e-Learning
Development and The Moving Image
 e-Learning
is inexorably converging with the world of interactive
television. In this article for image technology,
Adrian Snook examines the use of the moving image
as a
learning
tool
in the
past,
present and future.
THE
PAST
The moving image certainly has a long history as
a mechanism for delivering and supporting learning.
Health organisations, governments, the military and
other large organisations were making extensive use
of film as a tool for public information, training
and education from the 1930s onwards.
The concept of using electronic moving images as
a tool for learning did not really come of age until
1969 when The Open University was founded under Royal
Charter. The large-scale structured delivery of courses
via television undoubtedly opened up immense opportunities
for learners excluded from mainstream education.
At that point what we now know as e-Learning was
in its infancy and the idea of a convergence between
television and computers would certainly have seemed
preposterous. The two technologies were effectively
poles apart.
Even so the earliest form of Computer-Based Training
(CBT) were effectively on-line, delivered from mainframes
to dumb terminals located across large organisations.
The military, energy and financial sectors led the
way in providing interactive training and assessment
programs featuring questions and answers framed within
the limitations of a green character based display.
Despite such apparently crippling limitations and
a complete absence of moving images these programmes
nevertheless proved to be extremely successful.
From the late 1980s onwards the advent of the Personal
Computer allowed CBT to move back offline, with courseware
being delivered from a very small PC Hard disc or
from a stack of floppy discs. The choice of media
formats was limited to simple text and bitmap images
due to creaking display technologies, primitive compression,
the DOS environment and the storage capacity of the
floppy disc- the only practical distribution medium.
After overcoming some initial challenges the generation
of developers reared on green-screen character based
displays gradually developed adequate graphic design
skills and an appreciation of how their new palette
of colours could be used appropriately in the interests
of clarity. The idea of incorporating video into
the mix remained a pipe-dream, but the industry was
undoubtedly becoming more visually orientated.
At this point design companies and publishers of
textbooks and distance learning workbooks began to
recognise the market potential of CBT. Over the next
few years increasing numbers of businesses and individuals
drawn from this print-based world also began to engage
in development.
Life was made much easier for these new entrant
in the 1990's, with the arrival of the Microsoft
Windows graphical user interface, new purpose designed
CBT authoring tools such as Authorware and IconAuthor,
improved colour palettes and higher display resolutions.
For the first time designers had the option to include
the occasional .wav audio file to complement text,
a wider range of mouse driven interactions and a
richer mix of animated and photo-realistic graphics.
Developers gradually accepted that in addition to
now familiar graphic design and text lay out skills,
the crafts of photography and audio production were
becoming essential skill-sets. Since the industry
was still tiny these new skills largely had to be
learned though trial and error. Where necessary the
production team expanded through the addition of
new specialists with the necessary craft skills.
Significant experiments with dead-end technologies
such as PC-VHS cassette hybrids and videodiscs took
place, but never reached the critical mass required
for large-scale adoption.
The next genuine step-shift in the history of e-Learning
and the moving image really occurred with the advent
of the CD-ROM and modern compression formats. At
a stroke these two innovations removed the restrictions
imposed by the limited storage capacity of contemporary
hard and floppy discs and made full motion video
practical for the first time. Full multimedia CBT
had finally come of age.
The public are expert consumers of the moving image
and have always had correspondingly high expectations.
CD-ROM based CBT was rapidly becoming a televisual
medium and amateur graphics, sloppy editing, poor
sound or muddy pictures proved as unacceptable on
a PC as they would be on broadcast television.
Since virtually none of the producers active in
CBT development at that time had any real experience
of producing video they faced a very rapid and expensive
learning curve. A number of video production companies
entered the CBT development industry during this
period and many more built a valuable business stream
acting as subcontractors to CBT specialists. Their
impact on the industry was immense, because they
brought with them a combination of high production
values and a great deal of relevant experience drawn
from the world of TV production management.
By 1999 up to 2000 people were probably active in
the field of CBT development in the UK, either on
a freelance basis or employed by small businesses.
Their output was predominantly CD-ROM based, although
a significant number were simply using CD-ROM as
a distribution medium and installing entire e-Learning
programmes on PC Hard Disc. The content was rich
in terms of media and incorporated lavish moving
images either delivered as AVI or MPEG video or through
use of the new generation of animation packages.
By this point CBT development teams had either developed
or completely integrated the necessary video production
skills and the interaction between text, graphics,
animations, simulation, audio and video had become
virtually seamless.
THE PRESENT
This cosy balance was shattered in the autumn of
1999. The term e-Learning was coined amidst the growing
e-Commerce revolution in the USA late in that year
and rapidly crossed the Atlantic. The perceived benefits
of Internet or intranet based learning were attractive
enough to persuade venture capitalists to invest
huge sums in promoting the idea of moving technology
based learning back on-line once more.
Very quickly the technical implications of embracing
on-line e-Learning began to strike home however.
Corporate clients were suddenly demanding real-time
access to courseware over frighteningly thin bandwidth
internet connections or via the corporate intranet,
where a host of connectivity security and technology
issues materialised.
In these circumstances the idea of integrating video
within an on-line learning experience was firmly
off the agenda once again. There simply was not the
bandwidth.
Whilst the term Computer-Based Training was dying
a skills revolution was going on behind the scenes.
The skill sets of standard CBT authors, audio and
video production professionals were no longer in
short supply, but the skills of web site designers
and software engineers certainly were. A huge reskilling
exercise went on and large numbers of people entered
the world of e-Learning from web design companies
and from the world of enterprise software.
Those who have experienced on-line e-Learning courseware
via a standard 56k dial-up connection over the last
couple of years will probably have encountered a
fairly unappetising media mix. Simple animated moving
images normally supplement copious amounts of text
and audio is used sparingly to spice up the experience.
Despite huge efforts to refine compression technologies
richer forms of media often demand too much valuable
bandwidth.
Whilst large numbers of full multimedia CD-ROM's
are being developed every year, these are largely
commissioned for purposes such as marketing where
video content and media richness counts for everything
and there is no need to centrally record the results
of tests or assessments. The volume of video being
commissioned for the purposes of e-Learning is at
present surprisingly low.
THE FUTURE
All this is about to change, however.
More than
half a million people are using broadband in the
UK, according to Oftel. And these statistics
don¡¦t even include figures from March
and April 2002, when the price of ADSL began to fall
dramatically. With over 20,000 broadband connections
a week, the current level of growth outstrips the
equivalent demand for mobile phones and dial-up Internet
when they were first introduced
E-commerce minister Douglas Alexander recently said:
"The
UK now has some of the cheapest Internet prices
in the world for both narrowband and broadband;
the milestone of half a million connections represents
a 54 per cent increase since the beginning of 2002.
Of course, there is more to do, but the work of building
Broadband Britain is underway."
As broadband internet access becomes cheaper and
more accessible increasing numbers of organisations
are looking at streaming video, both as alternate
delivery mechanism for conventional training video
previously delivered via cassette or DVD and as a
custom commissioned component integrated within internet
or intranet hosted e-Learning programmes.
The rapidly expanding platform offered by interactive
television holds out a huge range of possibilities
and convergence with the existing world of PC based
e-Learning seems to be accelerating. In short the
UK e-Learning industry stands on the cusp of another
step-shift into the world of true multimedia on-line
learning.
Where the audience has access to the necessary bandwidth
some e-Learning vendors are already taking their
first steps. Developers that cut their teeth developing
video for CD-ROM will find this transition fairly
painless. On the other hand many e-Learning providers
were set up specifically to develop content for delivery
via the web and face a far harder road adapting to
the production of professional moving images.
Life for the inexperienced will be further complicated
by the fact that three competing streaming video
formats are still slugging it out for supremacy.
Microsoft, Apple and RealNetworks each offer rival
streaming media servers and provide playback through
their proprietary players,MS Media Player, Quicktime
Player and RealPlayer respectively.
The projected growth in e-Learning development represents
a significant potential market for those within the
broadcast, film and video sector and those already
operating within the world of e-Learning that are
prepared to embrace the implications of streaming
media technology.
Media giants like the BBC and Granada are already
showing significant interest in e-Learning as a potential
business stream and it looks likely that existing
e-Learning players will soon be facing rapid shifts
in the technology platform and new competition from
the broadcast production companies.
Judging from the past and whatever your view of
learning, you can rest assured that your vision will
perpetually be in motion!
image
technology is
published on behalf of behalf
of BKSTS - The Moving Image Society, by Townhouse
Media, 18 Charlotte Road, London, EC2A 3PB, United
Kingdom.
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