Blog

Companies are starting to be alarmed – even in panic. They know that they need to switch their older Flash courses to HTML5, but either they don't have the bandwidth, the know-how, or they just postponed it … until now.

As most of you realize, the end of Adobe Flash is imminent – however, its death has been predicted for some time. According to some sources, the impending death was already predicted in 2011 – shortly after Abobe announced that it would no longer distribute Flash Player updates for mobile browsers.

"Flash" forward (obvious pun intended) by 2019 and we're only a few months away from Flash's execution date scheduled for late 2020.

Flash was hit by ongoing security issues and was an easy target for hackers, cyber attacks, and malware – even hackers could take over entire systems. Despite Adobe's attempts to close security holes, most browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla, Firefox, and Apple Safari, have turned away from technology in favor of HTML5.

Always your ducks in a row

Honestly, it doesn't matter whether you know about the expected end of Flash in 2011 or are just finding out. We are not here to judge. The point is that if your company created its old eLearning courses using Flash or Flash elements, you need to line up your ducks. That means drawing up a migration plan.

What happens if you don't migrate your courses to HTML5?

In short, your existing eLearning content created with Flash or Flash elements will start to fail. Initially, minor functional problems can arise because the components no longer load properly. Ultimately, error messages can appear that make the content unusable for many learners in your company.

Why should you use HTML5 to convert your Flash eLearning content?

• Browser-friendliness: When migrating Flash content, HTML5 is the first choice for most content conversion experts and eLearning developers, as it supports all types of browsers, including mobile browsers. With so many people accessing their learning on the go, this important feature cannot be overlooked.
• Easily customizable: While Flash has been highly praised for its high level of interactivity, graphics, and animation capabilities, HTML5 is hailed as its successor because it is able to create fully customizable, immersive, dynamic content and graphics without the use of a plug-in or a third party -party platform.
• Multimedia integrations: Have you ever gotten an annoying black box containing a video or other multimedia element? HTML5 eliminates these issues, making the user experience more enjoyable.
• Everyone else does it like this: No, this is not about peer pressure. What we're talking about is the fact that HTML5 is now the new industry standard for e-learning experts and others (like web developers) around the world. There is a reason for its popularity. That said, it can do essentially anything that Flash does without Flash's vulnerabilities.

What is in the planning for migrating Flash courses to HTML5?

There are a few things to consider when converting your older Flash courses to HTML5. If you are a large organization with an equally large library of courses in your LMS, you have an important task ahead of you. Before you finish, consider the following:

Perform a content check on Flash courses:

By performing a content audit, you can understand the quantity, quality, categories, usage, age, lifespan, interactivity and viability of your existing courses.

• Take stock of your existing courses that contain Flash or Flash elements.
• Identify old courses that you want to keep and those that can be discarded.
• In the "Keep" column, identify courses that can be converted "as they are" as well as courses that are somewhat out of date, but whose content can be updated or misused relatively easily in order to keep them up to date to bring the company. These types of changes may include new policies, procedures, brand policies (appearance / behavior / tone), images, schedules, interactivity and other factors.
• Make a list of changes to be made to courses in the "Keep" column.
• Look for common topics for changes and create a template based on your results.
• In the "Discard" column, place courses in the trash where the content is either completely out of date, no longer relevant to the company, or creating the course from the ground up is easier.

Prioritize Flash content for conversion:

Your company's courses are probably not the same weight. It is important that company (and business unit) stakeholders prioritize which courses are converted first. There will be some courses that are vital to business and that need to be converted right away while others can wait. Use a weighted rating system to easily identify the top courses to be converted.

The following categories are often seen as higher priority conversion requests:

• Training requirements regarding regulations and compliance
• General HR onboarding courses
• High-demand courses

Sort by content area:

By determining the content that you want to keep in your new HTML5 courses, you will get a good understanding of the content gaps that need to be filled and all the new resources that need to be acquired to complete the course.

• Identify all elements in your previous courses (that you want to reuse), e.g. B. Content, video, audio and images, and extract them from existing files using a SWF / Flash decompiler.
• Keep all supporting files in one place before converting them for easy access.
• Create a list of all content gaps (new multimedia media, videos, pictures, etc.).

Do the right HTML5 conversion tool research:

Not enough can be said about this crucial aspect of the process. Make sure you choose the right tools to convert your content so that your courses are expected to run on your LMS for all users on all devices. This saves your company time and money.

• Identify / research the authoring tool you want to use for the HTML5 conversion process. Some popular options include Articulate Storyline, Camtasia, Lectora Inspire, and Adobe Captivate.
• Find out about the types of devices and browsers your learners use to access your Learning Management System (LMS).
• Learn how your authoring tool translates older content as expected (copying, interactivity, video and multimedia).
• Understand how your authoring tool and LMS platform work together and what limitations they have.

Pilot Flash to HTML5 Conversions:

In the pilot phase, you will get a good foundation that you can use to measure future content conversion projects and work out possible problems related to compatibility, user access, etc.

• Develop sample courses based on the original projects to understand how the courses work on a variety of devices.
• Identify the estimated changeover time required per course. We recommend running a test with sample content that is medium in length, interactivity, and multimedia usage. You can then determine future development times from this middle area.
• Use the test content to understand any issues that arise during the conversion process, such as: B. Text rendering, object movement, functionality, interactivity, animations etc.
• Choose suitable templates to use for development.

Migrate your content to HTML5:

Once you've found that your authoring tool is working properly, works well with your LMS, and all of your resources are in place, it's time to start migrating your content.

Note: Do not try to convert and share all of the existing courses at once. Gradually rolling out your versions gives you the opportunity to understand the performance of your content for users on all devices and to make the necessary adjustments.

SUMMARY:

It is obvious that learners do not use a single learning method. Your company's learning programs must keep pace with advances in the technologies and needs of the company and learners. Transforming your older Flash content into HTML5 format ensures that learners can access, consume, interact, and respond to all devices, whenever and wherever they want to learn. That, my friends, is the new name of the game.

Do you need help with your content conversion projects?

There is no need to panic. We have your back!

poeticbusiness Consultants is the world's leading provider of learning and development talent and solutions. We have a network of over 35,000 fully audited L&D professionals who are experts in content conversion, learning strategy, class design, content development and training delivery.

Whether you need to switch from Flash to HTML5, ILT to eLearning, legacy content to Microlearning or any other format – we make sure your courses are beautiful, engaging and accessible to your learners.

Click here to see some of our content conversion specialists.

Do you need help creating course content? Check out our content developer profiles here.

READY TO START?