I’m with you. I use GoToTraining and Adobe Connect to teach Captivate and Storyline to participants worldwide. I have used Captivate Prime  LMS to offer video training materials, record student participation and issue certificates.

So having a one day session at 799 US and having to travel, say another 2-500 depending on where you are coming from, probably a night in a hotel – 2-300 and if you are coming from outside the US like might be add another 35 percent for exchange and taxes, you are looking at an expenditure of about US $2200. Adobe has to pay and fly in the “experts” to present the program and that costs a few thousand. Most of the experts have taught online for Iconlogic at one time or another so that’s not new or difficult for them. That would save participants the money as well so we could probably look at setting the certificate fee back at 499 US rather than 799 US. Adobe that seems like padding to me after the  fact.

So my solution is, rather than sitting in a crammed room for 6 hours with 25 – 30 others, Adobe use the technology that you are trying to sell to us – Adobe Connect to carry out the training and Captivate Prime record certification at a fraction of the cost. If you are worried about someone else completing the open book exam for the certificate online as someone commented – then why am I using your technology.

David….. lot more than 30 in a room. It is not a training at all. You know my point of view. Since I was present as TA in DC, offered some small tips to some attendees. They came to tell me that they learned a lot more from those tips than from the whole day of demonstration.

I will not discuss about the cost, after all access to a lot of videos is included. I will post a blog about personalized learning this week.  Strongly believe that one hat never fits all heads (in Flemish it is one shoe never fits all feet).

I think it’s at least a possibility. As one of the teachers of the Captivate Specialist program, it’s likely I would be teaching those sessions. Follow me on Twitter to be the first to know.

Ugur, you are an excellent student. Congratulations on a job well done.

This program is split with the first half completed online with downloaded exercise files. Because the assessment is proctored you need to be physically present for the day of activities. We will review what you learned online and then conduct the assessment.

If you register and take the version of the course that coincides with the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington DC or the Adobe Learning Summit the price is only $499.

My profound conviction is that advanced training should be personalized. You cannot have such a training in a ‘canned’ programme, which may be possible for a basic training (although I also am not a fan of that). Each developer has its own skills developed by many  types of learning, works in a different environment, needs different advanced skills. It is the reason I try to focus now on coaching advanced, personalized training.

Darysorrill – I think an advanced course would be great. I’d sign up for sure. For myself, I like all the learning strategies I can get my hands on – group, indivualized, video, articles, research, podcasts, mentorship/coaching, etc. I like learning around the campfire too.

I would love to coach an ‘advanced’ coure. But what would have to be in an advanced course, when I see so many developers lacking some basic skills? Would you accept a  pretest which would certainly not be a LCQ assessment but a practical test?

Do you think, even with a pretest, that all developers looking for an advanced course need the same skills in that training?

A pretest (practical or otherwise) might be helpful. The value of it would depend on myriad factors.

I think course providers need to be pretty clear about what learners will gain from completing a course – with for instance, well articulated learning outcomes.

Meanwhile, if a learner seeking advanced skills, still lacks some basic skills, it may not actually be a hinderance. Sometimes this is where ingenuity is born.

Check out Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) for Adobe Captivate courses. I am currently taking the “essentials” course and have seen several others listed. There is generally a preview video that will tell you what each course entails. There is a subscription fee, but it may be worth the cost to learn the skills you need. It is possible, of course, that you are too advanced for this, but it’s worth a look. I have found the Lynda.com courses engaging and have learned a lot by taking them.

I bet that’s in the Adobe Captivate Specialist program!

Not mentioned at all and those need to be in such a type of  ‘basic-intermediate’ programme much more than advanced actions and roundtripping with CC. Shared actions are a lot easier to introduce, since they can be used without having to develop them. I always include the use of shared actions in a basic training of 4 days.

Todd, I bet you mean the “Advanced Captivate Specialist” program

 Smiling of course,  you know how I feel about “specialists”.

There are lessons on each of these features.

Chapter 7: Add audio and video (3 lessons on Interactive Video)
Chapter 16: Use variables and advanced actions (lesson on Shared Actions)
Chapter 18: Create Virtual Reality projects

Yep