Rapid Interactive eLearning: Using Template-Driven Development Based on Flash and XML

I recommend Rapid Intake because the course templates are customizable and the support is great.

-- Chad Titensor, U.S. Air Force

It's Faster and Easier

First of all, templates make creating interactive elearning fast and simple. Learn how to fill out the form, plug in your content, and you have a Flash-based interaction or content piece that anyone can build with no programming.

It's More Predictable

Template-driven development is more predictable than other methods. This is important for the learner--once they have gone through one course, other courses are similar. The information may differ, but the use of similar interaction templates for similar types of content will allow them to focus on learning the content and not on figuring out a new approach for every course they take.

It's also a predictable for the content developer and project manager. You can more easily and accurately estimate how long it will take to build content, and thereby keep your project on schedule more often than not.

It's More Maintainable

You may not think about this when you are creating your first few elearning courses, but after you've created dozens, you'll find out that course maintenance is almost as important to consider as creating the course in the first place. Because the templates are driven by Flash and XML, it's easy to update and maintain content. And if you need to make a functional change to a template, you only need to change it in one place and it affects every content page in the course based on that template.

It's Based on Instructional Patterns

Why reinvent the wheel every time you encounter the same instructional problem? Find an interaction that works effectively for learning that kind of content and use that same approach each time you encounter that kind of content. This is what we call pattern-based elearning development. Using this approach you can build effective courses quickly and inexpensively.

For a good example of this, check out the Branching Scenario Simulation Template that is included in Rapid Intake elearning tools. You wouldn't want to program this whole simulation every time you run into a situation that requires this approach.

Download the white paper about instructional patterns.

What About Flexibility? The Best of Both Worlds

When you consider templates, you might ask, "But what about flexible creativity?" First of all, even though we all want unfettered creative license, letting instructional designers or content owners have full flexibility may not always be the best decision. Imagine how long it would take if every page had to be designed, approved, and built from scratch. Also imagine the errors that can be introduced using this kind of development. You project becomes unwieldy very quickly using this approach.

So, a rule of thumb might be: if a template can be used to teach the content, it's usually better to use it.

Still, we understand the need that causes this question. Sometimes you need to be able to lay out things the way you want, animate them, synchronize some audio, and so on, and perhaps there's not a template that fits that specific instance. That's when you need to fire up Rapid Intake SWiSH. SWiSH allows you to quickly layout, animate, and synchronize audio without any programming, then include the result in your course. SWiSH is included in Rapid Intake ProForm and can be purchased as an add-on tool for Rapid Intake Unison.

You can also include any other Flash movie (SWF) from any other source at any time in your content, so you have flexibility of including content from lots of other tools as well.

You Can Build Your Own Templates

Finally, remember that you can create your own templates. Because Rapid Intake includes the FlashSource module that gives you unlimited access to the Flash source code and other tools, you have the ultimate in flexibility. This is the best of all worlds because you can build a reusable template library that fits your exact needs. Not only can you customize the look and feel of the interface, but you can modify or build custom content interactions. For example, imagine a learning game that you want to include, but suppose that it's not part of the Rapid Intake template library. If you plan on including the same game in multiple courses or multiple times in a course, it might make sense to "templatize" the interaction rather than build the game as a "one-off".  Have a Flash programmer build the game in Flash and then have them make it XML-driven, build the form associated with it, and plug it into the Rapid Intake tools you're using. From then on, anyone can build that game without any programming!

Not sure you have the skills, attend our training, or ask our Professional Services team to do it for you.