For Your Reading Pleasure: EasyCaptions

Introducing EasyCaptions: A simple system for adding captions and an interactive transcript to online videos. EasyCaptions uses progressive enhancement to provide the best possible experience for all visitors, regardless of their browser’s JavaScript, HTML5 or Flash support.

Customizing SCORM Manifests in Captivate and Articulate Presenter

Someone recently asked me if it was possible to customize Captivate’s SCORM template to reduce the need for manual editing after publishing. In her case, the manifest needed to be edited to include SumTotal TotalLMS’s custom SCORM extensions. The answer is yes. Here’s how.

HTML5 Video, minus Ogg

Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, refuse to support the MP4/H.264 standard because it isn’t open-source and free from licensing constraints. Without Ogg, Firefox’s HTML5 video is rendered useless and requires a Flash-based fallback system. However, Firefox’s handling of the video element breaks the fallback mechanism. A scripted solution is required.

Here’s a simple script that will detect whether HTML 5 video is supported in the browser, and if it is, will check to see if this is Firefox. If yes, it deletes the specified video element but leaves the Flash fallback in its place.

Rule of Thirds tutorial

Rule of Thirds is quick and fun tutorial explaining the concept of the rule of thirds as used in visual design.

JavaScript removeClasses utility

MooTools’ removeClass utility will only work if the classes you want to remove are listed in the same order as the target element’s className property. Here’s a new removeClasses utility that fixes this shortcoming. A framework-neutral version is also provided.

Viewing PDFs in a Browser on a Mac

As a Mac user, one of the more annoying issues I frequently encounter is funky PDF handling in Firefox and Safari. Here are some things you can do to get PDFs working in your browser(s).

Mac Mini Server

In my last post, I explained my frustration with web hosting services and how this frustration led me to purchase my own server. In this post, I will briefly touch on some of the ups and downs I’ve experienced with the Mac Mini Server and its Snow Leopard Server software.

Best Practices in E-Learning

There’s a big difference between best practices in terms of learning theory — something that’s difficult to quantify and/or prove — and technology.