Turn On the Pro Workspace

In this video, I show you how you can setup Adobe Captivate with a custom workspace that I call the Pro Workspace.

Fonts and Adobe Captivate

There are essentially three possible outcomes when designing and publishing Adobe Captivate projects. There are Flash based standard projects, HTML5 based standard projects and responsive design based projects. Standard projects in Adobe Captivate have a persistent aspect ratio regardless of whether they are published in Flash or HTML5. Responsive design projects are always HTML5 and can scale across many aspect ratios, making them an ideal choice when you want your project to be viewed on many different types of devices.

When you publish a Flash based standard project you can use any font installed on your computer. The reason for this is that the resulting published project does not actually contain any displayed text. The text in your course simply becomes part of the Flash animation and is rendered using whatever font you have selected. For the last ten years or so this is how I have published most of my Captivate projects and until very recently I didn’t have to consider what fonts were truly available to me.

When you publish an HTML5 standard project all of your displayed text is converted into a series of images and like Flash you are free to use just about any font you wish.  The only problem with any of the standard based projects is that when they are scaled up the font quality can begin to look very poor.

One solution is to design and publish your courses using responsive design. Responsive HTML5 will use the actual fonts that are installed on your learner’s computer to render the on-screen text. Even if your Captivate project is scaled up by the user the quality of the images remains because the computer will simply increase the font size. This does have the drawback of limiting you to the standard fonts that you can expect to find installed on the learner’s device. Because of this I tend to stick with fonts that are typically installed on a Windows based PC, since that’s going to cover most of my users. The obvious choices are Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, and so on. 

While you may feel that only being able to use such basic fonts is limiting you creatively, it’s important to remember that many of the standard fonts were designed to provide improved readability of on-screen text. Also standard fonts are great choice for learners who may have a visual impairment. Heavily stylized fonts can be difficult to read and this could create an undue barrier for some of your viewers.   

Responsive Design Secret Tips

I've reach a point where I feel I have a half dozen or so key things that make it easier to design responsive design eLearning and I thought I would share it with all of you. Here is the list:

1. Work in the Desktop View and work your way down across the breakpoints.

2. Don’t think in pixels but rather think about percentages.

3. Don’t use Auto Height or Auto Width.

4. Turn on and use Smart Position.

5. Use the anchor tools to select accurate positioning for all your objects.

6. Use Apply position properties to all views.

7. Use Apply text and text properties to all views.

I also prepared a video that goes into greater detail on each of these points. Please check it out.

4 Ways to Distribute eLearning

I recently had the opportunity to coach a colleague on the technical aspects of creating a sample eLearning course for a perspective employer. One of the challenges with eLearning is providing a work sample when you don’t personally have your own LMS. I came up with some suggestions that could help my colleague and I decided that I would share them with you as well.

One option that I frequently use is my Dropbox account. When I signed up for my Dropbox account it included a special folder called a public folder. This folder was open to the whole World Wide Web and anything I put in this folder was available for anyone to view. Essentially this is my own little web server. Unfortunately this type of free account is no longer available but you can sign up for a Dropbox Pro account for about $10 per month if you want the same functionality. It’s far less expensive than maintaining your own personal LMS. Below is a video where I instruct users with such an account on how to setup their eLearning work sample for access on the web.

Another way you can share your eLearning work sample is by publishing it as a standalone application. When you publish an eLearning course it normally packages a whole bunch of files into a ZIP package commonly known as a SCORM file. You can unpack these and sort of get your eLearning to work. You could also publish to a folder and then provide instructions to the end user on how to launch the course but this is messy and not always simple for the end user. Adobe Captivate maintains the ability to publish to either a Windows EXE file or an Apple App file. This allows you to publish a course as a standalone application that anyone with a Windows Machine or a Mac could then run. You can then simply copy the one file to a thumb drive and share with the person asking for the work submission. Incidentally you do not need a Mac to publish the Mac version or a Windows PC to publish the Windows version. Captivate can do both formats on either platform. Here is a video that explains how to do this for the Windows situation:

This next one is not my favourite solution but if either of the first two options are not open to you, you could publish to a PDF. There are some specific requirements that would be difficult to confirm before submitting a work sample this way, specifically this does require a certain version or higher of Adobe Reader. Of course there is no guarantee that the person you are giving the work submission to is using the correct version. In fact they may be using any number of third party PDF readers that won’t work with this solution. If you would like to try this out here is my video on that process:

As a final thought, if none of these solutions are a viable option for you, consider signing up for a trial account of Adobe Captivate Prime. Captivate Prime is Adobe’s cloud-based LMS solution. It’s fairly intuitive and in a pinch could be used as a temporary LMS for these purposes.

I hope that one of these solutions works for you and of course good luck in getting that new position in eLearning design and development:

Making eLearning Engaging

I sometimes get asked how I make an online course engaging to my audience and what do I do to keep learners motivated to complete the training. I generally try to work the following aspects into all my online learning that I design.

First off you need accurate, clear and concise learning objectives. Let’s break that down a little. First off I want my learning objectives to be accurate. Take the following objective as an example,

“Given the necessary equipment, you will be able to correctly change a flat tire on a car.”

Your learners should be able to change a flat tire on a car. As soon as it becomes clear that your course isn’t going to deliver on that promise, the learners will tune out.

Next I want my learning objectives to be clear and concise. This is more an issue of writing than anything else. Take the following sentence for example,

“By the end of this online course you will learn everything that you need to know to perform your duties as a stock clerk.”

This learning objective needs to be broken down into more specific duties of that job and the objectives should have some level of expectations. As it stands now they are a little vague.

All of this comes down to delivering what you promise. Accurate, clear and concise learning objectives set your learners up for success as they know exactly what to expect from your course. Don’t include any optional information that makes the course longer than necessary. If your job is to teach people how to correctly change a flat tire on their car, don’t include a history of the automobile – it doesn’t contribute to the learning objective, no matter how interesting it might be for some. If they sign on expecting one thing and get another, they will likely exit the course prematurely.

Another aspect of creating engaging and motivating online learning is the principle of keeping your users involved in learning, which also relates to the previous aspect of having accurate, clear and concise learning objectives.

I like to follow the PAF model of learning. PAF is an acronym for Presentation, Application and Feedback. Once I have broken down the learning into the smallest pieces I start off by presenting the information to the learners. I then ask the learners to participate in some application of that knowledge or skill. This is usually some form of knowledge check where the user completes an activity. On the tail end of that application I provide some feedback. At this stage feedback should be meaningful. For example, I don’t just want them to know they are right or wrong, I want them to consider why they are right or wrong so I usually provide them that opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Of course I also try to make my online learning have a look and feel that is compelling as well. I think we can all think of examples of online learning that looked like little effort was put into the creation of the presentation. That usually turns me off and can distract from the various tasks at hand. Delivering something that is well thought out and visually appealing can keep you interested in what the course will offer next.

Why Does Adobe Captivate Keep Crashing!?!

One of the most common questions I get from new eLearning designers is "Why does Adobe Captivate keep crashing?"

I know this is frustrating. The fix is relatively easy if you own your own PC but can be problematic if you work for an organization that has an IT department managing all the PCs. You see you need to grant administration rights to the Adobe Captivate Application. Of course I'm referring to the Windows version of this software. Perhaps there is something similar on the Mac side. Sorry, I just don't know.

In this short video, I explain the procedures for you to do it if you have full control of the computer. You may want to show the video to your IT Department if you are running into a break wall on this one.

Responsive Design Considerations For Your Interface

While preparing my latest video for my YouTube channel, I started to consider that the standard navigation controls we typically place on our eLearning projects may need to be reconsidered. In this case I designed a project for desktop, tablet landscape, tablet portrait and smart phone portrait views. When you consider how we physically interact with these devices, we do something different with our hands in each case.

The great part about Adobe Captivate 9 is your ability to create unique layouts for each break point. Check out what I did in the following video.

Get Microsoft Office For Practically Free

I've spoken about this before but with the new version of Office released I thought I would remind everyone about the Microsoft Office Home Use Program. If you haven't heard of it before you might be wondering why Microsoft would essentially give away one of their most important software packages for next to nothing. Well, I think it comes down to training. From Microsoft's perspective the more people who know how to use Office, the more people and organizations will purchase the software. The benefit to an organization is clear. If their employees are using Office at home, they require less training on Office at work. It's a pretty good benefit.

Anyway, you can find out if your workplace offers the Home Use Program from the following site:

http://www.microsofthup.com

Responsive Design - Is It Worth It?

While I have fooled around with responsive design, I haven't completed any real projects for my clients in responsive design; that is until now. At this point I can now speak from experience and say that responsive design is worth the effort.

First lets consider what that effort equates to. When I design responsive projects I need to prepare the same material anywhere from three to five different ways (depending on your needs). Obviously if you are designing training for a mobile workforce that all have the exact same iPad as one another, this will be much easier. The truth is that every person is different and while some of the devices might be shared across a large portion of your audience, one person may want to view your project on a smart phone, while another might only want to complete training at home on their PC or Mac. Ensuring you have the widest possible range of resolutions and checking your project on as many devices is strongly encouraged.

Now of course this goes against rapid design, so how to do you rapidly develop responsive design. The solution is to design a rock solid template. Experimenting with sample content as you design your template will help you prepare default font sizes for different screen sizes and also address what you will do with images, logos, characters and other on screen elements. My advice is to have as much of your content live in narration as possible. For example, if the knowledge that is required is in the narration, it not only doesn't matter what size your screen is, but also what items are on the screen. I have looked at certain break points and decided that I just don't have the room for that great image, so in the end I take it off the screen sizes where it doesn't work.

The advantage of offering responsive design is obvious. More people can access your content from more places and during more times. If you are restricted to just taking training at your PC at work, you are only going to complete that training while sitting at your desk when you have nothing else pressing to complete. I don't know about you, but that doesn't describe anyone I know. If I could complete my required training while riding on public transit, or at home during down time, that's when I would do it. As an Instructional Designer, I want more people to complete my training not less. It's better when I need to show how effective my training is.

Here are a couple of my recent videos where I have addressed the challenges of responsive design. Please take a look. Remember I'm available for consultation if you or your company are thinking about implementing any type of eLearning for your organization.

How You Become a Good Instructional eLearning Designer

“Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”
— Steve Jobs

I’ve had the opportunity to work with other instructional designers who have been assigned the task of developing eLearning after years of only designing instructor led training. I don’t envy these folks. Not only do you need to build off the foundation of all that you have learned as instructional designers, but there is a technical aspect to the job that isn’t easy to come by.

I was reminded of the process that I go through, while listening to an early interview with Steve Jobs who was talking about how everyone in the country (United States) should learn to program a computer. He felt that this would teach people how to think. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to review another eLearning designer’s work who rather than just working the problem and breaking it down into smaller chunks, they spend great effort coming up with complex solutions. These complex solutions become overly complex on their own that they often create all new problems for the designer to have to solve.

Here is my advice to designers who may find themselves in this situation in the near future; take an introductory course in computer programming. It’s not that you need to learn to code to design eLearning but it teaches you to look at a problem a certain way. I’ve learned this skill and when you think this way, simple code like solutions come to you that are easy to implement. You learn to look at a problem and break it down into easy to understand chunks. From there you can apply what you already know about creating solutions to problems. You soon discover that these problems broken down into smaller steps are not so different than the solutions you have created before.

Don’t have the resources for this? Sign up for a trial of Lynda.com and enroll in one of the many programming courses they offer. If you spend a few hours a day for the seven days that you get for a free trial, I think you have enough under your belt to begin to think the way Steve Jobs described.

By the way, the interview I watched is here if you want to watch it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZAJY23xio