Flash or Director

An important part of the e-learning creation process involves figuring out which multimedia tools to use for course development. For the best production results, it’s important to understand the features of each product under consideration.

Here’s a comparison between two widely used development tools - Macromedia Director and Macromedia Flash. Each application has particular advantages for e-learning development. Both are timeline based with powerful scripting languages, but be aware that file content is difficult to update, invisible to search engines and mostly inaccessible to disabled users.

Flash is a multimedia and animation tool primarily for delivery over the Web (requires the Flash Player plug-in). Flash should be used when sound, animation and interactivity are central to the user experience of the content. The ActionScript language enables complex behaviors and the associated SWF files provide consistency of layout across platforms and browsers. Primary advantages of Flash files include the illustration and optimization capabilities that result in minimal download times for small, efficient vector graphics.

Director is a robust multimedia authoring solution for e-learning. Director applications are useful for learning games and skills practice in a realistic 3D environment (requires the Shockwave Player plug-in). Shockwave files use the Lingo scripting language with JavaScript syntax to enable complex interactivity, motion capture, streaming video and 3D models and objects. Shockwave Files (.dir) made with Director are large because of the embedded media files (for example, .dcr, .aam, .cst). Since download time is significant, Director files are best viewed on a CD, DVD-Rom or kiosk.

Director and Flash are frequently combined to create compelling e-learning experiences. Check out Eduweb for some great examples.

One of the best games

One of the best learning games I’ve played is the ADA game – this simulation game entices a player to return, day after day. Game play simulates an abstract concept - how advocacy can promote positive change. In the game, each player is an advocate for disability rights. You answer knowledge-based questions while at the same time you join with other players in one of ten virtual communities. The micro-goal is to build a more accessible community and the macro-goal is to improve awareness and compliance with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).

During the ADA game, players work with others in their virtual community to earn points, plan strategies, and take actions to improve accessibility of the virtual city. The collaborative component of the game adds an essential ingredient for fun –competition with other groups of players. Also, there’s a message board to strategize and share ADA-related issues.

Another must visit website for training games, simulations, and activities is The Thiagi Group. These simple games are elegant in design and keep participants interacting with both each other and with the content. For examples of some low-cost, high-interaction ideas, check out Thiagi’s e-mail games.

about learning games

Learning games have been used in classroom training environments for a long time. Now, computer technology provides instructional designers with exciting new opportunities to create dynamic e-Learning games.

Computer-based games in general work best if the interface is user-friendly, the rules are easy to understand and follow, the interaction generates energy and excitement, and the technology is transparent.

Digital natives from the younger generation have been enjoying computer-based games for years - on handheld devices and arcade and console platforms. These youthful learners don’t care about instructional objectives, they just want to have fun, advance to the next level and win. Nevertheless, these young gamers are learning general motor and visual attention skills and cognitive strategies that ultimately transfer to other situations.

Older learners, on the other hand, are an entirely different audience when it comes to technology-based learning games. Adult learners are more comfortable with browser-based games on a PC platform, where they can take an active role in structured experiences that have perceived value and relevance. The challenge for an e-Learning designer in this arena is to create games for learning where the learning is fun.

Take a look at AARP: The Magazine to see a whole page of video and computer games. These older gamers enjoy the same learning benefits - general motor and visual attention skills and cognitive strategies that ultimately transfer to other situations. What a coincidence!

So, it seems, games are fun, and well-designed games can actually make learning fun.

A simulation is a representation of the real thing. Whether it’s a physical simulation, a software simulation or a social simulation, there must be fidelity to the actual experience for the simulation to be effective.

A physical simulation requires costly (more or less) equipment to re-create an actual system or environment, from simple headphones to special apparatus or even an 18 foot trailer to house an aviation simulator. My personal experiences with physical simulations include the stationary metal ‘car’ at driver training school, the helicopter at the arcade where you get a short ‘ride’ for a quarter, and the ski and snowboard machines at ski resort game rooms where you can experience the thrill of alpine racing. All of this hardware provides a simulated experience that attempts to replicate the real thing. For learning applications, a great deal of fidelity is needed for a learner to acquire skills for a real environment, especially if there are hazards and safety issues.

A software simulation appears to be much less complicated, consisting mainly of two-dimensional screen captures with cursor movements to illustrate processes. I just finished watching a Breeze webinar on the Macromedia site called Building Captivating Simulations for e-Learning. This 60 minute demonstration of the Captivate software is well worth the time if you want to learn about building software simulations for learning. This particular webinar was a demonstration, with 1-way communication, like a lecture. Adding interactivity to a simulation makes a more valuable learning experience, because the learner is immediately involved in manipulating the system or environment. There's a greater probability of skill transfer to the real world after an interactive learning experience.

Interactivity within a learning simulation is most effective when it causes the user to stop and think, then provides real time feedback. This kind of learning experience is possible with all three types of simulations. However, physical simulators and software simulations are most applicable for learning related to processes and procedures, while social simulations have the most potential for discovery-based learning. Nevertheless, a meaningful interactive experience is the key to real learning through the use of simulations.

a Virtual Learning Game for a real audience

The following is a description of a hypothetical Web-based learning environment for a target audience of mental health clinicians. The format is a game-based virtual-reality social simulation.

When beginning the program, the learner encounters the first frame of information. It contains the full title of the learning program and instructions for play, as follows:
Welcome to ‘Clinical Assessment Skills – Assessing Suicide Risk’
This learning program places you into a realistic virtual office environment, where you are a therapist conducting a clinical practice with numerous outpatient clients. During game play, you interact with a randomly assigned client over 6 therapy sessions (also known as levels, or rounds). Your objective is to maintain the health of your client by making appropriate assessment and intervention decisions.

The program is designed to mirror a real world clinical session. Each level of play has a time limit, indicated by a time meter indicator at the bottom of the screen. Each level of play will last 15 minutes, and a 6 session course of play should last about 90 minutes.

You will also notice a health meter and a trust meter at the bottom of the screen. These values will fluctuate based on your selected responses within the interview session. At the end of a six session course of play, you will receive an overall score based on your skill in appropriately assessing the client’s risk over time.

To begin, click the enter sign on your office door. The second frame of information contains a close-up view of an appointment book titled ‘Today’s Schedule.’ The page indicates the actual date and time next to a drop down list of client names. Only one name is highlighted per game – upon clicking on the name, the screen changes to the interior of your office. As you watch from behind your desk, a realistic human avatar emerges through the open door. As your new client settles into a seat, the avatar’s digital voice begins describing the presenting problem. You consider your response from the selections on the screen as you observe his or her body movements and facial expressions. The session continues as you and the client avatar interact.

Although each successive screen interaction offers a wide array of responses, you have 3 hyperlink choices always available.

1. “Consult with a colleague” accesses the help menu.
2. “Recommend immediate hospitalization” ends the current game by providing a final score.
3. “Schedule next week’s session” moves to the next round of play.

Advanced features of the learning program include running multiple games to interact with more clients on your daily schedule, the introduction of family member characters, more complicated presenting problems, and more symptomatic clients.

role-play simulations

I’ve got a Technical White Paper in front of me – it’s actually a proposal from a company that specializes in creating computerized role-plays called immersive simulations. They want to create a human simulation training program for our target audience of mental health clinicians, using their unique interactive people simulation technology. I’ll describe the salient points.


The background section describes some prior PC-based training applications built for federal government sponsors and military personal. These programs feature an actor who serves as a realistic simulated character who has face-to-face conversations with the e-learning student. All question choices and responses are scripted and recorded with audio and video. The character is programmed with over a thousand responses for hundreds of possible questions. The simulated character is dynamic, has memory and employs an advanced emotional model to enable natural, logical responses, including mood changes. In this system, the user experiences a variety of responses, resulting in an unlimited number of different scenarios.


It’s interesting how this vendor proposes several different learning options for consideration. One option is a self-paced, knowledge- based module, in which the learner would interact with a simulated character and have few opportunities to make mistakes. Conversely, a second option involves a more advanced, skill-based module, where the learner would have ‘ample’ opportunities to make errors with numerous simulated characters that manifest various emotional states. Each option would be produced on a CD-ROM or DVD, most likely to accommodate the heavy file sizes. (The portability of a disc is no doubt a big advantage for military training implementations).


Check out this link on the Learning Circuits Blog to read an interesting post about mistake-based learning as an evidence-based approach to skill building.

social simulators

After looking at the Virtual Leader interpersonal skills simulator the other day, I checked out SimuLearn to find out more about social simulations. Virtual Leader is an award winning (ASTD Best Online Product for 2003) computer program that generates virtual 3-D characters that talk and react to input by the user. This type of e-learning simulation represents a new era for training, where real-time interactions determine the outcome of the experience.

Virtual Leader is an advanced application of role play exercises – a simulation type experience most familiar to classroom trainers. The downside of role playing with a human partner is inconsistency and limited character portrayals. Social simulators work around this issue by providing opportunities for unlimited rehearsal with consistent feedback.

What’s different in a computer-based training simulation is the supply of different scenarios, anchored by a visual metaphor for realism. This e-learning trend is more than an elaborately constructed branching design, because the path isn’t scripted in advance of the learning event. Learning is discovery-based - each scenario has so many variables that the outcome is hard to predict. The result is that learners interact with the content on an unlimited number of non-linear pathways.

The instructional design process is extensive in this model. Best advice is to use a worksheet to create the characters, plot and scenes in advance, based on specific performance objectives. Production then depends on the budget, time and development team. I’m looking forward to the creation of social simulation software that provides ready-made templates that allow custom content authoring.