Adobe announced its decision not to support, update, and distribute Flash Player from 2020. Flash will be phased out by 2020, organizations across the elearning industry are gearing up for d-day. When Flash published content will be blocked on all browsers and HTML5 will be the new standard on the web. Read further to understand the impact on elearning through this 2 part series of articles. Here’s the link to the second part.
The reasons for this decision include:
- Incompatibility of Flash with mobile devices – does not allow resizing to fit a mobile or tablet screen
- Poor security of the information sent or received
- Heavy usage of the device’s power and performance
All the browsers will stop supporting Flash content by 2020 and there would be a need to look out for alternative technologies to develop courses. As organizations are constantly looking at the concept of anytime, anywhere learning on any device, HTML is the popular alternative, it provides functionalities that are more stable and scalable compared to Flash content.
As the entire web is now moving from Flash content to HTML5. It is more supportive of the modern devices and platforms, and an open system. What happens to all the content built on Flash? What happens to the courses published as Flash output?
There’s no reason to panic. There are various solutions you can avail to convert your Flash content as well as Flash published courses to HTML5.
Before that let’s delve on how HTML5 is a more optimal solution than Flash for modern elearning
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Security:
HTML5 is more secure than Flash, HTML5 is not a plugin like Flash, and security updates are agile and done on the browser itself, all of this makes HTML5 more secure and apt for modern elearning.
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Compatibility:
HTML5 is an open web markup language recognized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and incorporated in all modern-day browsers. Courses built on HTML5 will render smoothly on all current browsers.
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Multi Device Access:
Learners these days own multiple devices and they want to access content on all of them, without hassle. Flash content is created to work on PCs, HTML5 content works seamlessly across platforms and devices.
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Hardware Efficiency:
As compared to Flash content, platforms and devices consume less than half the battery power and chip capacity when rendering HTML content. This is what we need as we use elearning in greater volume and use our devices for a wide range of applications.
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Added Advantages:
HTML5 allows creation of mobile based quick bites of lessons. It supports interactivity and gamified learning to a higher degree.
By 2020, Flash will be obsolete, which mandates elearning providers to transition to HTML5 and convert their existing content to the open system from Flash. Like we said, there’s nothing to panic as it’s not a Herculean task, but the sooner we get onto it the better and easier it will be.
Keep watching this space for more details on the process and methodologies followed during the migration and conversion of your content from Flash to HTML5.
Write back to us for queries and feedback @ corpmarketing@impelsys.com
