eLearning Livestream - Development Shortcuts, May 11, 10:00 EST / 14:00 UTC

I have resurrected the eLearning Livestream. Participation in the future eLearning Livestreams will be an exclusive feature for my Patreon members. I will make some of the recorded sessions available to my regular YouTube viewers, but only after the live events have concluded. Because Patreon members will be joining live, they will have the advantage of being able to ask any eLearning related questions and have me answer them during the broadcast. While anyone can watch the previously recorded sessions, they will just be able to view and unfortunately, not participate. Become a Patreon member for as little as $1 per month, and you can cancel at any time.

https://patreon.com/paulwilsonlearning

Make Your Adobe Captivate Playback Start Image Not Washed Out

In this video tutorial, I will show you how you can make your Adobe Captivate start image, which is shown instead of your course auto-playing, have 100% opacity instead of all washed out. This solution comes courtesy of sabre123 from the Adobe Captivate Community forums so full credit goes to him or her. Here is the entry you will want to search for: cp.autoplayImage.style.opacity=0.7

How Do I Make My Videos

Jayne Herdman, one of my Patreon members asked me what do I use to make my YouTube videos. Although this has changed over time I thought I would share this with all of you.

Surprisingly - Adobe Captivate

The first 200 or so videos I produced on YouTube were created with the previous version of Adobe Captivate taking care of recording video demos while I used the most up to date version to demonstrate what I was trying to teach that day. For example, in the video below I was using Adobe Captivate 7 to record Adobe Captivate 8. This was before I had any subscribers by the way and I was just experimenting with the ability to make video tutorials.

https://youtu.be/OoIBLh1_Mn4

I later learned that I could open two instances of the current software and no longer needed to keep Adobe Captivate 7 on my machine.

PVX

Fast forward a few years and a few thousand subscribers later and I was in attendance at the Devlearn conference in Las Vegas. I was talking to Dr. Allen Partridge, Chief eLearning Evangelist for Adobe, and he asked the very same question. I told him how I did my videos at the time and he asked if I had heard of Adobe Presenter Video Express. I hadn't. At his suggestion, I started using this application to record my videos. The first dozen or so videos I made the same way I had always created them before so you really can't see much of a difference. PVX does give you an advantage that Adobe Captivate didn't have at the time and that was the ability to simultaneously record your webcam while recording your desktop. I continued to make my videos just of my desktop display but once I was comfortable enough I started to integrate my webcam view as well. Here is one of the earliest examples where I used PVX to make my YouTube tutorials and also included my webcam.

https://youtu.be/j5rWtINuTHI

In this example, I was using the built-in webcam from my laptop so the quality isn't as good as what I'm capable of doing today. I starting buying external webcams and since that time I've gone through about three different models ending with my current webcam that I really recommend, the Logitech BRIO: https://amzn.to/31gFlv6

One complaint about Adobe Presenter Video Express is that most computers don't have the processing power to simultaneously record your desktop at the same time as your webcam. Because of this PVX drops the frame rate down to 15 frames per second. This is why these earlier videos with my webcam look very jittery.

Techsmith Camtasia

I had invested funds into the making of my YouTube videos for a while. Things like my Blue Yeti Microphone, various webcams but other than the Adobe software, which I had been getting from free since around version 8, I hadn't really invested in software. It occurred to me that the shortcomings of PVX were really beginning to show when you would compare my videos with the big-time YouTubers. Certainly, my Logitech webcams were capable of full HD at 30 and even 60 frames per second but the software was holding me back. I decided to jump ship from Adobe PVX and try out Techsmith Camtasia. I knew it was good but I think we can all agree that the quality of videos that I get today compared with a few years ago is tremendously improved. I should point out that while I use Camtasia to record my desktop and ultimately edit between my webcam views and my desktop. I actually use good old Microsoft Windows 10 Camera to record my webcam. I run them both at the same time and then import the video file into Camtasia when I'm finished recording. Camtasia would still drop my webcam quality so recording it in a separate app really makes a difference.

Techsmith.com

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that recording your desktop and your webcam is processor intensive. Make sure you have a powerful computer if you want to attempt this. Video editing, in general, requires a lot of compute cycles so I recommend a computer with a six-core processor and a dedicated GPU like I have in my Dell XPS 15: https://amzn.to/2WEAqpw

Make Your Hidden or Disabled Next Button Available Right Away on Slide Revisits

In this video tutorial, I will show you how you can use advanced actions to program a click-to-reveal interaction. Also, this tutorial will show you how you can disable the next button until the learner completes the click-to-reveal. Still, the real kicker is that Captivate will remember that the learner has completed the interaction on subsequent slide revisits and make the Next button available right away.

Patreon subscribers can download the project file for free. Join my Patreon channel here: https://www.patreon.com/paulwilsonlearning

Easily Build a Title Page With the New Assets in Captivate 2019

In this video, I show you how you can easily build a title page with the new assets in Adobe Captivate 2019.

Learning Pro Intros

I was interviewed by Nicole Papaioannou for her series Learning Pro Intros. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to share a snapshot of my journey to become the L&D professional I am today. Thanks, Nicole!

Recolor Your SVG Icons in Adobe Captivate

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to recolor your SVG icons directly in Adobe Captivate. Specifically, I will show you how you can have different colors for the rollover and down states of your SVG icons as buttons. In the video, I show you a great resource for finding new icons to use in your eLearning projects. Use the link below to let them know I sent you: https://www.iconfinder.com?ref=pauldavidwilson

PowerToys for Windows 10 - Perfect for Captivate Users

I made this video for my eLearning developer audience but PowerToys for Windows 10 is such a great user interface improvement, anyone can take advantage of them. Remember TweakUI? Kind of like that. Here is the link where you can learn all about it and download PowerToys for Windows 10 for yourself.

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

Convert Flash Courses to HTML5 Without the Source Files

In this video tutorial, I show you a tool that Adobe Captivate users already have that can convert older eLearning courses to HTML5, even when you don't have the source files. Thanks to Cathy Moore for permission to use her and Kinection's elearning course designed and developed for the US Army. Read her blog post to learn about the activity and how she created this complex branching scenario.

👨‍💻 https://blog.cathy-moore.com/2010/05/elearning-example-branching-scenario/

The Future of eLearning

Not very much has changed for me since the coronavirus outbreak. I've been working from home since about 2015 anyway. Adobe has cancelled some of the events that I had been invited to facilitate. The cancelled events are the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington DC as well as the Vancouver and Toronto Adobe Professional Certifications for Adobe Captivate. At present Adobe still have me scheduled for the Phoenix session in September. Of course, there are new opportunities for me to share my knowledge with many of you. In June, we have a replacement for the Adobe eLearning Conference called Adobe eLearning World. While the schedule contains many of the same activities and times that would have occurred in Washington DC, people from just about anywhere can participate in this event. In fact, in many ways, it's far more inclusive. I know of at least several folks who previously didn't have the means to travel to another city and stay in an expensive hotel. As long as you have a decent internet connection, you can join in on the learning on June 23-25th for free! I don't know if there are limits to the number of attendees but make sure you register at the following link: https://adobeworld.elearning.adobeevents.com/

I think what changes moving forward is that eLearning will see a rise in popularity. In the past, it's gotten kind of a bum rap. Poorly designed eLearning, and there is a lot of it, is not as effective as well-designed classroom training. It's up to us to prove that eLearning is a viable alternative to getting a bunch of people together in a room. Don't just make slides of content with a bunch of back and next buttons. Instead , what you want to do is create amazing learning solutions. That's what the Adobe eLearning World is all about. I always try to think of learning solutions rather than just slides. Think about how you learn in real life and then capture that on the digital page. Use stories and provide your learner's experiences to solve on their own with the clues you provide them. Make it relatable to what your learners experience and they will not only enjoy the eLearning you design but look forward to the next online training they get from you.