Captivate Demonstrations & Simulations

[Guest]

Hi all,

Well, two weeks have gone by, and I'm 75% finished creating my first Captivate class!  Now, I'm running into a little bit of a problem.  I've recorded all my application screens (like in a movie), but I don't know if that's called a simulation or a demonstration.  I've also done all the audio, and I've put in my quiz at the end.  But now, I want to be able to add in interactivity, whereby the user has to do the clicking after just learning from my recordings and audio.  Is that a simulation or a demonstration or something else?  Can you give me some pointers on how to do this?

Also, to Rick, thank you so much for your book!  It's great, and you have been a lifesaver!

Sincerely,

Terri

[Guest]

A better way to put this is I want to be able to add content whereby the user demonstrates they have learned.  I've seen it done in other people's captivate projects, but I myself don't know how to set that up.  Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

When you capture in Automatic mode, you get the choice to capture Demonstration, Training Simulation and/or Assessment Training. So you can have three kind of movies at once. If you want a real training, with some indications go for Training Simulation. If you want to offer a test, go for Assessment training. The differences between those modes are visible in Preferences (Edit menu), Recording, Modes. You can see what will be added in Demonstration, Training, Assessment mode here (dropdown list is on top).

Lilybiri

[Guest]

Thank you!  This is very helpful, but now I'm in trouble.  I already created the project, and I don't think I selected all three of those items, Demo, Assessment and Training.  I have demo's, audio and a quiz.  Now what?  Do I have to start all over?  I hope not.  I really appreciate your help!

Warmly,

Terri

[Lilybiri]

Hello Terri,

It is not necessary to select the three of them, just wanted to show you were the different modes were in the dialog box.  Changing manually will be a lot of work, because the difference between a demonstration and a training simulation is significant. The easiest way would be to recapture the slides in training mode, you can use the audio from the demonstration (use external library or export/import the audio clips) and you can copy the quiz slides.

If you want to do it manually, here are the steps to be done:

• Delete the text captions that were added automatically or change them to be appropriate for a training (try to capture a small training sim to see the difference)
• Delete the mouse objects on all the slides
• Delete the highlight boxes that were automatically added to show where the mouse click occurs
• Add click boxes where the mouse has clicked, and eventually change the captions and the number of attempts
• Look for typing objects (that are filling in text fields), change them to Text Animation (right-mouse click menu), delete them and replace by a Text Entry Box, that you'll have to configure for validation

Of course double-check the work flow.

It is much easier to change a training simulation into an assessment simulation because the difference is not that big.

Lilybiri

[Guest]

Wow, this is significant.  The thing is, I don't want to change the demonstration slides.  I want to keep them in, and put in simulations right after them.  In other words, I want to show the trainee how to do something, then I want them to do it.  So I guess I will have to copy the demonstration slides and then follow your steps.  Does that seem right?  I am so grateful for your help!  You just don't know! 

Warmly, Terri

[Captiv8r]

Hi Terri

You could record in simulation mode, then copy those slides and paste them into the project immediately after the demonstration mode.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Thanks, Rick!  That's also very helpful.  Your book is awesome!  Thank you so much for offering it to me.  I've learned so much!  I feel like I've had the benefit of going to a live class. 

Warmly,

Terri

[Captiv8r]

Awww, thanks for the kudos!

That was the intent of the guide. Very happy you seem to be enjoying it!

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[Simmy_renicks]

Thanks for this - I think I may have had been aproaching things wrongly with Captivate. Would you say it is better to produce your course module in another product and then record the slides and anotate in Captivate - as appose to trying to handle layouts, backgrounds etc in Captivate?

I hope to have Learning Designers populate Templates in Powerpoint so I can then recording the slides and importing into Captivate. The idea is that this will take care of the majority of the layout issues and I can then, hopefully get to grips with Advanced Actions and handle any Interactive slides. Does anyone one have a successful production process that they wouldn't mind sharing? Just the basics would be a great start.

Generally the courses would be structured in a course in moodle. Users then select seperate modules from the Moodle course menu. Each section is linear and typically 15 slides long with basic navigation back and forth between them. Every few pages the users are asked a basic question, which is not marked, and after attempting this they will then be presented with a fuller explanation, regardless of their choice.

Regards,

Simpson

[Lilybiri]

Hello 

Please, could you explain how you did conclude from this thread that you should create course module in another product and then record? OMG this must be a terrible misunderstanding. Personally I would never use Powerpoint imported slides to be the base for a course module. If you want a presentation, go with Powerpoint, eventually you can convert it quickly for Flash output with Presenter or with Captivate. If you want a real learning module, go with authoring tools, not with PPT. I never regretted having chosen Captivate. If you want to stay with Powerpoint, use Presenter or eventually go with another plug-in like Articulate. But you should be aware that basically you are working with a presentation tool, with the ease of use but also with its limitations.

Captivate is different, take some time to get acquainted and you will be astonished about its functionalities. Mixing with PPT will only complicate the situation IMO.

Start with a thorough preparation of your course: there is a lot online about that (storyboarding, use of media, educational principles). With that in mind I have been testing a whole range of authoring tools (Lectora, Smartbuilder, Articulate, Viewletbuilder, Camtasia...) and was looking for a tool that did allow for more functionalities, more flexibility to cope with my expectations. Only Lectora and Captivate were left after my screening, but Lectora had not the functionalities for creating software training simulations, nor assessments, and since I do teach not only theory but also software, I did go with Captivate (about 5yrs ago). The later integration with the eLearning Suite even made me abandon all other tools, except occasionally a small FMR-clip with Camtasia.

Must confess that I took the time to learn Captivate, never by formal training, but by practice and by answering questions on this forum. That is the reason why I try to warn you against going with ppt-templates if you have in mind to integrate them with CP. My intuition tells me that you will be losing time when trying to integrate those two totally different apps.

Sorry for this long post,

Lilybiri

[Simmy_renicks]

Thanks Lilybiri,

I really do appreciate your full and comprehensive answers. I simply followed your directions to terri 'steps to be done:' and I must admit that the course came together very quickly. I had of course already spent time developing it in the other software first, which was Authorware.

After a few failed attempts with Captivate, which I thought were perfomance issuses but as you explained to me last week had more to do with my inefficient use of CP objects. I recreated the project in Authorware. I've been Producing CBT/WBT courses for almost 20 yrs using Authorware and Director, I then had to get my head around Flash, all this time attempting to learn/handle SCORM and deliver the courses in multitude of emerging LMS. About 10 years ago I got more into Project Management leaving the development side behind.

In my current role, I was brought in to update a clients existing Authorware courses into my Flash Templates I had. This was all going swimmingly until they also asked me to create some new courses for them. I looked at captivate and saw the many wonderful claims that it made and was sold on it. Particularly, their claim to: 'Import Microsoft PowerPoint files into Adobe Captivate 5.5 (they made the same claim for 5) and magically transform presentations into interactive eLearning content deliverable virtually anywhere'. I thought that this would lend itself to allowing the Lawyers here acting as Learning Designers to create their storyboards effectively in some PowerPoint templates.

All my courses are Interactive training of softskills, so not much IT simulation, but I have struggled with CP logic. Do we really need to be so conservative when building files using CP objects? I'm not sure if it's our servers here or the web conection in general but has anyone else had issues with rollovers not appearing for quite a while, or radio buttons not populating instantly when clicked upon?

I once spent a whole weekend working with a client, who did not have an LMS setting up the alternative reporting, only for it to work once and then never again. After extensive research of this issue I discovered that Adobes Official response was that, 'this doesn't work for eveyone'.

I have seen other peoples examples of CP files and I am impressed but I can't seem to grasp the concept. It is now getting very pressing as I may have to cut my loisses and re-develop the whole course ,18 Modules, in my very dependable flash templates - easily two weeks work.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Simpson

[Simmy_renicks]

Would anyone be willing to provide a sample file containing basic navigation between slides and perhaps some advanced actions on some, for me to disect and see where I am going wrong?

[AndyKingInOC]

Simmy_renicks wrote:

I'm not sure if it's our servers here or the web conection in general but has anyone else had issues with rollovers not appearing for quite a while, or radio buttons not populating instantly when clicked upon?

My understanding of SWF is once the file is loaded it all runs locally; servers or network throughput shouldn't matter.  I'm curious what kind of hardware and browsers are being used?  Based on your description you aren't using SCORM and sometimes the reporting options there can impact performance. 

You shouldn't have to re-capture your screens once it's done the first time, but instead duplicate the slides and manipulate them as you need.  You might have to add or remove objects from each slide to accomplish what you need at that point, but the time consuming recording process should be avoidable.

As for powerpoint.. I find the results are can be less than optimal with the import.  Mostly I noticed a loss of graphic quality that irks me.  But that's a personal thing.  We're trying to establish a similar process to what you describe, where less-skilled people would put together a PPT storyboard and someone using Cp would import the slides, clean them up, add what is needed, and boom there's a new eLearning module.  For short, simple, less-complex interactions it will work fine.  For us it's a matter of fine tuning the PPT templates to ensure clean imports to Captivate.  It can be done, but it does require some back-end work first, in my experience; your mileage may vary.

Sorry I can't provide a sample file to help you there, company doesn't allow it.  I'm not as accomplished with advanced actions as some others, but I do OK.  If you're still looking for assistance there, feel free to send a private message and I'll try to help as best I can.