The revolution in e-learning today is to deliver a solid combination of information, communication, education, and training ONLINE. The goal is to enhance traditional learning and thus increase the value of textbook studies, CD-ROM and traditional computer based training. The most important element of e-learning is none other than the use of Rich-Media contents. Courseware will not be effective without visual aids, animation, interactivity, and narration. These components make successful training programs and give your company a chance to see a positive return on investment (ROI).

Why Rich-Media?

When used in e-Learning, trainers can create powerful presentation contents with the combination of audio, video, presentation slides, html pages, and interactive chat & polling functions which creates a "virtual classroom" environment.

To evaluate the success of a training or learning course, it is usually judged on the amount of knowledge received by the learners. Whether it is for attracting or retaining new customers, or helping your sales force to sell more products, your message must first be received, understood and retained by the other end, whether you are talking to employees, partners or customers.

A study published in "Cognitive Science" has shown that the amount of knowledge retained from seeing and hearing is over 50% comparing to 10% for reading alone. Plus, the added collaboration by learners can increase knowledge retention by up to 70%. With a rich-media application like StreamAuthor, it enables trainers to produce presentations with video recordings (see and hear), and creating questionnaires or online quiz sessions to add user participation to the learning course.

Issues to Consider?

Rich media e-Learning is effective, but some elements of rich-media can cause big problems when being implemented. Very often, trainers have forgotten the other major component of e-Learning and that is the Internet. A lot of trainers have built up rich-media courseware suitable only for people with LAN and DSL connections, but not many students have the luxury of having high-speed Internet connections at home. Below, we will briefly take a look at the types of rich-media elements for creating an effective e-Learning presentation.

Image Format: The most suitable image file formats for the web are either GIF or JPG. For clipart image, basic drawings, or screen captures with fewer than 256 colors, you can use GIF format. Whereas for photograph images with more than 256 colors you can use the JPG file format.

Animation: Macromedia Flash is the most effective animation tool for the web. The Flash program is safe for most web browsers, and it also delivers quality images even when changing image size or screen resolutions. The animated GIF format is also another option for simply looping animations.

Video Files: The most popular formats for digital video on the web has to be Windows Media, Apple Quick Time and RealVideo. These are streamable formats, where a portion gets downloaded, and then the video file will start to play. Meanwhile, at the same time, the file continues to download to the end user's machine. Choosing to output in a multiple bit rate file, using StreamAuthor, also your presentation can be viewed across various different bandwidths.

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