Adobe’s been talking about the end of Flash for so long that it may feel like old news. But with the effective date—December 31, 2020—fast approaching, it’s important to consider how this phaseout will impact you so you’re ready for it. Let’s take a closer look.

Flash Courses Won’t Work

If you stopped publishing your courses to Flash and started publishing them to HTML5 a while ago, you might think you’re in the clear—that the Flash phaseout won’t impact you. But what about the older courses in your catalog? Once Adobe disables Flash, older Flash-based courses published with Storyline 1, Storyline 2, or Studio ’09, and Studio ’13 won’t work. 

Review Your Course Catalog 

Not sure if you have any Flash-based courses in your catalog? Now’s the time to go through your courses and check. That way you won’t have to rush to update your courses come January 2021, when learners email you saying they can’t view the content.

If you know what authoring app you used to create your older courses, that’ll make this process easier. Any courses created with Studio ’09 are Flash-only and will definitely need to be republished using Articulate 360 (which includes both Storyline 360 and Studio 360) or imported into Storyline 3 and republished.

Courses created with Storyline 1, Storyline 2, or Studio ’13 may be either Flash-only or Flash with HTML5 fallback. However, the HTML5 output will only work reliably in Google Chrome and Safari. For this reason, it’s best to republish these courses to HTML5 using Articulate 360 or Storyline 3 as well.

But what if you don’t remember which app you used to create your courses? In that case, the easiest way to tell whether you need to republish is by disabling Flash in Internet Explorer and launching your course. If it loads and works as expected, then you’re all set. If it doesn’t load or work as expected, then you’ll need to republish your course to HTML5 using Articulate 360 or Storyline 3.

Decide What to Do with Your Flash-Based Courses

If you come across any Flash courses during your review, you need to decide what to do with them since they won’t work as is. To make it easy on you, we’ve outlined a process: 4 Simple Steps for Updating Your Flash-Based Courses.

More Resources

Have more questions about Adobe’s decision to disable Flash? We’re here to help! Check out these resources:

And of course, feel free to leave any questions or comments you may have for us below.

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