mLearning – The Logical Blog

November 12, 2023

Free eLearning calculator helps determine your development effort

One of the most common questions we hear during our live, online eLearning classes is, "How long does it typically take to create eLearning using Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or TechSmith Camtasia?"

The answer depends upon several factors:

what is the total playtime for the course (in minutes)?
how much voiceover audio will there be (in minutes)?
what is your comfort level using the development tool?
how much access do you have to media such as images and videos?
how much interactivity will you have in the training?
how much help do you have?
is the training teaching a life skill, a software simulation, or a video demo?

We've created a calculator to help you estimate the effort necessary to develop eLearning content.

November 14, 2015

Articulate Storyline vs. Adobe Captivate

A recent LinkedIn post asked eLearning developers: which tool is best: Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline? As I read through the comments, I was struck by how many people insisted that Storyline was the better choice because it was easier to learn than Captivate because it was so much like Microsoft PowerPoint.

As someone who uses both Captivate and Storyline, I have to disagree with that recurring sentiment. Sure, Storyline seems to be more like PowerPoint (there's a similar Ribbon and toolset). But honestly, how many of you are PowerPoint experts? I bet you can make a traditional presentation in PowerPoint including text, bullets, and images, but do you really know how to use PowerPoint efficiently and to its potential? I would submit that the answer is no… unless you received proper PowerPoint training. Both Captivate and Storyline seem simple at first glance… just like PowerPoint. However, PowerPoint, Storyline, and Captivate are robust development tools and if you aren't trained, you'll quickly find yourself doing the "hunt and peck" shuffle as you learn on-the-fly… spending double (perhaps triple) the time necessary to perform simple tasks.

I'm a big fan of both Captivate and Storyline (and TechSmith Camtasia Studio too). I'm constantly asked which tool is best (typically this question comes from new eLearning developers who are under pressure to pick one tool for their corporate eLearning initiatives over another). People want to know the inherent strengths and weaknesses of each tool.

My answer? It depends mainly on two things: your budget to purchase an eLearning tool (are you a one-person shop buying a single license or are you part of a team requiring multiple licenses?); and the output you are trying to provide your learners.

Captivate costs around $1,000. If you don't want to shell out the cash up front, you can subscribe to Captivate for around $30 per month. Given that Adobe upgrades Captivate approximately once each year, and you get the upgrades for free as part of your subscription, subscribing is a pretty good deal. Storyline is far more expensive (I've seen it listed for upwards of $2,000 and there isn't a subscription plan).

When it comes to output, both Captivate and Storyline can publish SWF and HTML5 content. However, if you're required to publish interactive PDFs or create responsive eLearning, the choice has to be Captivate (Storyline does not currently support either output).

Here's an analogy for comparing Captivate against Storyline. Consider the Toyota Tundra to the Toyota Takoma. Both are trucks. Both are awesome. Both have similar appointments in the cabin (some of the appointments are identical and if you learn how to use a feature in one truck, you know how to use it in the other). The Tundra (Captivate) can tow a house; the Takoma (Storyline) can tow a boat. The Takoma is easier to park in a small garage; the Tundra… not so much.

Do you need to tow a house or just a boat? If just a boat, go ahead and get the boat-puller. However, once you've purchased the boat puller and then need to pull a house… yikes!

If you use both Captivate and Storyline, I'd love to read your comments about both tools below as comments.

And of course, no matter which tool you choose, we've got an awesome collection of training classes to support you.

July 28, 2015

Adobe Captivate or Adobe Presenter: Which One Is Right For You?

by Jennie Ruby

Adobe Presenter and Adobe Captivate have some overlapping functions. Both can create eLearning lessons that can be uploaded to and report results to a learning management system (LMS). Both can work with PowerPoint. Both can create interactive quizzes. And the list goes on. But what are the key differences that tell me which of these programs to buy? Or, if I already have both, which to use for any given project? Let's take a look.

Adobe Presenter is a PowerPoint add-in, and is marketed by Adobe specifically to educators. It is the easiest path from PowerPoint to eLearning. You can use it to take existing PowerPoint slides, add voiceover narration, optionally record a self-video while presenting the lesson, add eLearning scenes and characters, add interactive elements, add a quiz, and publish the lesson to an LMS. Presenter lessons can be used to "flip" the classroom–the homework is to watch the lecture, and then practice assignments, worked problems, and the like are done in the classroom with the teacher's help.

Presenter is designed so that eLearning features are easy to add. But, as is typical with any kind of software, the easier the software is to use, the fewer choices you have about certain things. In Adobe Presenter, this is a good thing. This software allows you to focus more on the content than on eLearning functionality. With this software, the feeling is that you are designing your content, and the software handles the work of deciding things like how the learner advances to the next slide. Your energy goes into your content.

For example, if you want to create a scenario, where the learner chooses options and receives feedback by traveling down various "branches" after decision points, you can click a few buttons, choose between pre-designed options, type your content on designated slides, and let Presenter take care of which button takes the learner to which slide. Your choices are somewhat limited, but getting a functioning scenario lesson up and running is fast and easy.

Adobe Captivate is powerful, stand-alone eLearning development software. It can import PowerPoint slides as the background and basic content of a project, but from that point on, the file is a Captivate project file. You are no longer in PowerPoint. In fact, using PowerPoint is just one of many options for how to create a Captivate project.

Arguably Captivate's greatest strength is the ability to create software demonstrations and simulations by simply recording screen actions as you do them. You can create still shots of each screen or record a live video of a procedure. Captivate can add text descriptions of the actions automatically. But after recording, you can edit the recorded steps to add highlights, additional captions, voiceover instructions, hints, feedback messages, and much more.

Rather than having a lot of automatic presets (although there are plenty of predesigned themes for colors, backgrounds, and fonts), Captivate puts you in control of the details of your lesson's appearance and functionality. What will the learner click to advance the lesson? You can create a button or make any part of the background a clickable object. Want a button that does multiple actions? You can create that. Want to add a screen character or multiple characters? Captivate lets you do that, too.

Want a branching scenario? You map it out, you add scenes or characters, you create the buttons that take your learner down the various branches. You have complete flexibility as to how the lesson proceeds. But you are on your own. You have to remember to add that "back" button that keeps your learner from reaching a dead end. You have to create all of the links and make sure they go in the correct sequence. You have all the power, but you also have all the work of making the eLearning project function.

So which should you use for what?

If you need software simulations: Captivate
If you need flexible, responsive lesson sizes for various learner devices: Captivate
If you have existing PowerPoint slides and want to record your lecture with them: Presenter
If you just want to focus on content, and want the rest to be mostly automatic: Presenter
If you want detailed control over sophisticated branching, interactions, timings, and functions: Captivate

Budget

Captivate is a highly advanced, fully functional eLearning software development tool, and its cost reflects that:

$999 to purchase
$29.99/month to subscribe, with a year's subscription minimum
Student/teacher edition: $299

Presenter is a PowerPoint add-in that gives you a lot of eLearning pizazz for a lot less development work and costs significantly less than Captivate:

$499 to purchase
$14.99/month to subscribe for a year
$24.99 month-to-month subscription available
Student/teacher editions upgrade: $149

Are you using one of or both of these programs? Give me your opinion. Which do you use for what?

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If you'd like to learn more about Captivate, come hang out in my just announced Adobe Captivate Quick Start mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Adobe Captivate, Adobe Presenter, TechSmith Camtasia, Articulate Studio, or Articulate Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

June 4, 2015

Adobe Captivate & Articulate Storyline: Round-Tripping With Microsoft Word

by Kevin Siegel

How do you collaborate with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who aren't Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline developers? Specifically I'm talking about text content. How many times have you gone back and forth (and back and forth again) with your SMEs, changing a word on a slide here, removing a comma there. Maddening, right?

Wouldn't it be great if you could export the text from your eLearning projects into Word, get your SMEs to make their changes in the document (using Word), and then import those changes back into your project? That kind of workflow is a dream, right? Nope. The workflow exists today in both Captivate and Storyline and the process is simple.

Adobe Captivate

Open or create a Captivate project and choose File > Import/Export > Export project captions and closed captions.

In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button. (You will be notified when the captions have been exported.)

Click Yes to open the document in Word.

The captions will appear in a Word table. There will be five columns: Slide ID, Item ID, Original Text Caption Data, Updated Text Caption Data, and Slide. You can make any changes you want to the Updated Text Caption Data, but you should not change any of the other information. The Slide ID identifies which slide your edited captions go to. The Item ID identifies which caption goes with which caption data.

Make your editorial changes; then save and close the Word document.

The final step is to to import the edited text back into Captivate. Choose File > Import/Export > Import project captions and closed captions. Find and open the document you edited in Word. A dialog box will appear confirming the number of captions that were imported. Not only will the edited content be imported, but formatting changes made to the Word document, such as making text bold or italic, are also retained.

Articulate Storyline

The process of round-tripping between Articulate Storyline and Microsoft Word is just about the same as it is in Adobe Captivate.

Open or create a Storyline project and then choose File > Translation > Export. In the Open dialog box, name the resulting document, specify a save destination, and click the Save button.

In the resulting Word document, SMEs can make any needed content changes in the Translate this column area of the document and then return the edited document to you.

The final step is to simply choose File > Translation > Import and open the edited Word document.

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

April 22, 2015

eLearning: Top 20 Must-Read BLOGS

by Sean Stoker

In our own, considered, humble opinion, we have an awesome blog that every eLearning professional should read.
But sometimes we like to see what our colleagues are doing, which means taking a look at the multitude of eLearning knowledge that exists all over the web. Here are a few blogs that you simply must bookmark and read on a consistent basis:

eLearning Industry. This website publishes original eLearning content with 360 authors and more than 90 original articles published per month.
The eLearning Coach. Instructional design know-how from a highly experienced eLearning guru, Connie Malamed.
E-Learning Provocateur. E-Learning Provocateur is the brainchild of Ryan Tracey, a member of eLearn Magazine's editorial board. Tracey hopes to "provoke deeper thinking" in the world of eLearning.
Cathy Moore. Cathy Moore is an impassioned advocate for interesting and stimulating eLearning. As a speaker and adviser she is in very high demand, and her impressive resume includes companies such as Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, FedEx, and even the American Government, amongst a multitude of others.
E-Learning 24/7 Blog. Blogger Craig Weiss was recently named the most influential person in the eLearning industry. He is an expert on Learning Management Systems and a well-known public speaker.
OpenSesame. OpenSesame is a unique website that allows for easy buying and selling of eLearning Courses.
The Learning Generalist. Written by Sumeet Moghe of Thoughtworks Technologies Pune.
Social Learning Blog. An industry blog brought to you by LMS giant Interactyx.
Upside Learning. One of the most socially shared eLearning blogs on the internet.
Technology Enhanced Learning Blog. By David Hopkins, the 2014 ALTC Learning Technologist of the Year.
Learning Solutions Magazine. The eLearning Guild's publication, boasting more than 1000 articles since 2002.
Rapid eLearning Blog. By Tom Kuhlman, an eLearning pro with two decades of experience.
I Came, I Saw, I Learned. An informative blog about the software and design side of things from IconLogic.
Allison Rossett. A blog hosted by Dr. Allison Rosset, an eLearning expert and professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University.
The Spicy Learning Blog. "The Spicy Learning Blog" is posted by Saffron Interactive, Europe's prolific eLearning organization.
Kasper Spiro. From the mind of Kasper Spiro, CEO of easygenerator.
Docebo E-Learning Blog. A blog created by Docebo, one of the Top Ten Learning Management Systems of 2015.
LMS Blog. Insider knowledge from the respected LMS, Latitude Learning.
E-Learning Acupuncture. An eLearning blog created by accomplished scientist and Educational Developer at Queen's University, Eric Tremblay.
E-Learning Academy. Tips from e-coach Alison Bickford.

Is there a blog you would like to add to this list? Feel free to name your go-to blog in as a comment below.

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Looking to learn to create your own eLearning? We offer several live, online classes that'll get you up and running in no time. Classes range from 3-hour mini courses to full-day, multi-day events.

April 16, 2015

eLearning: Become a Pedagogical Agent

by Jennie Ruby

If you've taken any of our Adobe Captivate, Adobe Presenter, or Articulate Storyline classes, you are probably aware that these programs provide a selection of screen characters–cut-out pictures of professional actors in business, medical, or business-casual clothing posed as if they are talking to you. They are intended for use as a kind of avatar of the trainer.

There is research that shows that using a screen character as a pedagogical agent or learning coach, who speaks informally and appears to be giving the lesson, increases learning. (My reference for this is Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, eLearning and the Science of Instruction.)

Over the past few weeks, I've had multiple students ask how hard it would be to use themselves as the learning coach. Believe it or not, becoming a pedagogical agent is easier than you think.

Put Your Picture into the Lesson. Place a professional head shot of yourself, your trainer, or expert on the introductory slide (including job title, credentials, etc.), and then have that individual record the audio narration for the project.

Create your own screen characters. Photograph your expert on a green screen background for a full set of screen characters in various poses. The IconLogic Blog has a whole series of articles on how to do this:

Green Screen Part I

Green Screen Part II

Green Screen Part III

Green Screen Part IV

Create cartoons of yourself or your in-house experts. You can use the images over and over in on-going training videos. Here is one article to get you started: Using Bitstrips Characters.

If you don't have specific, known individuals in your company to act as your learning coaches, you are not stuck with the same four or five actors that come with your software. You can purchase additional screen characters from The eLearning Brothers. Or you can just make good use of some inexpensive clip art. By trimming out the background in ordinary office photographs, you can get some nice effects.

Whether you use generic actors or your own home-grown experts, screen characters are an excellent way to add the personalization, engagement, and local feel that will bring your eLearning to the next level.

Once you have your screen characters, how do you know what to make them say? Join me for an afternoon mini course on writing voiceovers to find out.

April 13, 2015

Adobe Captivate: Text Hyperlinks

by Kevin Siegel

Over the years I've had more than a few eLearning development clients ask us to create links to web resources on a slide. There's more than one way to accomplish the task. Over the next couple of weeks I'll discuss some of my favorite techniques. Up first, text hyperlinks.

To create a text hyperlink, select some text (the text can be contained within a text caption or a smart shape). Then, on the Properties Inspector, select the Style tab. From the Character area, click the Insert Hyperlink tool.

From the Link To drop-down menu, choose Web Page. Next, type a web address into the field.

Prior to clicking the OK button, visit the drop-down menu to the right of the web address. I think it's a good idea to select New from the list of options. (This will ensure that the page that appears after the learner clicks is a new page or tab, rather than a page that replaces the current lesson.)

When previewed in a web browser, the text hyperlink will look similar to the image below. If clicked, the learner will be taken to the web address you specified in the Link To area.

Should you change your mind about the text hyperlink, removing the link is as simple as selecting the text and, back on the Properties Inspector, clicking the Remove Hyperlink tool.

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eLearning: Is Gamification Really Necessary?

by AJ Walther

I like the idea of games in learning, generally speaking. Why shouldn't learning be fun? Set the capitals of the states to music, turn the stock market into a game, great. But lately the eLearning community is all aflutter about the gamification of learning. Game this. Video that. Avatar all the things!

Sure, I think there's a place for games in learning. Yes, I think to some degree games can improve learner engagement. But what about retention? What about actual knowledge gain? And mostly, what about the message we, as eLearning developers, are sending? Should everything be a game?

A game-based school for 6th graders opened in Los Angeles. It looks like attending the school would be a blast. But I have to wonder how kids attending a school where everything is a game are going to turn out. Will they be motivated to do anything if there's not a prize at the end? Will the students want to learn for the pure joy of discovery and the attainment of knowledge, or will they always only be focused on leveling-up? What about when they enter the workplace? Will their jobs need to be set up on an instant gratification game system? Or will it even matter, because at that point all of our job training and all of our work will be gamified as well?

Conversely, maybe these kids will go on to be super-motivated brainiacs because they "learned to learn" in an environment based upon fun and games. I certainly don't know. What's concerning to me, is that I'm not sure if anyone knows. Are we gamifying things because it's the new, fun, thing to do? Or are we doing it because it works? We'd love to hear from you.

I have mostly questions, and no answers. I've yet to come across any research that goes beyond how gamification can be applied, instead focusing on whether or not gamification works. What I did find was an interesting survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (Gamification: Experts expect 'game layers' to expand in the future, with positive and negative results). I found it interesting because it looked at gamification from both sides, pointing out that some industry experts think gaming can be "fun, useful, increasing engagement and personal improvement" while others say it can also be "manipulative, insidious." Because it was only an opinion survey, however, there was no statistical data on whether the gaming is working.

Check out this infographic from Knewton about the Gamification of Education. Looking for more? Here's an infographic by OnlineSchools.com that goes into a little more detail about gaming in education. (And, if you'd like to know how to make your own infographic, check out this blog post on using PowerPoint.)

March 11, 2015

TechSmith Camtasia: Recording Effects

by Kevin Siegel

When Camtasia developers need to add attention-grabbing visual affects to a software demonstration created using the Camtasia Recorder, the work is typically accomplished by editing the recording in Camtasia Studio. However, using Camtasia's Effects Toolbar, you can add several attention-grabbing visuals while you are recording your video.

Start the Camtasia Recorder. Enable the Effects toolbar by choosing Tools > Recording toolbars and selecting Effects (click the OK button to close the Recording toolbars dialog box).

Create a video by clicking the Rec button on the Camtasia Recorder.
After the 3-2-1 countdown, the Effects tools appear on the Recording toolbar.

Select the ScreenDraw tool to display different Drawing tools. You can select from among frames, lines, highlights, ellipses and even a pen.

At this point, you can use the tools to draw all kinds of shapes on the screen (at the same time that you're creating the video).

Camtasia: Images drawn on the screen while creating a video.

Note: You can erase all of the screen drawings by once again clicking the ScreenDraw tool.

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March 3, 2015

Camtasia Studio: Animations Made Easy

by Kevin Siegel

When I teach Camtasia, one of the activities that garners the largest "that's cool" factor is how easy it is to animate any object. During class, we not only animate an object, we get it to grow and rotate while it's flying around the screen. Sound awesome? Here's how to do it:

Insert an object onto the Camtasia stage (you can animate anything… in the image below I've added a rectangle callout, added a bit of text and positioned it in the middle of the stage).

Camtasia Studio: A callout added to the stage.

Extend the playtime for the object so it sticks around for a bit (right-click the object on the Timeline and choose Duration). In the image below, I have extended the duration for my callout to 20 seconds.

Camtasia Studio: Duration extension.

Now for the fun part, to animate the object, position the playhead as far left on the Timeline as it will go.

Ensure the object you want to animate is selected and choose Tools > Visual Properties. On the Visual Properties panel, click the Add animation button.

Camtasia Studio: Add Animation button

On the Timeline, the selected object now sports a blue circle. The blue circle is an animation's starting point.

On the Stage, drag the object left to remove it temporarily from the stage.

Camtasia Studio: Object off of the stage.

On the Timeline, position the Playhead 5 or 10 seconds to the right of the first blue circle.

Camtasia Studio: Playhead positioned right.

On the Stage, ensure that the object is still selected and click the Add animation button on the Visual Properties panel to add a second blue circle to the Timeline.

Camtasia Studio: Second animation added.

On the Stage, drag the object to the middle of the Stage.

In the images below, I've added a third animation (and then, on the Stage, I dragged my object to a third position… and I resized and rotated it to boot… if you're following along, you can add as many or few animations to the Timeline as you like).

Camtasia Studio: Final animation added.

To test the animation, rewind the video and then click the Play button on the Video Preview playbar.

Go ahead, say it… that's pretty cool! If you'd like to see a video demonstration of adding animations to a Camtasia project, check out the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn about Camtasia, Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.