Looking at Softwares, Can someone answer some quesitons about Captivate?

Question

Hey all,
I am looking at training software for a pretty big project
and wanded to check with those who actually use it to see if
Captivate would fit my needs as wel as what I found using the
website:
Is the UI Developer friendly?
Does it have Multimedia (Audio/Video) integration?
(Appears the answer is YES, but waht is the ease of this?)
Are there any end-user liscenses needed for the trainees?
Can it be set up to be Interactive?
(Appears to be YES, but the level of interactivity I am not sure
about.)
Can the end users/Trainees have their own username/passwords
for tracking?
Is the training interuption-friendly to the end users? Can
they save their spot and resume at that spot?
How is the testing?
it appears that you can test, but I want to know if there are
limits, and make srue it is scoreable
are the test results kept in a database to chart/track/report
off of and to track each user's status by administrators?
Thanks for any help!
Pete

Answer 1

Hi Pete, in answer to your queries and from my own limited
knowledge:
Q - Is the UI Developer friendly?
A - Yes, Captivate is very easy to learn and getting results
quickly for the basics, but as simple as the program appears at
first, there are a wealth of features and tricks that can only be
learnt over time or in the hands a good trainer. (E.g. setting up a
basic table in Excel is easy, but writing Macros to manipulate the
data is not).
Q - Does it have Multimedia (Audio/Video) integration?
(Appears the answer is YES, but waht is the ease of this?)
A - The method of importing or attaching Audio/Video is very
user friendly and Captivate even includes a basic audio editor for
manipulation of individual sound bytes.
Q - Are there any end-user liscenses needed for the trainees?
A - No, only the developer needs a licence to use Captivate.
The outputs are controlled by the developer not Adobe. To use the
Excel scene again, I need a licence for Excel on my PC, but the
data tables etc that I create are mine to do with as I wish.
Q - Can it be set up to be Interactive? (Appears to be YES,
but the level of interactivity I am not sure about.)
A - Bearing in mind that Captivates biggest strength area
lies in the training of software solutions or applications,
Captivate can be used to firstly train in full flow how a user is
expected to interact on a solution, this can be followed by a
Training Simulation where the user will interact EXACTLY as they
would on the actual solution. Lastly, all this can be assessed in
another fully interactive module that measures the users skills. As
an example, I have built Captivate modules to the extent that users
could not distinguish between the live application and my work
regarding interactivity
Q - Can the end users/Trainees have their own
username/passwords for tracking?
A - This lies outside the scope of Captivate, but if you were
to publish the Captivate files to an LMS, then the LMS would be
configured to manage user take on and tracking. Note though that
Captivate files are fully SCORM compliant and are thus relatively
easy to integrate into an LMS.
Q - Is the training interuption-friendly to the end users?
Can they save their spot and resume at that spot?
How is the testing? it appears that you can test, but I want
to know if there are limits, and make sure it is scoreable
are the test results kept in a database to chart/track/report
off of and to track each user's status by administrators?
A - All the above falls under the administration of a LMS as
described in the previous point. Captivate Assessments are fully
scoreable and customisable as to how points are awarded, but, as
with all e-learning programs, you need an LMS to manage and track
users and their results.