Flash For Learning

If you’re at all concerned about valid XHTML (like I am), it’s been a real pain to build valid XHTML pages embedded with Flash. There have been several hacks that solve the problem, but they required extra work.

That is, until now.

Authored by Bobby van der Sluis, The Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) V1.0 is a DOM script that will detect and embed Flash files in your web page. It is free, open source – and it validates your XHTML Strict. It requires JavaScript, but that’s generally not a problem for those of us involved in E-Learning. If you’re doing SCORM, you can be confident that JavaScript is available.

Read about it. Try this out. The code is certainly cleaner. If your code doesn’t break, I recommend its use.

http://www.bobbyvandersluis.com/ufo/

I’m in the phase of our project where we need to update all our SCORM 1.2 content to 2004 and add metadata to the content package itself and for each SCO (I don’t think we’ll go down to the asset level yet). There isn’t much, if any, metadata in the original manifests and I’m not sure where to start. Do you happen to have any good examples of manifests with lots of embedded metadata (especially 2004 conformant packages)? We are planning on filling in info on all of the mandatory fields, but our customer also wants to be able to store information on SCO dependencies, source files, and/or related SCOs. I have no idea where to store this information under. Maybe you know a good starting point for us? We’re using the latest RELOAD 2004 editor.

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Angela

Hi Angela,

My advice would be to quickly get started by entering meta-data using the latest version of RELOAD 2004 editor. I don’t know of any content examples (SCORM 2004) that are rich in meta-data – even the beginning ADL content examples were admittedly weak in this regard.

I have been using Reload Editor to enter Meta-data into the manifest, as you’re describing. I found it as easy to use as copying/pasting information out of an Excel spreadsheet into a web form. A little cumbersome, but definitely not difficult. Certainly better than hand-cranking XML.

There are a number of places to put the SCO dependencies, source files and other information. I think what you’ll want to look at it is putting that information under the element, with specific regard to and under that element. More on this can be found in the SCORM 2004 CAM Version 1.3.3, Section 4.2.5

As far as related SCOs, there’s a lot of ways to implement this. One way I would employ (being that I’m a big fan of emergent systems) is to utilize the elements that describe the learning object. Take a folksonomy approach (see http://del.icio.us for examples of folksonomy in action), using similar keywords to describe similar learning objects. Information on using the element under the element is located in the SCORM 2004 CAM Version 1.3.3, Section 4.2.2.5.

Good questions, Angela. I hope this helps get you started.

Thanks to the fine folks at Macromedia, my outline for MAX 2005 was approved (and I’m currently half-way to completing the first draft of the presentation).

• Introduction
• Biography
• What does SCORM mean to a content developer?
  • The SCORM 2004 library
  • ADL’s goals for SCORM (the “-iliities”)
  • View the information flow
  • Data Model – allows tracking of the learner
  • API Instance – allows interoperable communication between content and the Learning Management System (LMS)
• Making your content sharable and communicative
  • Minimum requirements to create a SCO
  • Find the LMS’s API
  • Initialize communication
  • Terminate communication
  • Interactivity and tracking are optional (from a SCORM perspective)
  • Packaging for distribution
  • Flash – DIY
  • Captivate – “It’s in there.”
• What Captivate does for you…
  • Easy Bake E-Learning Content
  • How to package
  • Remember: Captivate requires at least one interaction
  • What’s an interaction?
  • Let’s make one.
  • Exporting for an LMS
• What Flash can do for you
  • Roll your own E-Learning content
  • The Flash/JavaScript Integration Kit
  • Exposing the SCORM API to your Flash content
  • Packaging your sharable content for Learning Management Systems
  • The Manifest
  • 3rd Party Tools you can use
  • What can you do with Flash if you develop this way?
  • Inter-content navigation control
  • Sending user information to the LMS
  • Presenting information from the LMS
  • All your other JavaScript goodness
• Testing any content for SCORM-conformance
  • Debugging? SCORM 2004 Sample Run-Time Environment
  • Validating? SCORM 2004 Conformance Test Suite
• Questions?
• Downloads
• Thank You

You ask, what is HLA? The High Level Architecture is a software architecture for creating computer simulations out of component simulations, providing structure for developers to describe their simulation applications. The key concepts of HLA? Reusability and Interoperability, which should sound familiar to any OOP developer, as well as anyone involved with learning objects.

There’s a wealth of information here to get to know HLA, but I suggest reading the notes instead of the presentations to get started.

You’re going to need to conquer the communication barriers between Flash and JavaScript. This, however has recently become a lot easier.

Remember these links, as they’ll (likely) provide a solid solution:

• Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit
• flashjs:docs:tutorials:ffnyc05 [OSFlash]

It’s been confirmed that I will be presenting at this year’s MAX 2005 conference, hosted by Macromedia. Here’s the info I can confirm right now (I’m very psyched).

From Macromedia:

Title: Robust SCORM-Compliant eLearning Content with Flash and Captivate

This session will include tricks to synchronizing communication with JavaScript from Flash, building familiarity with the SCORM Run-Time data model and testing content with the ADL SCORM 2004 Test Suite. We will also address best practices when creating interactions in a Captivate movie (and what they mean with an LMS), and debugging help.

More news coming as to what the plans are, but I promise you that my partner Alan and I are going to make developing SCORM-conformant content with plain ol’ Flash WAY easier than it’s ever been — you might even think it to be (dare I say it)… easy.