December 6, 2020
Introduction – And Newbie to ID Question
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(11)
December 6, 2020
Introduction – And Newbie to ID Question
Newbie 1 posts
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(11)

Hello, everyone;

I am Kevin EarthSoul. This is my first post, and I would like to do two things:

  1. Introduce myself briefly.
  2. Ask a “where to begin” question for my learning style.

By way of introduction, my goal is to become a Leadership Consultant and Coach, designing seminars and workshops in various leadership principles.

I am approaching the completion of a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership at Lewis University. I have a graduate concentration in Organizational Training & Development, but we didn’t really get into the use of instructional design software.

I decided it would be important for me to learn elearning course design, particularly in this brave new world of pandemic social-distancing, offering a lot of these workshops and seminars online. I have a feeling that even after the pandemic is done, webinars and virtual workshops will become much more commonplace.

I have a second concentration in Professional & Executive Coaching, and I was also wondering if there might be ways to incorporate eLearning into the coaching process for certain kinds of coaching. It’s something I am going to keep in mind as I learn.

I have decided to try to learn Captivate, because it seems like the most robust of any course creation software out there. It seems a bit daunting– especially the price, but I found out how we can participate in this forum to earn license extensions. Eventually, I’d like to be able to justify the licensing price, but for now, I’m needing to be extra frugal.

My first question: Where might the best place be to begin to learn Captivate as a top-down learner? I am a systems-thinker, and prefer to see the forest before examining the trees. Any high-quality overviews of the features– not just just a superficial overview of them– and how they might integrate together?

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more questions in the coming months, but I do hope to add to the shared pool of knowledge here before too long!

Regards,

Kevin EarthSoul
Overland Park, KS

11 Comments
2021-11-30 03:10:23
2021-11-30 03:10:23

incredibly helpful comments as usual

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2020-12-07 17:57:41
2020-12-07 17:57:41

Thank you for the responses.

Let me clarify my adult learning paradigm a bit more to explain some of what I want to do. There are some common problems we find with adult learning which I want to avoid in my workshops:

  1. “Drive-By” training. A lot of consultants or internal L&D specialists come through with a workshop anywhere from a half-day to a week-long workshop, present a whole lot of information (knowledge transfer), maybe get people started on a few skills. We all know (or should know) the pitiful knowledge retention rate from classroom trainings. then participants are left with the task of finding enough motivation in the following days/weeks/months — long enough to absorb the knowledge or develop any kind of proficiency in the skills. Yes, a good workshop can be fun and exciting and a great change-of-pace for participants, but the enthusiasm generated has a “sell-by date” and goes sour/stale.

    Essentially, any workshop is a training class which is actually less important than the subsequent “on the job training,” where that knowledge is applied and the skills practiced and mastered. Use of a LMS with experience learning tracking (as the TinCan standard allows for) can become an effective way of making the workshop experience stick.

  2. “Super-star” focus. A major flaw in American education is that academic performance is expected to be individual. Our schools give individual grades on nearly all assignments, and all report-cards from Primary through Post-Secondary education. Workplace T&D has shifted that focus a bit, but employees still receive individual assessments from their managers (or 360 degree assessments from everyone around them), and there is little focus on team performance. It’s the American mind-set to find your superstar– your Kobe Bryant or Peyton Manning– and build a team around that individual. “Upskilling” your workforce is still seen as an individual process, with each employee ideally taking ownership of their own development, making good use of the resources provided to them.  Most jobs, however, require teamwork, and high individual performance can sometimes even come at the cost of overall team and organizational performance.

    In the past, theories of leadership have evolved from a set of inborn individual traits, to a set of individual trainable skills and behaviors (but only taught to those who are promoted to positional leadership). The most current theories of leadership define it as is a set of social processes in which everyone participates. There are skills and behaviors involved in these, but positional leadership is taking a back-seat to self-managed teams (Agile development teams are probably at the forefront of this).

    Leadership training shouldn’t just be targeted at those with formal position, but should include a set of core competencies which every employee should learn and practice. I want to build training content which isn’t individually graded, but emphasizes team activities and peer interaction. For example– a training on Lencioni’s Five Behaviors of an Effective Team can include units where a Behavior isn’t only introduced–in theory–but put into practice over weeks. Course quizzes should be designed to encourage self-reflection– employing Cognitive Behavioral Coaching principles– as well as peer accountability (in a way which doesn’t feel shaming).

  3. “Turning the tables” on workshops:
    First, workshops, particularly those focused on leadership, include numerous small group activities. These can be difficult to manage. Unless you have enough pre-trained facilitators to work with each group during the workshop, groups can easily get off-track and lost.

    Second, workshops also often have packets of printed workshop materials distributed to participants in a nifty folder, with informational handouts, fillable worksheets, and other resources that they need to shuffle. After the workshop, what happens to these? How many participants, whose lives are largely digital, are going to pull out those sheets of paper? Further, their input on those sheets of paper remain in physical space… if there is follow-up training in a computer format, there is no continuity of the participant’s data from the workshop to that training.

    Third, pre-workshop preparation, such as readings and pre-workshop questionnaires (to establish baselines, for instance) are often procrastinated or completely ignored by participants, and a lot of time is wasted in a workshop catching people up.

    Addressing these, what if participants were to install the LMS client and download the course onto their mobile devices prior to the workshop?

    • With pre-workshop materials pre-loaded, there’s a much higher chance participants will complete the materials. Emails, SMS messages, and/or push notifications can be used to remind participants to complete these (and a more direct follow-up can be made with participants who do not have this done by the evening before, because the LMS will report the work as incomplete).
    • This can also allow workshop-specific materials and activities to remain inaccessible until the pre-workshop materials are completed, helping to prevent overwhelm of data during the pre-workshop phase, or to “steal the thunder” of the presenters/facilitators.
    • Social features in a LMS, including gamification concepts, can be employed to generate social facilitation/motivation.
    • Participants can be assigned to groups in the LMS and group activities clearly outlined for participants to reference while in small break-out sessions. Support for a group activity can be accessed via the app, so break-out sessions which are held in multiple rooms, for example, can have immediate access to facilitator support should there be a question.
    • Individual participant data is preserved through all three stages: Pre- During- and Post- workshop experiences have continuity.
    • Completion of the entire workshop, including work from all three phases, can generate a digital certificate (with ability to print, as desired) and unlock access to further follow-up training… and it all remains digital, rather than sitting in a folder in the backseat of someone’s car.

So yeah, I see some strong value of integrating LMS/eLearning into the live workshop experience.

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EarthSoul
's comment
2020-12-07 18:27:47
2020-12-07 18:27:47
>
EarthSoul
's comment

Thank you!!  That helps a LOT!  So, you are really looking at the whole picture and not just the workshops themselves.  That is awesome!

In that case, I 100% agree that learning about Captivate and LMS’s will be a great benefit.  When I worked in an O.D. department, my colleagues did leadership coaching, facilitation and training but were not expected to be involved with the LMS or e-learning modules.  I was using that as a reference point for your question so apologies if I didn’t quite understand where you were coming from.

Lieve mentioned that she uses Captivate as her presentation tool instead of PowerPoint.  I have not seen that or done that myself but I must admit I am intrigued by the possibilities.  PowerPoint gets a bad rap because there are so many people who use it terribly.  In the right hands, though, it can be pretty awesome IMO.  🙂

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EarthSoul
's comment
2020-12-07 21:54:39
2020-12-07 21:54:39
>
EarthSoul
's comment

I am not American, but I am aware of the American system. It is a bit different in Europe, but I am perfectly aware of the fact that too much education is very conservative and afraid of using new approaches.  Lucky me, my manager supported all my experiments, and most of my students supported me as well. In an academic environment it is not so easy. However I have introduced peer training. My idea was that the first task of any teacher/trainer is to recover the attitudes necessary for life long learning, much more than memorizing some knowledge stuff in order to take meaningless assessments and forget about that knowledge later on. All was born from my frustration about the low degree of efficiency of classroom training. I have written some articles, available here in the community (but cannot find them) and have presented about my experiments. That were no theoretical blogs, as you can find a lot, but reflections on my successes and my failures in that domain.

The tools are not that important, but I find Captivate lot more rewarding than PPT or similar tools. Same for a LMS, but too bad, their power is not always used efficiently, same as with Captivate.  Sorry, almost midnight here… would love to have more discussions like this.

 

 

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2020-12-07 15:45:44
2020-12-07 15:45:44

Hi Kevin,

Can you give us an example of the type of workshop you’d be designing and how you are thinking you’d use Captivate for it?  It sounds to me like your primary interest is in developing live workshops/seminars that could be delivered in the classroom or virtually.  Are you thinking of using Captivate to supplement something like that?  Like to create a prerequisite?

Have you designed any workshops yet (for live in person or virtual delivery)?  If not, that is what I’d focus on and I’d work in Word and/or PowerPoint.  For example, if you have an idea for a “Leadership Skills 101” workshop which you plan to do either in a classroom or via webinar, I’d build an outline in Word or PowerPoint as well as build my presentation slides in PowerPoint.  That’s going to be one of the first things an O.D. hiring manager will want to see: can this person create a training workshop and deliver it?  

I don’t mean to discourage you from Captivate.  It is a great tool for creating asynchronous learning.  It sounds to me, though, that you are more wanting to do live (synchronous) workshops. (Which makes sense because that is typically what an O.D. Specialist would do.  Along with team and leadership coaching.)  

As far as learning Captivate – I started using Captivate with version 3 about 10 – 12 years ago.  One really good, consistent resource is Lieve/Lilybiri.  I had stopped using Captivate for awhile but have recently acquired the 2019 version and am relearning it.  I was happy to see that Lieve is still very active on here.  When I was a total e-learning newb, I read a lot of her stuff and appreciated her no-nonsense, real world experience about using Captivate.  (Which I will be u again as I try to figure out these Fluid Boxes in this newest version!)

You will also see Paul Wilson on here and that is someone I have recently discovered who I also think does a great job of breaking things down and to make them easier to understand.  He also has a YouTube channel with lots of helpful video.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqksaaBboESOUGsswRhF9KA

One other thing you might look into is to see if your local library has a lynda/Linked In Learning account.  There are some Captivate classes on there and if your library has access, you can see them for free.  That is what I’m doing through my library: https://houstonlibrary.org/lyndacom-linkedin-learning 

Hope that helps!

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Jeff Blackman
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2020-12-07 16:06:17
2020-12-07 16:06:17
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Jeff Blackman
's comment

I am not agreeing with everything here. As you may have read I have used eLearning assets, created with Captivate, in all type of learning. They were a big improvement for my Flipped Class ‘live’ sessions and remote sessions. I required my students to study those assets at their own pace, and they really like the self-assessments. My live and distant synchrone classes could really get right into the problem solving. Same for project-based learning, where I included peer teaching and where the students were able to define partially the stuff for individual assessment. Captivate is much more than just meant for asynchronous learning as you seem to think.

I would never start with PPT, I stopped using presentations (where I used applications which have been killed by MS but were a lot more flexible than PPT) when the boring, ‘dead by bullet’ presentations appeared with the release of PPT. I use Captivate for presentations as well, much easier to convert them in really good self-controlled courses.

What I liked in the question here was asking for ‘..high-quality overviews of the features– not just just a superficial overview of them– and how they might integrate together?”.  Step-by-step videos for particular workflows will not ascertain such an approach. They have their worth as supplementary resources, but rarely ‘why’ a certain approach is used. Something which can be acquired after lot of exploration and practice or… learned from a trainer who fits your requirements.

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Lieve Weymeis
's comment
2020-12-07 18:31:03
2020-12-07 18:31:03
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Lieve Weymeis
's comment

Hi Lieve,
I’d be interested in hearing more about how you’ve used Captivate as your vehicle for a live session. I have used it for quizzes/self assessments or for a prerequisite prior to the live class or as a review or supplement for after the live session. I’ll admit, though, I haven’t thought about using it as my main presentation mode during a live session. I’d love to hear some examples!

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Jeff Blackman
's comment
2020-12-08 01:57:15
2020-12-08 01:57:15
>
Jeff Blackman
's comment

Jeff, I posted a top level reply here with more information about how I want to integrate eLearning with live workshops.

I have done some course design and training, but I’m really looking to expand it. PowerPoint annoys me.

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EarthSoul
's comment
2020-12-08 02:53:40
2020-12-08 02:53:40
>
EarthSoul
's comment

LOL – it’s definitely not for everyone but I love it!  🙂

You are right on about the problems that plague typical training programs.  I’m a Senior Instructional Designer for a Fortune 5 company and we are always striving to make our learning meaningful and relevant.  You made me think of one program in particular where we have various phases that utilize e-learning as well as a mobile app along with in person, instructor-led training.  (Which, of course, we had to convert to virtual this year).

So, are you looking to do all of it? Design, facilitate, coach, build e-learning, load and track in the LMS??  That’s a lot to take on!

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(7)
2020-12-07 15:39:25
2020-12-07 15:39:25

Hi Kevin,

Can you give us an example of the type of workshop you’d be designing and how you are thinking you’d use Captivate for it?  It sounds to me like your primary interest is in developing live workshops/seminars that could be delivered in the classroom or virtually.  Are you thinking of using Captivate to supplement something like that?  Like to create a prerequisite?

Have you designed any workshops yet (for live in person or virtual delivery)?  If not, that is what I’d focus on and I’d work in Word and/or PowerPoint.  For example, if you have an idea for a “Leadership Skills 101” workshop which you plan to do either in a classroom or via webinar, I’d build an outline in Word or PowerPoint as well as build my presentation slides in PowerPoint.  That’s going to be one of the first things an O.D. hiring manager will want to see: can this person create a training workshop and deliver it?

I don’t mean to discourage you from Captivate.  It is a great tool for creating asynchronous learning.  It sounds to me, though, that you are more wanting to do live (synchronous) workshops. (Which makes sense because that is typically what an O.D. Specialist would do.  Along with team and leadership coaching.)

As far as learning Captivate – I started using Captivate with version 3 about 10 – 12 years ago.  One really good, consistent resource is Lieve/Lilybiri.  I had stopped using Captivate for awhile but have recently acquired the 2019 version and am relearning it.  I was happy to see that Lieve is still very active on here.  When I was a total e-learning newb, I read a lot of her stuff and appreciated her no-nonsense, real world experience about using Captivate.  (Which I will be using/reading again as I try to figure out these Fluid Boxes in this newest version!)

You will also see Paul Wilson on here and that is someone I have recently discovered who I also think does a great job of breaking things down and to make them easier to understand.  He also has a YouTube channel with lots of helpful videos.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqksaaBboESOUGsswRhF9KA

One other thing you might look into is to see if your local library has a lynda/Linked In Learning account.  There are some Captivate classes on there and if your library has access, you can see them for free.  That is what I’m doing through my library: https://houstonlibrary.org/lyndacom-linkedin-learning

Hope that helps!

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2020-12-07 09:30:58
2020-12-07 09:30:58

Welcome to this community! Adobe Captivate is IMO the best choice, I did read your introduction very carefully.  You will be both SME (Subject Matter Expert) and developer, which may be the ideal situation. Moreover you have ‘theoretically’ also been in ‘coaching’. I was just wondering how much practical experience you have in ‘coaching/training’?

May I introduce myself, which may explain why I feel familiar with your situation? You can read more about my biography in my profile or on my website/blogsite. My first steps in eLearning (with Adobe Captivate) over a decade ago were in my career as professor at a university college. Department (which I have led long time) of Construction/Real Estate.  Topics on my schedule of teaching ranged from very technical topics (Soil Mechanics, Building Physics) over Project Management to Software training (AutoCad, Photoshop, MS Project to mention only 3). Frustrations about the efficiency of (limited number) of classroom training pushed me to newer pedagogy like Flipped Classes, Problem-based and Project based training. The eLearning assets were a big help in that move, blended learning and later on distant learning (for professionals trying to get a bachelor degree).

My view on personalized training is based on my decades of experience as trainer/researcher (innovative pedagogical methods). I strongly believe that a canned training never fits everyone, that pure step-by-step videos are not the best way to offer good insight in any software application, that you need a real topdown approach (to use your terminology) and lot of personal practice to acquire some ‘intuition’ (I am a woman) for the application. Moreover every trainee comes with her/his history and personal skills. Beware: I am not promoting myself as trainer. For each training about Captivate I have delivered I always had a long conversation with the trainees. I have refused to do training if my view was not fully accepted.

Just one link to a blog where I point out the most important challenges in Captivate for each user. Not a tutorial, only reflections limited to basics for non-responsive projects. You can add the topic Fluid Boxes if you need responsive projects (never start with them as new user).

http://blog.lilybiri.com/challenges-for-starters

 

 

 

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