Adobe Captivate first entered the world as RoboDemo 2 by eHelp Corporation. Subsequent versions were issued where with Macromedia Captivate (October 2004) the software was purchased by Adobe. Adobe issued the software about every year from October 2006 until Adobe Captivate 9.
Starting in 2017 the naming convention changed. The product year release is now part of its name. Thus Adobe Captivate was released in 2017 and is now Adobe Captivate 2017.
Flash is Going Away in Captivate
Adobe like many products create project files which are upgradable from just two prior versions. Adobe is eventually dropping support for Adobe Flash which is now Animate. Traditionally Adobe Captivate produced Flash outputs. Now it offers Flash as an alternate but can output in HTML 5 which is replacing Flash. The plugin by the way is absolutely required. The IT organization in your customer / client / employer’s organization would need to enable a security policy that allowed Flash through your Learning Management System or whatever you might run the Flash version through while Flash is still an option. This of course would not apply for HTML 5 outputs. But then your users would need an HTML5 compliant modern browser.
Strengths of Captivate Over Others
Adobe Captivate is the premier screen capture / screen “scraping” tool and is at its best when used for interactive software immersive “do it” and “know it” modes whereby the learner can click and interact with on screen objectives which automatically lay over the capture and then are modified for whatever specific experience the developer has in mind.
Traditional videos or “demos” are easy to create and Adobe Captivate creates extremely realistic demos which have greater flexibilities in many ways. Captivate has limitations and when traditional “bullet proof” green and black screen mainframe systems are captured the results can be less than stellar if true interactive e-Learning is desired.
Captivate SCORM and HTML5 files can be hosted in nearly any environment, however, if tracking is desired the SCORM file that the software can generate is required. In April 2014 Adobe premiered its own learning management system. Adobe also has a mature, web-based reviewing tool which organizations can “add on”.
Adobe Captivate 2017 is the very first e-Learning tool which offers the ability to create rapid development / rapid prototyping for mobile devices “on the fly”. As of September 2017 this is only supported on the iPad. The software is included in the Adobe product package.
Adobe Captivate Software
Collin College has no Adobe Captivate licenses or software library. The decision was made that students would be better off purchasing either a subscription or a full purchase option. Students will need to practice.
In the Multimedia Instructional Development program you are REQUIRED to use a laptop and it must meet or exceed the technical requirements for software such as this. TECH SPECS from Adobe.
We will use the most current version in our classes.
Students are warned that the purchase option will in all probability be eliminated at some point in the future. Adobe is tending towards subscription models for many reasons but one practical reason is the easy rollout and support of just one active version at a time. If you’re on a subscription model and chose not to upgrade in theory they could refuse to support older versions. This is not yet the case and such an action might take several years due to large enterprise customers such as government and some very large universities.
As of September 24, 2017 at 16:54:
Subscription is US $29.99. Early Cancellations do incur a cancellation fee.
Full COMMERCIAL license US$1,099.00
Student & Teacher Edition is US$349.00
Use of Software
Adobe Captivate I, II and III is a series that requires you to walk through a set of two books by IconLogic and its founder Kevin Siegel – these are the basal worktexts for this course. Likewise you are required to complete a full scale software (not softskills) project to complete the series. NOTE: IconLogic is a great company – it does sell its materials at MSRP so I would pursue alternates such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble or the like.
You will use this software quite a bit three hours per week of class time and considerably more outside time using this product. You will “eat, drink and sleep” Adobe Captivate until it comes out your ears. You will learn what’s in the book, master forums and online help and resources, learn shortcuts and more. You will use practice files and you will create your own e-Learning once you have an approved topic and instructional design plan plus some form of a storyboard.
Every e-Learning project in the program will either use this or alternate e-Learning software as directed. Once you finish the three-course series and move on – you will be an expert. You will create short e-Learning overnight and learn how long and involved complex e-Learning is and how to manage it both for yourself and when you’re a member of an inexperienced or experienced team.
Lectora, Articulate 360 and Adobe Captivate
The steepest learning curve of any of these products is Adobe Captivate. The most extensive interaction for software training is Adobe Captivate. The least steep learning curve and the best for soft skills and knowledge is Lectora then Articulate Storyline. Adobe Captivate takes far more development and is a bit too quirky and stodgy for normal soft skills development. But even though Storyline and Lectora can perform screen captures – every single frame in those two products must be captured individual if you desire interaction – otherwise all three products can create “demos” – non-interactive “show me” type videos that can run on anything but give learners no practice and no immersive testing.
Pricing Realities and Computer Challenges
Lectora and Articulate 360 are both pricey. Very pricey. Adobe Captivate at least offers you a lower priced option. The upgrades and maintenance (which you actually need) for Lectora and Articulate 360 really add to the price – even the student price – to make them a lot pricier than Adobe Captivate – which includes upgrades in its subscription.
Therefore initially this certificate series will favor Adobe Captivate because its most reasonable for our students. De-activating a subscribed version of Captivate in case of a disk failure is easy. And Adobe offers Mac and Windows versions of this software. Both Lectora and Articulate are Windows only.
If we can be assured of six or more learners we would hold a separate Lectora section as long as all the learners would agree to three six week sessions of three hours each.
Instructional Design Certificate Series 