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harooki2
Known Participant
January 8, 2011
Question

Time Estimate

  • January 8, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1168 views

I'm not new to Captivate, but I haven't used it in a long while.  I have 49 slides in a storyboard from which to produce a training course of simple complexity.  It is essentially informative content followed by multiple choice and true/false knowledge checkpoints, with something like a matching exercise thrown in along the way.  I would like an estimate for how long such a project should take (labor hours), for an advanced developer.  I know a lot of variables can create a wide range, but I will appreciate your guesstimate anyway.

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    1 reply

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 8, 2011

    How big is a back yard?  How long is a piece of string?

    Your description is still far too vague.

    Can you supply the following information?

    • What is the duration in minutes of the content?
    • Is it going to have voiceover audio? If yes, Who is writing the script for the voiceover?
    • Will it be necessary to engage external voiceover talent?
    • What is the level of sophistication of the content?  You mention "a training course of simple complexity". This sounds like an oxymoron to me.
    • Will the developer need to research and structure the content, or has this already been done by an instructional designer?
    • Will the content require Flash animation or only animation achieved using Captivate Effects?
    • If animation is used at all, how many slides will require animation?
    • How many knowledge checkpoint questions per 49 or 50 slides?
    H
    harooki2Author
    Known Participant
    January 9, 2011

    Yeah, this is the kind of answer I anticipated; and I don't blame you.  In fact, I applaud you for taking the time to respond.  I'll answer the questions as best I can.

    • What is the duration in minutes of the content?
      • The duration is about one hour.
    • Is it going to have voiceover audio? If yes, Who is writing the script for the voiceover?
      • Yes, it will have voiceover.  The script for the voiceover has already been written.
    • Will it be necessary to engage external voiceover talent?
      • No
    • What is the level of sophistication of the content?
      • I would assess it as simple, rather than intermediate or advanced.
    • Will the developer need to research and structure the content, or has this already been done by an instructional designer?
      • The research has already been done.
    • Will the content require Flash animation or only animation achieved using Captivate Effects?
      • The developer will not be required to produce Flash animation.
    • If animation is used at all, how many slides will require animation?
      • Any animation that is necessary has already been done by an instructional designer and incorporated into a template.
    • How many knowledge checkpoint questions per 49 or 50 slides?
      • 11 multiple choices, 6 true/false, and one matching
    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 9, 2011

    OK.  Now for a few more questions:

    • I'm hoping you don't intend to have a single Captivate lesson that runs for a whole hour.  Such a lesson with some graphics and voiceover would end up being somewhere between 40-60 megabytes in download size.  Even with a modest preloader (say 25%) your audience would need to buffer up at least 10-15 megabytes of content before it started to play.  Anyone without super fast broadband will be waiting several minutes to see anything. So are you intending to break up the lesson into smaller modules that would be faster to download and play or going with one monster module?
    • You mention about 50 slides in a storyboard, but I'm assuming that you don't mean there would only be a total of 50 slides in the entire Captivate presentation.  This would mean that each slide had over a minute of audio.  In practice it's usually a good idea to break up your audio more often than that to make everything easier to manage...even if the fact that there's more than one slide being shown is not evident to the learners.  So is there some leeway on that requirement?
    • You mention that any animation required has already been done by an ID and "incorporated into a template".  Can you explain what you mean by this?  In practice, this template animation would only refer to the default transitions assigned to elements such as bullet points or slides.  Is this what you're talking about?  I'm just trying to clarify whether or not you're talking about needing to use Captivate Effects and time them to the audio.
    • There's been no mention of any need to create graphics, diagrams, or illustrations (e.g. process maps or other types of artwork).  Is it safe to assume these are not required?  If so, does your content consist only of text bullet points?  An hour of that can get pretty boring very quickly.
    • If there are images or photographs required for the content, will they be supplied in the correct formats and filesize for online use, or is it expected that the developer will need to "massage" them into size or resolution etc?
    • If it's not necessary to engage external voiceover talent, are you expecting the developer to record, use, and time their own voice for the content, or are you supplying the voiceover audio files? (Most people don't realise that recording voiceover can take 5-10 times longer than the actual duration of the finished content. Recording voiceover for long chunks of a minute or more is more problematic, because the longer you go, the more likely you are to muff a word or line and have to start over. All this means that recording an hour's voiceover might represent one or two day's work on its own.)
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