Connect Pro is not a true LMS?

Hi there

I just finished a rather long conversation with a fellow Captivate Instructor and fellow Adobe Community Expert John Daigle. John shared his screen with me and we looked at some Connect related things. John is also an Adobe Certified Connect Instructor.

I suppose we should begin by stating that there are many different levels of what Connect offers. One of the levels (which may or may not be present, depending on your level of subscription) offers a "Training" module. So the first step is to determine if you have the training module available. As I understand it, when you log into Connect, you will see "Training" listed as an option. If you don't see this, it means you don't have access.

So assuming you see this, you have access to the Training module.

Now let's talk LMS. What is a LMS? From what I understand, it's simply an environment where you configure Lessons. Include one or more Lessons within a Course and are able to have one or more Courses in a Curriculum. The LMS has an administrator that handles creating Courses and Curriculums and also maintains the list of participants or students. Login IDs and Passwords are assigned to students. Connect does all this if you have the Training level available. So far, it seems an awful lot like a LMS to me.

What are the other aspects of a LMS? Tracking scores and providing reports, no? And again, what I witnessed was that Connect served up a Captivate, the user interacted with it and Connect logged Who viewed the content, what questions they got right and wrong, how long they spent, etc. Again, it seems an awful lot like a LMS when you see that.

I'm sure Adobe doesn't classify or advertise Connect Pro as a LMS, as it goes far beyond what a typical LMS might handle.

This post isn't to confirm anyone is bad or wrong or even right. Only to clarify that Connect Pro *CAN* serve in a role that a typical LMS would fill. *IF* you have the Training module. And I suppose that's the only question yet to be answered here.

By the way, we also tested linking to a PDF from the Captivate after it had been uploaded to Connect. Admittedly it took a few tries to make it work, but it was proven that this is possible to accomplish as well.

Cheers... Rick

Shawn,

If by LMS you mean learning management system, then no, Connect Pro is not an LMS. It's a web conferencing system, used for live meetings or class sessions with video/audio. You can store some files in Connect, but in my experince, there isn't any functionality for assessment, grading, tracking user visits, etc. You might get some of the functionality you describe using Presenter or Captivate slideshows within an LMS (like Moodle, Blackboard or other).

Hi Shawn,

I don't use Adobe Connect Pro so I really can't be of that much help. I do however have some input.

1. To allow the widget to download resources from a URL would open up a whole new can of worms. It would open up issues with Flash Security settings, crossdomain policies etc. so I don't think that is viable solution.

There must be some way to get this to work in Connect Pro. Essentially if Connect Pro only allow a single SWF output then you wouldn't be able to use the Externalize Resources option in Captivate 4. All Captivate 3 productions would also fail in Connect Pro then since it publishes resources in separate files per default and even the playbar skin is a separate SWF file.

I use the widget in several different LMS' and that has never been a problem. I wonder if it is a setting in Connect Pro that needs to be changed. I think that Lilibiry uses Connect Pro so hopefully she will pop in here and give some advice.

2. As for this - well I agree Connect Pro is not a true LMS. However, if Connect Pro only can handle single .swf files then it's practically useless for any type of e-learning in my view.

/Michael

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