Big project for a newbie. Seeking guidance before I start.

[Jessetr]

Hello folks,

Situation:  I have a task at work where I am going to make a “video manual” for onboarding employees.

Goal #1: 

1. Make a series of interactive Captivate projects, with all the bells and whistles like interactivity and the professional polish, and of course responsive to many platforms and formats.  
2. Test the whole project to see if others can interact with my project.
   1. But is this an unnecessary concern? Isn't the whole project test-able like any other project or program would be on my own computer?   I don't need a web server to test all of this do I?

Goal #2:   Unfortunately our agency doesn’t have the capacity to host Captivate or any kind of LMS.  Yikes!  So I decided to adapt.  I will:

1. Complete Goal #1. 
2. Follow up by running through the whole interactive project myself and record everything I do (I’ll have to break the video manual up into several “chapters”/individual videos, but that’s fine). 
3. Add voice narration as I go and include :
   1. Captions
   2. Zooms
   3. video from my cell phone
   4. .jpgs
   5. Background music
   6. Overall spice it up to a professional level

Then present for my agency a series of pure watchable videos that show someone running through the lesson, the quizzes, the interactivity, etc.  Again, unfortunately our network doesn’t have the capacity to host the LMS system itself.  So I demo the whole thing and record it and upload a series of videos for use.

I imagine that two separate programs will be needed for this task, but as I imply they'll have to interact well.

I need some good examples to model for creativity purposes.

And finally, in the end, it's fortunate I was given this project because I can use my experience creating Captivate projects as a bridge to a more corporate setting and more pay.  What kind of storage space have you required for your own Captivate projects?

Thank you all in advance!  Looking forward to reading your responses.

J.

[Stagprime]

You know better than I do what is possible within your environment/budget/etc but I am not sure I fully understand creating all sorts of interactive projects in order to simply record yourself doing them and provide a video as the deliverable. I am also not sure why it needs to be responsive if a video is the deliverable. Perhaps I misunderstand the goals.

Your agency does not necessarily need to host (on premesis) an LMS. Since I believe that allowing the new hires who are onboarding to engage with the interactive modules would be best, I would suggest some alternatives.

1. If you're not interested in tracking data and such - an internal file server is sufficient to share the modules with new hires. You just need to point them to the index.html file of the published project.
2. If you want new hires to have access on their phones - you might explore some options like Amazon S3 for storing projects online.
3. You could maybe look into a subscription service (rather than hosting) like Captivate Prime as an LMS option which would allow both of the above.

Even if you just do videos - you'll want some place to store them as they will likely be too large in terms of file size to email to your new hires. Check with the IT department on file server access and storage. Hopefully they have several TB worth available.

[Jessetr]

Hi Stagprime:

Thank you for answering.

"If you're not interested in tracking data and such - an internal file server is sufficient to share the modules with new hires. You just need to point them to the index.html file of the published project."

Let's go down the path of hoping only Captivate will be necessary, and we can engage all that interactivity.  I don't think we'll need to track any data so...

Newbie questions:  Is the internal file server just a standard one that most any network employs?   And, in the end, does the agency have to be running Captivate as well so that onboarding employees can wat, which means getting a license for it?

[Stagprime]

Yes - a company of any decent size is bound to have a file server which is basically what most employees would refer to as their "Network Drive". Many will have a shortcut or mapped drive so that navigating to the network folders to which you have access is no different than browsing your local C:\ drive on the PC. Many may not even realize it is a file server in a closet somewhere they are connecting to. Most companies would encourage folks to save their stuff to the Network Drive because that is what gets backed up as opposed to each individual PC.

If your company has one - I think it would be worth trying to allocate a directory for you to put the published training projects that all can have permissions to access. Like I say - then you can just introduce yourself to the new hires with an email and point them to some awesome training links!

[Jessetr]

Sounds like a dream.

If all we need to do is just store it on the file server, does my agency need to have Captivate beforehand in order for this to work?

[Stagprime]

Only those individuals who will be developing need a license.

If you are the only developer - the agency will only need one license.

A license is not required to consume the content that is created.

[Jessetr]

Great!  I'm the one doing all the work from home, and I have the license.  So it sounds like all I need to do is upload the AC files to the agency's file server and my onboarding pupils are ready to go.  Am I right, before I go up against the braniacs over at IT?  LOL.

[Stagprime]

Yes, that is pretty much it.

I do this all the time at my company for either projects that are meant to be internal only or for projects that I need to have bug tested and want several users to hit the project and go through it as if they were an actual participant and then shoot me some feedback.

Now - one thing based on something you mentioned - you're working remotely.

If you are placing the files on a company file server and sending out links to the location - people have to be able to get there - including you. Since this is not an Internet facing type of server - remote employees will need to have a means of accessing the company network from home or where ever. That typically means using a VPN client provided by the company.

[Jessetr]

During COVID there is a lot of work from home, so that's a good point you raise.  We are already logging-in to the network through Office365.  Is Office 365 a working VPN already?

[Stagprime]

No. That is not a VPN.

Your IT department should know what that is and would be able to verify whether or not they have something in place.

If not - you could investigate some cloud based storage that is Free/Real Cheap such as Amazon S3.

[Jessetr]

Hi Stagprime.

Ok, I'm ready to start laying some foundations down for my project.

I'd like to see some great examples of Captivate projects, something I can model and emulate.  Can you provide any recommendations?  Your own work or someone else's?

Thank you!

J.

[Stagprime]

There are lots of examples of work over at the eLearning Community on the project page.

https://elearning.adobe.com/projects/

You can also find lots of little projects by several members there peppered throughout the blogs.

[Jessetr]

Do you know of any projects that would address onboarding? (I did some searching at the place you linked to, but it didn't appear to have the type of project direction I was looking for.)

My project at work is to create a "video manual" for new employees.  It will be broken up into "chapters" like a hard-copy manual, have different subjects, some interactivity, etc.  I don't claim to be an original thinker, plus I'm a newbie at this stuff.  So if there is a Captivate project out there I can attempt to mimic, I solve two things at once:  I would be learning Captivate as I go plus have a finished project for my supervisor.  : )

[Lilybiri]

If your goal is only passive video output, would consider to use Camtasia, not Captivate.