by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP
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Articulate Storyline 360: Modern and Legacy Players
by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP
If you're an Articulate Storyline 360 developer, you’ve likely grown familiar with the publishing choices found in the Publish dialog box. Most notably, you can elect to publish as HTML5 only, HTML5 with a Flash fallback, Flash with an HTML5 fallback, or Flash only.
However, if you’ve just recently updated Storyline, you’ve likely noticed that when publishing, HTML5 is the only option.
The publish options you see has everything to do with the project’s playbar (the playbar is the frame around the slide content and contains such features as menu, seekbar, and previous and next buttons). Storyline 360 users have a choice of two players: Modern and Classic. The Modern playbar does not work with Flash (hence the reason that HTML5 is the only publish option. The Classic playbar (which is the only playbar available in Storyline 3), supports both HTML5 and Flash.
Switching between players is easy. From within the Publish dialog box, click the Player link.
From the Player drop-down menu, choose the player you'd like. Note that you can also switch players outside of the Publish dialog box by clicking the Player tool on the toolbar.
To learn about the specific differences between the Modern and Classic players, visit the Articulate website.
Articulate Storyline 3/360: Beyond the Essentials (2nd Edition)
We're currently hard at work on an update to our Articulate Storyline 3/360 advanced book (we're enhancing/improving several lessons). The book should be ready in just a few short weeks.
“Adobe Captivate 2019: Beyond the Essentials” Coming Very Soon
My "Adobe Captivate 2019: Beyond the Essentials" book is with the beta team and should be available for purchase in just a few weeks.
TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: Asking Review Questions
by Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP
Over and over, as we teach our ICCOTP Certified Online Training Professional course on how to teach online, I see students use our techniques correctly—but on the wrong topics. For example, we teach a very specific technique—the overhead question. The purpose of the overhead question is to review material you have already delivered or covered in the class. The purpose is two-fold: you are evaluatingwhether the students learned what you presented to them; and you are encouraging them to do an extremely important part of the learning process: to apply effort in trying to remember the content or skills they just learned.
Let me emphasize that last statement. The two purposes of asking an overhead question—where you ask a question first (so that all of the students are trying to think of the answer), and then call on one student to answer it—are these:
- To evaluate whether your students are retaining the content you have delivered (to see if you need to teach it again)
- To ask your students to apply the effort to remember it
The neuroscience of learning tells us that the moment of learning a concept or a new skill is not when we first hear or receive it. The moment of learning begins when we try to recall it. Learning begins when we ask our brain to remember. It’s as if only at that moment does our brain tag that bit of knowledge or that new skill as something to move into long-term memory. Something to actually LEARN.
Over and over, I see our COTPs-in-training ask the perfectly structured question: ask a clear question; then call on one student to answer it. But those up-and-coming COTPs regularly fail at using the overhead question to do the two things enumerated above. Do you remember what the two purposes of the overhead question are? Look away from this screen and see if you remember. I’ll wait.
Did you do it? Did you try to remember? If not, please give it a try now. Look away, and see if you remember the two purposes of the overhead question.
That’s right:
- To evaluate learning
- To ask the learner to go to the effort of trying to remember it
Here’s a memory aid: “Evaluation and Effort make it Easy to learn.”
- Evaluation
- Effort
So how are my COTP students failing at these two purposes? They are using their questions to their students for the purpose of engagement only. Wait. Not another E word! Yes, another E word. And one that is a constant mantra in the field of training. “We must engage our students.” “We must create eLearning that is engaging.” “How can we engage our students in learning?” On and on.
Yes, engagement is necessary. But it is only the first step in the learning process for our students. Sure, they have to be awake, paying attention, and even interested in and thinking about the topic of the lesson. That is engagement.
But without the other two E-words, learning may not occur. And it almost certainly won’t “stick.”
Make sure you are asking review questions—not just engagement questions to introduce a topic and get learners thinking about it—but review questions about what you have already covered. You'll be able to evaluate whether students are learning (you might need to teach the lesson again!). And most importantly, so that you are giving your students the opportunity to do what it takes to truly learn something: to apply effort.
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Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2019: Interactive Videos
by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT
I’m a huge video fan. In my experience, videos offer a higher level of learner interest and knowledge retention than just text and/or images. However, as much as I love videos, I’m not happy with a core video limitation… a lack of learner engagement or interactivity. Sure, learners can stop, rewind, and fast-forward through most videos, but those abilities hardly equate to interactivity or engagement.
I was delighted to learn that Captivate 2019 has taken an awesome leap forward by allowing for videos (any videos) to include a high level of interactivity via knowledge checks, learner interactions, and more.
To begin, I created a new, blank project with Captivate 2019. On the toolbar, I clicked Interactive Video.
You can either link to an existing YouTube video or insert a video from your computer. In my example, I selected From your Computer and opened a video loaned to me by Professor Art Kohn.
I then added two more slides to my project: two Knowledge Check slides. These slides will become overlays on the video.
On the Timeline of the slide containing the interactive video, I positioned the Playhead where I wanted the interactivity and then inserted two bookmarks (one for each of the knowledge check slides) by clicking the square icon just beneath the Playhead. Bookmarks can be used as breadcrumbs or as targets for jumps. I've found bookmarks to be very useful when I'm working with a longer video and I tend to add them prior to adding any interactive components. (Otherwise I seem to always forget exactly where I want the interactivity to occur.)
To add the knowledge check slides as overlays (which will then automatically become interactive components of my video), all that was left to do was position the Playhead at a bookmark, and then click the Insert Overlay icon beneath the Bookmark icon.
From within the Overlay dialog box, the last step was to select a slide and click the Insert button.
I repeated the Overlay process one more time for my second Knowledge Check slide. On the Filmstrip, notice that my two overlay slides are represented as such by the overlay icon just beneath the slide thumbnail.
If you'd like to experience the awesomeness of interactive videos for yourself, check out the quick sample I posted to the IconLogic website. And while you're at it, enjoy Professor Kohn's brief video on strategies for boosting learner retention.
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Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the U.S. Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.LMS IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES Part 2: The Team
by Ann Crane
In part one of my Learning Management System (LMS) implementation strategies series I went over the importance of defining LMS and project expectations. This week, I’d like to go over the people you’ll need on your team before moving forward with implementation.
Here are the primary roles necessary for any LMS implementation team: LMS Administrator, Project Manager, Authors/Content Developers, and IT/Web Integrators.
The LMS Administrator is the team quarterback, choosing and leading all of the other team members, driving forward the entire implementation process, as well as having responsibility for managing, setting up, tracking, and analyzing communication with the audience (the actual learners).
Next is the Project Manager. In smaller scale organizations, the LMS administrator will have a dual-role on the team, responsible for the project management tasks as well as administrator tasks. However, if the scope of the implementation is large and/or very complex, it's best to have a Project Manager on the team.
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Authors grapple with another immense component of the implementation: content. Often organizations have pre-existing learning content that needs to be blended into existing content. That's where the authors come in. Long after the LMS has been put into place, authors continue to build and add ongoing learning content. The LMS administrator can and should delegate some of the permissions to the authors to allow for, among other things, the ability to create, modify, and delete courses, upload content packages, and assign courses to learners (and reset the lesson as necessary).
It’s important to have engaged Web Integrators early in the process, perhaps even before selecting your LMS. Integrators are responsible for identifying and mapping the processes that you want to implement, and ensure it will work in conjunction with other systems.
Next time: Distinguishing the Urgent from the Important. Prioritizing Requirements and Expectations.
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Ann Crane, Engage Systems, LLC., is an Adobe Captivate Prime and Adobe Connect expert. Based in San Francisco, California, Ann serves as an eLearning consultant and virtual experience guide, quickly transitioning clients to digital collaboration concepts and technologies.TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: What You Need to Know About Your Online Platform, Part 1
by Jennie Ruby, COTP
Whether you use Adobe Connect, WebEx, GoToTraining, or another online training app, you need to know the same basic features of your platform.
First, you need to know everything your students will need to know to get into your classroom and participate in your class. And when I say you need to know, I mean really know. Like, “I can describe it in my sleep” know. Like, “I can describe it blindfolded” know. Because the moment you’ll need to know it most is when a student is having trouble logging in, or finding the chat panel, or finding the arrow tool—and in that moment, you can’t see their screen.
On most of the online platforms, the instructor view is different from the participant view of the screen. This is least true of Adobe Connect, but even there, as the Host, you may have additional functionality your viewers do not have.
So here is a checklist of what you need to know—from your students’ point of view.
Basics
- How to log in
- How to get on the audio
- How to use Chat
- How to raise your hand
Additional communication tools (some of these vary from one platform to another)
- Agree or check mark
- Disagree or x
- Away from desk
- Speed up/slow down
- Emoticons
Other special functions
- Share their screen
- Write on the screen or whiteboard
- Type on the screen or whiteboard
- Function within a break-out room
- Download materials
Once you know these functions—and can explain them to your learners without seeing their screens—you are part of the way there. In future articles we will take a look at what you need to know about the instructor’s view and when and why you might want to work with a producer.
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If you'd like to learn how to effectively teach live, online classes, come join me online as I co-teach the Certified Online Training Professional course at www.iccotp.com. (The course is eligible for 1.2 CEUs.)
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Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.TEACHING ONLINE: Don’t Let a Computer Crash During Class Cause Panic!
by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP
I've been teaching live online classes for years. And while I’ve had all sorts of technology challenges during that time, I’ve never had my main machine go down along with my backup–until yesterday! Even though I rebooted my machine in time for class, it froze again, and I couldn’t click anything.
Panic? Not me. As a certified online training professional, you’re taught to handle these kinds of bumps in the training road. In this instance, other students in the class were using Captivate (it was a hands-on session) and I simply made a participant the presenter (or leader). Class went off without a hitch after that.
What are your most embarrassing online (or in-person) training debacles? Share them here! Did you recover? Tell me how!
P.S. Learn to teach live, online classes at www.iccotp.com
ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2019: Virtual Reality Is Literally Here!
by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP
Perhaps the biggest innovation you’ll find in the recently released Adobe Captivate 2019 is the ability to easily (and I mean easily) create virtual reality projects using 360-degree photos or videos. While this is just Adobe’s first attempt at virtual reality eLearning, it's pretty awesome.
To create a virtual reality project, click Virtual Reality Project on the New tab (you can also insert Virtual Reality slides into existing 2019 projects via Slides > 360 slide).
Once the Virtual Reality Project is open, click in the middle of the slide to import a 360 image or video. If you have Captivate 2019, you can create 360 projects without having to first find your own 360 assets because Adobe includes a few sample 360 images in the Gallery (within the 360BGAssets folder).
After adding the 360 asset to the slide, you can immediately see how cool this is going to be… you can move around the virtual space by dragging your mouse up, down, left, right… there's no need to Preview the project.
You can add static (non-interactive) text to the slide via Text > Label. To add interactivity to the slide, visit the Hotspots menu and select an icon (or import your own icon images).
With the icon selected, go to the Properties Inspector and choose an Action. Beyond the usual "Go to" actions, you can also add quiz question overlays (Multiple Choice or True/False).
I created this sample Virtual Reality project in about 30 minutes. A few limitations that I’d love to see resolved down the road are a lack of customization options for the hotspot icons (in the current release of Captivate 2019, the only options are to use the supplied icons as-is or use your own images as hotspots). I’d also love to see more Actions.
You publish VR projects just like any other project. When publishing VR content, keep in mind that desktop and laptop learners can access and use the content, but VR projects are best when viewed with VR headsets. (If you try the link above with a smart phone, you’ll be prompted to use VR headsets and the interactivity I added won’t work as expected without them.)
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Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the U.S. Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.