You have less control over how your materials are presented on an eBook reader compared to traditional text. The diagram below “eBook Limitations” points out some of the traditional print features that you will lose when moving to most eBook formats. (No custom headers, No custom fonts, No custom footers, No text in margins, and no pagination control).

eBook Limitations – (C) 2012 Prophero

One of the major decisions is what to do with your margin content. You will need to decide if the information in the margin is necessary and if so, find another place for it. For example, if glossary definitions are in the margin you can move them in-line to the end of the chapter. Or, if “Helpful Tips” are in the margin, you can move them up to below the chapter title, or after the introductory paragraph.

Something else to take a look at is if your content refers to page numbers. This does not work in eBook because every reader will paginate your content differently. Instead of instructions like “Refer to diagram 17c on page 239”, use something like “Refer to diagram: ‘Food Pyramid’” and remember to place the diagram close to where it is referenced.

These are some of the more significant limitations that you will encounter when moving to an eBook format. Please look forward to future posts that will dive deeper into this topic. If you have any questions or advice from personal eBook experiences please leave a comment or email me.

Moodle is an open source LMS, written in PHP that can use a number of different database back-ends such as MySQL and SQL Server.  It provides a lot of functionality right out the box including a role based user system (teachers, students, administrators, etc) as well as enrollment, course setup/delivery, assessments, grade tracking, user forums, SCORM compatibility, and much more.

Given the rich feature set of Moodle, it allowed our client to get their LMS up and running quickly and gave them time to focus on what matters most, their content.

Over the course of a few weeks, we built an engine that took our client’s XML content (and all of their complex learning interactions) and generated an HTML5 output that could be used in the browser on a desktop, tablet or mobile device.  While the final product looked great and all the interactions functioned, the problem was we ignored a key element:  that interactions on a mobile device are fundamentally different than those on larger screens.

We quickly learned that mobile interactions, especially in a learning environment, need to be thought of differently than their desktop counterparts.  For example, a simple drag and drop interaction, which works well on large form factors, doesn’t translate to a mobile device.  What we learned is that when targeting a mobile or tablet device for educational content delivery, screen size has to be a factor for determining what interactions the student is presented with.  What works well on the desktop needs to be approached differently or left out of the mobile product all together.

Devices such as smartphones and tablets have introduced new, unique, and creative ways for students to consume content.  For organizations already delivering online learning via Flash, the predominant question is how to deliver that same content on mobile devices.

One of our clients has been using Flash exclusively to deliver their learning materials online.  Flash makes for a great student experience because you can create learning materials with interactive content, animations and videos.  But as great as Flash works on the desktop, it works poorly on mobile devices (if it works at all).

Because mobile is where more and more students are turning (they want to learn on their iPads, Androids, and iPhones), the best format in which to deliver content across all of these platforms is HTML5.  But, how can this be accomplished without rewriting all of that content that is currently being delivered in Flash?

You may think that since this client’s online products are all delivered in Flash that they are going to have difficulty delivering to mobile devices, but they are not.  Because all of their learning content is single-sourced, they are in a position to move to new distribution technologies with relative ease.  Rather than having to worry about rewriting content, they can focus on creating the HTML5 output desired and shorten the time needed to deliver their content to mobile devices.

It is important to our client to have offerings for these new platforms in order to satisfy the needs of their students and generate new revenue.  By single-sourcing your learning content you can distribute your content across an increasing number of platforms with ease.  If you don’t single-source your content, you may be stuck in an old technology that limits your reach and revenue potential.