Apps vs. Browser-Based eLearning

For eLearning, what’s best?  An app or a browser?

1 May 2015

Phil Cowcill, Coordinator of Mobile Application Development, Advertising Marketing Communications at Canadore College gave a webinar this morning titled Rapid Mobile Development using AIR for Android/iOS, Apple’s Xcode using the new Swift language.

While I’m not ready to learn Xcode just yet, I was interested to hear about Adobe AIR. Apparently, it’s a runtime wrapper that allows you to run Flash files on iOS or Android.

I appreciate Phil, and his colleagues at Allen Interactions, offering this free webinar. Even if I’m not currently interested in using Xcode, the webinar made me think about app-based versus browser-based elearning.
For years, I created Flash-based elearning with Captivate. I still like Captivate, but I find I use Storyline more often now, to create HTML5-based elearning. My courses are usually designed to be accessed from a browser.

The question I found myself asking is: For elearning, do my learners need an app, or is a browser sufficient?

I would guess that the answer lies in the context. For example, if I need my learners to access the content offline, perhaps an app is the best choice. If I can assume stable internet access and a minimum level of hardware and software, perhaps a browser will be fine.

I’m very interested in learning more about xAPI and its integration with elearning. I wonder if having the elearning in an app versus a browser would make a difference when integrating it with xAPI?

Many thanks to Phil Cowcill and Allen Interactions, for giving me plenty of food for thought.  What is your experience with app-based elearning vs. browser-based elearning?  Let’s start a discussion.  Respond here, or on Twitter.