I am responsible for creating, publishing and instructing software application training via instructor-led sessions and eLearning (County government environment). Our division has previously used Authorware, Camtasia, and Captivate eLearning authoring tools to create demonstration videos, but we would like to create interactive software application simulations, publishing the videos using a streaming media server in a Windows environment.

It appears that the Industry Standard leans towards publishing video with Flash files; is this true? What arguments for switching from Windows environment to Flash should I use?

Any input on what others recommend for software simulations is truly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Captivate is built precisely for that purpose - interactive software simulations - and the resulting files are (can be) flash files. I'm a bit confused - what type of learning were you delivering when you had used Captivate previously?

Previously I used Captivate for demonstration videos, but encountered a lot of "bugs" in Captivate and then poor customer service from Adobe (and from researching other members posts in this forum, I discovered that others are as unsatisfied with Captivate as we are). And, a major issue revolves around our county using Windows as our "standard" environment, but Captivate publishes .swf, which won't "stream" from a Windows media server. And, most software tools I've found publish using Flash. Thus my dilemma is (1) - locate another tool and convince management that Flash is the industry standard (and purchase Flash server software) or (2) - locate a tool that will publish application simulation videos in the Windows environment.

Any help/suggestions are appreciated!!!
Thank you!

Hi Kim,

You don't need a special server to stream Flash videos. Rather, it has to do with how the Flash movies are set up. Flash 8 has the best video compression algorithm available, which is why the industry is leaning towards it (as you indicated). Another very strong selling point is that Flash videos are not dependent upon another plug-in to view. Windows Media Player often has conflicts, but maybe you don't experience that in a corporate environment.

Hope that helps.

Sheldon Murphy
Solid State Learning
E-Learning Consulting

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sheldon,

Hi K,
You mention that you're using eLearning authoring tools to create demonstration videos. While a demonstration is 'just watch,' Captivate is also very effective for fully interactive simulations. Some of the methods for adding user interactivity are click boxes, text entry fields, buttons, highlight boxes, and assessment questions.

Captivate 2.0 is more stable than the earlier version, and the published .swf files run in a Flash Player that's pre-installed on most browsers.

Lee