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Developing Interactive CBTs in Half the Time . with Adobe Captivate 2. Kevin A. Siegel IconLogic, Inc. www.iconlogic.com | ksiegel@iconlogic.com. What is Captivate?. Adobe Captivate is a CBT authoring tool Software Simulations Soft skills Training Courses
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Developing Interactive CBTs in Half the Time with Adobe Captivate 2 Kevin A. SiegelIconLogic, Inc.www.iconlogic.com | ksiegel@iconlogic.com
What is Captivate? • Adobe Captivate is a CBT authoring tool • Software Simulations • Soft skills Training Courses • While recording your Captivate movies in automatic mode, you have a few recording options including: • Demonstration • Assessment Simulation • Training Simulation
Ideal System Settings • Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 • Capture Area: 800x600 • Desktop Theme: Windows Standard • Active Title Bars: One color • Captions: Fade-In Only • One caption per slide • Click Boxes/Buttons: Go to next slide, NOT Continue
Ideal System Settings • Turn off Auto Size Captions • Turn off Calculate Caption Timing • Turn off Full Motion Recording • Frame Rate: 20 fps works great(Default is 30) • Check List for Creating Movies: http://www.iconlogic.com/pdf/CaptivateCheckOffSheet.pdf • IconLogic eLearning Resources: www.iconlogic.com/elearn.htm
Demonstration Mode • The most popular--easiest type of movie to create • Goal is to show a concept without requiring user interaction • Start Captivate, step-through the lesson and Captivate creates the movie for you • Includes captions, mouse movements, and highlight boxes • Average Development Time: 10 hours
Assessment Simulation • Intended to gauge how well the demonstration movie worked • Requires 100% user interaction • By default, does NOT contain captions or mouse movement • Does contain Click Boxes (hotspots) and Failure Captions • Average Development Time: 10 hours • Cumulative Time: 20 hours
Training Simulation • Identical to Assessment Simulation except: • Includes Hint Captions (ideal for users who tend to point to areas of the screen but do not click) • Average Development Time: 10 hours • Net Result: 3 Movies that Re-enforce Training Concepts (but only 1 recorded concept) • Cumulative Time: 30 hours
Demonstration or Assessment? • Which type of movie will result in the most effective learning experience for your users? • Neither! Both are flawed and here's why: • Pure demonstration CBTs do not allow for user interaction--level of learning is minimized • Captions are written in the active force, but experience is passive • Pure assessment movies can be worse. No instructions telling the user what to do or what to expect
The Answer:Pure Simulation via Custom (Hybrid) Movies • Combines Demonstration Movie with Assessment Movie • Captions written in the active voice and interaction is active • Average Development Time: 10 hours(You will save 20-30 hours in development time.)
Create a Custom Movie • In Captivate, choose Options > Recording Options • On the Recording Options tab, ensure Enable auto recording is selected • Select Demonstration from the Recording mode pick list • Click the Editsettings button • Remove the check mark from Show Mouse (The simulation is supposed to feel like the user is using the software. Removing the simulated mouse will enhance the realism.)
Create a Custom Movie • Select Automatically AddText captions(to ensure Captivate automatically adds the captions for you) • Select Click boxes for mouse clicks and then Failure captions (so that learners who click in the wrong place see a message telling them what they should have done) • Click OK
Convert a Demonstration Movie into a Simulation • Open a finished/approved Demonstration and Save with a new name • Hide the Mouse • Insert a Click Boxes with Go To Next Action • Insert a Text Entry Boxes as Appropriate • If multiple fields, include Text Entry Boxes for the First Few and then include a Complete All Button
Best Slide Practices • Hide objects to avoid accidental editing/deleting • Limit one caption per slide • Easier Editing • Faster Production • Break audio clips into small chunks • Mate audio clips to captions • Insert audio clips into slide background
Round Trip: Captivate to Word • Open a Captivate project and add the captions and closed captions • Choose File > Import/Export > Export project captions and closed captionsThe Open dialog box appears. • Name the resulting document and specify a save destination • Click Save
Round Trip: Captivate to Word • The captions will open in a Word table. There will be five columns • Slide ID • Item ID • Original Text Caption Data • Updated Text Caption Data and Slide. • Make necessary content and font changes to the Updated Text Caption Data • Save and close the Word document
Round Trip: Word to Captivate • Back in Captivate, choose File > Import/Export > Import project captions and closed captions • Find and open the document you edited in Word • A dialog box will appear confirming the number of captions that were imported. And that’s that.