Library.
Other Research Related to Creating Engaging Learning
Content:
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