Articulate on iPads?

Jan 31, 2011

Hi Team,

Was wondering how you plan to deal with the increasing amount of iPad users. I know that in my company they are running pilots with them but my Articulate courses won't run on them :( Are you looking into a Publish for iPad or other solution like publishing a course to HMTL5 or something like that?

209 Replies
Jenise Cook (RidgeViewMedia.com)

@Ethan

I used Screenr to make 5 minute demos of my Articulate e-learning courses. I have them under the "Videos" icon on my iPad home page.

The MP4s play just fine.

Would that workaround help you?

As for the new Forum... hmm... I haven't tried to use Elearning Heroes from my iPad but will now that you mentioned your experience. Did you submit the issue via Support.... um.... from your desktop? LOL

Kevin Thorn

Jenise Cook (RidgeViewMedia.com) said:

@Ethan

I used Screenr to make 5 minute demos of my Articulate e-learning courses. I have them under the "Videos" icon on my iPad home page.

The MP4s play just fine.

Would that workaround help you?

As for the new Forum... hmm... I haven't tried to use Elearning Heroes from my iPad but will now that you mentioned your experience. Did you submit the issue via Support.... um.... from your desktop? LOL

Jeannette, that would work fine if your courses are narrator-based with auto advanced slides. An MP4 Screenr eliminates any interactions or quizzes, no?
Gabriele Dovis (italgo)

Kevin Thorn said:

Jenise Cook (RidgeViewMedia.com) said:

@Ethan

I used Screenr to make 5 minute demos of my Articulate e-learning courses. I have them under the "Videos" icon on my iPad home page.

The MP4s play just fine.

Would that workaround help you?

As for the new Forum... hmm... I haven't tried to use Elearning Heroes from my iPad but will now that you mentioned your experience. Did you submit the issue via Support.... um.... from your desktop? LOL


Jeannette, that would work fine if your courses are narrator-based with auto advanced slides. An MP4 Screenr eliminates any interactions or quizzes, no?


Exactly, this will be such as lynda.com's courses for iPhone.

http://www.lynda.com/lynda_iphone.aspx

Just videos without interactivity.

Sometimes it may be enough (indeed, for courses on softwares, imho), but usually not!

Jenise Cook (RidgeViewMedia.com)

@Kevin

Yes, exactly, if I understood @Ethan correctly. The Screenr MP4s on my iPad are for showing demos of previous projects to potential clients. I'm with them, so I can explain the interactivity.

During the Superbowl last night (YaY, Packers!!), we saw the Motorola XOOM commercial. I'm hearing rumors that it may be "the best" non-Apple, Android, tablet to come to market as of this month. Honestly, I'm going to let that line of products shake itself out this year. I figure as we get closer to the new school year/Christmas/December holidays's new-product rollouts, we'll see even better non-Apple tablets!

Yea, I do love my Apple devices and my Mac, but I LOVE technology and innovation, and think tablets are going to add a level of excitement to elearning/mobile learning that we haven't seen in years!

As for Articulate on the iPad... here's some competition:

http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/mlearning-studio-by-rapid-intake/

Katie Weinmann

onEnterFrame (James Kingsley) said:

Trond Kristiansen said:

It does not work with the Skyfire browser  on iPad either. Skifire will play flash video, but that is it.

http://www.skyfire.com/product/ipad

I havent tried Frash. It might work, but you need to jailbreak your iPad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6HcEYmJFA&feature=player_embedded


Frash works great for Articulate on the iPad... doesn't do Flash video though so it your course has video in it... 

Gabriele is correct we can not ask folks to JB their device... but we can strongly advice the people not by this extremely limited device.

@Ben the Citrix is actually a very smart solution. When you are access content though Citrix it is not really running on your device. It is running on the Citrix box, it's a lot like Go-to-My-PC or any other PC remoting.

I know I am very biased; I am a Flash developer who has been very rudely locked out of a market. But I really do not understand the drive to put eLearning on iPads. Mobile devices? Yes by all means. But there are sooo many more devices out there that readily support our existing tools  and more rolling out every day. 

I am a pretty tech savvy guy and I could do iOS programming. I chose instead to build Android applications because I believe there is a lot more flexibility and soon a much bigger market. And I think I was right. Take look at the recent sales numbers from Nielsen (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=25901) In a years time Android has caught up with iOS and for the last six months has been out selling it. Big Time.

"Analyzing the preferences of those who purchased a smartphone in the past six months paints a different picture, however, one in which Android is clearly in the lead with 43 percent of recent acquirers purchasing an Android device, compared to 26 percent for Apple iOS and 20 percent for Blackberry RIM."

I ask again.. why are we so focused on altering our business models and best practices, spending so much time and resources, on a shrinking market? 

From my perspective, my sales managers and sales force want iPads.  These are not technical folks and Apple as a company offers a simple usually reliable product.  They don't realize their eLearning presentations won't run on the product - they probably don't even know what Flash is all about.  The "other devices" haven't proved themselves with a consistent user friendly model.  

Trond Kristiansen

A better strategy would be to develop content that is based on standards. All idevices, tablets and toasters will probably support html5 and css3 within a short time span. E-learning authoring tools will have to follow, just look what Adobe and Microsoft are saying:

In a hospital environment e-learing on a tablet would be great. Every does not have access to a quiet are with a pc, but with a tablet and some headphones they could take courses.

Gerry Wasiluk

I find this article very interesting: "HTML5 And Flash: Why It’s Not A War, And Why Flash Won’t Die."

Interesting conclusion by the author and Flash's place with learning solutions:

"Flash has been misused and overused for the past eight years, spreading its tentacles too far into the fabric of Web design. But rather than getting beaten out of the picture by these practical new Web frameworks, Flash will retreat to its proper place: those niche areas where it belongs and can truly excel. The first niche is multimedia and learning solutions for the corporate space. Only time will tell if Flash finds its second niche on mobile platforms."

Ethan Waldman

I think Katiebrings up an interesting point, and it's one that I have brought up with mymanager and team on multiple occasions: What is the value of mobile learning?Yes, my manager's eyes light up when I can put an eLearning course that I builton our test iPad, but my position is that this really does not add anyvalue.  Being able to take an elearningcourse that is designed for use on a computer over an ipad doesn't give youanything extra when it comes to retention learning. 

 

The value I seein iPads is not for click-through elearning, but more for performancesupport.  I work for a food manufacturingcompany.  My vision is that people on theline could pull up interactive process documents on an iPad that's velcroed tothe machine they are using.  How I buildthese process documents is the question. There are lots of ways to do it, but the reason I wish that Articulatehad HTML5 publishing options is that I'm already familiar and comfortabledeveloping in Articulate. Right now I'm playing with just publishing to PDF,which preserves internal hyperlinks but looses all other course navigation andLMS integration, etc.  See what I mean? 

Brian Allen

Another challenge we are running into with iPad users is more related to our LMS, unfortunately...  Our LMS requires the use of pop up windows, but I have found it impossible to disable the pop up blocker in some of the iPad apps, such as Safari.

Echoing agreement with others, though, in the fact that I would love to see Articulate natively publish HTML5 compliant content.

Jeff Kettler

From a strictly business standpoint i think it makes more sense to deploy Android tablets if you are targeting training within your company. The initial cost is lower than an iPad, you have Flash support, and the OS is open source so you can customize it (security, etc.) to suite your needs.

If you are targeting an outside audience, then pubishing for an iPad may make sense. Personally, I don't see training on mobile devices being a big moneymaker except maybe if the installed base in the K-12 and college markets reaches critical mass.

Just my 2 cents.

Jenise Cook (RidgeViewMedia.com)

Every organization will need to make decisions best for its objectives and overall goals.

However, @Jeff training on mobile devices is more than a question of "will it be a moneymaker" at first. It may cost more in the beginning, similar to the first Texas Instrument hand calculators (LOL).

But, after having attended The e-Learning Guild's mLearnCon conference on mobile learning June 2010 (San Diego), it was made very clear that training on mobile devices is happening and will happen more over time.

I steer away from the "which OS" and "HTML5 vs. Flash" debates because I want to design for mobile learning, in whatever OS and devices are available to our learners. Instructional design methods for mobile will be a growing, and needed, skill.

mLearnCon will be in San Jose this summer.

I hope to be there!

Steve Flowers

I agree with Ethan above. I think the real revolution in mobile devices will be performance support. We've been moving more and more of our course work to performance support that includes orienters and explainers for that "just enough" boost to get the job done.

A few of our efforts have used trackables, so we abstract the trackable elements into the LMS and everything else is right there in the EPSS. No log in. Easy to access. And all of the task guides and just enough training materials are right where you need them.

We've seen some studies in the military environment that indicate there are two schools of though surrounding the efficacy of mobile learning:

1. If the organization doesn't provide the equipment, most won't do it on their own.

2. After the initial innovation grace, acceptance drops way off.

Working the culture and making the device a part of the job can overcome these barriers. I really think that the newer devices really are far and away better than older devices in some of these studies. The thing that hasn't changed is the nature of people.

I only know that I don't want to custom tune a solution for a particular device. I just want to publish once and have it work reasonably anywhere. I don't think that's too much to ask:P

Gerry Wasiluk

Brian Allen said:

Another challenge we are running into with iPad users is more related to our LMS, unfortunately...  Our LMS requires the use of pop up windows, but I have found it impossible to disable the pop up blocker in some of the iPad apps, such as Safari.

Echoing agreement with others, though, in the fact that I would love to see Articulate natively publish HTML5 compliant content.


Hey, Brian!  There's always the lowtech way.  Keep the mobile content out of the LMS.  Then require they go to the LMS to pass a final quiz or to affirm that they have reviewed the content.

Gerry Wasiluk

Steve Flowers said:

I agree with Ethan above. I think the real revolution in mobile devices will be performance support. We've been moving more and more of our course work to performance support that includes orienters and explainers for that "just enough" boost to get the job done.

A few of our efforts have used trackables, so we abstract the trackable elements into the LMS and everything else is right there in the EPSS. No log in. Easy to access. And all of the task guides and just enough training materials are right where you need them.

We've seen some studies in the military environment that indicate there are two schools of though surrounding the efficacy of mobile learning:

1. If the organization doesn't provide the equipment, most won't do it on their own.

2. After the initial innovation grace, acceptance drops way off.

Working the culture and making the device a part of the job can overcome these barriers. I really think that the newer devices really are far and away better than older devices in some of these studies. The thing that hasn't changed is the nature of people.

I only know that I don't want to custom tune a solution for a particular device. I just want to publish once and have it work reasonably anywhere. I don't think that's too much to ask:P


Excellent observations. 

Rob Nachum

Hi guys

Interesting posts, particularly the sleuthing Jenise!

A couple of quick comments:

  1. Before everyone gets [more] bent out of shape over html5 and iPads, could we PLEASE get Articulate to compile to AS3! PLEASE! (Apologies if I've missed something though). That would give us so much more flexibility with what we do with our custom flash player that streams video. It would allow for mp4s as well as flvs plus heaps more reporting options. PLEASE.
  2. The Flash / HTML5 issue is interesting. Personally I don't think it is a big issue given that (from our understanding) so many U.S. [corporate] desktops are still on IE6 so getting html5 browser compatibility is still years off. Happy to be corrected though.
  3. iPad vs Android. This is an interesting debate but not really comparing Apples with Apples (pun intended). As a colleague recently pointed out to me iPad (as hardware) still massively outsells any other hardware BRAND/model that may be running Android. It is why car makers say they are iPod compatible not USB...

Believe me, I am much more in favour of Android or industry standards and grossly dislike Apple's forced rejection of Flash (it is really the designers not Flash itself that causes most of the problems - no offence to anyone here of course). But three areas that I work within that are Mac or Apple device "pervasive" are medicine, AV and design. And when we go to conferences people are flashing their iPads around (again, pun intended). It will be interesting to see if other tablets start to penetrate this year. I certainly hope so. Go Android.

But can we get AS3 compilation first...?

Cheers

Rob

p.s. It is Saturday morning and I'm usually reading the paper. Thanks!

Steve Flowers

Personally I don't think it is a big issue given that (from our understanding) so many U.S. [corporate] desktops are still on IE6 so getting html5 browser compatibility is still years off. Happy to be corrected though



I think this is the biggest issue at hand. There's a huge rush / push to HTML5 and while it offers some really awesome next-gen Web capability, reliable saturation (even the finishing of the standard itself) is a ways off. I'd settle for an output that gracefully fell back to something that played well on IE6, the iPad, or the gizmotron5000 brain transmission display (where it doesn't matter what the platform is... it just works).

:P

Will Findlay

Ben Boozer said:

Hello,

I am new to this forum but not new to Articulate or eleaning. This may not be the solution, but consider how in my firm, iPad users can easily access flash because they access content thru a Citrix receiver plugin. Our iPads are running Microsoft Office and a host of other applications. If someone could develop an app for the iPad similar to Citrix, the problem would be solved.

Ben


The Citrix receiver plugin is ok on an iPad, but trying to use a Windows UI on an iPad is frustrating. Most noticeably bad is when you need to scroll a window. Grabbing a narrow Window's scrollbar on an iPad is tedious in the extreme. Maybe Citrix will improve it though in the future.

Joan Kuenzi

I'm new to this forum, and for that matter, rather new to designing elearning, but I really love Articulate! My only beef is that I have had to use a PC in order to use the application. I am a mac user primarily, so ANY ability to create on a mac or allow people who have idevices to view my products would be WONDERFUL! 

Oh, and thanks to all the HEROS here for the great tips and techniques! I have learned so much from you!

Gabe Anderson

Bruce Graham said:

Not sure of the right technical words/terms, but believe there are "PC emulations" that allow for AP09 courses to be created and run just fine on Mac.

Bruce


Indeed there are - lots of our customers use virtualization products like VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run our software on Macs:

An Apple (Mac) a Day Doesn’t Have to Keep Articulate Away

Using Articulate software in a Mac environment with Parallels

Joan Kuenzi

Oh, I was running it on my macbook pro using bootcamp and it worked fine, however, little things like creating graphics on the 'mac side" and then working with them on the "pc side" was not as fun as if it were native on the mac. I think there are so many of us who use the mac for left and right brained activities that an Articulate for the mac version would be an awesome thing. I finally purchased a pc just because I didn't want to run windows on my mac anymore- it was feeling violated...

Kevin Thorn

As a brand new first time Mac user (just got an iMac Sunday), I will be treading new waters with VMWare Fusion. For the time being though, I'll keep my PC handy when my head starts to smoke learning how to use a Mac.

From what I've learned thus far, there are three ways to run Windows. (correct me if I'm wrong): BootCamp, Parallels, and VMWare Fusion. Of the three and those super users I've spoken to, Fusion is the way to go.

onEnterFrame (James Kingsley)

I use VMWare Fusion... actually lately I have been running it in fullscreen mode so that I rarely bother with the Mac side of things...

Makes me wonder why I have the Mac to begin with... 

I have 3 OSs set up in Fusion; Win XP, Win 7, and Ubuntu Linux.  I use the XP for testing stuff, Win 7 for Articulate/Flash, and Ubuntu for Android Development.