Is this possible in Captivate 3?...

Question

I have Macromedia Captivate 1.0, and it doesn't do what we
need. I was wondering if upgrading to Captivate 3 would solve the
problem. Here's what I'd like to do...
I need to have a "menu screen" that would have, say, three
"tasks" to complete. The user would select one "task" and then they
could either watch a demo on it, or they could try it in "test
mode". If they pass it in "test mode" (by clicking in all the
correct spots), then Captivate will somehow mark it off (or put a
check next to it) or something on the main menu with the three
tasks. Once all three tasks have been "checked off" in Test Mode,
then Captivate will pass a "complete" variable to the LMS via
SCORM-compliance...
Can this be done with the latest Captivate? Or would other
tools be necessary in order to accomplish this? If Captivate 3
alone can handle this, is it a relatively painless process?
Thanks!!!

Answer 1

Sorry, what you're asking is not possible with Captivate and
probably never will be.
Captivate creates SCORM-compliant units (SCOs) and SCORM does
not allow SCOs to contain their own menu/navigation logic. All
navigation between files must be handled by the Learning Management
System so it knows which SCO is "in use" when scores are reported
back.
The "correct" procedure would be to create six separate SCOs
and mark the demo SCOs as "optional" in the LMS, and the tests
"required". The user then accesses all SCOs through the LMS
interface. Enable only completion reporting for the demos and full
score reporting for the tests and you'll be able to track
everything the user took to the full extent that your LMS supports.
Your only other alternative is to create three separate units
that have both demo and test in a single file. Add a button that
gives users the option to jump past the demo slides and go directly
to the test. Enable reporting for only the test items and have
Captivate report that score to the LMS. Then, the LMS can decide
whether to "check off" each unit as complete based on the user's
test score. Doing it this way doubles your Captivate file size
(generally a bad thing) and makes it much more work to determine
which users viewed the demo, hence the suggestion to treat
everything as separate files as SCORM's designers intended.
The main takeaway from all this is that SCORM doesn't care
what you do in a given file but it will promptly vomit on your
shoes if you try to jump to another SCO without it's knowing, so
custom menus are a no-no...