Captain Captivate - the defender of eLearning content creators everywhere!

New to Captivate? No problem! Captain Captivate to the rescue...

Today we'll be visiting Adobe's Captain Captivate Website: http://captaincaptivate.com/

This is the link to the introduction video with music for the hero

The menu bar at the top of page has links to:

Resources
"Captivate Resources"

Store
"Templates and more"

Tutorials
"Step-by-Step instructions"

Videos
"Captivate training videos"

The References link has three links listed underneath: Conferences, News, and Training and Consulting.

• The Conferences link leads us to an entry about the Adobe Learning Summit Session. The summit took place in San Jose, CA on November 10, 2008. It's a bit outdated, but the summit occured before Adobe's CS4 software was released.
• The News link proudly shows that Captivate 3 Wins Best Simulation Solution Award.
• The Training and Consulting link shows what the Captain is planning. This is direct from the source:
  

  Here are the Captain’s goals for 2009:

• 
  

Post meaningful training videos with great examples once per week

Prepare you for Captivate 4 by reviewing new features

Offer support materials including templates and training tips

Come up with a killer slogan - for example - “By the power of Captivate!” or “Suffering Slidelets!”

• 
  

Checking out the Store link I see that it has NOTHING! Well, that was a let down. I would have expected anything that could be sold to have a link created first!

Let's explore the tutorials first!
We see that there are links to Captivate 3 and Captivate 4. This makes sense because Captivate 4 was just recently released and the amount of available material is still limited. The topic at the top of the list today is "Useful Captivate 4 Variables". Here the captain discusses system variables, their default values, and a description. He notes that this supplements Captivate's Help file. The Help file only lists variables from the product's predecessor, RoboDemo. Because I am new to Captivate, these variables do not look familiar to me. They are useful for creating special customizations of Captivate videos that allow users to make decisions.

Exploring Adobe Captivate...

I'm still Captivated! How about you...

There are so many resources on the Internet that offer free knowledge about the Adobe Captivate product. Today we're going to wiggle through some of the links found in Adobe's pages!

I think we'll start by visiting Adobe's Captivate page. They claim that you can "Go beyond screen capture to author rich eLearning experiences". Wow! That sounds pretty amazing. But I wonder, how can a screen capture program, go beyond screen capture????? Let's keep looking... The main Adobe Captivate page claims that we can create content with advanced interactivity! Cool, what's that mean? I'm thinking that the most advanced interactivity would be you and I sitting together having a conversation face-to-face. That's pretty advanced! Somehow I don't think that's what they have in mind. It says that we can have scenario simulations, quizzes, and other engaging experiences! That sounds interesting. I guess quizzes can be pretty engaging!! Oooooooh... it says that no programming or multimedia skills are required! Sounds like a great start!

The Adobe Captivate page has a link to RJ Jacquez's blog about eLearning. Cool! I'll link my blog to his blog. We'll be blog buddies. He has all sorts of interesting information about eLearning. What a job! He gets to blog for a living!

I also see a link to Adobe's eLearning solutions. They are showing three products: Adobe Captivate 4, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, and of course, the Adobe eLearning Suite. The Suite includes:
Adobe Captivate® 4, Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional with Learning Interactions
Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4 with CourseBuilder Extension
Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended
Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro
Adobe Presenter 7
Adobe Soundbooth® CS4
Also included: Adobe Bridge CS4, Adobe Device Central CS4, and a SCORM Packager

Back at home on the Adobe Captivate page...let's continue exploring...
We can create screen recording and demos. There's a link to some samples.

Here's a links to Tips and Tricks! Silke Fleischer's tips and tricks aren't very current. The last entry was August 22, 2008. Hmmmmm..... maybe we can find something more current.

Nice! Here's a link for Captivate Help and Support. This could deliver a lot of promising information!Try this one out. It's another great link. This one is a lesson that teaches the features of Adobe Captivate 4. It actually walks you through how to use some features. The best part...it's free!

Two days of Adobe Captivate training...

After spending two days in downtown LA learning the essentials of Adobe Captivate 4, I am ready, willing, and able to get this topic bloggin'. I hope that it's CAPTIVATING!!!!

The course I took was offered through "The Training Connection", a company located in Chicago, Illinois. Four faculty members from Mt. SAC attended the training together. We carpooled to 915 Wilshire, Suite 1800, in downtown Los Angeles. The training facility just recently opened on the 18th floor of the building. Our instructor, Nikki, was very pleasant. She has done a great deal of development in Adobe Captivate, as well as Adobe Connect and I'm sure that she is very knowledgeable about these and many other products. Our class started each day at 9am and ended at 4:30pm.

I don't travel to downtown LA very often and I was impressed with my coworker's knowledge of how to navigate carpool lanes and LA streets. I am very grateful that she offered to drive. All of the buildings in downtown LA have parking structures and it can be very tricky finding your way around, especially when you need to park a car. It is amazing how expensive it is to park a car in LA! Coming home Friday evening took quite a while because we left LA at 5pm!!!

The Adobe Captivate course by the Training Connection covered many of the features available in Adobe Captivate 4. According to The Training Connection's web site, the course was appropriate for beginner and intermediate Adobe Captivate users. Some of the things we covered included; creating simulations, creating assessments, and creating quizzes. All in all, Captivate appears to be a very fine product that offers a great amount of potential for the educational environment.

The BLOGgin begins...

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