HTML5/scaleable web content



A big step forward for open education is new web standards such as HTML5 and content that is better able to scale to multiple devices. With the proliferation of different internet enabled devices, displaying content in a viewable and useable way has been challenging for a few years.

New standards are making it much easier for content to be able to be created once and displayed on many different devices, this is important because the cost of developing apps and keeping them updated for various different app stores is onerous and challenging for many who work in educational establishments.

HTML5 publishing can allow content to be created, hosted online and then viewed on many different devices, this should also mean it scales correctly making content much more user friendly when viewed on small screens. This is important because it means content that one may have required a laptop or PC to view, should now be much more available and accessible from mobile devices as well.

The majority of examples given within the OU  H817 'Technologies for openness' , are either available now, or being made available as HTML5 standard sites. This is to ensure that they are kept up to date, secure and deployable on many different devices. So the underlying technology of all of these examples relies on this standard. I would therefore argue it is a very important infrastructure.

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