How to create a Graphical user interface for an adobe captivate project

[carries59bus]

I just completed developing a large project using Adobe Captivate 9, which contains  (4) modules, and a total of (21) lessons that were designed separately due to its size.  It is a web based project, that will be deployed on Blackboard.  Just when I thought I was reaching the summit, I was told that I now need to add in a graphical user interface (GUI) for navigation prior to uploading the project to Blackboard.  Huh? Need help designing  customized navigation to include a method to track student progress through each lesson.

[Lilybiri]

Look at the shapes of the category Buttons. They can be used on a master slide, or on the first slide, timed for the rest of the project.

You can design your custom shape buttons as well, recommend to use shape buttons for that purpose, they are the most flexible and you can design several states. I don't know if you also need toggle buttons, but in that case have a look at my blog post:

1 action = 5 Toggle Buttons - Captivate blog

As for tracking the progress, can you explain what you want? Is it a SCO? Blackboard is normally meant for the tracking.

[RodWard]

Actually, if you have created this project as a bunch of separate CPTX files published to SCORM for Blackboard, then you should NOT be creating any GUI for navigating between the separate SCORM modules. The SCORM standard forbids any SCO directly navigating to another.  The LMS handles the navigation via its own GUI.

So exactly how many separate CPTX files are involved in this entire course?  Is it just 4, or is it 21?

[Miguel_Morales]

If separate CPTX, why not combining all in 1 project?

[RodWard]

With 20 modules or so, the filesize of having all of them in a single project file would make the output too large and heavy for fast response download to the end user.  For best performance, it's usually better to have smaller modules.

Secondly, if uploading to an LMS and you want each of the modules to have separate reporting for each lesson/module, then you need to upload each one as a separate SCO.

[carries59bus]

It is 21 lessons total.

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[RodWard]

Published from 21 separate CPTX files?

[carries59bus]

Yes

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[RodWard]

Then the SCORM rules really prevent you from being able to use any kind of intra-SCO navigation.  You need to allow the LMS to provide the links that the end user clicks to launch each SCO.

You can either set each SCO up separately in the LMS and link them together as a 'learning pathway' (or whatever your LMS wants to call it) where your learner progressively works through each module.  Or alternatively, you can use the Multi-SCORM Packaging Tool by Adobe that comes with Captivate to bundle up all of the SCOs into one large Multi-SCORM package that can be uploaded to the LMS as a single zip file.  The imsmanifest.xml file inside this zip file tells the LMS what modules are contained within the package and provides the details in XML code so that the LMS can build a Table of Contents with links to launch each module.