Advanced Captivate
Agenda
Introduction
Steven—10 minutes
Design Considerations
Steven—20 minutes
Captivate Version 8: New Features
The Player Control and Skins
Break
Captivate Interaction Templates
Creating Branching Scenarios
Expert Tips and Tricks
Publishing in Captivate
Closing
Brad—40 minutes
Jen—10 minutes
10 minutes
Bob—30 minutes
Steven—40 minutes
Brad—20 minutes
Jen—10 minutes
Steven—10 minutes
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Our Devices Define Our Use ......................................................................................................................... 3
Design Decisions ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Advanced Actions.......................................................................................................................................... 5
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
Tablet and Smartphone Use Cases .................................................................................................. 7
Strategies That Support a Smartphone Use Case ............................................................................ 7
Software Training Knowledge Types................................................................................................ 9
Captivate Style Guide Sample ........................................................................................................ 10
Captivate Script Example ............................................................................................................... 12
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Our Devices Define Our Use
Tablet/Smartphone Use Case Article
http://elearningindustry.com/elearning-responsive-design-isnt-responsive-to-your-solutions
Mobile Performance Support Article
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1466/challenging-the-infinite-monkey-theoremmobile-performance-support
Using Mobile and Augmented Reality to Support Learning and Performance Article
http://elearningindustry.com/mobile-devices-wearable-technology-and-augmented-reality-willsupport-students-learning-and-performance-needs
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Design Decisions
This branching course example used the following strategies to help the user internalize information:
1. Content is wrapped around real life stories users may encounter on the job.
2. The Tell/Show/Do model is broken up, which gives the user more choice and freedom with the
content. Here they Do and if they want more information they can access the Tell and Show.
3. Use of external links keeps the Tell and Show content outside of the LMS. Since it is outside of
the LMS you can reuse these links with your Performance Support activities like job aids and
help files.
4. The Tell movies use outside images (gnome, wildcard) as well as conversational language which
can increase user motivation and engagement—be careful with this though.
5. Flashlight highlight and Fly-in effect can increase interest and motivation—be careful with this
though.
6. Interface Menu supports the story theme and is able to track branching activities.
7. Side pane provides context and carries the story forward—here the simulations are embedded
files.
What other menu interfaces can you image here?
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Advanced Actions
You will need to create a couple standard advance interactions that follow a similar structure as
Branch1:
1. The first action is a navigation
control that tells Captivate where
to go
2. The second action turns off the
click box in slide 1—keeps users
from getting back into this branch.
3. Next action sets the visibility of the
No Message light for branch 1.
4. The assign action assigns a value of
1 to the Branch1 variable.
5. The final action hides the first
Phone message text.
Variables help you track what a user has done in your course—we need them to determine when
someone has been through all of the branches.

You will need a variable for each of the branches.
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You will need one Conditional advanced action to evaluate when a user has been through all of the
branches and completed the course.


This IF statement evaluates each branch variable
When each branch variable equals 1 then the Congrats text box will show up on slide 1 of 1.
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Appendix
Tablet and Smartphone Use Cases
Looking at the data on how people use their mobile devices can illustrate differences between tablet
and smartphone users:
Presence
Use
Environment
Network
Access
Input
Device
orientation
Activities
Tablet users
Users often carry these around and
they are seen as a shared device.
Predominately users sit or recline
when using these devices. In
addition they generally place these
devices on a stand or lay them flat
on a surface.
Predominately users have strong
Wifi connections. Rarely do they
use cell networks.
Users often have external
keyboards for extensive text input.
In addition, users have both hands
free for complex touch interactions.
Smartphone
Users see these as an extension of
themselves—they predominately
have these devices on or near their
person.
Predominately users are standing or
walking. Most users hold these
devices in their hand(s).
Users cycle between Wifi access and
cell networks (users are on the go—
waiting-in-line, commuting,…).
Predominately one thumb is used as
the main input device—occasionally
users will cradle their devices for
moderate input needs.
Users typically use these devices in a
vertical orientation.
The most common activities on
The most common activities on these
these devices include watching
devices include social media; email
videos, reading and gaming. Typical and other utilities; and searching for
time usage is longer in duration (10- information. Typical time usage is
15 minutes).
short in duration (5 minutes or less).
Strategies That Support a Smartphone Use Case
There are several strategies that fit within the smartphone use case. Employing these strategies may
create a situation where responsive design makes sense or doesn’t hamper the user experience.
Microlearning
This represents a group of strategies that are aimed at minimizing the steps involved in the learning
process. Traditional Tell/Show/Do and Nine Events of Instruction models have been pared down or
replaced. In these strategies, objectlets instead of courses are used and chunks of practice, repetition,…
are pushed/pulled to users. Forms of this include:
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
Continuous learning highlights how quickly and how much knowledge is lost after our
training activities. This forgetting curve can be delayed or side-stepped by providing
practice and repetition. Access to quizzes, flash cards, short videos, related articles, … can
provide this practice and repetition.

Social learning highlights the need our users have for interaction and feedback to experts
and peers. These strategies provide mentoring and coaching opportunities that helps our
users internalize information and guide them on where to go next. Social collaboration on
wikis, communities of practice and content aggregators allow for these activities.
Performance Support
This represents a group of strategies that are aimed at bypassing the learning function. In it, tools and
mechanisms are designed to help users complete their duties without having to internalize content.
These tools often show up in the form of job aids, handouts and help files but can take other forms like
GPS navigation systems.

Just-in-time (JIT) learning is a powerful strategy that is used to create avenues to access, use
and internalize information at the time of need. These environments address Gottfredson’s
5 moments of learning need and can be quite powerful. Materials may consist of job-aids,
manuals and quick reference materials.

Metacognitive support is a strategy aimed at helping our users plan, evaluate and manage
their active tasks. These tools communicate information to our users on how they are doing,
what they need to focus on and what they may need to know/do next. The use of
augmented reality and reminders/alerts can give our users valuable real-time input into
their learning needs.
As you consider a performance tool you should be careful when examining your use case needs. If your
users need to input a lot of data, then a smartphone use case may not be appropriate for that tool.
Technologies like text-to-speech or allowing attachments to user created videos/audio/images can
lessen some of these concerns.
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Software Training Knowledge Types
Attitudes
Objective Examples
Content
Practice/Assessment
Identify 3 reports that
will improve …
Your content should talk about how
the software can improve personal
efficiency or help the organization.
Attitudes are hard to evaluate, as you
can’t really measure a change here
without a level 3 or 4 evaluation. That
is, you can’t really observe a change in
attitude but you can infer this if 6
months down the line, users are still
using the software, are not
complaining about the software or the
number of help desk calls is declining.
State 2 benefits of the
… form.
Messages from key leaders can help
sell this. This can be highlighted with
a video or with the use of pull quotes
in the content.
The use of realistic scenarios is
beneficial, as users will see directly
how the software will affect their
daily activities.
Concepts
Describe the purpose of
the … form.
Describe the purpose of
the … report.
This content identifies why users
need to use the specific forms,
screens and reports within the
system.
Using cross tables can help users
organize this information.
Facts
Identify the fields in the
… form.
Define 3 triggers to the
… functionality.
Procedures
Process a … ticket.
Return a … item.
With this content, you need to
highlight the specific fields users
interact within the system. Here you
need to describe what the field does
within the software.
A key to this content is identifying
critical values or data that is used
within these fields. Use special note
boxes and other formatting elements
to highlight this information.
This content defines the exact steps
and procedures to use within the
system.
You should use numbered list and
inline formatting (Bold, Change font
color,…) to illustrate these steps.
For practice activities, you can create
expert response questions. Here you
can ask open-ended questions like
“How will the … report help me do my
job.”
These questions are answered in text
fields that users can enter text in and
are self-evaluated by the user. To
facilitate this self-evaluation, add a
button that your users can click on to
give them feedback on how an expert
would answer the question.
This content lends itself to practice
and assessment activities because of
its close-ended nature.
You can use multiple-choice questions,
click on image interactions and
simulations to have users practice and
demonstrate mastery of the forms and
reports within the software.
This knowledge type lends itself well
to practice and assessment activities,
as they are closed-ended in nature.
You can use multiple-choice questions,
click on image interactions and
simulations to have users practice and
demonstrate mastery of the fields
within the software and the
appropriate values to use with it.
This content lends itself to practice
and assessment activities because of
its close-ended nature.
You can use multiple-choice questions,
click on image interactions and
simulations to have users practice and
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Screen capturing software can walk
users through these procedures as
well as highlight key processing and
data steps.
demonstrate mastery of the
procedural steps within the software.
With advanced simulations, you can
wrap the conceptual, factual and
procedural assessment into one
practice or assessment activity. Doing
this makes sense, as it will more
closely mimic real world usage.
Captivate Style Guide Sample
Orientation
 Each website demonstration starts with a paused caption that introduces the task to be
completed and its first step. These intros should follow the following structure:
Welcome to the Untimely Adjustment Codes exercise. In this exercise, you will..
To begin the exercise, click the Continue button.
 The introduction slide only appears at launch- selecting Try Again on the summary frame
advances to the 2nd slide in the movie.
 Each website demonstration ends with a paused caption that summarizes the completed task.
These summaries should follow the following structure:
You have now reached the end of the exercise. In it you ...
To restart the exercise, click the Try Again button. To close the window, click the Close
Window button.
 The screen captured area will include the whole Internet Explorer window at an 800 x 600 window
size.
 Full motion recording will be turned off for scrolling and drag and drop interactions. These will be
built manually with highlight boxes and click interactions.
Screen Data
 Use dummy information on screens and printouts that contain confidential or protected
information. – SSN – should not be an actual SSN
 Ensure screen data whether dummy or test data mimics real life data- clean up any junk data as
necessary.
Audio
 Audio will match the text used in the instruction captions.
 Timing of audio is tied to instruction and note captions.
 Pronunciation of acronyms and special phrases follow client standards. For example NIMS is
pronounced as one word, “Nims” rather then as the acronym, N I M S.
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Closed Captioning
 Closed captioning will contain the exact text for any audio in the course.
 Timing of closed captioning text is tied to the audio.
 Closed captioning settings are: Line Count = 2, Font Name = Verdana, Size = 14, Color = Black,
Background Color =White, Transparency = 20%.
Use of terms
 Buttons are not called “links”—they are called “buttons.”
 Use “dropdown menu” instead of “drop down arrow.”
 Individual items within a menu are called “options.”
 Buttons and links are “clicked”, options are “selected.”
 Text input is signaled with, “Type.”
Captions
 Text for all captions is Arial font, 12 pt.
 Captions are not blocking important areas on the screen.
 Only one caption appears at a time.
 Only one paragraph of text in a caption.
 Remove extra blank lines in bottom of caption boxes. Text should fit as tightly into the boxes as
possible.
 Caption boxes width and length are appropriate—shrink instruction captions where you can.
 Captions are in sentence case with periods at end.
 All keywords in captions are bold.
 Text is accurate and reflects real world processes/procedures.
 Captions use a 0.5-second fade in and out.
 Captions are placed close to the item discussed.
 Caption text is aligned top left.
 Instruction and Note captions use the haloBlue Caption style with its default properties.
 Incorrect Feedback captions use the haloRed Caption style with its default properties. These
captions should use arrows to point to the correct field, button, or option.
Highlights and focus
 Any menu, button, field, … item interactions are highlighted when an incorrect choice is given.
These highlight boxes use a 1-pixel Frame width and 55% Fill transparency with the color value
#993300. Timing and duration of highlight boxes are tied to instruction and note captionshighlight boxes use a 0.5-second fade in and out.
Interactions
 Limit two incorrect choices per interaction
 Incorrect choices should highlight the item to click on or text to type before continuing to the next
slide.
 Correct choices immediately advance to the next frame.
Accuracy
 There should not be spelling or grammar issues for the movie and printouts.
Player Control
 The website demonstrations do not use a player control.
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Captivate Script Example
Step Description
Step
From the Report/Training Page click on the Training Progress Summary Pie Chart report
1
From the Training Progress Summary Pie Chart page click on the To Date box
2
Select the date 6/4/2012
3
Move cursor to the User Criteria field and click on Select Criteria
4
Click outside of the User Criteria field to close the selection criteria
5
Click the Training Title Search button
6
On the Select Training page type BJH All Staff 2012
7
8
Click on the Search button
Click on the Add button for the BJH All Staff 2012 curriculum
9
From the Training Progress Summary Pie Chart page click on the Search button
10
When the screen refreshes, scroll down to the Training Progress Summary Search results.
11
STOP RECORDING
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