Common Terms

CBT
Computer-based training, typically delivered on CD-ROM, or from a mainframe.

CD-ROM
A type of optical disk capable of storing large amounts of data -- up to 1GB, although the most common size is 650MB. A single CD-ROM has the storage capacity of 700 floppy disks, enough memory to store about 300,000 text pages.
CD-ROMs are particularly well-suited to information that requires large storage capacity. This includes color large software applications, graphics, sound, and especially video.

Distance learning
The use of telecommunications technology to reach an audience when the presenter is in one location and the audience is in another location.

DVD
The DVD specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB. DVD uses MPEG-2 to compress video data.

E-Learning
The delivery of formal and informal learning and training activities, processes, communities and events via the use of all electronic media like Internet, intranet, extranet, CD-ROM, video tape, DVD, TV, cell phones, personal organizers etc....

Flash
A bandwidth friendly and browser independent vector-graphic animation technology. As long as different browsers are equipped with the necessary plug-ins, Flash animations will look the same.
With Flash, users can draw their own animations or import other vector-based images.

HTML
Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes.

MPEG
Short for Moving Picture Experts Group, and pronounced m-peg. The term also refers to the family of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the group. MPEG generally produces better-quality video than competing formats, such as Video for Windows, Indeo and QuickTime. MPEG files can be decoded by special hardware or by software.
MPEG achieves high compression rate by storing only the changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire frame.
There are three major MPEG standards: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.
MPEG-2 offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including NTSC, and even HDTV. MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMs. MPEG-2 can compress a 2 hour video into a few gigabytes. While decompressing an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.
MPEG-4 is a graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and Apple QuickTime technology. Wavelet-based MPEG-4 files are smaller than JPEG or QuickTime files, so they are designed to transmit video and images over a narrower bandwidth and can mix video with text, graphics and 2-D and 3-D animation layers.

Multimedia
The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. Nearly all PCs are capable of displaying video, though the resolution available depends on the power of the computer's video adapter and CPU. Because of the storage demands of multimedia applications, the most effective media are CD-ROMs.

Streaming
A technique for transferring data such that it can be processed as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly important with the growth of the Internet because most users do not have fast enough access to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the client browser or plug-in can start displaying the data before the entire file has been transmitted.