Do you recommend Captivate for elearning?

Report · Aug 20, 2007

We just learned of Adobe's decision to discontinue support of Authorware. We recently spent several thousands of dollars purchasing the software and training courses to learn it. Does anyone in this forum have AW and Captivate experience that could let me know if Captivate would be worth converting to?

Thanks!

Report · Aug 21, 2007

There's been some reply to your post in the Authorware forum. The only
thing I can add is, if you are doing either software simulation or
fairly basic 'elearning', then Captivate is a suitable - if not better -
piece of software than Authorware.

As to whether Captivate is worth converting to, it depends on what
you're trying to create. Obviously, if it falls within Captivate's
capabilities, then it's a decent replacement. However, I'd say Captivate
will not be a suitable replacement for at least 50% of the projects we
develop simply due to their complexity and Captivate's limitations
(tracking is limited to SCORM, no complex/custom interaction, no
Xtra/U32 support, no ActiveX control support, limited media support, etc.)

Erik

Hotel Accounting wrote:
> We just learned of Adobe's decision to discontinue support of Authorware. We
> recently spent several thousands of dollars purchasing the software and
> training courses to learn it. Does anyone in this forum have AW and Captivate
> experience that could let me know if Captivate would be worth converting to?
>
> Thanks!
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.awaretips.net - samples, tips, products, faqs, and links!
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http://groups.google.com/group/macromedia.authorware

Report · Aug 21, 2007

Erik,

What do you mean tracking is limited to SCORM?

It supports AICC (HACP), SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 and can be used to even track
to your own server-side database... Am I missing something?

Regards,

Andrew

Report · Aug 22, 2007

No, you're right of course, about AICC. I often neglect to distinguish
that from SCORM.

Tracking to a server-side database requires hacking the code, correct?
It's something I occasionally mention but not always as it's not a
default behavior. OR, is there a way to track to a db natively that I'm
not aware of?

I also neglected to mention email, on purpose, since it seems so
unreliable I'd not want to recommend it as an definite solution.
Erik

Andrew Chemey wrote:
> Erik,
>
> What do you mean tracking is limited to SCORM?
>
> It supports AICC (HACP), SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 and can be used to even track
> to your own server-side database... Am I missing something?
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew
>
>
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.awaretips.net - samples, tips, products, faqs, and links!
*Search the A'ware newsgroup archives*
http://groups.google.com/group/macromedia.authorware

Report · Aug 27, 2007

Erik et al (if anyone else is following),

Tracking to a server-side database does require modifying code in an HTM
file, so yes - it constitutes "hacking the code". Of course, it's easier
for some of us who are intimately familiar with the code...

The benefit of making such modifications is that you can then write to your
own database or send an e-mail.

The e-mail solution is difficult "as-is" because Captivate is completely
Flash/HTM/Javascript-based. The ideal mechanism would be to use a
server-side script for sending the e-mail (something you can post to, if you
hack the code).

Regards,

Andrew

Report · Aug 27, 2007

You should take a look at Toolbook Instructor - they just came out with a new 32 bit version. The last Toolbook conference had sessions on integrating Captivate and camtasia output into Toolbook.