While the official sunset of Flash/SWF files isn't until 2020, educators who have created narrated PowerPoint/Adobe Connect lectures may be feeling lost in the fray. What are the alternatives? Aren’t they costly? This session will look at instructor-created video alternatives that are more interactive, engaging and accessible.
While the official sunset of Flash or swf files isn't until 2020, many browsers and services will no longer provide support by the end of 2018, if they haven't ceased already. While other industries have been preparing for this shift in online content delivery methods, educators who have created numerous narrated PowerPoint lectures may be feeling lost in the fray. Some instructors may not even be fully aware yet that recordings in Adobe Connect, old iSpring and other Flash/SWF-based software will soon be inaccessible to their students on their computers. Three long standing issues with Flash/SWF-based software have been security concerns, not being mobile-compatible, and the lack of online accessibility support for students with Deaf/Hard of Hearing needs. However with the upcoming sunset, this has increased the urgency for institutions to address how to move forward from Flash/SWF environments. Since early 2018, the University of Central Florida has been raising awareness of this concern to their faculty through communication from their instructional designers, newsletters and notification from administrators. What are the alternatives to traditional narrated PowerPoints? Does it require starting over? Aren’t the other options costly? Not all of them, but time will likely be required to fully remediate or replace legacy lectures in PowerPoint. This session will look at alternatives to instructor-created educational videos that have the potential to be more interactive, engaging and accessible. Participants will also be encouraged to share what they have found to be workable HTML5 alternatives to narrated PowerPoint lectures.