I was teaching a virtual Camtasia class recently and, while selecting colors for a canvas annotation, we had a robust discussion about colors. Specifically, which colors work for learners who are color blind?
According to Dr. David Nichols, University of Connecticut, approximately “one in 20 people are colorblind in some way.”
When someone is colorblind, “one or more of the types of cone cells in the eyes — the cells we use to detect color — does not work normally,” said Nichols. “A person who is colorblind sees a reduced color space; two colors which appear distinct to a person with normal color vision may appear to be the same to a person who is colorblind.”
Nichols went on to say that “most people who are colorblind have some form of red-green colorblindness, such as deuteranomaly, deuteranopia, or protanopia.”
“It can be difficult or impossible to distinguish whether a given color is red or green, and shades of red and green may have very low contrast. Instead of using a color palette of red and green, consider using a similar magenta and green color palette instead,” stressed Nichols.
When adding colors to your eLearning projects, Nichols suggests using accessible color palettes. Here is an example as seen on the “Coloring for Colorblindness” website.
Choosing the right colors for your eLearning projects isn’t just about making your courses look great. It’s about ensuring your content is accessible to everyone, including learners with color vision deficiencies, while meeting Section 508 accessibility requirements.
During my Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Captivate, and TechSmith Camtasia training classes, we frequently explore the importance of color, contrast, and accessibility. After all, even the most visually stunning course can fall short if some learners struggle to see or distinguish its content.
With that in mind, I’ve put together some excellent color resources to help you make smarter, more accessible design choices—whether you’re working toward compliance, trying to create the perfect color palette, or simply staring at a color picker wondering why there are 16 million options, and none of them look right!
If you’re color clueless and are not already working with a set of brand-specific colors, this would be an excellent place to start. Click a color and you’ll be presented with complementary colors. Explore the Color Harmony area for even more colors that work well together.
Found a color you think could work for your design? Great! Enter that color’s hex code into the Color Wizard to start having some real fun.
Based on your starting color, this tool will show you coordinating colors in the monochromatic, analogous, triadic, tetradic, and split-complementary ranges, along with their hex codes.
It may be easy to figure out what the complementary colors are for red or blue or purple, but what if you have a gray-blue-green color in a muted hue? Then it might be a little harder to figure out what the perfect complimentary color would be. That’s where the color wizard can help.
Plus it’s nice to see your colors laid out together before you dive into the actual designing.
All right, so you’ve picked some colors. Now for the technical stuff. If you have perfect vision, a color combination might look great to you. But what about your viewers with less than perfect vision? Or those with low-resolution monitors? It might not look so hot to them. An easy way to tell if your colors have enough contrast is to plug the colors’ hex codes into Colors on the Web’s Color Contrast Analyzer.
The Color Contrast Checker will assess your color selection from an accessibility standpoint, based upon the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. The highest level of conformance is AAA, but whether you need this much contrast will depend on your audience.
How to Use These Colors In PowerPoint
Let’s say you use these tools and come up with the perfect color scheme. That’s awesome! What’s not-so-awesome is that PowerPoint’s colors are in RGB, and the Colors on the Web colors are in hex code. Don’t fret, just head off to this free Hex-to-RGB Conversion site (or any other conversion site that works for you), plug in your hex code, and it’ll spit out the RGB values for you.
I’ve spent decades delivering software training, and I’ve never seen disruption this fast—or this sharp.
AI & on-demand learning: Tools like ChatGPT and YouTube can teach software skills instantly, anytime, anywhere.
Vendor pushback: I recently received a lawyer letter from Articulate demanding I stop using the words “certification” or “certificate”—and to stop using their software logos, a practice common in our industry for decades.
Vendor exclusivity: Articulate only partners with one U.S. training provider and won’t consider others.
Vendors going direct: Adobe now delivers its own Captivate training, taking over a market that independent trainers used to serve.
These changes aren’t minor. They’ve pushed my revenue from certain software training offerings down to anemic levels—and I’m not alone.
So the question is: What’s next for live, instructor-led training?
The Numbers Behind the Shift
Decline in Traditional Training Providers
Chegg, once a staple in the academic and training world, saw a 30% drop in revenue and 31% fewer subscribers in 2025, leading to a 22% workforce reduction—largely due to students turning to AI-powered tools for learning (source).
Corporate Training Is Growing—but Not in the Same Ways
The corporate training market was valued at $164 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $487 billion by 2031 (source). But how that money is spent is shifting:
Only 35% of employers now use business schools for training.
57% use online learning providers.
51% use private training companies.
Many are moving toward internal, on-demand content rather than external, live instruction (source).
AI’s Impact on Learning Models
The AI in Learning & Development market was valued at $9.3 billion in 2024 and is expected to hit $97 billion by 2034, with a 26% annual growth rate (source).
Meanwhile, 93% of U.S. businesses report using AI tools, but only about 50% of employees have been trained to use them effectively (source).
This mismatch raises an important question: if AI is replacing some training, who is ensuring workers get quality, context-specific instruction?
Why This Matters
Live, instructor-led training offers things AI can’t (at least not yet):
Context tailored to the learner’s specific role and challenges
Real-time feedback and the ability to troubleshoot unique issues
Human connection that motivates and engages
If the market continues shifting toward vendor-controlled and AI-driven learning without room for independent, live training, we risk losing these benefits.
Closing Thought This isn’t about resisting change—it’s about recognizing that some forms of learning are worth preserving. The challenge ahead is finding space for live instruction in a world that increasingly values speed, scale, and automation.
What do you see happening in your corner of the industry? Is live training still in demand, or are we watching the end of an era?
If you want to make your eLearning content more dynamic and engaging, Adobe Captivate's Web Object feature is a powerful tool worth exploring. A Web Object allows you to embed external content directly into your Captivate project, integrating live web-based materials like websites, videos, maps, dashboards, and interactive widgets without inflating your project file size.
One of the biggest advantages of using Web Objects in Adobe Captivate is keeping your content current without republishing the course. For example, if your training references a company policy page or a frequently changing knowledge base, embedding it as a Web Object ensures learners always see the latest version. This is ideal for responsive eLearning development, where agility and up-to-date content are essential.
Web Objects also enable you to bring in content and interactivity that Captivate can’t natively create. Want to add a Google Form, a live YouTube video, or an HTML5 calculator built with JavaScript? With a Web Object, you can seamlessly include these components inside your Captivate slides. This can be a game-changer for interactive eLearning design, giving learners hands-on engagement with tools and platforms they’ll use.
In addition to improving interactivity, using Web Objects helps optimize your course performance. Because you're linking to externally hosted content rather than importing large media files, your Adobe Captivate project remains lightweight, which reduces loading times and improves the learner experience, especially on mobile devices or slower connections.
However, it’s important to understand when a Web Object might not be the right fit. Since the content is hosted externally, learners must be connected to the internet. Also, SCORM or xAPI tracking doesn’t extend to Web Objects, meaning you won’t be able to track user interactions within the embedded content unless you implement custom solutions. Additionally, browser and LMS compatibility may vary depending on the content you’re embedding.
Despite these limitations, embedding external content in eLearning using Web Objects offers tremendous flexibility. Whether linking to real-time dashboards, embedding secure intranet portals, or simply including a video hosted on Vimeo or YouTube, Web Objects provide a simple yet effective way to enhance your courses without adding complexity or bloat.
In conclusion, if you're an instructional designer, developer, or trainer looking to create engaging and scalable eLearning, Adobe Captivate’s Web Object feature can help you build modern, interactive courses that remain current and lightweight—an essential combination in today’s fast-paced training environment.
Here's a video I created that shows web objects in action.
Looking for a quick and easy way to record your screen, without opening Camtasia or paying for a subscription? In this video, I’ll show you how to use TechSmith’s brand-new free screen recording tool to capture screen activity, voice narration, and even webcam footage.
Whether you're creating tutorials, demos, or training content, this recorder is a game-changer.
✅ No download required
✅ No Camtasia license needed
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You'll learn how to:
Access the TechSmith screen recorder
Choose what to record: full screen or window
Include webcam and mic audio
Save and use your recordings anywhere
🛠️ Ideal for educators, trainers, and content creators seeking a fast and flexible recording solution.
Ready to create polished, professional screen recordings and videos—even if you’ve never edited video before?
My new TechSmith Camtasia course on Udemy is now live! Whether you're an educator, trainer, business pro, or content creator, this hands-on course walks you through everything you need to confidently record, edit, and share high-quality videos.
🎬 Learn how to:
✅ Record your screen like a pro
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Perfect for beginners. No prior video editing experience required!
In this Adobe Captivate 2025 (version 12.6) tutorial, you’ll learn how to create an interactive video that displays knowledge check questions as overlays—going far beyond a traditional play-and-pause video.
You’ll see how to add and configure knowledge checks, insert bookmarks at key points in the video, and trigger actions that display those questions as overlays when a bookmark is reached. You'll also learn how to use an action to resume the video timeline after the learner interacts.
This technique helps keep learners engaged while reinforcing key concepts without disrupting the flow of the video.
Adding audio to a Captivate Classic slide is easy: choose "Audio, Record to" or "Import to." Adding text-to-speech to a slide object is a bit more complicated.
Choose Audio > Speech Management.
Click the plus sign to create a note area.
Type a script.
Pick your voiceover "talent."
Click Generate Audio and then click Close. (This will add the audio to the slide, which you will delete during that last step below.)
On the slide, select a shape.
On the Library, drag the new audio onto the shape.
Choose Audio > Speech Management and remove the audio from the slide background.
Here's a video that will walk you through the process.
TechSmith has released two updates to Camtasia in the past week. All updates are available on the Home screen, appearing automatically after the program starts.
2025.1.1, released May 1, 2025, fixes a startup crash that could occur when using a graphics processor that does not support Direct3D Feature Level 12_0.
2025.1.0, released April 29, 2025, adds new features and enhances others.
New Features
Added Onboarding Tooltips that will appear on hover for specific controls to help guide your Camtasia experience. This setting must be toggled on.
Added new Cursor Effects: Cursor Isolation, Gradient, Lens, and Negative.
Added new Click Effects: Burst 1, Burst 2, Burst 3, Burst 4, and Zoom.
New visual effects were added: CRT Monitor, Static Noise, and Torn Edge.
Feature Updates
Added Angle property to Slide Right and Gradient Wipe transitions.
Updated the placeholder look and text.
The Camtasia free trial no longer has a time constraint: users can explore editing and features at their own pace, with watermarked exports.
Smart Focus can now create animations for recordings with dimensions smaller than the canvas dimensions.
Modifications were also made to Smart Focus's ability to add zoom and pan animations.
Adobe has just released Captivate 12.6. While this update is primarily focused on bug fixes, several of them directly address issues that have impacted many developers. This release is worth your attention if you’ve been running into quirks or crashes.
Here’s a look at what’s been fixed (starting with one I think many of you will appreciate):
✅ Intel GPU Compatibility
Captivate 12.6 resolves a known issue where the program would crash when attempting to insert a video on systems using Intel graphics processors. This is a big win for stability, especially if you’re working with video-heavy projects.
✅ SVG Rendering
Problems with SVG images not displaying correctly are now history. Your vector graphics should now render cleanly and consistently.
✅ Animation Delays
Animations now behave as expected, with improved timing and smoother transitions throughout your projects.
✅ SCORM Title Consistency
SCORM package titles now remain consistent across platforms, eliminating mismatches between your published output and what your LMS displays.
✅ Hyperlink Editing
Editing hyperlinks inside your projects is a smoother process with fewer bugs and unexpected behavior.
✅ Google Fonts Formatting
Formatting issues when using Google Fonts have been corrected—your text will now appear as designed.
✅ Drag-and-Drop Scaling
Scaling glitches in drag-and-drop interactions have been fixed, making your interactions more reliable and visually aligned.
If you've been waiting for fixes to these issues, Captivate 12.6 is a must-install. As always, I recommend backing up your projects before updating—just in case.
Have you installed the update yet? Let me know in the comments how it’s working for you!
