Considerations for choosing one technology over another:

Do you have complex interactivity in your lesson plans (assembly or disassembly exercises), videos, or mostly pictures and text?
2. Will your eLearning be delivered on a CD, online via a browser, and does it need to support mobile platforms? (Android/iOS)

HTML5 is often touted as the ultimate solution for eLearning, but is that really the case?

It's true that HTML5 can be used in a wide range of projects. However, there are issues you need to be aware of before defaulting to this solution:

• Browser/platform compatibility issues, not every platform supports every feature of the spec the same way.
• The newest browser versions work best, if older hardware/OS's are involved, this could be a problem.
• Supports videos and simple interactions.

These packages are sort of an intermediate step between standard HTML5 and full-blown custom Flash development. They usually export to both Flash and HTML5 formats, but many of the features are flash-only. Some things to be aware of when going down this road:

1. These are really designed to work around page templates. Think of them as interactive PowerPoint show development tools.
2. Using these tools, it is possible to crank out a lot of work, as long as you are fine with consistency across all of your lessons. It is really the template design that takes time.
3. These tools support simple interactions and animations that are intended to be compatible with HTML5 under most circumstances, which means they are fairly limited in what they can do.

Using Flash and Flex, it is possible to bring your most complicated designs to reality, but there is one significant limitation, Mobile.

• Adobe touts it's AIR platform for mobile, but it is really not ready for enterprise grade e-learning materials.
• Flash and Flex have none of the browser and platform compatibility issues that HTML5 does, it works the same in every desktop browser and operating system.
• If complex animations and interactions are what you need, flash is the best bet. If you need to connect to back-end databases and extensive server communication, Flex is the better choice.