Free eLearning Suite 2 Workshop

Want to learn what’s new in the Adobe eLearning Suite 2?

Join me on the 27th of October for a free workshop presented by eSyncTraining where I’ll be demonstrating new eLearning Suite 2 features such as the amazing new integration between Adobe Captivate, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and Adobe Soundbooth.

Come and join me and learn why the Adobe eLearning Suite 2 is your complete tool box for creating engaging and interaction eLearning courseware!


eLearning Suite 2 Workshop
Date: 10.27.2010
Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST (2 Hours)
Location: Adobe Connect (Global)

Space in this workshop is limited, so register today.

Advanced Actions: Resources

Advanced Actions provide Adobe Captivate users with the ability to include complex interactions in their Captivate projects.

The problem is that most Adobe Captivate users are not programmers and therefore, many would probably benefit from having a decent set of examples that they can use to understand how Advanced Actions (especially Conditional Actions) work.

If only there was a decent set of articles on how to use Advanced Actions. Well, actually there is!

Ever since Adobe Captivate 5 was launched, my good friend Lieve Weymeis has been beavering away writing articles and creating examples to help you get up to speed with this powerful yet for some bewildering Adobe Captivate feature.

So, if you are dipping your toe into the amazing world of Advanced Actions. This list should provide you with lots of good and practical advice to help you get started.

Customized course menu based on a pretest (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/855/cpsid_85530.html

Constructing test with multiple results (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/852/cpsid_85255.html

Using advanced actions to show conclusion based on multiple scores (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/852/cpsid_85252.html

Question slide with partial scores and customized feedback (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/857/cpsid_85716.html

Video tutorial: Advanced conditional action for Customized feedback (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/858/cpsid_85847.html

Combining Standard and Conditional in one Advanced action (Captivate 5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/862/cpsid_86254.html

Use the power of variables in CP5 (CP4) - without advanced actions (Captivate 4&5)
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/862/cpsid_86299.html

Unleash the power of variables in Captivate 5 (4) with Advanced Actions
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/871/cpsid_87182.html (Captivate 4&5)

Some reasons for labeling
http://lilybiri.posterous.com/some-reasons-for-labeling-in-adobe-captivate

*To blog or not to blog

http://lilybiri.posterous.com/to-blog-or-not-to-blog
*You will need to scroll approximately half way down the page to locate the Advanced Action tip.

The Future of Web Training....Now

eSyncTraining (www.esynctraining.com) announces the arrival of their global platform for the industry’s leading synchronous online learning experience, a web technology training and certification program that offers expert instruction.

For eSyncTraining I will be teaching the following courses:

1. Adobe Captivate: The Essentials
2. Adobe Captivate: Beyond the Essentials

Adobe Captivate 4 Easter Egg

The Adobe Captivate team have revealed a hidden gem in Adobe Captivate 4. For the first time we can get to know the Captivate team a little better.

To access this feature go to Help > Adobe Adobe Captivate. When the About dialog box pops up press the End key on your keyboard.

After a few seconds you will see a Flash demo of the Adobe Captivate team.

At last I can put faces to names!

Adobe Flash Catalyst - First Look

This week Adobe has released the first public beta build of Flash Catalyst on Adobe Labs. Catalyst (formerly known as Thermo) is an application that enables you to quickly build interactive user interfaces and content in Flash without having to perform any coding.



Flash Catalyst enables you to take designs you have created in either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and using Catalyst convert these into interactive components including objects such as buttons, scroll bars etc.

At present Flash Catalyst does not bring anything to the Captivate user’s table. Flash Catalyst SWFs do not seem to play well in Adobe Captivate 4.0.1 even if you create AS 3 projects. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any integration in the future.

One area where I think that Flash Catalyst might be able to help the Captivate user out would be as an alternative to creating Widgets.

Introduced in Adobe Captivate 4, Widgets though extremely powerful, require that you have a solid understanding of Flash and Action Scripting which unfortunately many Captivate users just don’t have and this where I think that Flash Catalyst could be of use. Personally, I would like to have the option of building components from Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator files that I could then be imported and used in my Captivate projects.

If like me you would like to see Catalyst integration with Adobe Captivate in a future version then please do submit an Enhancement Request.

Some might think that I have my head in the clouds here, but as a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society, I don’t consider having my head in the clouds a bad thing.

You can learn more about Adobe Catalyst from the link I have included below.

Learn about Adobe Flash Catalyst.

Adobe Captivate 4.0.1 - What got fixed.

Further to my post on Friday regarding the Adobe Captivate 4.0.1 patch. Below is a complete list of what issues the Captivate team have addressed.

Note: In order to download the Adobe Captivate 4.0.1 patch choose Help > Updates

Audio Quality improvement

• In Captivate 4, some users observed poor audio quality in the published movie. We’ve addressed all the elements that caused this issue. With this patch you will see a noticeable improvement in the audio quality.

USB Microphone support for Vista setups and working well with RealTek and Sigma Tel soundcards

• Captivate failed to recognize USB microphones on the Vista OS. Also, in some instances, specific sound cards were not recognized. Both these issues have now been resolved in the patch.

Open another project’ now works from any location

• In Captivate 4, the navigation option ‘open another project’ was based on an absolute path. This led to issues when these linked projects were published and moved to a different location. This has now been resolved.

Inserting objects at playhead position

• We have worked on an important productivity issue. Now it’s possible to insert objects at the exact position the playhead is on. This is helpful for content developers as they can easily play the slide on timeline, pause the slide at a specific time, and insert objects at the playhead position.

Memory Leak in Image insertion and Editing

• Few customers had reported memory leak issues while inserting and editing images. These have been investigated. The leak was significant only in a specific case and has been resolved now.

Image quality while resizing is improved

• There was some degradation in the image quality when images were resized inside Captivate 4. This patch will help address this.
  

HTML page Title

• Captivate now picks up the title name from Project preferences > Project name section. This name appears as the HTML title when the project is published and viewed in a browser.

Question Type identification by LMS

• This addresses a specific scenario in LMS reporting. We have worked on the way the question type data is reported to LMS systems.

PPT slides containing Master Templates work well with Captivate

• Some PPT files containing Master templates were getting corrupted once published from Captivate 4. This has now been resolved.

Widget Template is modified

• Widget template had a few undefined variables which created compiling problems. This has been sorted out in this patch update.
  

Adobe Captivate Updater Now Available

Adobe has just announced that the Adobe Captivate Windows updater is now available. I am still waiting to find out what has been fixed but you can download this now by selecting Help > Updates to download and install the fixes.

First look at Adobe Acrobat.com Presentations

Yesterday RJ sent a tweet announcing that Adobe Acrobat.com Presentations was available on Adobe Labs, so I thought I would take a look.

Presentations is similar to Buzzword in that it enables you to for free create, edit and best of all just as with Buzzword you can share your files – no need for e-mail attachments here which is very cool to say the least.

Naturally being a Captivate user I want to see whether or not I could insert SWF files into Presentations files. At present you cannot do this (though you could insert an FLV file) so I thought I would add this as a feature request which I did.

Within two hours of sending in my request I get an e-mail back from the Adobe Presentations team telling me that this is something that they will definitely consider.

Straight away I filed another request asking that they also enable a user to import / export Presentations files to PowerPoint format. This would then enable Captivate users to convert a PowerPoint file into an Adobe Captivate project. Just as with the first request, this is something they are also going to look into.

I think that this is another tool that I will be able to integrate into my eLearning production workflow.

Interactive or Page Turning Learning

Recently I have been involved in a discussion about Interactive or page turning learning. For those of you unfamiliar with the term page turning learning, this is the kind of learning where an individual listens and watches a concept being explained by an instructor. The only time they get to interact with the training is when they are asked to click a button to move to the next page / slide. In Adobe Captivate terms page turning learning is the kind of learning you would create as a demonstration.

Before going any further, it is only fair to point out that for over 10 years I created page turning learning in the form of video tutorials for the online training company Virtual Training Company. During this period I received countless e-mails thanking me for developing what was then considered to be some of the best video tutorials on my specialist subject Dreamweaver. I am therefore not completely against this kind of learning.

Additionally, at work I still create our feature tours using Captivates demonstration mode.

However the big question is this. Does page turning training enable learners to grasp the concepts you are trying to teach and make those mental connections required to ensure that they recall what they have learned after a certain period of time?

In most cases, to ensure that a learner can fully grasp what you are trying to teach them they need to engage with the training. If you are reading this and think that this type of interaction can be accomplished simply adding a quiz at the end of your course, then be aware that this might not be a good indication that your learners have been successful. Many learners are able to pass a quiz soon after they have completed a training course, simply because they have a good memory.

So if page turning or demonstration-based learning is considered ineffective, what are the advantages of creating an interactive training course?

Below are some reasons why interactive training can be more effective:

1. It can be measured.
   Demonstration based learning does not provide you with a clear indication of how well a learner performed, whereas with interactive based learning you have the ability to track and score every time a learner interacts with the learning.
   
   Adobe Captivate enables you to track and score each interactive object such as a click box, button etc via the Reporting tab. The interactive data can also be published to a Learning Management System or Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional. In fact any interactive learning project can be treated as a quiz, providing the learner with a score at the end using the Quiz Results slide
   


2. Failure is acceptable.
   One of the reasons why I think that interactive learning can be so effective is because it provides learners with a safe environment in which to fail. Whilst failure isn’t always seen as a positive thing - after all who wants to fail at something, right! – making mistakes can be a very effective way to learn.
   
   There are two advantages here:
   
   Firstly, software training learners (especially those new to a subject) don’t have to worry about breaking the software. In the past when I was a classroom trainer, many students on the first day would want reassurance that they couldn’t damage the software before they were prepared to try out the tasks themselves.
   
   Secondly, Interactive training can provide a learner with feedback that can assist them perform the task at hand. In addition, if they repeatedly fail they can be redirected to an earlier part of the course, or at least encouraged to review additional learning before they continue.
   
   In Adobe Captivate you can provide visual feedback using success, failure and hint captions and redirect additional learning using branching. You can also determine what happens if the learners passes or fails the lesson or course.
   


3. Learners can discover the learning for themselves.
   Thanks to the fact that Adobe Captivate includes the ability to branch, your courses don’t have to be linear. Learners can branch from one section of the course to another, enabling them to discover the learning for themselves.
   
   Adobe Captivate has great branching capabilities, enables you to visualize the branching using the Branching view and thanks to the new scripting feature – Advanced Actions and Variables introduced in Adobe Captivate 4 - provides you with a great set of tools for creating advanced interactivity.
   
   If you need to go the extra mile and own the Adobe eLearning Suite, you can create even more complex interactivity using Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, which includes a comprehensive set of Learning Interactions.
   


4. It is self-paced.
   Another benefit of interactive learning is that it enables a learner to learn at their own pace. As creator of eLearning content as well as a consumer, I want to understand the steps being demonstrated before the instructor moves on to even more advanced concepts.
   
   There have been many occasions when watching a video tutorial where I have shouted back at the screen “back up, I don’t get that bit, show me those steps again.”
   
   Yes, you can always just rewind the video and play it again, but that certainly isn’t as effective as being able to try out the steps for yourself before you move on to the next series of steps.
   
   Using the self-paced option built into the Table of Contents feature you can enable learners to dip in and out of a training course.

Can page turning learning ever be effective?

In some cases this style of learning can still be very effective, particularly if you are creating learning for advanced learning where a learner is already very comfortable in the subject matter but just wants to take this to the next level.

It is also fair to say that in the right hands demonstration based learning can be a very powerful tool.

Both Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter (part of the Adobe eLearning Suite) can be used to create good quality demonstration based learning.

In some cases even with interactive training it is possible to sprinkle bits of demonstration learning. An example of which in where a learner is already performed a particular task several times earlier in the course and easing of the interactive peddle is possible.

Happy Holidays for Monday

Clearing dat file

Sometimes Adobe Captivate (like any other piece of software) can behave oddly. Instances where the Timeline won’t open or a certain project won’t publish properly are just two examples of the sort of problems I have experienced over the years working with this program.

The blame for many of the issues you experience in Adobe Captivate can be laid firmly at the door of Captivates DAT file.

Many software applications use dat files. In short this file type is used to store some kind of data.

In the case of Adobe Captivate the .dat file is used (amongst other things) to store session preferences. Adobe Captivate has two kinds of preferences. Project and Session preferences.

Project Preferences
These are the preferences that are specific to a project, such as publish or quiz settings. Project preferences are stored in the Adobe Captivate file itself so that they can travel with the project.

Session preferences
Session preferences are ones that are applied to all projects, for example if you change an objects default settings then these are changed for all the projects. It is these kinds of preferences that are stored in the .dat file.

Adobe Captivates .dat file – in the case of Adobe Captivate 4 called captivate_v40.dat - can be found in the following location.

Windows Vista
Drive Letter\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Captivate

Windows XP
Drive Letter \Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Captivate

Note: You will need to make sure that you have set the Windows Folder option – Show hidden files and folders before you will be able to see the Document and Settings Folder.

It is also possible to peak inside your Adobe Captivate .dat file by opening it up in a text editor. However I would first recommend that you create copy of any application file before attempting to open it.



Above is an example of the type of information stored in the Adobe Captivate 4 .dat file.

Why the .dat file sometimes becomes corrupted is unclear but the good news is that removing this does seem to solve many of the problems you may encounter.

Replacing the .dat file

Replacing the .dat file is incredibly straight forward. Start by closing Adobe Captivate and then rename or move the captivate_v40.dat file outside of the Adobe Captivate folder.

The next time you start Adobe Captivate, the program will automatically re-create the .dat file for you.

Photoshop Product Manager Blogs about CSS Designer Starter Kit

John Nack, Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop has very kindly blogged about the WebAssist CSS Designer Starter Kit for Photshop. You can read what John had to say on his blog.

Although this was the last project I worked on in Adobe Captivate 3, we did recently updated this interactive training package to include some detailed information on helping learners visualize the box model so I did manage to add some advanced actions, including an image toggle button, which I will blog about another time.