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.