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Adobe Learning Summit 2012

Monday saw the Adobe Learning Summit in Las Vegas. The lion's share of GuyKat production is done using Adobe tools, given they'd scheduled the event the day before the DevLearn 2012 conference it made sense for us to be there.

These summits are always great for signposting the way technology is drifting. Vendors share their roadmaps, latest thinking and showcase alpha version products. Unsurprisingly there was quite a bit of focus on how to output content to HTML 5  During the panel session the Adobe folk came under some fire from the audience over their mixed messages on long term commitment to Flash.  Whilst every vendor is shouting that their latest products output content in both Flash and HTML 5 the ugly reality is that dual-output workflows force you to 'dumb down' to the current lowest common denominator of supported features.  Whatever vendors boast the fact is the feature sets the main development tools currently output to Flash are not fully supported in HTML5.  So whilst HTML5 may well represent steps forward in the future developing for it at the moment feels like taking several steps backwards.

It's clear that Adobe are grappling with this and there were a few teasers and show-and-tells of products in development to ease the issue. The next few years of transition between technologies are going to be a pain in the backside for the industry. The first vendor that can get a product to market that truly delivers the full feature set of an Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline product in HTML5 output will clean up.  Such a magic solution still looks years away. In the meantime, whilst the technology gurus grapple with this, GuyKat are going to continue to create our full featured content using our existing technologies. We see no advantage in being 'bleeding edge'. We can and will develop for the iPad when specifically commissioned to do so, but given that the overwhelming majority of our content is intended to be consumed on the desktop, we'll develop for that environment without compromise.

One thing that did excite at the conference was some demos from the fabulous Aussies from Infosymantics.  They develop plug-ins for the Captivate platform to extend out-of-box functionality. We've used their stuff in the past to help us rapidly reduce the development time for things like drag-and-drop games.  They gave some cool demos of what they're working on. Safe to say, as soon as these are released we'll aim to be the first to implement them and we're looking forward to be able to ramp up our output another level without any impact on development time or cost to the client.

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Does audio enhance eLearning?

Last week one of our developers (Hannah) was at an eLearning industry event. A straw poll was taken and the majority in the room were against using audio (e.g. spoken narration) in the modules they create.  This surprised us and caused a bit of discussion in the office.  For us, audio has always been at the core of what we do. Our best corporate material would lose its magic without it.

It's true there are times when use of audio isn't an option.  Some clients want training delivered in an office environment where headphones aren't available. Multi-lingual materials create a huge overhead if you have to do separate audio tracks.  Single lingual packs, for instance in English, that have learners for whom English is a second language will be better delivered as text enabling true self-paced learning. The alternative may be having the pace dictated by a narrator they struggle to understand. Some subject matter and individual learning styles may also lead you to conclude audio isn't appropriate for a particular course.  Indeed, we're putting together a pack for a client at the moment that has no sound for a number of these reasons.

But all that said, we can't imagine why without a specific reason you would exclude audio by default! For our bread and butter corporate 'knowledge share' style eLearning, thoughtful narration, with a good UI enhances eLearning immeasurably. If you do it right there is no need to surrender a sense of the learning being self-paced.

Just imagine the impact that would be lost from >THIS QUICK LOW-TECH DEMO< (click link) if we didn't have sound!

Audio and narration is something we work hard on. It isn't always appropriate, but more often than not it is.

If you're interested in working with us to put together eLearning that makes full use of the spoken word please get in touch. It's what we do.

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VEGAS BABY! GuyKat will be at DevLearn 2012

This October GuyKat Solutions will be represented at DevLearn 2012 in Las Vegas.  Hosted by our professional body 'The eLearning Guild',  DevLearn is the premier global conference for showcasing the latest learning technologies and thought-leadership.   Our clients can be assured that the tricks we pick-up in October will enhance their content in November.  We aim is to stay at the forefront of learning innovation.  Always.

If you're going to DevLearn and our interested in meeting to discuss collaborative opportunities then please contact us directly or give @guykat a shout on Twitter.

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DevLearn trophies

 Look who won at the eLearning Development Conference in Utah! Guy McEvoy is founder of GuyKat Solutions.

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