Launching from the Flash Platform

Adobe Flash has evolved considerably since Macromedia Flash was used to create animations and develop and run interactive Web-based content. According to the current developers, the Adobe Flash Platform is

an integrated set of technologies surrounded by an established ecosystem of support programs, business partners, and enthusiastic user communities. Together, they provide everything you need to create and deliver the most compelling applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience.

The Flash Platform combines tools, an open source framework, ubiquitous clients, and scalable servers (see Table 1).

Table 1 Components of the Flash Platform

Application Type	Technology
Runtime Environment	Flash Player
	Flash Professional
Authoring Tools	Flex
	Flash Catalyst
	Flash Media Server
Flash Server	BlazeDS
	LiveCycle DS

The environment enables content developers create applications and content from prototype to deployment in an integrated framework (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The Flash Platform

In the context of Flash-based authoring tools like Adobe Captivate, the platform enables e-learning content authors to rapidly and efficiently design, develop and implement Web-based learning applications including:

• Screen recording and demos
• Software simulations
• Scenario-based training
• Presentations
• Quizzes
• Podcasts
• Screencasts

I have written about the pros and cons of Captivate in previous blog articles so I don’t intend to go over the same old ground again, but you can find out more by clicking here.

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References:

Adobe Website: http://www.adobe.com

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What’s the difference between Flash and Captivate?

Question: can you briefly explain the advantage/difference between Captivate and Flash. I can't seem to find any one place that discusses this.

Well, I'm back from leave and the walls still seem to be standing, so I thought I'd return by responding to E-Learning Curve Blog reader Marvin Pyle’s query about Flash and Captivate. [As an aside, I assume you’re not the same Marvin who guided my wife and I around the Mayan site of Copán Ruinas in Honduras?]

I can see where the confusion surrounding Flash arises, and I also understand why you'd find it a little difficult to find a site that discusses this. More on the latter, later.

There are a number of facets to any discussion about Flash, Captivate, and why the tools and technologies are important to e-learning. To do justice to the subject, I will address these aspects of the subject over the next few blog posts:

• Background and Context
• Flash Player
• Flash Application
• Flash Platform
• Captivate
• Flash and E-Learning

Background and Context
Adobe Flash (previously Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its 1996 launch, it has become a very popular tool for adding animation and interactivity to the Web. Flash is the de facto standard tool used to:

• create Web-based animations & advertisements
• run various Web page components (i.e. menu items, drop-down lists)
• integrate streaming video into Web pages
• develop rich Internet applications
• deliver e-learning content over the Web

Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics, and supports streaming audio and video media delivery. It is programmable via an interpreted scripting language called ActionScript (currently at v3). A range of software products can be used to create and to run Flash content. Examples include the Adobe Flash Player (which is available for most Web browsers, some mobile phones (though significantly not the Apple iPhone) as well as for other electronic devices.

Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is a near-ubiquitous software client used to view animations and movies, either in via Web browser or as a stand-alone player. Typically, the Flash Player runs ShockWave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) files that are created and compiled in the Flash authoring tool, in Adobe Flex, and by using a range of third party tools and applications. And herein lies the confusion I alluded to earlier: strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files: these terms have become mixed over time, and "Flash" can now mean either the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.

Flash Player supports for an interpreted scripting language called ActionScript, which is based on ECMAScript. Now in version 3, ActionScript has matured from a pretty loose script syntax to a language that supports object-oriented code.

While originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animations, the Flash Player has become an environment for running rich internet applications (RIAs), and streaming video and audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into Web pages.

The Flash Player is available as a plugin for recent versions of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer on a number of platforms.

Next time: The Flash Platform

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Camtasia Lab – create a short learning object

I’m on leave for a few weeks, so I decided that I better leave you some homework to keep you occupied in my absence.

Objective
The objective of this assignment is to create a short e-learning module based upon a PowerPoint presentation. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a Web-deliverable format.

The demo must contain slides, animation, graphics, transport controls and a progress bar. In the ‘Things to Try Yourself’ section of the tutorial, there are some guidelines about how to add audio narration to your learning object.

Format
The published learning object must be a Flash movie (FLV or SWF) file, and the file must be able to play back in a standard Web browser such as Internet Explorer, Opera or Mozilla Firefox.

Lab Structure

• Task Breakdown 1
• Task Breakdown 2
• Recording your presentation
• Edit your content
• Publishing your content
• Some things to try yourself
• Conclusion
• References / Sources

Click here to download the PDF of the tutorial.

Hopefully this assignment will keep you occupied in my absence, so I would like to wish you a happy Easter / Spring break, and I’ll talk you in May.

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Adobe eLearning Suite Review on BDLD

Donald Clark has very comprehensively reviewed the new Adobe eLearning Suite (eLS) on his always interesting and informative Big Dog, Little Dog blog.

As you may recall, I posted on eLS when the suite was released, and while welcoming this addition the e-learning practitioners’ content development toolkit, I tempered my enthusiasm as follows:

Where I think Adobe missed a trick is that they should have released this package at least five years ago. While we can say that in the early 2000’s, the e-learning industry wasn’t as large a market segment as it is today, it was substantial enough. Certainly enough of a market segment to be a valuable revenue-generating stream for the company. Unlike DTP, graphical design, and video post-production (which were digitized evolutions of existing industries) e-learning was a whole new industry, a real-life child of the World Wide Web.

I’ll give with one hand and take away with the other: well done Adobe, great to see you’ve finally committed to e-learning; equally, an e-learning suite of tools is such an obvious addition to your product range that you should have done this years ago.

The suite consists of the following apps:

	Tool	Adobe's Description
	Adobe Captivate® 4	Create and deliver rich interactive content
	Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4 with CourseBuilder Extension	Design, develop, and maintain standards-based websites and applications
	Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional with Learning Interactions	Create and deliver rich interactive content
	Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended	Discover new dimensions in digital imaging
	Adobe Presenter 7	Rapidly create high-impact Adobe Flash presentations and eLearning courses from PowerPoint
	Adobe Soundbooth® CS4	Create and edit audio with ease
	Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro	Protect documents and accelerate information exchange with PDF

Very full-featured indeed: if I was starting work today as a learning and development professional and I was handed this set of applications as my courseware production platform, I would be very happy with it.

But don’t just take my word for it: here’s (a very highly abridged version of) what Donald Clark has to say:

It is a complete and tightly integrated solution for authoring rich learning content. …All-in-all the Adobe eLearning suite is a great product for designers, being that it is the first elearning suite.

His review describes the applications and functionality of the Suite in very good detail, and Donald uses his own experience of using the platform to throw further light on how the applications integrate to enable e-learning designers (“instructional designers, developers, and other learning specialists”) to create high-quality courseware.

Donald concludes his article by discussing what he’d like to see in version next of the Suite and his overall impression of the package. Click here to read the review in full.

Note: Adobe have published and are maintaining a useful blog for Captivate users. Click here for more.

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