HTML5 is here, but is your workplace ready?

Brightwave's Senior Technologist Jonathan Archibald looks into whether HTML5 delivered content is suitable for the workplace and whether it should be considered for e-learning course development

There is a buzz about HTML5 at the moment and there are some really cool people doing some really cool things with it. The so called "Flash killer" is even being discussed as a long term replacement for the Flash based e-learning courses we make today. Many organisations are naturally curious and actively looking into how it can be harnessed to meet their growing needs.

What is HTML5?

For those still in the dark, HTML is the nuts and bolts that web pages are built with (including this one). The term HTML 5 is the 5th Major release of this language but it also includes several other new and old technologies such as CSS3 and JavaScript.

HTML5 includes some significant advances over its predecessors such as; style handling, offline storage, drag and drop, animations, custom fonts and native video/audio players. If you want to know more here is an excellent guide http://slides.html5rocks.com (warning: you will need a HTML5 compliant browser to view it!).

Above: HTML5 will standardise internet technologies

HTML5 works with modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE9 etc. These are supported on a number of devices including smart phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, netbooks etc. If you want to see how your browser stacks up then visit this site http://html5test.com.

Should you use HTML5 in your workplace?

If you speak to a HTML5 evangelist they will tell you that you should be using it now, for example http://www.sitepoint.com/5-reasons-why-you-can-use-html5-today/. Beware though as this methodology is based on public facing websites not internal e-learning. It assumes that most of your audience will have a modern browser capable of delivering HTML5 (like the world outside). But in the corporate environment it is most likely the opposite, only a small number of your users will have a browser capable of viewing HTML5 sites.

This is because the corporate world tends to lag behind in the software stakes. So there is a high probability that your users will not have a HTML5 enabled device and if they do it is likely to be their phone not their PC. We work with hundreds of clients and most of them still support Internet explorer 6 and 7 as their main browser. These browsers have little or no support for HTML5.

It is a very expensive business rolling out new software across a large enterprise. For example your company may have a business critical piece of software that only runs in IE 6. It might cost £10m to upgrade it so that it works on IE9 and chrome. This seems excessive just so your users can use the latest browsers. So understandably, many companies still support IE6.

Can HTML5 match Flash?

The jury is still out on whether HTML5 can actually deliver the same level of dynamic content that Flash can. It is not that HTML5 is bad it's just that Flash has had a 15 year head start and excels at rich animations and complex games. Part of this is the technology, part of it is performance, but mostly it is the people who make the interactions.

You have to consider that at present the majority of the people who are experts in creating these interactions are Flash people. They are predominantly designers (not coders) and use the designer friendly 'Flash Professional' tool to create their interactions. Most HTML5 animations are created using JavaScript coding techniques. This makes it inaccessible to most Flash developers.

Adobe (the makers of Flash) have recognised this and are experimenting with tools to export HTML5 content from Flash Professional but at the moment it only works with simple animations not complex multi-movie, xml and ActionScript based Flash e-learning courses.

What is the point then?

Well the whole idea behind HTML5 is to standardise technologies so that users don't need hundreds of different plugins from hundreds of different vendors just to run a dynamic website. For example you won't need Flash, Media Player, QuickTime etc as long as you have an HTML5 compliant browser.

Traditionally plugin support has not been a problem because all your users have them installed on their computers. However the way your users access content is changing. More and more people are using other devices while at work; smart phones, tablets, kiosks etc. Many don't even have laptops or desktops anymore.

These devices quite often don't support plugins, take for example the highly publicised decision by Apple not to install the Flash player on the iPhone and iPad: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20003739-264.html. So, if your courses are developed in Flash then any users with one of these plugin shy devices will not be able to view the content.
This is where HTML5 comes riding in to save the day, it allows you to deliver rich content to these devices, without the plugins.

So should HTML5 be used for e-learning?

At present the most compelling argument to use HTML5 is where you need to deliver e-learning to devices where the Flash plugin is not supported. If your e-learning needs to work on iPhones, Android phones, iPads and regular PCs, then you should definitely consider it (but remember to read the label to double-check that your devices do actually support HTML5).

But be prepared for some pain, HTML5, despite having been around for 18 months or so, is still bleeding edge and not fully understood by the wider industry yet. Project budgets are likely to be higher and schedules longer while the industry works out how to get the absolute best out of it.
So, if you just need to support good old desktops and laptops then you should probably avoid HTML5 for now and use the tried and tested HTML4.01  and Flash combination.

If we skip forward 3 years then I am sure it will be a different picture, HTML5 browsers will be common in the workplace and the HTML5 development tools will have matured to allow designers to get involved. Also, I am sure that e-learning specific development packages, such as Captivate, will have in-built HTML5 support. These advances will bring down the costs considerably and make it a more viable mainstream option.

In this kind of environment it is likely that HTML5 will no doubt succeed in gaining popularity in e-learning development. But don't think Flash is going to disappear, it will keep improving and pushing the envelope and will no doubt remain the number 1 choice for high end dynamic web-delivered e-learning courses. Which technology you use will, as ever, be a decision based on what you are trying to achieve and the users you are going to support.

Here are my top 5 tips for HTML5 e-learning development:

1. Keep an eye out for new development tools - the big players and lots of smaller start-ups are working on tools to help you make great HTML5 packages. Some are already in beta or preview versions such as Adobe Wallaby and Edge.
2. Make use of open source HTML5 script libraries - There are several JavaScript libraries, such as JQuery, that make it easy to produce wonderful interactions in HTML5. These really are useful, easy to use and can significantly reduce development time.
3. Expect to fail (at first) - Remember that you are venturing into unknown waters, the bleeding edge of e-learning technologies so you are bound to take some wrong turns along the way.
4. Test early and often - HTML5 browser support is sketchy at best so you will need to test your creations early and on all the devices you plan to release it on. You don't want to get to release time to find out that video is not supported on one of your key platforms.
5. Blog about your experiences - You are a pioneer and will learn a lot, so why not share your experiences with the rest of the industry so we can all increase our understanding..

You may also like:

• Mobile phone learning - is there an app for that?
• What is important when choosing your LMS?
• How to make e-learning accessible - design tips and tricks

Comments

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Alex Webb 2011-08-10 10:00:13 Really useful synopsis of where we are at in the industry with html 5 thanks! Have you actually produced any e-learning courses using it at this point? Reply

well put Matt Leathes 2011-08-10 11:14:29 the only things I'd add are that - using any form of HTML is going to mean you having to deal with cross-browser compatibility issues, something that's virtually non-existent with Flash and which HTML 5.0 does not help fix - HTML and CSS might have been upgraded, but JavaScript is still the same old clunky language it always was; whereas Adobe are able update ActionScript to (nearly) keep up with the ECMAScript standard and - XHTML? noooooo! There's virtually never a compelling reason to use this over HTML 4.01 strict/transitional. Reply

@Matt Leathes Jonathan Archibald 2011-08-10 11:58:01 Thanks for the comments, Good points. RE: XHTML, it should be HTML4.01. I will edit. Reply

@Alex Webb Jonathan Archibald 2011-08-17 09:54:24 Thanks for the comments. We are working on several prototypes at the moment but have not released anything yet. Reply

html5 media player genefer 2012-02-20 11:34:46 Nice post. It would be even better if this site featured stand demos of these features so that users can get a clean look at the code. Please add a demo section containing a working implementation plus an explanation of the code.Buying and taking that plugin of html5 media player and integrating it into WP is really good for beginers Reply

html5 media player tensing 2012-02-20 11:34:35 I agree! But I do consider HTML5 to be more than just the spec that the W3C validator checks your document against. Part of html5 media playerinvolves standards for bolt on technology including web workers, CSS3, server sent events, etc. that are going to (I hope) revolutionize the web and do away with the need for 3rd party browser plugins Reply

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