Skills Label in Other File Formats

How will the learning labels be used by students and professionals? From the landing page – a public URL, students will use the learning labels in different ways (and access different file formats). Here are three examples:

A high school student sees the label and knows what needs to be done, so downloads a PNG label for later – now viewable as a graphic in a carousal viewer on his or her smartphone.

A high school or college student receives a complex task (represented as a label). The student downloads a PDF label to computer or smartphone, accesses the label frequently as he or she completes prerequisites.

A teacher downloads the HTML file to post the label on his or her course website or uploads it to a LMS (learning management system). (There is also a link on the landing page to share as an assignment in Google Classroom – no download necessary.)

Skills Label™ is a standardized display for learning expectations. The optimal file format is what the labels were designed for: SVG (scalable vector graphics). SVGs are scalable, interactive, parseable, and versatile and a popular XML standard (so well supported and documented). These attributes make it an ideal format for the labels.

But, the labels are meant to be a standard and have many uses, so other formats have advantages (as discussed above). It is now possible to interact with the labels in these other file formats: HTML (simply a wrapper), PDF, and PNG. Here are the advantages and disadvantages:

File Type	Advantages	Disadvantages	Uses
SVG (Native)	Sharp, concise display. Scalable to any screen size. Interactive. Mouse-over effects. Live links to resources. Easily parsed and read by machine algorithms. Viewable in all browsers and most image viewing software.	Less familiarity with complex SVGs by users. Fairly easy to edit values.	Embed on website or mobile app. Upload to LMS. Scale to fit on print media. Parse by reader or search engine. Download as file on computer. View in browser.
HTML (Wrapper)	(Same as above)	(Same as above)	(Same as above)
PDF	Single Task Sheet. Easy to access, store on computer / smartphone. Live links to resources. Familiarity of format (PDF). Less easy to modify.	No mouseover effects. Not easy to embed on website. Less concise, more obtrusive representation. No parsing.	Download to computer or smartphone. Move through prerequisites (for longer tasks). Print task sheet.
PNG	Available as graphic and all viewers. Easy to place on website/ app. Easy to transport. Difficult to modify.	Flat, non-interactive. No mouseover. Requires some prior recognition of icons. No links to prerequisites. No parsing.	Download to computer or smartphone. View in image slideshow (carousal).