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Adobe Captivate 8: Geolocation

by Kevin Siegel   

You can create an eLearning lesson that changes dependent upon where your learners are physically located. For instance, you can create a Captivate project for learners who live in the United States or Australia. While much of the course content is relevant to both Americans and Australians, thanks to Captivate's geolocation feature, learners in both countries will see unique, location-specific, information while taking the same course.

The first step to adding geolocation features to a project is creating the project as you normally would. In the example that follows, I've created a project for learners in Asia and the United States. (I created the project as a branching scenario... the first half of the project was for learners in the United States, the second half was for learners in Asia.)

 

Once you've created the project for both audiences, adding the geolocation features is very easy. First, choose Window > Mobile Palette to open the Mobile Palette dialog box.

 

 

 

Select Geolocation and then click the OK button.

 

Next, you'll need the Latitude and Longitude of the locations you'll use in your project. As I mentioned above, my two locations are Asia and the US. While determining Latitude and Longitude might sound difficult, I simply asked Google the following: "what is the lat and long for the united states?" The answer, rounded to whole numbers, was 38 and 77. 

 

 

I repeated the same question for Asia (and ended up with aLatitude and Longitude of 48 and 86).

 

Now that you've got the Latitudes and Longitudes figured out, you'll need to create one variable for each location (via Project > Variables). When creating each variable, select Geolocation and you'll have access to a Lat, Long, and Accfields. The Acc value is based on how close you want the learner to be to the latitude and longitude location; it is based on meters. Think about the meters surrounding the area like a large circle. When building your course, consider starting with 1,000,000 meters, which will allow anyone within range to still be able to access the course.

 

 

The final step (besides publishing) is to create an Advanced Action (via Project > Advanced Action) and attach it to a Filmstrip slide.

 

Set the Action Type to Conditional actions and name the action GeoLocation.

 

 

 

Double-click the first column under the IF Statement, click the word variable, and select cpInfoGeoLocation.

 

 

 

 

Note: The CpInfoGeoLocation variable ships with Adobe Captivate 8.

 

To the right of "is equal to," click the word variable  from the drop-down, choose one of your location variables you created earlier.

 

Under Actions, double-click in the first column and chooseJump to Slide. From the next menu, select the slide in your project where you want your learner to end up.  I selected the Asian branch in my project (I called it Asia Scenario). 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the dialog box, click Else. Under Actions, double-click the first column and choose Jump to Slide. In the next column, choose your other location (in my case, it was the other branch I called US Scenario). Save the action (as an Action) and then close the dialog box.

 

 

Attach the GeoLocation Advanced Action to the first slide by selecting the slide on the Filmstrip. On the Properties Inspector, select the Actions tab. From the On Enter drop-down menu, choose Execute Advanced Actions and select the GeoLocation action as the Script.

 

 

 

Publish your lesson and post it to your web server or LMS like you would we any Captivate eLearning lesson. When users in Asia access the lesson, the GeoLocation script will automatically display the Asian content (and vice versa for US-based learners). In a word, that's awesome!

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Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

Flipped Learning Gaining Steam

Flipped classrooms are gaining in popularity. If you've never heard of the flipped classroom, here's a definition courtesy of the Flipped Learning Network:

"The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions."

 From the Flipped Learning White Paper:

"A teacher stands at the front of the classroom, delivering a lecture on the Civil War and writing on a white board. Students are hunched over desks arranged in rows, quietly taking notes. At the end of the hour, they copy down the night's homework assignment, which consists of reading from a thick textbook and answering questions at the end of the chapter. This dramatic, defining period in our nation's history, which left questions unanswered that are as relevant today as they were then, has been reduced to a dry, familiar exercise. The teacher is acutely aware that many students do not understand the day's lessons, but he/she does not have the time to meet with them to help during the 50-minute class period. The next day the teacher will collect the homework and briefly review the previous night's reading assignment. But if students have additional questions there won't be time to linger; the class cannot fall behind schedule. There is a lot of material to cover before the test at the end of the unit.

"Although it conflicts with decades of research into effective practices, this model of instruction remains all too common in American K-12 and post secondary classrooms. However, more and more educators now recognize that the learning needs of students, rather than the curriculum pacing guide, should drive their instruction. Educators are developing ways to personalize learning, using technologies such as video, digital simulations, and computer games. However, unless the traditional teaching model is altered, technologies such as these will have limited effects. One alternative model gaining attention and advocates is called Flipped Learning. In this model, some lessons are delivered outside of the group learning space using video or other modes of delivery. Class time, then, is available for students to engage in hands-on learning, collaborate with their peers, and evaluate their progress, and for teachers to provide one-on-one assistance, guidance, and inspiration."

Read the full White Paper.

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How hot is flipped learning? Check out these factoids:

• Two years ago, 73% of teachers recognized the term "Flipped Classroom," in 2014 that is up to 96%
• Two years ago, 48% of teachers had flipped a lesson; in 2014 that is up to 78%
• 96% of teachers who have flipped a lesson or unit would recommend that method to other teachers
• Flipped classroom teachers indicated that a majority of students with special needs, English language learners from low income households, and those in advanced placement classes particularly benefit from flipped learning
• The majority of flipped teaching still occurs in high school--however the number of elementary teachers and college instructors has increased over the past 2 years
• Over the past 2 years, flipped instruction has expanded in all subject areas

Source: Sophia.org.