The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Adobe RoboHelp 2019: The Essentials Now Shipping from Amazon.com

We are proud to announce that our newest book, Adobe RoboHelp 2019: The Essentials workbook is now available on Amazon.com as both a print book or eBook.

About the book:

“Adobe RoboHelp 2019: The Essentials” is a self-paced, step-by-step workbook that teaches you the essential RoboHelp skills needed to create and deliver user assistance (software/application help systems, operations manuals, policies and procedures... the list is endless).

Step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of creating new RoboHelp projects and topics from scratch. Learn to import content from Microsoft Word and HTML files.

Enhance your topics with graphics, and interactive multimedia (using eLearning content created in Adobe Captivate).

Improve the navigation of your content by adding hyperlinks, indexes, and glossaries.

Increase your production efficiency by learning about cascading style sheets, variables, snippets, and master pages.

Learn how to control the look of final output via Skins and presets.

Deliver content that can be consumed on any kind of device including desktops, laptop, smartphones, and tablets using output such as Responsive HTML5, WebHelp, HTMLHelp, and even eBooks.

This book features:

• All of the Adobe RoboHelp projects, images, audio files, and other assets to get started (Just download the free RoboHelp 30-day trial software from the Adobe 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 order the print book here and the eBook (Kindle) here.

ADOBE ROBOHELP: Fixing Broken Links

Broken links... they happen (just like stuff).   Perhaps you imported HTML content into RoboHelp that contained one or more links. It’s possible that some of the links in the document were broken in the source file. If there are broken links in the document before you import the document, they’ll remain broken in RoboHelp when the imported content becomes a RoboHelp topic. And of course, there are all kinds of ways you can break a link all by yourself from within RoboHelp (it’s as simple as deleting a source topic or, when editing a topic in HTML view, deleting an important tag).   In the image below, a topic in my RoboHelp project contains a link (the link is supposed to go to a topic about the corporate policy on the consumption of alcohol during work hours).

While the link looks fine, it’s actually broken (the name of the target file is different than what is referenced in the HTML code). Anyone clicking the link is going to see the following page (instead of the information about alcohol).

Regardless of how a link gets broken, it’s great to know you can fix the problem easily. To begin, check your project for the existence of broken links by choosing Edit > Fix Broken Links.    If the Fix Broken Links box that appears is empty, awesome… you don’t have any broken links. In the image below however, you can see that I have a broken link in one of my topics.

After clicking the Replace button, all I needed to do was find the target topic (Alcohol Policy) and click the Link button.

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Adobe just released update 5 for Adobe RoboHelp 2019. To get the free update, choose Help > Updates. You'll see that version 14.0.5 is available for immediate download. All you'll need to do is click the Update button. Depending upon your internet speed, the update should only take a few minutes (you'll need to close RoboHelp while the update is in process). Adobe is planning to update RoboHelp regularly (the updates fix bugs and add features so it's a good idea to check for updates about once per month).

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If you're looking to learn Adobe RoboHelp, we've got you covered in these live, online instructor-led RoboHelp classes and mentoring sessions.

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: The Fix for Corrupt Themes

While attempting to apply a Theme to a Captivate project I received the alert shown below.

My only option was to click the OK button and try again. Of course, no matter how many times I attempted the task, I received the same failure message.   When Captivate misbehaves, the first thing I always attempt is to reset the program’s Preferences. There’s a handy utility for this located in the program’s application folder within a subfolder called Utils. With Captivate closed, browse to the Utils folder and open CleanPreferences (there’s a version for the Mac and PC).

Upon restarting Captivate, the cleaned Preferences file usually puts Captivate back in working order.   If resetting the Preferences file doesn’t work, plan B is to clear Captivate’s Cache folder. This option is found by opening Captivate’s Preferences dialog box (Edit menu for PC users; Adobe Captivate menu for Mac users) and, from the General Settings category, click the Clear Cache button.

Every once in a while, one or more of the theme files (they are .cptm files) get corrupt. When that happens, Captivate simply refuses to apply the themes and you’ll get the "Cannot apply..." error message shown in the first image above. While I cannot help you prevent corrupt theme files (if I find out what causes the corruption, I’ll be sure to share), I can show you how to replace the corrupt theme files with new files   First, with Captivate closed, go to Users > Public > Public Documents > Adobe > eLearning Assets > Layouts > 11_0. Copy the en_US folder and paste it in another location on your computer (this is going to be a backup copy of the en_US folder's contents, so I suggest giving it a name such as en_US_bk).

With Captivate still closed, go to Documents > My Adobe Captivate Projects > Layouts > 11.0 > en_US. Select and copy all of the .cptm files in the en_US folder.

Go back to Users > Public > Public Documents > Adobe > eLearning Assets > Layouts > 11.0 and open the en_US folder (this is the folder you backed up a moment ago).   Paste the .cptm files on your clipboard into this folder (replace the existing .cptm files when prompted). Restart Captivate and you’ll be able to apply the supplied Themes as before.

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Need to learn Adobe Captivate? Want to save on travel? Consider our live, online, and 100% interactive and hands-on classes. (If you prefer onsite training, send us an email. We can come to you!)

eLEARNING DEVELOPMENT: How Much Time Does It Take to Create eLearning?

One of the more common questions that I get from new eLearning developers is how much time does it take to produce published content. The answer depends upon a couple of factors. For instance, which eLearning tool are you going to use? Is it Adobe Captivate? How about TechSmith's Camtasia? Or maybe you're going to use Articulate Storyline?   Here's another factor: how many minutes of eLearning playtime are you looking to produce? Are you creating a 30-minute course? 60 minutes?   I have extensive experience using Storyline, Captivate, and Camtasia. In my experience, it will take you approximately 2 hours of labor to produce 1 minute of eLearning playtime if you use Captivate or Storyline. If you use Camtasia, your labor will go down a bit (1 hour or perhaps 1.5 hours for every 1 minute of video playtime).    The production times mentioned above do not include the following:   Writing an eLearning script or developing a storyboard   If you’re creating a software simulation, you’ll need a step-by-step recording script. If you’re creating soft skills content (lessons such as conflict resolution or onboarding), I've found that it could take between 1-2 hours to write a single minute of content.   Rehearsing the Script   Once you're written the software simulation script, you'll likely need to run through it multiple times to ensure it's accurate.   Writing an Audio Script   If you're going to include voiceover audio (and I highly suggest that you do since audio has been shown to improve the learner experience), you should create an audio script. It could easily take you 40 hours or more to prepare an audio script.   Recording the Software Simulation or Video Demo   Once you've written a script, recording screen actions in any of the eLearning tools is simple and shouldn't take more than the actions detailed in the script. For instance, if the script has you recording a 3-minute process in Microsoft Word, it should only take 3-minutes to record the process. And while recording screen actions doesn't take a lot of time or special skills, if there are a lot of simulations to record, you'll need to factor the time in your budget.   Developing Assets Externally   I mention below that you can save production time in your eLearning tool by creating as much of the course assets as possible outside of the eLearning tool. Many people create the content in PowerPoint and simply import the content into the eLearning tool. While that means there will be less content to create in the eLearning tool, don't overlook the fact that the content still needs to be created in that other tool. In my experience, creating content in PowerPoint is easy. However, it still takes time. In fact, I'd put the development time in PowerPoint at about the same development time as working within Camtasia (1-1.5 hours for every minute or presentation play time).   The production clock begins ticking after you create a blank project, open a project containing previously-recorded content, or import external content such as a PowerPoint presentation.   Production includes, but is not limited to: Adding/editing text content such as callouts/captions Adding images Adding animations Adding interactivity (Buttons, clickable hotspots, menus, etc.) Creating quizzes Publishing to an LMS or web server Testing the published content Fixing errors found during the testing process Republishing and retesting Looking to save time? You can trim production times significantly by following these tips: Create Just In Time eLearning If creating a software demonstration in Captivate or Storyline, record the lesson and simply publish it without going from screen-to-screen and tweaking any of the timing or the text. When an eLearning developer simply records a lesson and publishes it without much post-production, I call those kind of eLearning modules "just in time eLearning." Depending upon your audience, "just in time eLearning" may be perfectly appropriate. Why spend the production time creating a highly-polished lesson if it's not necessary? Use Microsoft PowerPoint If creating a soft skills lesson, create the bulk of the content in Microsoft PowerPoint. All three eLearning tools mentioned above allow you to take existing PowerPoint content and quickly create eLearning out of it. In my opinion, Captivate and Storyline handle the PowerPoint content more elegantly than Camtasia, but the bottom line is that you can re-purpose existing content. Assuming you are satisfied with the original PowerPoint content, and you don't need to add additional content (beyond possibly a quiz) in the eLearning tool, the production time for converting PowerPoint to eLearning should be no more than 1 hour of production time for every minute of eLearning playtime. Use Templates If you start a project with a well-conceived and implemented template, each of your projects will have a consistent look and feel. Depending on the Tool, Go Demo or Sim If you use Camtasia, I suggest creating software demonstrations instead of simulations. If you add interactivity (hotspots) to a Camtasia project, you will need to post the lesson to a server to test the interactivity. That kind of back and forth simply takes too much time. However, creating software simulations in Captivate and Storyline is so quick and easy, I think it's actually faster to produce simulations over demonstrations. The pesky mouse pointer that is typically included in a demonstration always need a significant amount of production attention (you'll likely need to adjust the pointer position, pointer path, click effects, and click sounds). Since simulations don't typically include a mouse pointer, those production issues go away. What's your experience with eLearning production times? I'd love to see hear about the eLearning tools you're using. How much time it takes you to produce each minute of eLearning. Feel free to share your thoughts below.   We've created an online tool that will help you calculate how long it can take to develop eLearning (the tool supports Captivate, Camtasia, Presenter, and more). Check out the tool on the IconLogic website.

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IconLogic has deep experience developing eLearning. If you need assistance with your next project, we can help!

ADOBE ROBOHELP 2019: Update 5 Available

Adobe just released update 5 for Adobe RoboHelp 2019. To get the free update, choose Help > Updates. You'll see that version 14.0.5 is available for immediate download. All you'll need to do is click the Update button. Depending upon your internet speed, the update should only take a few minutes (you'll need to close RoboHelp while the update is in process).

Adobe is planning to update RoboHelp regularly (the updates fix bugs and add features so it's a good idea to check for updates about once per month).

If you're looking to learn Adobe RoboHelp, we've got you covered in these live, online instructor-led RoboHelp classes and mentoring sessions.

ARTICULATE STORYLINE: Free Icons Galore!

I was teaching Storyline recently and one of my students wanted to put a check mark image into his project. Before I could blink, he was on Google, had searched for a check mark image, found a ton of them, downloaded the one he liked, and added it to his project. Done and done!   Of course, the image was copyrighted (as are most images you'll find via Google searches). Given that he is a Storyline 360 subscriber, I showed him a better way to icon-glory that's not only cost-free but copyright-free and royalty-free.   From the Storyline 360 ribbon, select the Insert tab. From the Content Library section, click Icons.

In the Search Icons area, he typed check mark and pressed [enter]. The result was more check marks than he could possibly ever use. Better still, he was able to quickly change the color of the shape once it was loaded onto his slide (something he would have been unable to do with a checkmark image lifted from the Internet).

Similarly, you can use the Search feature to find anything from puppies to kittens to boats. And again, everything you find is free to use and/or modify in your Storyline project.

If you're looking to learn Articulate Storyline, we've got an awesome collection of classes... all live, all instructor-led, all online, and all incredibly interactive.

ADOBE ROBOHELP 2019: The Fix is In!

Adobe recently released RoboHelp 2019, a totally reimagined, rebuilt, re-everything RoboHelp. If you're a veteran RoboHelp user, I'm thinking you'll find the overhauled interface to be intuitive and significantly cleaner than previous versions of RoboHelp.

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In RoboHelp 2019, there are far fewer toolbars or tools. And while there are still some dialog boxes in RoboHelp 2019, much of the topic formatting work can be performed in panels to the left and right of the application window.

While Adobe has spent significant time streamlining RoboHelp's interface and development process, there are some awesome enhancements as well. One of my favorite features is Auto Fix Content. Although it is not necessary for you to know HTML to create RoboHelp projects, knowing a little HTML can pay off when imported content causes trouble because of misplaced or missing HTML tags.   I imported an HTML file into a project. I then opened the topic expecting to see it in the Author window as shown in the first image above (where you see the text and the heading About This Guide).   What I didn't know prior to importing the HTML file was that there were HTML code errors in the file. While the file imported without issue, upon attempting to edit the file, it automatically opened in HTML View.   In the HTML View, I noticed that there was an error icon next to line 20 as shown below.

I ran my mouse over the error icon and was alerted that the HTML file wasn't following conventional HTML rules (where tags must be paired). I'm comfortable with HTML and could have easily fixed the problem myself by adding the missing tag. However, if HTML isn't your thing, you'll love this awesome feature.

From the top of the HTML View window, I clicked the Auto Fix Content icon.    In a blink, RoboHelp automatically fixed all of the errors. (For instance, in the image below, a missing paragraph end-tag was added on line 18.)

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Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp? Want to save on travel? Consider our live, online, and 100% interactive and hands-on RoboHelp classes. (If you prefer onsite training, send us an email. We can come to you!)

TECHSMITH CAMTASIA: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

How often have you had multiple objects on the Camtasia canvas and found yourself moving one object out of the way so you could work with another object? If you're like most developers, I'm thinking it's a common occurrence. And while it's not difficult to move an object (just drag and drop), you'll likely have to put the misplaced object back where you found it.   In the image below, I've positioned four objects on the canvas (each of the objects shown below are available for free via Camtasia's Library).

I'd like to change the behavior of the two people on the canvas. However, I consistently found myself selecting the house by mistake and either moving it or accidentally applying behaviors to the wrong object. Also, when previewing the video, I wanted to hide the house and focus instead on the two characters.   Fortunately, the solution to both problems is incredibly simple. On the Timeline, click the Disable Track icon (the eyeball) for the Track containing the item that's in the way.

Not only are the items on the disabled track hidden from view on the Canvas, they won't preview nor will they publish.

If you'd like the hidden objects back, simply Enable the track.

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Looking to learn how to develop eLearning in Camtasia like a pro? Check out our live, online Camtasia classes and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

TRAINER TRAINING & CERTIFICATION: Next Online Class is February 19-20!

Learn to Teach Live, Online Classes Master Some Amazing Tactics For Engaging Virtual Learners

Teaching live, online classes isn't as easy as it sounds. Learn how to engage learners who attend your classes from anywhere in the world! More and more companies are embracing live, online classes. If your company wants you to teach online, great. But teaching online isn't as easy as it sounds. For instance, how can you be sure that your class isn't boring? How can you keep your audience engaged, even when your content isn't very exciting?   The International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) promotes standards of excellence in delivering online training in a wide variety of formats by instituting a certification process for online trainers.   The Certified Online Training Professional (COTP) course aims to ensure that online training events and classes provide high-quality, memorable, enjoyable, and, most of all, effective learning experiences to participants.   Learn some best practices for engaging an online audience. Learn the hardware and software you'll need to host online training. Are your materials ready for an online world? We'll teach you how to prepare your existing materials for online access and even how to create awesome, visually-appealing presentations.   If you need to include quizzes in your online course, do you know how to create effective questions (and surveys)? We'll show you how. And you'll get a chance to take the controls of an online training room and teach for a few minutes to your fellow COTP candidates.   ***   Sign up for the February class using coupon code SKILLS10 and save 10% off the price of certification. Learn more about the certification course (and sign up) here.

ARTICULATE STORYLINE: Publish a Portion of a Project

When publishing a Storyline project, it’s often preferable to publish a small section of the project instead of the entire thing (a single slide for instance or an individual scene). Fortunately, Storyline 360 makes quick work of this task, if you know where to look.   Open Storyline’s Publish dialog box by either using the Publish tool on the Ribbon or choosing File > Publish.   From the Properties area of the Publish dialog box, click the link to the right of Publish to open another Publish dialog box.

From here you can elect to publish the entire project, a single scene, or from the A single slide drop-down menu, specify any slide from any scene within the project.

Click the OK button and then click the Publish button to publish the selection.   Need to learn Articulate Storyline? Want to save on travel? Consider our live, online, and 100% interactive and hands-on Storyline classes.

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: Getting Past the DPI Awareness Error

Creating software simulations has always been one of Captivate's core strengths. From the Home screen, double-click Software Simulation, select the area of the screen or application to record, select your mode (or modes), click the Record button, and away you go.   The recording process is seamless, except when it's not. These days I'm seeing a particularly frustrating error appear for more and more of my students. After double-clicking Software Simulation, instead of seeing a Recording Area and a control panel, users are seeing an error message about DPI Awareness. Specifically, the message says "Capture is disallowed since High-density displaying was detected. Please set 'DPIAwareness = 1' in AdobeCaptivate.ini and restart the application."

Fortunately, the error only seems to affect people running a recent version of Windows 10 and only developers who are using a PC with a Retina display (such as a Microsoft Surface Pro). Unfortunately, there are more and more people with Retina displays who are reporting the error.   You can manually locate the AdobeCaptivate.ini file mentioned in the message by looking in the Adobe Captivate application folder. You can then edit the file in Notepad and change the DPI Awareness from 0 to 1 (and then restart Captivate).

After changing the DPI Awareness and restarting Captivate, the Captivate software will be pretty small. However, you'll be able to move forward with recording the software simulation.   While it's not difficult to edit the ini file, I'm betting if you're like most people, editing a support file in Notepad isn't something you're anxious to do. If so, I have a few alternatives for you.   First, close Captivate. Then right-click your desktop and choose Display settings. From the Scale and layout area, choose 100% from the Change the size of text, apps, and other items drop-down menu.

Return to Captivate and try to create a software simulation. If the DPI Awareness issue is gone, great. If not, exit Captivate, right-click your desktop and choose Display settings again. From the Scale and layout area, click Advanced scaling settings.

From the Fix scaling for apps area, turn off the option that allows Windows to try to fix apps so they're not blurry.

Return to Captivate and try again to create a software simulation. If things still aren't working, don't panic... I've got one more trick up my sleeve. With Captivate once again closed, right-click the AdobeCaptivate.exe file (located in the Adobe Captivate application folder) and choose Properties.

On the Compatibility tab, select Run this program in compatibility mode and choose Windows 8 from the drop-down menu.

Click the OK button and restart Captivate. While the program itself may look tiny, you'll be able to move forward with your software simulation.   Until a better solution is made available from either Adobe, Microsoft, or both, one or a combination of the steps above will likely work for you. If you have a better workaround, please share via a comment.   ***   If you're looking to learn Adobe Captivate, we've got an awesome collection of single-hour mini-courses, 3-hour sessions, multi-day classes... all live, all instructor-led, all online, and all incredibly interactive.

ADVENTURES IN TEACHING: Getting Hooked as a Live, Online Trainer

by Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP

As I write this, I am sitting at home looking out at a storm that has paralyzed commerce up and down the East Coast. I’m making no money. That is because an in-person class I had scheduled for today had to be cancelled. It was postponed until next year. Had I been scheduled for an online course, I would be working, and getting paid, today.

 

I’ve been in the training industry for more than 20 years, and at this point I am making most of my income by teaching online. When I have to go onsite to teach, I feel very put-upon: “You mean I have to get up before dawn? I have to get dressed in a suit? Drive in the hurricane or in the snow? On the BELTWAY???” 

 

When I reflect upon it, I realize that these are strange words coming from an erstwhile hardened road warrior. I’ve taught all over this town (I’m in the Washington, DC, area) and all over this country (I’ve been to 47 of the 50 states!). But now I most often teach from the comfort of my home office. 

 

No, I do NOT teach in my pajamas. C’mon! I know you were thinking that! Usually jeans and a nice shirt, if you must know. The nice shirt is just in case the webcam comes on by accident. (One must at least be minimally presentable, after all.)

 

So how did I first discover teaching online? To find the beginning of my online story, we have to go back almost to the turn of the century. No, not THAT century! The most recent turn of the century. Here is the story of how I became one of the early adopters of online teaching.

 

I was sitting in a manager’s office, because it was one of the few spaces offering some quiet in the busy classroom building. Participants in other classes were chatting in the hallway on their way to their morning break. I tested my headset to see whether that background noise was coming through.

 

“Can you hear the people talking in the hall?” I asked my online students.

 

“No, I don’t hear anything,” came the response.

 

“No” “No”—a string of no’s scrolled quickly in the chat window.

 

I was just beginning my first online class ever. It was the fall of 2001. 

 

Now before you think you can guess what happened next, let me tell you that the horrendous events of 911 had already taken place. And plane travel in the United States was a very fraught topic right about then. I had already had a teaching gig in California cancel. And the flow of students who came in from all over the country to our onsite training center had all but dried up.

 

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 Can you hear me now?

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So when the manager of a company where I was routinely teaching face-to-face classes asked me to look into this new concept of teaching online, I grabbed the chance. 

I did some research. We mailed the usual classroom printed handouts to the scheduled attendees. And now I was in my first online classroom...

 

…when the fire alarm went off.

 

“I can hear that!” said one of my online students.

 

“Oh my gosh! I am going to have to evacuate the building,” I said. To think of not obeying the fire alarm was not possible—right about then, we were all taking our fire drills very seriously. Plus, the alarm was so loud it was nearly physically impossible to stay in the building.

 

So I told my students that if I wasn’t back in 20 to 30 minutes, they should hang up their phones and log out, and we would reschedule the class. I put the audio on mute, I took off my headphones, and I exited the building.

 

It did turn out to be just a drill, and when I got back inside, all of my students were still there! They had talked among themselves, they had made friends and become acquainted, and they had kept their headsets on and stayed logged in until I returned. The rest of the class went off without a hitch. (I have absolutely no recollection of what the class was about.)

 

But that first online class set the new direction for my career. Air travel returned, and that training company went back to business as usual in classroom training. But I was hooked... online!

 

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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: Control the Startup Screen for a Published Project

by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT

Not all that long ago controlling what learners see first in Adobe Captivate published eLearning content was as simple as creating a visually-appealing first slide in the project. However, if you’ve created content with either Adobe Captivate 2017 or 2019 things aren’t quite as simple. Perhaps you’ve noticed that a mysterious screen now appears when your lesson opens within most web browsers.

 

The default startup screen is a bit plain-looking (it's nothing more than a gray background and a play button).

 

 

I bet you’re wondering why this screen exists, where it came from, and if there’s anything you can do to control it. The screen (known as an Auto Play screen) is necessary thanks to modern browser security protocols that prevent multimedia (such as eLearning content) from automatically playing for a learner without the learner taking the extra step of clicking a Play button.

 

Unfortunately, the Auto Play screen isn't among your Filmstrip slides so there does not appear to be a way to modify or brand it. However, while you cannot stop a startup screen from appearing, but you can control how the screen looks. Instead of the plain gray screen shown above, I want my learners to see the image below (I created the image with an image-editing program and saved it as a PNG.)

 

 

To use the image as the startup screen, open the project’s Preferences dialog box via Edit > Preferences (PC) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac). 

 

From the Category list at the left, select Start and End. If necessary, remove the check mark from Auto Play. (In older versions of Captivate, you could control the initial screen seen by learners by selecting or deselecting Auto Play. In recent versions of Captivate (2017 and 2019), Auto Play cannot be disabled, even if you deselect Auto Play. Nevertheless, to use your own image as the startup screen, you must deselect the Auto Play check box before you can browse for an image of your own. I know, I know, deselect to select? it's a bit wacky but it's true.)

 

 

Click the Browse button and a background image. (In the example below, the name of the background I’d like to use is called aquo.png.)

 

 

When I previewed the project, the imported image (which was the same width and height of my project) is used as the startup screen.

 

 

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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.

eLearnChat: All Things eLearning

I really enjoyed my recent session with Rick Zanotti on eLearnChat. You can watch the interview by clicking the image below.

TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: What You Need to Know About Your Online Platform: Part 2

by Jennie Ruby, COTP, CTT

Today I was teaching an online class on GoToTraining. I use this online training platform about three to five days a week. But today, it threw me for a loop. 

 

Just two days ago, I taught a class on this platform and all was well.

 

Today, I logged in one Instructor computer to serve as my main platform. Then I logged in two additional computers: one as my Slide Display computer and the other as my Software Display computer. I was going to be going back and forth between showing slides and demonstrating software. 

 

Here’s where the loop-throwing part happened. As students are logging in, I am finishing my Instructor setup routine. I need to give the two supplemental computers “Organizer” status, so that I can have full instructor features on them. And I can’t do it.

 

I right-click, as I have done for literally years, and it’s not on the menu. WHA???

 

I hate stress when I’m setting up for a class. After all, I spent all evening last night tweaking my slides. I spent all morning making sure the sample files were correct and ready to go. And now, with students arriving, a basic function I’ve routinely done for years has vanished.

 

Between Monday and Wednesday, the GoToTraining folks had launched a new default behavior: Instead of downloading the App to view the class, computers other than the main instructor computer automatically log in with a view-only Web interface. They can’t screen share. And they can’t be made Organizers.

 

Quickly enough, I found the command for “Give me the full-service App!” and I solved the problem. I even had the satisfaction of answering their survey: “How do you like the new automatic Web login? Why are you changing to App view?” Don’t worry, I was quite restrained in my commentary. 

 

Because I knew that on some level it was my own fault. 

 

It is up to the online instructor to know everything about how the online training platform functions. No doubt I received an email or a newsletter from the GTT folks heralding the new procedure, which I should have read. At least I had done one thing right: I was logging my computers in an hour ahead of class time. Although it was true that one or two eager students were also logging in nearly an hour early, I had plenty of time to solve the problem. And even time to answer the survey!

 

Here are some things that you need to know about your online training platform, as the instructor: First, everything from my previous article on student functionality. Then, you need to know how to do the following:

 

Basics:

• Log in as the Instructor/Organizer/Administrator
• Log in backup computers and promote them to Presenters, or Organizers, or Administrators—different platforms have different roles available

In-Class Functions:

• Share your screen
• Share just a view of an app
• Share a Whiteboard (WebEx)
• Share any window (Adobe Connect)
• Create Breakout Rooms

Communicate:

• Chat
• Audio
• Private Messaging

Other special functions

• Hide your screen icons and programs
• Record the session
• Leave the session without closing it
• End the session

Some online training programs are harder to master than others. If you are at all shaky on any of the instructor/organizer/administrator skills, then you might need to work with a “producer.” It’s the producer’s job to operate the online training platform, help you achieve the technical setup you want, and help the students with whatever issues may come up for them. Having a producer frees you to focus on communicating and teaching, without the distraction and stress of platform issues like the one I experienced today.

 

Do you have advice to share? Stressed out moments over problems that you solved? Please share your stories below as comments.

***

 

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.

ARTICULATE STORYLINE 3 & 360: Forced Learner Navigation

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

There are times where you don’t want your learner to leave a slide until certain criteria have been met.   For instance, there's an interactive game on a slide (a credit score game you'll learn to create in my Storyline Essentials book). The learner earns 10 points by clicking on slide objects that help improve a person's credit score; they lose 10 points if they click something that hurts a credit score. In the end, learners need to get a perfect score (100%) before moving forward with the lesson. (They can reset the game as many times as needed.)

Preventing a learner from skipping past a slide until certain conditions have been met is known as forced navigation.   In my scenario, I forced the navigation by creating one trigger that hid the player's Next button until the learner earned a perfect score. At that point, another trigger allowed the Next button to magically appear.   Notice in the image below that there isn't a Next button on the player (there's just a Previous button).

After getting a perfect 100%, a Next button automatically appears.

To accomplish the task, I needed to create a few triggers that will hide and then show the slide's Next button based on a few conditions.   First, the trigger to hide the Next button:   With nothing on the slide selected, I created a new trigger.   From the Actions drop-down menu, I chose Change state of and selected the Next Button from the On Object drop-down menu.   To ensure that the button isn't visible when the slide appears, I clicked the To State drop-down menu and chose Hidden. Then. from the When drop-down menu, I selected Timeline starts.

At this point, the Next button is hidden and it's not ever going to appear. So to ensure that the Next button appears only after the learner earned a perfect score of 100%, I created another trigger.   From the Actions drop-down menu, I chose Change state of. From the On Object drop-down menu, I choose Next Button again only this time I changed the button's State from Hidden to Normal.   Because I was using a Variable named "percentage" to display the percentage of correct answers, I chose Variable changes from the When drop-down menu and then selected the percentage Variable.   I only want the Next button to appear if learners get 100% after playing the game. That requires a quick condition. I clicked the Show Conditions button and added a new condition. From the List area, I selected Variables, from the Operator drop-down menu I chose Equal to. And lastly, from the Type drop-down menu, I set the Value to 100.

To test the triggers, I previewed the slide and there wasn't a Next button on the player. After I clicked each of the correct answers in my game and got my 100% score, the Next button appeared.

***

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.

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:

1. To evaluate whether your students are retaining the content you have delivered (to see if you need to teach it again)
2. 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:

1. To evaluate learning
2. 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.”

1. Evaluation
2. 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. 

 

***

 

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.

 

***

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

***

 

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.

 

***

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.)

 

***

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.)

 

***

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.

 

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!

***

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.

 

Adobe Captivate 2019 Advanced Book In Production

Adobe Captivate 2019: Beyond the Essentials. October. 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! 

 

***

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).

 

***

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.

 

 

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.

 

***

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.

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).

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

"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.

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: 

 

1. Identifying learning data needs, data sources and meaningful visualizations that answer organizational and L&D questions
2. Making choices about infrastructure: how and when to work with your LMS, your LRS or both
3. 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.

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.

 

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.)

 

 

All that you need to do is download the assets, double-click the libzip file, and the icons are imported into your Camtasia Library.

 

 

As with all Library assets already installed, using the newly downloaded assets is as easy as dragging and dropping from the Library to the Timeline.

 

 

Looking for Camtasia training? Check out these live, online classes.

 

***

 

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.

 

TRAINING FOR TRAINERS: Learn How to Engage Virtual Students and Get Certified

Online training can be great training, but it all starts with an awesome trainer! 

 

More and more companies are embracing live, online classes. If your company wants you to teach online, great. But teaching online isn't as easy as it sounds. For instance, how can you be sure that your class isn't boring? How can you keep your audience engaged, even when your content isn't very exciting?

 

The International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) promotes standards of excellence in delivering online training in a wide variety of formats by instituting a certification process for online trainers.

 

 

The Online Training Professional certification process (COTP) aims to ensure that online training events and classes provide high-quality, memorable, enjoyable, and, most of all, effective learning experiences to participants.

 

Learn some best practices for engaging an online audience. Learn the hardware and software you'll need to host online training. Are your materials ready for an online world? We'll teach you how to prepare your existing materials for online access and even how to create awesome, visually-appealing presentations.

 

If you need to include quizzes in your online course, do you know how to create effective questions (and surveys)? We'll show you how. And you'll get a chance to take the controls of an online training room and teach for a few minutes to your fellow COTP candidates.

 

There are seats available in the fast-approaching July COTP class. Learn more (and sign up) here.

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: Make Your 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. Set the No. of Attempts to 1.

 

 

Still on the Actions tab, in the Reporting section, ensure that the Include in Quizcheckbox is selected. Assign the number of Points you want (1 works fine), select Add to Total, and then select Report Answers.

 

 

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. (Click the menu and choose Apply to all objects of this type.)

 

 

For the number of attempts, you’ll need to navigate to each and every slide and set that manually. Ugh. But here is a tool that will help: Use the Advanced Interactions dialog box to 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 tool to help ease the pain of setting them all to one attempt. Here’s how:

 

Choose 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 dialog box, 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 Assessment simulation.

 

 

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 Captivate class. Take a look at our schedule for the next available Advanced Captivate class with me.

 

***

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.

 

TECHSMITH CAMTASIA: Version 2018 Released (Training Available, Book Coming)

TechSmith recently announced the release of Camtasia 2018 and there’s much to cheer. Among the improvements in version 2018:

 

Enhanced Library & Subscription Service Offering Thousands More

 

TechSmith made huge strides in Camtasia 9 when it improved the free assets in the Library. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find dozens of additional resources available for use right away. There’s also a paid subscription to an assets library where you’ll have access to hundreds of thousands of additional royalty-free videos, intros, music, and more.

 

Themes

 

Camtasia has never had a way to quickly apply the look and feel of one object across a large project. In version 2018, Themes allow you to create, save, and apply styles with custom color and font preferences. 

 

Behaviors

 

TechSmith added a few new behaviors giving you even more object-animating power than ever.

 

Faster Rendering

 

One of the major complaints about Camtasia is how long it takes to Render (Share) a project when you’re finished with your production work. Camtasia 2018 promises 50% faster rendering speeds than version 9!

 

The Price of Progress

 

The upgrade price for Camtasia 2018 is $99.50. if you recently ordered the older version of Camtasia, no worries. According to TechSmith, “TechSmith has a 30-day grace period. If you purchased Camtasia 9 or 3 on or after May 18, 2018, you will receive an email from TechSmith with instructions of how to get your free upgrade to Camtasia 2018. If you’re under a maintenance program, you are also eligible for a free upgrade of Camtasia 2018.”

 

Need Camtasia Training?

 

We've got you covered with our live, online Camtasia classes.

 

"TechSmith Camtasia 2018 (for Mac and PC): The Essentials" Workbook

 

The book is nearly finished and should head to the beta team by Friday of this week. I expect it to be available on amazon.com in a few weeks.

eLEARNING DEVELOPMENT: Polly Want a Voice?

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

When it comes to audio in eLearning, my experience strongly suggests that adding voiceover audio to your project enhances the learner experience. Does this mean that you need to hire professional voiceover talent? Absolutely not. If you’ve got the budget, hiring professional talent is the best way to go. However, home-grown audio featuring you as the voiceover talent works great. I know, I know, you hate your voice. Most of us do! (Yikes, I mean we hate the sound of our own voice, not yours.) Rest-assured that your voice is far better than you think and, it’s perfectly appropriate for eLearning. Nevertheless, there are times when you simply don’t want to use your own voice, and you cannot afford to hire professional talent. In these instances, Text-to-Speech (TTS) is a wonder.

 

Some of the top eLearning development tools include TTS for free. But what if you don’t like the free voice choices or quality that come with your eLearning tools? Worse, what if your eLearning tool doesn’t include TTS at all? The good news is you can search the web and find vendors that create TTS. The price ranges from free to expensive. One of the best tools I’ve found is provided by Amazon: Polly.

 

 

Once you click the Get started with Amazon Polly button, you’ll need to either sign into your Amazon Web Services (AWS) portal or create a new account. Once logged into your AWS account, you'll find Amazon Polly grouped with Machine Learning.

 

 

Using Amazon Polly is as simple as typing your text, selecting a language, picking a voice, listening to the results and, if satisfied, downloading the file as an MP3. In this example, I wanted to see how well Polly handled a tongue-twister so I typed out a portion of the famous Peter Piper tongue-twister most of us learned as children. Then I selected Matthew as my voice. 

 

 

I listened to the audio and it sounded great (far better than I was expecting and, in my opinion, better than the Speech Agents that are included with Adobe Captivate and NeoSpeech).

 

The ultimate test was adding the voice to my eLearning tool so I tested Adobe Captivate and TechSmith Camtasia. The results? A+ for both. What about Articulate Storyline? A+++++ Why? While Adobe Captivate ships with NeoSpeech for its TTS (and the voice quality is okay), Storyline’s TTS feature uses Polly and it’s built-in. You will need to have internet access to use Polly in Storyline but you won’t have to login to the AWS site (a great time-saver).

 

Polly is great and I'd suggest giving the service a try. As mentioned, Polly is included for free with Storyline. But if your want to use Polly with Captivate or Camtasia (or with other tools like Presenter), here's a pricing chart you might find useful. (Note that thanks to the Free tier, you can create a signficant amount of TTS without having to pull out your credit card.)

 

 

If you'd like to hear how awesome Polly does with TTS, here's a short video clip for your listening pleasure.

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Polly and TTS in general. Good? Bad? Which tools/vendors have you found that work the best? Please post your comments below.

 

***

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.

ARTICULATE STORYLINE: Dial-Up Interactivity with Custom Dials

by Kevin Siegel, COTP

With Articulate Storyline, adding a high-level of interactivity is pretty easy if you begin with some of the built-in Interactive Objects. Take dials for instance. If you visit the Storyline 360 Insert tab on the Ribbon, Interactive Objects area, you'll find Button, Slider, Dial, Hotspot, Input, and Marker. If you click the Dial tool, you'll find three built-in Dials that are totally drag-and-drop ready. (You won't need to add any Triggers to the object to allow learners to drag the dial.)

 

 

The first image below shows one of the default dials that was added to a Storyline slide. The second image is an animated GIF that demonstrates how a learner can interact with the dial. (I've included a link to a video of the interaction if the animated gif does not play in your email application. Click the second image below to see the video.)

 

 

Dials are cool, but wouldn't it be better if you could make any image or shape a dial (essentially create your own interactive object) without the need for programming? It turns out that custom dials in Storyline are a snap. In the image below, I've added an image to a Storyline slide. It's a simple character that can be added via Insert > Characters.

 

 

To convert an object to a dial, ensure that the object is selected and choose Insert > Interactive Objects > Convert to Dial.

 

 

The selected image is instantly converted to an interactive dial.

 

 

I added a few more shapes and some text to my slide, implemented a few states (the smiley face you see is actually three states: Normal, Tired, and Sad), added a few Triggers, and the results appear in the animated GIF below. (Please don't judge the example below on appearance or silliness, I quickly threw it together as a proof of concept for you... plus I'm no designer. With a little TLC from a designer, there's no limits to the awesomeness you can create.)

 

 

***

If you'd like to learn more about Storyline, Triggers, States, and Interactive objects, check out our live, online Articulate Storyline classes.

 

***

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.

TEACHING ONLINE: Instructors Take Note!

by Jennie Ruby, COTP

That’s right: note taking. It’s not just for students, anymore! 

 

Of course we are used to thinking of note-taking as a student activity. And it certainly still is. In one of my online classes just this week, one of my students said, “Hold on, hold on! I’ve got to get this down!” before she would go on with answering a question I had asked her. Then she answered my question, and no doubt wrote that down as well! But she and the other participants were not the only ones taking notes in my class. I was taking notes, too.

 

Starting during the participant introductions at the beginning of my online classes, I begin to take hand-written notes. I make sure to have a well-spaced roster of my participants, with plenty of room to write. During their introductions, I note key facts about them, such as where they are calling in from, what kinds of topics they work with, and what organization they work for. 

 

Taking these notes by hand helps me learn about my students. My goal in online classes is to get to know my students at least as well as I get to know participants in face-to-face classrooms—or maybe even better!

 

Recent research by Pam Mueller of Princeton University, along with Daniel Oppenheimer now at UCLA, shows that hand-written notes may help us learn things better. That’s important for students, and in my classes I sometimes mention this fact to learners. Now, the type of information that hand-written notes helps the most with is conceptual knowledge, rather than just plain facts. Notes typed on a laptop seem to be just as effective for learning rote facts and details. 

 

But I hand write my “class” notes anyway—notes about my class participants, not about my content—and I notice a dramatic improvement in my ability to remember who my students are and where they are coming from. I feel like I truly get to know them.

 

Once I know my students, I can help them with learning the content of the class by actively using examples that relate to their experience. For example, if I know one of my learners for eLearning software is going to be creating training videos for active-duty nurses, I might mention a few ways to engage learners without audio voiceover. Why? Because the nurses may be trying to absorb the eLearning while working at a station in a busy ward, where they can’t use earphones!

 

I teach online courses by myself in a room full of computers, monitors, and microphones. I may not see another human being all day. But at the end of the day, I do not feel as if I spent the day alone. I feel the same as if I had spent the day getting to know, and then working with, a room full of people.

 

Here are some of the things I take notes about:

• Where participants are calling in from
• What topics they work with (finance, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.)
• What role they play (instructional designer, training manager, instructor)
• Contributions/comments they make about the class
• Questions they ask that I promised to cover later

And in my software classes, I create a column for checkmarks, where I note whether each student has had a turn to share their computer screen. 

 

In the online classroom, we need every possible tool we can use to get to know, engage with, and create learning experiences with our participants. Try note-taking in your next online class!

 

Join me in July when I team with Kevin Siegel and AJ Walther for ICCOTP's Online Training Professional certification course.

 

***

 

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.

WHITEBOARD ANIMATIONS: Plan Your Way to Success

by Karin Rex, COTP

Do you have a story to tell? A lesson to teach? A product to market? In the battle for online engagement, video is KING. By 2019, 80% of ALL web traffic will be video. 64% of customers say they are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video. 59% of decision makers would rather watch a video than read a blog or article.** On top of that – whiteboard animations are FUN and easy to create with VideoScribe!

 

For maximum engagement, PLAN your whiteboard animation videos! (Prepare, Layout, Adorn, Nuance)

 

 

Prepare

 

• What is your ONE GOAL for the video?
• What is the maximum LENGTH of the video?
• Who is your AUDIENCE?
• What is the WIIFM for your audience? (Answers the question “what’s in it for me?”)

 

Layout

 

• Create a storyboard that includes descriptions of onscreen elements, onscreen text, and any voiceover scripting. (This will act as a roadmap for your video.)
• Envision a visual HOOK or THEME for your video. (If you are teaching “The Flower Theory of Persuasion,” you might include images of flowers, for example.)
• Come up with a CALL TO ACTION for your video. What do you want your audience to DO after they watch your video?

 

Adorn (AKA the “fun part”)

 

• Let your imagination run wild! Explore the image bank by searching sideways. (Don’t just search for flowers, for example, also search for garden, seed, sunshine, dirt, shovel, etc.)
• Remember that you can IMPORT graphics into most whiteboard animation programs.
• Do not draw every element. Spice up your video by using the FADE and MOVE IN animations judiciously as well.
• Add voiceover or music – or both!

 

Nuance (AKA the “other fun part”)

 

• Preview your video.
• Modify the animation timings.
• Repeat until perfect! (This can take hours sometimes!)
• Publish & upload.

 

That’s all it takes to PLAN your whiteboard animation video.

 

Want to take VideoScribe out for a ride? Sign up for our new 3-hour quick start class on VideoScribe. Invest just 3 hours and you will come away with the ability to fully create entertaining and engaging whiteboard animations. CLASS IS TOMORROW but there is still time to sign up! (Note: A free trial to VideoScribe is required to actively participate in this course. The free trial lasts for 7 days, so please time your free subscription to coincide with this class.)

 

**Statistics are from Hubspot.

 

 

***

Geeky Girl Karin Rex is an online learning pioneer and whiteboard animation evangelist. Since 1989, Karin has owned Geeky Girl, LLC, a boutique learning organization, where she devotes her time to writing, course development (instructor led and eLearning), and teaching.

 

Karin has authored several technology books, including: Office 2010 Demystified (McGraw-Hill) and hundreds of user guides, reference manuals, and tutorials. She’s also developed an extensive number of learning programs for a wide variety of global clients.

 

Karin is a Certified Online Training Professional (COTP), certified synchronous facilitator, designer, and producer, with a master’s degree in professional writing. Additionally, Karin teaches undergraduate writing courses for Penn State University and is the Instructional Design Lead for InSync Training.

 

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: It All Adds Up With Calculations

by Lori Smith, COTP

Did you know that Adobe Captivate can perform some pretty high-end math? If you’re new to Captivate, I'll bet that you didn’t! Even if you’ve been using Captivate for eons, asking an eLearning development tool to do calculations is not something that likely comes to mind when starting a project. 

 

Let's say that you need to create an annual healthcare enrollment lesson for your employees. Everyone knows that Open Enrollment time is not exactly the most fun or easy thing to figure out. Employees are given tons of information and often left sorting through confusing documents or boring lecture. Using Captivate, you can create an eLearning lesson with interactive text entry boxes that will help pique the learner's interest. 

 

In the image below, I created a form that allows employees to put in the cost for three selections and then calculate the total by clicking the "Calculate My Cost" button.

 

 

Here's how you get the form to work using Captivate. First, add four new user variables via Project > Variables named MedicalCost, DentalCost, RetirementCost, and AnnualDeduction. (Keep in mind that it’s always a good idea to fill in a the default value and description for your variables.) 

 

 

 

After you’ve created the variables, ensure each variable is associated with the Text Entry Box. Go to the Properties inspector for each Text Entry Box and select the appropriate variable.

 

 

Create an advanced action via Project > Advanced Actions. 

 

I named my Advanced Action calculateMyCost. In the action, I’ve used the Expression command to add my variables together. You can only add two things at a time. so I added the MedicalCost and the DentalCost and saved it in the variable AnnualDeduction. Next, I took that total, AnnualDeduction, and added it to the RetirementCost again (saving it in the AnnualDeduction variable).

 

 

That’s it for the action.

 

The last step in the process is to attach the advanced action to the "Calculate My Cost button" via the Properties inspector.

 

 

Was the process I wrote about above intimidating? If you’re not sure what all these variable and action things are, join me for my Variables and Actions series of mini courses. 101 starts off with the basics. We add a new twist to each class, so by the time you finish 401, you’ve got a solid handle on all of the ins and outs of variables and actions... with some great practice along with way.

 

If you'd like to test out the form for yourself, here's a link.

 

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Lori Smith, COTP, is IconLogic's lead programmer and Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Captivate. Lori has a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT as well as a Master’s in electrical engineering from George Mason University. She has been working in the field of software engineering for more than 20 years. During that time she worked as an embedded software engineer at Raytheon (E-Systems) and ARINC.

eLEARNING: Create a Course with Impact

by Alex Genadinik

Given the powerful eLearning tools available today (Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and TechSmith Camtasia to name just a few of your options), it's easier than ever to create eLearning. What’s not so easy is creating a course that will have a positive impact on your learners and, if you’re making your content available commercially, make money for you.

 

For an asynchronous course to have both impact and sell well, you should ensure the following:

• Your course has clear, achievable learner goals
• Your course has good videos and high quality audio
• The eCommerce page where your learners will purchase/take the course is easy to use and provides a positive learner experience
• You are marketing your course (if you just throw your course up on a Learning Management System or web server, it's not likely that anyone will actually find it)

While there are additional aspects that go into the creation of a quality eLearning course, let’s focus on the learner and what is most important to them.

 

While some people take online courses to improve at their hobbies or explore interests, most eLearning students take courses for practical purposes. Those practical purposes range from acquiring skills to getting a job, switching careers, growing faster at a current career, starting or growing a business, or making side income. 

 

When planning a course, you should take the learner’s career or business goals into account by planning to create a course that helps them with a specific skill or set of skills that they can put to practical use. That means staying away from too much theory and aiming for the course to be practically applicable.

 

That will not only help your students get the most out of the course, but it will also help your marketing. For instance, when you begin to promote your course, you will immediately have a compelling headline for it. If the premise of your course is compelling, it will naturally attract students. Conversely, if the premise is bland, then not only will the course likely be mediocre in terms of helping your learners, but it will also be unlikely to sell very well.

 

For example, I recently created an eLearning course that helps people sell products on eBay (the course is available on AliExpress). Whether you agree that selling stuff on eBay is great business model or not, such a strong premise for a course has made it compelling to many people, and the course is selling far beyond my expectations. (If you are interested in this course or any of my other courses, here is a link to several Udemy course discounts. The courses include business, marketing, entrepreneurship, and some technical courses.)

 

If you keep the words “impact and learner benefits” in mind when planning your next eLearning course, you will go a long-way toward ensuring a successful course (for both the learner and for you).

 

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Alex Genadinik is a successful entrepreneur and a prolific Udemy instructor (he's created more than 120 courses) teaching business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Alex is also a bestselling author on Amazon.com. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from San Jose State University.

 

 

TECHSMITH CAMTASIA: Keyboard Shortcuts A-Plenty

After receiving an email from a Camtasia developer looking for Camtasia shortcuts, I started creating a handy-dandy document that was going to list some of the more helpful keyboard shortcuts available in Camtasia. But then it occurred to me, why build a better mouse trap? Check out the Camtasia keyboard shortcut page TechSmith built (if you find a shortcut missing from the list, do tell).

 

TEACHING ONLINE: Get People Talking

by Jennie Ruby, COTP

People like to hear themselves talk. I don’t mean that in a bad way. What I mean is, people like to express themselves and feel heard. Feeling heard helps us feel connected to the others we encounter, the people we interact with, and—here’s my point—the people we learn with. Feeling connected with the instructor/facilitator and the other students/participants plays a huge role in our engagement with an online class. When you are the online instructor, make sure you are fostering this connection in your classes.

 

Your learners are not empty containers for you to fill with information. In adult learning, the learners are also teachers. Ask them to help you teach the class! Well, okay, maybe not literally like, 

 

“Fonzarelli! Would you like to get up here and teach the class?” 

 

But more like this: 

 

“Amy, can you think of a way you might use [what we just learned] in your work?”

 

Often in my online software classes, I stop and ask this:

 

“Have any of you used [this concept or technique] in your projects? Raise your hand or give me a green check.”

 

Then I call on one of the participants who signaled yes, and I ask them to come off mute and say hello. Once their mic is working, I repeat the question and invite them to tell how they have used the [concept] in their projects. They typically share one or more really good examples, express some degree of enthusiasm for it, and/or have additional comments or suggestions.

 

After that—and this part is really important—I invite the class to respond to what they shared.

 

“Does anyone else do something similar?”

 

“What do you think, Eliana, could you use this in your projects?”

 

The result? The class members are engaged with one another as well as with me. Those who share their experiences feel heard and appreciated. (Did I mention thanking them for the concepts they shared?) The class benefits from hearing a broader range of examples than I might think of alone. And voices other than mine are heard over the audio connection, adding variety and interest to that dimension of the class.

 

Bonus points: If you are discussing a later topic in the class, and it relates to what a class member shared earlier, make sure to recall what the participant shared, mention it again, and tie it to the new topic. Doing this makes the class feel more dynamic and alive, and less like a canned presentation. Once more the participant feels heard and appreciated, and everyone gets just a little bit more out of the entire class experience.

 

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Join me in June when I team with Kevin Siegel and AJ Walther for ICCOTP's Online Training Professional certification course. 

 

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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 ROBOHELP: Stay Away Mighty Google

by Willam van Weelden, COTP

 

I recently received the following email from a concerned RoboHelp user:

 

Our [help system] documents are available on the internet if you search for them. Is there a way to keep them private so they don’t show up on Google?

 

The issue here is that the RoboHelp user created content in RoboHelp and then published the output files to their web server. Using IconLogic as an example, if IconLogic published their internal policies and procedures to the publicly-facing IconLogic website, it would certainly be easy for employees to access the content by typing something like the following example URL into any web browser: www.iconlogic.com/policies.htm. Of course, it would also be easy for non-IconLogic employees to access the content through the same URL. Additionally, over time Google will index the pages; and content found within the private Help System will appear in Google search results.

 

If you don't want your Help System content to appear via a Google search, there are a few options to consider:

• Use a robots.txt file to stop Google indexing your content.
• Protect your content on the server side.

 

The protection method is ideal. If you set up access controls on your server, only authorized users will be able to access the content. Search engines or anonymous users won't be able to view your content. Getting protection going will require access to be set up on your server because the RoboHelp output itself doesn't contain any option to secure access. The options available depend on the web server you are using. For Apache, you can find the options here. You will have to work with your web hosting company or IT team to discuss options and determine the best course of action.

 

An alternative is to use RoboHelp Server, which contains access control. The options are somewhat limited though.

 

A last, quick, alternative is to use robots.txt to tell Google to not index your content. This will help you to make the content harder to discover. Keep in mind that a robots.txt is a courtesy of search engines to prevent indexing. It does not secure your content in any way. And some crawlers may still choose to ignore the directive and still index your site.

 

Which method works best depends on your goal. If your goal is to keep the content private for authorized users only, your only recourse is to limit access on the server side.

 

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If you're looking to learn Adobe RoboHelp, consider my highly-interactive live, online beginner class or my advanced content reuse class.

 

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Willam van Weelden is a Certified Online Training Professional (COTP), veteran Help Author, RoboHelp consultant, co-author of IconLogic's "Adobe RoboHelp": The Essentials workbook, and technical writer based in the Netherlands. He is an Adobe Community Professional, ranking him among the world's leading experts on RoboHelp. Willam’s specialties are HTML5 and RoboHelp automation. Apart from RoboHelp, Willam also has experience with other technical communications applications such as Adobe Captivate and Adobe FrameMaker.

 

 

TechSmith Camtasia: Tips for Trimming Content

If you're curious about the kinds of things we cover during our live, hands-on online classes, check out this snippet from a recent TechSmith Camtasia class. During this portion of the class, I taught attendees how to ensure they won't mistakenly trim more from a project than expected.

eLEARNING CLASS: Whiteboard Animation with VideoScribe

In the battle for online attention, video is KING. By 2019, 80% of ALL web traffic will be video. 64% of customers say they are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video. 59% of decision makers would rather watch a video than read a blog or article. On top of that, they are FUN and easy to create with VideoScribe!

 

Leave with the ability to fully create entertaining and engaging whiteboard animations with VideoScribe.

 

IMPORTANT: A free trial to VideoScribe is required to actively participate in this course. The free trial lasts for 7 days, so please time your free subscription to coincide with this class.

 

Learn more about this class (and sign up) here.

 

eLearning: Compare Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and TechSmith Camtasia

Welcome to the eLearning tool slug-fest. In this corner, it's Adobe Captivate. Over there? It's Articulate Storyline. And because this isn't a two-tool fight, look over there and you'll see TechSmith Camtasia. Attend this power hour and see demonstrations of all three tools. If you'd like to follow-along with your instructor, install trial versions of Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and TechSmith Camtasia (Mac or PC). Watch as your instructor, a seasoned eLearning developer and certified online training professional, puts each of these tools through its paces, compares their strengths and weaknesses, and helps you pick the tool that is right for you!

If you'd like to attend this live, online class, you can sign up here: http://www.iconlogic.com/compare-elearning-tools.html

The video below is a sample from a recent class.

 

ADOBE PRESENTER: Sidebar Video

by Kevin Siegel, COTP

Inserting and editing video in Adobe Presenter is as easy as accessing the Adobe Presenter tab on the Ribbon and then clicking the Video tool. Once videos have been added to a PowerPoint slide, they can be manipulated just like any other PowerPoint object.

 

I received an email recently from a new Presenter developer. He wanted to insert a video, but instead of adding the video to the slide, he wanted it to appear to the left of the slide, above the Table of Contents. He had heard such a thing was possible but had been unable to find the feature.

 

The feature he was looking for is called Sidebar video and it’s shown in the image below. Adding Sidebar video to a project is simple and I was able to talk him through it with a quick email. If you’d like to learn how, follow these steps.

 

 

To begin, select a PowerPoint slide and then, on the Adobe Presenter tab, Insert group, click the Video tool and choose Import. (This will open the Adobe Presenter - Import Video dialog box.)

 

 

 

Select the video you’d like to use in the Sidebar and, from the lower right of the dialog box, select Sidebar video.

 

 

By default, the Sidebar video will appear at the left of the Presenter playback window (as shown in the first image above). You can hide the Sidebar or change its location by clicking the Theme tool and deselecting Show Sidebar (to hide it) or selecting Right or Left from the Location drop-down menu.

 

 

 

If you'd like to see the Sidebar video feature in action, check out this sample Adobe Presenter eLearning project. And if you'd like to learn how to use Adobe Presenter, check out our skills and drills workbook.

 

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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.