Note to the eLearning industry: HTML5 now or bust!

by Alfredo Leone, QuickLessons CEO

Mobility, ubiquity and portability are key requirements for any type of learning as the market fully embraces to the demand of learners to access knowledge when and where is needed. Learners today expect access to relevant and useful information on various types of mobile devices connected via networks of ever cheaper and faster bandwidth.

This trend toward multi-device and multi-access learning is solidifying day after day, making responsive content design one of the most critical components of any production process for online training material. The premise today is for learning to “follow” the person and not the other way around.

In this dynamic online learning scenario, HTML5 is finally going mainstream as the leading technology to structure and present learning content online. Here are some powerful reasons to adopt HTML5 today even when legacy constrains seem to favor a “wait and see” approach:

1. HTML5 provides content adaptability to all screen sizes. While this alone is not sufficient to address the complexity of developing learning content for different form factors, developing in one single responsive language is a significant value in terms of both productivity and efficiency.
2. HTML5 is truly cross platform because it does not require any proprietary player to run. Even considering that only the latest versions of the most popular web browsers are capable of properly rendering HTML5, the advantage of “running everywhere” in today’s BYOD corporate world is too big to miss.
3. HTML5 is a universal working standard. There is an inevitability in the industry that HTML5 is already the worldwide reference for content creation that will drive and unify learning content production and the associated platforms to create and manage it. The fact that Facebook, YouTube, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung and Apple all have been endorsing HTML5 should be an indication of such inevitability… anyone missing from this list?
4. Supply and demand! As companies continue to experiment and ultimately launch HTML5 based learning projects, the demand for a new wave of service providers, technologies and skills will continue to grow. With this demand, more and more skills will be developed on HTML5 making it the language to use to attract new and creative talent. You just need to ask students across any campus on what they think you should use when developing content online.
5. On a slightly more technical front, HTML5 builds on the simplicity of its web development origins to create a flexible and clean way to program while also providing a robust, flexible and high performance framework ideally suited to more demanding online learning experiences.
6. HTML5 takes video to the next level (audio too!). While older platforms for content development consider video as a “black box” content element and limit access to it within their proprietary players, HTML5 makes video central to the content experience, searchable and available without restrictions.
7. As HTML5 becomes better defined, more and more platforms are available to develop content in HTML5. The vendor community is finally showing up at the table with products that deliver a great learning experience with all the benefits mentioned above.

As mentioned above, HTML5 adoption is already an established reality and leading technology companies are giving strong signals to the market to get on the right bandwagon. In January 2015, YouTube announced the abandonment of Flash to start using HTML5. Accompanying this action, Google launched the www.HTML5Rocks.cominitiative, a portal that provides articles and tutorials on the new version of the programming language of the Web. Meanwhile Apple confirmed repeatedly they would not support Flash on its iPhones and iPads, favoring HTML5. And Facebook launched its HTML5 Resource Center. The list continues to include more traditional technology vendors: from 2013 SAP is committed to HTML5 for its mobile application platform, and Microsoft also boosts HTML5 as one of its core technologies.

The measurements mentioned by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in the article ‘The recommendation of HTML5, a milestone for the Open Web Platform’, clearly reflect the trend. A survey by Vision Mobile (2014) revealed that 42% of the 10,000 developers approached use the combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript for all or part of their mobile applications. Gartner identified HTML5 as one of the top 10 mobile technologies for 2015 & 2016, asserting that the HTML5 “is an essential technology for organizations that develop applications across multiple platforms.”

Undoubtedly, the current market evidence shows that it is time to leave behind the “wait and see” approach taken by many learning professionals and leaders and finally adopt HTML5 as a core element of their e-learning projects. Indeed, it is HTML5 now or bust!