Countless clichés speak to importance of visuals (see this post’s headline for an example), so it’s no surprise that schools are increasingly seeing the value of video technology in the classroom. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Cisco (and reported by eSchoolNews) found that over 50 percent of technology officials in K-12 schools will invest in video technology in the next year. That’s an impressive statistic, and one we’re ready for; the latest Haiku LMS upgrades include improvements to information display:

• Video Encoding. Just like your favorite web video services like YouTube, TeacherTube and Vimeo, Haiku LMS now encodes your videos automatically in a universal, web-friendly format (h.264) when you upload them via a Video Block.
• Improved Video and Audio Playback. Now when you upload a movie in a supported format Haiku LMS will play it back embedded in our new attractive, customized player (includes a timer for your video/audio labs). That means you can play video directly on the page rather than opening another application like QuickTime.
  Watch tutorial >>
• HTML in Assessment Questions. Substance affects style and style substance, and with the ability to include HTML in Assessment multiple choice and matching options educators can provide greater context with links and better convey information with tables, text formatting, and so on.
• Image Captions. When you add inline images to a text block, now you can create and style captions as part of the image upload step.

Of course, the release includes quite a number of other updates and fixes, too – mostly adjustments we’ve made under the hood. You’re welcome to take a peek at the complete release notes. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback!