A product review I hear you say? Andy hasn’t done one of those before! But in this occasion, I have seen something that I believe could have some great use in the L&D world.
Back in the 80’s, we all experimented in the delivery of Interactive Video or Laser Disks – you remember those? About the size of an LP (or vinyl as it’s now known!). The modern day CD is on the right:
The difference between a laser disk and a DVD
Now we have moved on to the “YouTube” era where video on demand is the norm, we have often lost the ability to be as interactive as we were back then. The tool I have recently seen changes all that and introduced an ability to create hot spots on moving video – unlike the interactivity of the past, this technique allows a moving object to have clickable hotspots.
The tool is called DAz and it’s not something you can buy but the service is available from the joint developers at http://www.outtakes.co.uk/. Here’s an example they have developed for London Underground. You will need to be using Chrome, Safari or IE9 & above for this one. The hotspots you are looking for in this clip are health and safety related – if, like me, you have no idea of the hazards of working on the Underground, simply click the “Visibility” button and they will appear to help you!
[iframe src=”http://www.fernandocabello.eu/tubetunnel/” width=”1000″ height=”600″]
At the moment, this tool doesn’t have SCORM or xAPI support – but having spent some time with Outtakes, they are now talking to their development partners about adding this.
Once we are able to access the status of the interactivity in these films, then we will have something I think is quite exciting for the world of online learning. In addition to developing new learning content, this technique can also be applied to existing film assets we may have giving us an opportunity to extend their shelf life! Here’s another example, this time inside a warehouse:
[iframe src=”http://www.fernandocabello.eu/tubelines/” width=”1000″ height=”600″]
One of the people involved in the development of this tool, Professor Martin Wright had this to add:
” I am excited about how Outtakes plan to use the DAz interactivity for video in learning and have been delighted to be involved in its development as the interactive use of video has been a career long interest of mine.”
Outtakes has a highly skilled and experienced in-house production team who make great quality, innovative films for training, promotion and advertsing. They have produced safety films covering everything from hearing loss in the music industry, to safe driving, accident investigation to manual handling. Take a look at their showreel and contact them via www.outtakes.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgNj5qR_4iw
UPDATE: Since writing this blog post, I have been able to introduce Outtakes to my good friends at Transition Associates and the end result is that DAz is also now SCORM compliant so these interactions can be scored (or not if the student doesn’t spot them!).
Check out their new promotional video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnIKUUP5pbE
Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in any company mentioned in this blog – I just think this is a superb product!