Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is purely the codes that are used by developers to develop the web pages.

The first version of HTML was created in 1993. From HTML 1.0 to HTML5, there are a lot of changes and updations that helped in evolving to improved versions and the final version of HTML5 was released in October 2014.

With the increasing adoption of HTML5 across the industries, there are visible changes in the e-learning industry too. This is evidently visible in the huge number of HTML5 rapid authoring tools that are becoming more popular with the developers.

Hence let’s see what are the reasons for choosing HTML5 as an authoring tool for mobile learning development.

1.Mobile, Mobile and Mobile…

According to Stat Counter, the combined market share of mobile devices(smartphone and tablets) accounts to 55.88% whereas the desktop market share is 44.12% which is expected to go down farther below. With the increasing penetration of mobile devices around the world, there is no doubt that we are going to see an increasing demand and use of mobile devices for various purposes including learning.

HTML5 was created with a future-proof approach to ensure that it has a greater capability to handle mobile-friendly content. Hence, I feel that adopting HTML5 authoring tool is simply the correct strategy to develop mobile-friendly e-learning courses.

2.Obsolete Technologies

Another two years from now and 2020 will mark an end of an era for Flash and flash based content. Hence the e-learning content that are developed on flash formats will not be playable on the modern devices and web browsers. For example, Apple no longer allows the flash content on its devices and operating system.

Hence choosing HTML5 as an authoring tool for mobile learning development is the best-recommended way as it is the technology for the future.

3.Handling of Multimedia Content

While developing e-learning content for mobile devices, the developers should ensure that the multimedia used is handled properly.

For example, don’t squeeze the multimedia content in the limited screen space of mobile devices. Also, the developers should ensure that the multimedia content can be played properly across the devices. HTML5 supports the various latest formats and helps in better handling of multimedia content.

For example, HTML5 don’t require extra plugins and tools to run videos and audios and can be easily played across any supporting browser.

4.Animations and Interactivity

While Flash was an absolute major in developing animations and interactivity etc., HTML5 is not behind. There are tools that allow to draw 2D/3D elements and animate them using HTML codes, etc. HTML5 provides better support for graphics and interactive online features such as drag and drop, file sharing or even online video editing, etc. With continuous development in HTML5, we can expect more functions and features to be added.

5.Cross-Browser Support

Mobile devices with various screen sizes and with a big list of web browsers available in the market, it becomes very important to ensure the cross-browser support. The latest and commonly used internet browsers like Safari, Chrome, Firefox etc. supports HTML5. Hence choosing HTML5 as an authoring tool for mobile learning development can ensure the same level of learning  experience across the browsers and devices. The use of HTML and CSS further helps to automatically resize, shrink, or enlarge, a website or content to make it look good on all devices with varying screen sizes

6.HTML5 is the future.

HTML5 is the future and the new industry standard. With more and more organisations shifting to HTML5, for example, Google, Apple Youtube etc. are already contributing to the development of HTML5.

Hence, HTML5  is here to stay and these are the top six reasons for choosing HTML5 as an authoring tool for mobile learning development.