eLearning for iPads
By Anne McCourt
VP Learning, Vubiz
Early in 2012, the SNC-Lavalin Global Health and Safety Corporate Group approached Vubiz with a request to develop elearning based on their Critical Risk Control Protocols. The intent was to create an online program that would raise awareness of the hazards associated with high-risk activities such as operation of vehicles and mobile equipment, working at heights, and working in confined spaces. The catch? The program had to be deployed globally on iPads as well as on laptop and personal computers.
For the past decade, Adobe Flash has been the industry standard for developers who want to add interactive, media-rich content to online learning. At Vubiz, in-house instructional designers and clients create elearning using vuBuild, a proprietary, Flash-based authoring tool, that allows developers to incorporate a wide range of Flash assets such as video, audio, animation and interactive learning activities.
However, the surge in popularity of tablets in the past two years (Apple released the first iPad in April 2010) has created a challenge for Flash-dependent developers, as the iPad tablet doesn't support Flash. The solution? HTML5, the newest major revision of the HTML standard, which allows developers to incorporate media and is supported by tablets, mobile phones and most of the common browsers.
Responding rapidly to SNC-Lavalin's request, in just six weeks the Vubiz systems and media teams built an HTML5 content player that pulls text, graphic, audio, video and learning activity files from vuBuild and allows it to be deployed on the iPad. The same module can also be deployed on laptops and PCs in the Vubiz Flash player. This innovation puts Vubiz at the leading edge of elearning developers – a position that will be consolidated over the next few months as the HTML5 player evolves.
The first course developed by Vubiz was extremely well received and as a result SNC-Lavalin Global has authorized Vubiz to develop a full suite of courses in multiple languages around their Critical Risk Control Protocols.
