Small Business Growth Tips For the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown entrepreneurs one curveball after another. But by going over your finances, launching new products or services, and changing up your approach to marketing, you can thrive as an entrepreneur. Captivate Teacher shares some resources that are packed with tips for small business owners who are ready to succeed in spite of the pandemic!

 Financial Management

 If you’re worried about paying your bills and keeping your employees on board, it’s time to review your finances to come up with a strategy.

• First, make sure that you’re ready for tax season by connecting with an experienced accountant for help in organizing and filing your documents.

• You can also meet with a financial consultant to ask about reducing expenses, making smart investments, and other cost-saving strategies.

Expand Your Products and Services

Do you feel like your current offerings are lacking because the pandemic has shifted your customer’s priorities? These tips will help you come up with new ideas.

• If you don’t already offer gift cards, now is the time to start — your customers can patronize you now and buy your products later!

• Want to create a source of recurring income for your business? Consider launching a subscription service.

• If your customers or clients would prefer not to visit in person right now, you can host a safe gathering through a virtual event.

• Could you teach your customers a skill online? You can create an educational online course!

• Need additional capital to fund your expansion? Learn about some small business grants.

 Adjust Your Marketing Strategy

Your traditional marketing methods might not be suited for the pandemic. These tips will help you come up with a new digital strategy.

• Make sure that you keep your company’s social media accounts active across every popular platform.

• Connect with your customers directly through their inboxes by kicking off an email marketing campaign.

• Want to provide your customers with continuous updates and new resources? Start a blog on your business website!

• Hire a search engine marketing professional to help new customers and clients find your business easily.

In these trying times, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get discouraged. But you don’t have to give up on your dream of running a successful small business in Thorold. With the right tactics, you can see your company through this pandemic.

Loop Video to Match the Duration of your Adobe Captivate Slides

In this video, I show you how you can loop a video clip to match the duration of a slide in your Adobe Captivate eLearning project. The duration of your slide might be longer than your video due to the amount of narration as in this example, but there could be other reasons you wish to loop your videos as well. This is ideal when the video has no audio and you've got a separate audio track as slide audio.

Easy Click to Reveal with Audio, a Hidden Next Button and No Advanced Actions

In this video, I show you how you can create a click to reveal with audio for each button press. This interaction also hides the next button until the learner has clicked all the buttons. The best part is it's done without any advanced actions.

Free Download members can download the project file from the Community tab on my YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Paulwilsonlearning/community

Resume Videos Where Learners Exited Your Adobe Captivate eLearning Project

In this video, I show you how you can have learners resume videos where they exited your Adobe Captivate eLearning project.

DevLearn 2021 Session — Making eLearning Magic with Adobe Captivate

I wanted to provide all of you with a quick summary of what to expect from me at the upcoming DevLearn conference to be held in Las Vegas.

I’ve heard the complaints. 2019 was two years ago. When are we getting a new version of Adobe Captivate? Actually, it came out in the summer of 2018 so it’s actually over three years old. Yes, there have been half a dozen or so updates to the software over those years in service, but eLearning authors like you and me want something that looks brand new. We want our training to be cool and sexy. We want to look like eLearning rockstars.

Rock Star

There are these interactions we all know how to build in Adobe Captivate 2019. You have a click to reveal where you click a smart shape used as a button and your course displays some supplemental content. You also know how to build a content carousel that cycles through information on screen. Of course we have the in-built question slides that haven’t been updated since…well, since forever. We want to engage our learners but some of these interactions are pretty drab.

In this session, you’ll learn how to take your Adobe Captivate interactions from drab to fab. We’ll start with learning how you can improve your click to reveal interactions to make them look like 3-D flip cards. You’ll also learn how to create a content carousel that presents content to your learners using a cool animated effect. Next, you’ll discover how to build an information wheel that works off a single click to progress through the information. Lastly, you’ll find out how to build a knowledge check slide that doesn’t use the in-built question slides that learners have seen a thousand times before. You’ll leave this session with new tools to put in your eLearning toolbelt that will make your eLearning look like magic.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to track your learner’s progress through interactions using Adobe Captivate variables

• How to write advanced actions that include a variety of actions that when combined create interactions that are truly engaging

• How to use effects in your advanced actions that will make your eLearning appear like magic

• How you can repurpose what you’ve learned in this session into your new eLearning projects in seconds instead of hours, and look like an eLearning superstar

My session is on October 20th from 3 PM to 4 PM. It’s marked as a BYOD session but you don’t have to work on these exercise files I will be providing free of charge during the session. You will get a template along with a completed version of the project file to take with you and easily use in your own projects right away.

But you can’t get this material unless you register and attend.

Build a Lesson Menu with Hidden Quiz Button Button in Adobe Captivate

In this video, I show you how you can build a lesson menu slide with a hidden quiz button in Adobe Captivate. Learners will arrive on the menu slide and see buttons that take them to each lesson in the project. Only once they have completed all the lessons will they be able to complete the quiz. This can be done with an easy method provided by Adobe by labelling your slide, objects and grouping your lessons into groups, but students from my recent class wanted to see how this would be built using variables and advanced actions (challenge accepted).

Free Download Members of my YouTube channel can find this project and download it for free from the Community tab on my YouTube channel.

Adobe eLearning World 2021

The 2021 Adobe eLearning World is a three-day series of sessions that are available to everyone who registers. I will be conducting a session on Mobile Responsive eLearning Workshop – Create Courses That Work Across Devices.

My session is as follows…

Every day more people want to use their mobile devices for work, education, and entertainment. The demand for eLearning to be available on mobile devices continues to increase. Having the knowledge and skills to design and develop eLearning that works on a wide range of devices and screen sizes is becoming an essential skill for developers. In the future, eLearning design and development jobs will go to those who have these skills. In the competitive job market, you need these skills. In this workshop, users will learn:

• the correct way to decide on your layouts so that your content arranges itself correctly on different-sized devices.

• how to design and develop Fluid Box master slides to have Captivate do most of the work for you.

• to select the correct number of fluid boxes and what settings need to be applied to each fluid box to get the results you want.

• to have optional content, such as purely aesthetic elements, drop off when there is not enough room for them on smaller devices.

Here is the link to download the project file if you wish to follow along with the session: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y4NXl2SsEsIsTyb3_AGO5QTwwOueaIBB/view?usp=sharing

Tabs with Forced Navigation in Your Adobe Captivate eLearning Project

In this video tutorial, I show you how you can create a tabs interaction that includes forced navigation (hidden next button) in your Adobe Captivate eLearning project. This is a great way to chunk your content but keep your slides looking great. It also satisfies your stakeholder's desire to prevent learners from moving forward until they have viewed all the material in this interaction.

Don't Use Overlays in Your Adobe Captivate Interactive Videos

I recently was working with a client whose stakeholder didn’t like the effect of overlays in Adobe Captivate. This tutorial documents what our solution ended up being. We decided not to use overlays slides and went with objects that are placed on the video slide itself. I actually was really happy with the result and may use this in other projects as well.

Download Members and up of my YouTube channel can download the project file associated with this video for free. It includes a solution for building custom knowledge checks that use multiple choice with multiple correct answers.

Prevent Learners From Skipping a Video in Your Adobe Captivate eLearning Project

In this video, I show you how you can prevent learners from skipping videos in your Adobe Captivate eLearning projects.