If you’ve ever played a YouTube video, caught up on a television series using Hulu, or enjoyed a movie on Netflix Instant Watch, you’ve already experienced the latest wave in the field of learning and development: online web streaming.
Online web streaming is content sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer in real time. Information travels as a stream of data from a server. On the user’s end, a special program is needed to decode the information, such as a stand-alone player or a plug-in that works as part of a Web browser. The player decodes, or uncompresses, the information so you can watch video, live or pre-recorded, free or for a fee.