The Logical Blog

September 14, 2018

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.

September 13, 2018

eLEARNING & TRAINING DESIGN: It Just Takes a Spark to Light a Design Fire

by AJ Walther, COTP

Even the most seasoned designers can hit a design plateau. It’s hard to be inspired all the time! Here’s a tool that might help light an, ahem, spark. I played around with Adobe Spark this week. The obvious use case for Adobe Spark is to create stunning graphics, videos, and websites. If you have such needs, you should absolutely investigate the tool. But here’s maybe a less obvious use for the tool: design inspiration!

Let’s say you have some “stuff” for your design. You have some text, a logo, and a graphic. Maybe you have this specific stuff and you’re creating an eLearning module or an online class about online training:

“ONLINE TRAINING CAN BE GREAT TRAINING”

There are, of course, endless ways one could design some training around these assets. But what isn’t endless is time, and sometimes, creative juices. Here’s where Adobe Spark can help. Start a new project at http://spark.adobe.com by clicking the plus sign and selecting Post.

You can either start with a template or from scratch. It doesn’t really matter what layout you choose, but you’ll probably want to choose a page layout that roughly resembles the proportions of your slide you’ll eventually be designing. I started from scratch. If you chose a template, you’ll want to delete all the stuff you won’t be using.

Next, add an image.

Use the ADD button on the right to load your logo (add it as an Image, unless you have paid for the subscription—then choose Logo).

Add your text.

Format the text by exploring the Type, Color, Shape, and Style categories at the right.

Voila! That already doesn’t look half bad. But what’s really exciting and impressive here is how quick and easy it is to see your assets rearranged in different fresh and modern design layouts.

Ensure none of the assets on your post are selected and choose the Design category on the right. Notice all the available Variations. These selections will vary based upon how many images or text boxes you have in your post and what sort of post you originally selected.

Clicking each Variation will quickly and easily reformat your content to that design style—with minimal tweaking needed on your part. And, if you pay for the service, you can automatically have your preferred or corporate color scheme preloaded and apply it with a click, as well as eliminate the Adobe Spark logo.

Check out these variations I was able to quickly spin up. Imagine the time this would save if you were trying to show a client some design options!

Here I’ve quickly mocked up a training template based upon one of the quick layouts I made with Adobe Spark.

Remember that using the post you create isn’t really the objective here (although you certainly could use it!) —it’s to help you get out of a design rut and see your assets arranged in design formats that perhaps you would not have thought of on your own. And perhaps it will spark an idea for the rest of your training layout. Have fun playing with your new designs!

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AJ Walther, COTP, is IconLogic's Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a seasoned online trainer, eLearning graphic designer, and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." AJ made her own interdisciplinary studies major, focusing on writing and art. Her combined expertise in PowerPoint, graphic design, and writing allows her to bring a unique skillset to the eLearning community.

September 11, 2018

Adobe Captivate 2019 Advanced Book In Production

Adobe Captivate 2019: Beyond the Essentials. October. 2018.

September 11, 2018

LMS IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES, Part 1: The Plan

by Ann Crane

Corporate learning initiatives almost always include the need for a Learning Management System (LMS). Given that LMSs run the gamut from free to tens of thousands of dollars, a little prior planning is in order before running out and purchasing the first LMS you find.

In this series, I’m going to share some of the top LMS implementation strategies provided by LMS experts from across the globe.

Sharath Ramaswamy is an LMS implementation expert who has helped more than 100 companies, each with their own unique challenges and expectations, successfully set up their LMSs.

According to Ramaswamy, one of the most important first steps to implementing an LMS is defining the expectations for the learning initiative.

Defining expectations is crucial because those expectations are the scaffolding that binds the learning program goals to measurable business goals,” said Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy went on to say that “one must review the business strategies which motivated the purchase of the LMS in the first place, identify the overall business objectives, identify the key stakeholders and draft a plan with an intent to illustrate how the learning plan objectives match with and contribute to the business objectives.”

“This will determine your definition of success,” exclaimed Ramaswamy. “If you want to be considered a partner in the business, and not just seen as part of a support function, it is crucial to tie your learning program goals as tightly as possible to the pre-defined business goals.”

Business goals can be vast in scope. Perhaps your company plans to double its annual profits worldwide by leveraging a fast-growing innovation in the industry. How do you, as a member of the Learning and Development team, take a large corporate goal and break it down? For starters, identify the stakeholders and understand what, exactly, they have defined as success.

For example, a manager has a business goal of adding new products to the corporate portfolio. One appropriately mapped learning program goal would be to offer role-based certifications on the new products.

Here’s another example: The head of Global Sales has a goal to sell into new markets. The learning program goal would be to ensure an online learning model supports a globally-distributed workforce and offers localized training

Another crucial pre-implementation strategy is to identify organizational roadblocks that have hindered learning in the past and develop supportive strategies offset them. For example, if a known obstacle to learning has been “no time,” ensure that short eLearning modules are used in the course (lessons that don’t play for more than a few minutes). If the criticism “no communication” was voiced, define an internal marketing plan and a communication strategy in advance of the roll-out.

Next time: Learn how to build exactly the right team for your implementation, who to choose, and why!

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Note: Join Ann on Thursday, September 25, 2018, 2 p.m. Eastern live online and see the power, flexibility, and ease of use of Adobe Captivate Prime. Ann will also be showcasing some of the assets in the new Content Library (where you can find courses on Business Skills, Workplace Compliance, and more).

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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.

See also: Part 2 of this series.

August 16, 2018

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: Make Software Simulations Scorable

by Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP

The Assessment recording mode in Adobe Captivate creates a step-by-step software simulation that is intended to function as a test. It is part of the three-part formal software lesson: Demo, then Training (practice), then Assessment (test). The Assessment requires the learner to click through the steps without any hints, and it is set up to report each correct click as a point. But if you actually put a Quiz Results slide at the end of your Assessment and try out your test, you’ll find that you get 100% every time!

“Well, of course!” you might say, “You know all of the answers, because you are the one who created the lesson!”

And if you said that, you’d have a good point. However, you’d be wrong.

The reason you get 100% every time is that by default, each click box in the Assessment simulation is set to Infinite Attempts. You can click the wrong thing two, three, five times—and you’ll get a Failure caption every time. But the lesson will not proceed until you finally click the correct command, whereupon you receive a point for your correct answer, and the assessment proceeds. Voila. 100%.

To get an accurate score on an Assessment simulation, you have to set each click box—the clickable object that makes the software simulation advance—to allow only 1 attempt.

Select the click box and, on the Properties Inspector > Actions tab, deselect the Infinite Attempts checkbox. Then set the No. of Attempts to 1.

Still on the Actions tab, in the Reporting section, select Include in Quiz. Assign the number of Points you want (1 works fine), and then select Add to Total.

You’ll need to make these changes or ensure that these settings are consistent throughout your entire project. For the Reporting settings, once you have set them for one click box, you can use the fly-away menu next to the Reporting heading to update all of your click boxes:

In the Properties > Actions tab, to the right of the Reporting heading, click the fly-away menu (shown in the highlight box below) and choose Apply to all objects of this type.

The Reporting settings are applied to all of the click boxes in your project.

For the number of attempts, however, you’ll need to navigate to each and every slide and set that manually. Ugh. But here is a tool that will help: Advanced Interactions (which help you navigate to each click box in turn). One or two clicks per checkbox (depending on the point value you want to set), and you’re done.

Make sure you have set all of your click boxes to be included in quiz. Then, access the Advanced Interactions window to help ease the pain of setting them all to one attempt via Project > Advanced Interactions.

Ensure that the View filter is set to All Scorable Objects. If necessary, click the black twisty triangle to expand the list of scorable objects on each slide. In the Advanced Interactions window, click the first line that says Click box.

You are navigated to that slide in the Filmstrip, and the click box on the slide is selected. On the Properties Inspector, deselect the Infinite Attempts checkbox. Repeat for each click box in the project.

In your Quiz Preferences > Settings, ensure that Show Score at the End of the Quiz is selected. Then make sure the Quiz Results slide is at the end of your Assessment project. Preview the Assessment, purposely get a few clicks wrong, and you will see an accurate score at the end of the assessment.

Want to report the results? We cover how to set up a “quiz” such as this one as a SCORM-compliant content package, and how to upload it to your LMS, in our Advanced Adobe Captivate class. Interested in other classes? We've got a huge catalog of courses all online, all 100% hands-on and interactive.

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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.

August 10, 2018

ELEARNING AND PRESENTATIONS: In Search Of Free-to-Use Images

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

When trying to find quality images for use in PowerPoint presentations or eLearning projects created with any development tool such as Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, or TechSmith Camtasia, most people turn to Google. And why not? With a quick search you are sure to find the image you’re looking for.

For instance, I recently wanted to find an image of a puppy for use in an eLearning project. (I know, I know, I was enthralled with puppies in my last article… but come on, puppies!)

Check out some of the awesome puppy images Google found for me. It's unreal that these images are now mine, all mine!

As tempting as it might be to use images found via a Google search in your project, I’d caution against it. Most of the images you’ll find on the Internet while using any search engine are protected by copyright law. Using that adorable puppy on your web page, promotional materials, or even your eLearning project without permission from the copyright holder can lead to some hefty fines. In fact, according to Purdue University, “the law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed.”

Still wanting to search the web for an image of a puppy to use in a work project? There’s hope. Go to Google's advanced search page. In the all these words area, type puppy.

Scroll down to the usage rights area and, from the drop-down menu, choose free to use, share or modify, even commercially.

After clicking the Advanced Search button, plenty of images appear, just like a regular search. However, this time your search results are full of results you can actually use! But, not so fast! Be sure to put in the legwork. Click through to the image you'd like to use and check its usage rights. Some images will be labeled Creative Commons Zero. This means you can truly use, share, or modify the work, even commercially, without crediting the owner. But a lot of these results, while available for you to use, will still have some use restrictions like citing your source. Failure to do so could result in copyright fines.

But what if you already have an image on your computer or in a PowerPoint presentation or on a Storyline slide (perhaps the image was already being used in your project when you took it over)? How can you ensure that the image wasn’t “borrowed” from a website “accidentally?” For instance, I’d like to use the king-of-all-cuteness image shown below in my project. My friend Biff gave it to me. And nobody knows where he found it. (Biff, for his part, isn't talking.)

In this scenario, you can perform what is known as a “reverse lookup” that will find similar images and/or websites that are already using the image (a possible indicator that the image is protected by copyright).

To begin, go to https://images.google.com and click the search by image icon.

Click the Upload an image tab and then upload the image from your computer or server. In my example of puppy cuteness, the mighty Google took just seconds to burst my bubble. My puppy image was being used by a site selling images for use on a phone. While the website owning the image might have granted me permission to use their image, it just wasn’t worth the time or effort (so off I went to perform an advanced Google search for free-to-use puppies).

July 24, 2018

“TechSmith Camtasia 2018: The Essentials” Step-by-Step Workbook Now Shipping

A self-paced, hands-on workbook that teaches the core TechSmith Camtasia 2018 skills!

Using TechSmith Camtasia, you can quickly create software demonstrations, software simulations, and soft skills eLearning.

You can Share your finished project so it can be accessed by learners using desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices. Your content can be hosted on a web server, Learning Management System, YouTube, Vimeo, TechSmith’s Screencast.com, and more.

During the step-by-step lessons presented in this book, you will learn how you can include recordings of existing PowerPoint presentations or software demonstrations created directly on your computer using the Camtasia Recorder. You will use the powerful Camtasia Editor to add animations, voiceover audio, graphics, music, annotations, closed captions, and quizzes to a project.

This book will introduce you to the essential Camtasia 2018 skills you need to get up and running with this awesome eLearning development tool as quickly as possible.

This book features:

All of the Camtasia projects, images, audio files, and other assets needed to get started (Just download and install the free Camtasia 30-day trial from the TechSmith website and jump in!)
Dozens of step-by-step, hands-on activities
Confidence Checks to challenge your new skills
Hundreds of supporting screen shots

You can buy this book from amazon.com.

July 20, 2018

xAPI: What It Is, Why You need It, And How to Get Started

You’ve likely heard about xAPI (the Experience API or the Tin Can Project), but maybe you’re not quite sure what all the buzz is about. We've got just the live, online class for you: xAPI: What It Is, Why You need It, And How to Get Started .

As adoption of xAPI begins to take hold, it allows for more robust and interesting tracking of the learning process. As actual performance and results data are integrated with learning metrics, we will have the data we need to tailor the learning process to individual needs at the same time that we can draw more useful conclusions about the learning as a whole across a wider population. In this session we’ll take a look at what xAPI can do for you, what tools and platforms you’ll need, and how to get started.

Course Content. After a brief introduction to xAPI and what's new about it from the instructional design side, we'll discuss three key areas that impact instructional designers:

Identifying learning data needs, data sources and meaningful visualizations that answer organizational and L&D questions
Making choices about infrastructure: how and when to work with your LMS, your LRS or both
Models for taking advantage of xAPI across a variety of learning vectors: formal & informal, social & private, formative & summative, predictable & variable

The Instructor. Megan Torrance is CEO and founder of TorranceLearning, which helps organizations connect learning strategy to design, development, data, and ultimately performance. Megan, a Certified Online Training Professional (COTP), has more than 25 years of experience in learning design, deployment, and consulting. Megan and the TorranceLearning team are passionate about sharing what works in learning so they devote considerable time to teaching and sharing about Agile project management for learning experience design and, of course, the xAPI. TorranceLearning hosts the xAPI Learning Cohort, a free, virtual 12-week learning-by-doing opportunity where teams form on the fly and create proof-of-concept xAPI projects.

Learn more or sign up for "xAPI: What It Is, Why You need It, And How to Get Started" here.

July 18, 2018

We’ll tell you ours, you tell us yours

From Kevin: 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. Check out my smooth maneuvers in the video below.

What are you most embarrassing online (or in-person) training debacles? Share them here! Did you recover? Tell us how!

Learn to teach online at www.iccotp.com.

July 17, 2018

TECHSMITH CAMTASIA 2018: Assets Galore!

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

TechSmith recently released Camtasia 2018. (You can purchase the software directly from TechSmith or try the software free for 30 days via the trial download).

At first glance, there’s little difference between Camtasia 9 for the PC and version 2018. However, if you check out the tools at the left, you’ll see the Media Bin and the Library have been separated (they used to be grouped together as Media tools). While I do like the tools separated (this is how they were listed in older versions of Camtasia), this minor change isn't anything to get overly excited about.

Things get a bit more exciting if you visit the Library. TechSmith has enhanced the free assets in Camtasia 2018, and they're pretty nice. For instance, check out the dude in the image below. You'll find him and many more like him in the People folder. To preview an asset, double-click it. To use any Library asset in your project, simply drag it onto the Timeline.

What's better than the enhanced free assets that now come standard in the Camtasia Library? Check out the Download more assets link at the bottom of the Library.

For $199 a year TechSmith offers a new subscription service providing access to more than 500,000 assets such as videos, images, and photographs. You can download and use the assets in any Camtasia project.

I wanted to see what kind of assets were available from TechSmith so I searched the Image library for Pizza. I wasn't disappointed with the resulting selection (although I was hungry by this point).

I then went for "cute" and searched the video library for puppy. Once again, I was not disappointed.

Can't afford the $199 fee? Many of the assets you’ll find on the site after clicking the link are free.

In the image below, the group of icons at the left is free; the one on the right is available only if you pay the subscription fee. (Notice the gift box icon below the assets on the left indicating that the group is free to download and use.)