Captivate feature: slide templates

I first used Captivate sometime in 2006. I think my first version was the beta for Captivate 2; I recall using it to create a demonstration of a new feature in Acrobat 8, which was also in beta at the time. I don't remember much about that version except that it was awfully clunky, but that may have been because it was still in beta, and performance tweaks are always the last thing to happen on a new software version.

One of the things that impressed me most about the software, though, was how easy it was to pick up and use. Sans any guidance on how the product worked, and with only a rough notion of what it could do, I very quickly figured out how to record my demonstration, annotate it, and set up timings on certain elements.

Captivate has grown up a lot since then, and there is a lot more to it now than there used to be. Some aspects are even simpler and more intuitive now than they used to be, while others have been moved back out of the limelight. Other than a very brief dabbling in Captivate 7 I haven't actually used the program since version 5.5, and I have to say that some of the new features I uncovered when preparing to write this post looked pretty darn useful. There are a lot of things in the program now that would have made my life simpler back when I was building more e-learning.

For my money, one of the most exciting features in Captivate these days is the slide templates. Like the one below, these templates give you several pre-placed elements which you can quickly replace with images and text, and then move around according to your needs. It's exactly like working with master slide layouts in PowerPoint.

I really wish these had existed a few years ago. What a tremendous time saver this feature is!

Unlike many of the other other commonly used features in Captivate, you won't find these templates on the ribbon. To access them, you need to go to Insert > New slide from and simply pick the design you want from the fly-out menu.

Although most of the templates are fairly simple, Adobe has captured the most commonly used layouts in e-learning courses, making the process of constructing new slides go quite a bit faster. Better still, the templates work with any of the themes and theme color sets available in the program, so instructional designers don't have to go through the tedious process of recoloring all of the text and objects as each slide is created. The most time consuming part of creating any new presentation now will be setting up slide and object timings for animations and audio synchronization, which is as it should be.

While there are several other recent additions to Captivate that make the program more useful or easier to use than in the past, slide templates immediately jumped out at me as something that has significant value to a very broad spectrum of instructional designers. This is a feature that can bring a lot of benefit to a lot of people.

Narrated PPT converted to Captivate

The video below is a presentation I built for an earlier class in the OLPC program, which I have subsequently narrated. The topic for this presentation is a proposed change initiative to improve the efficiency of a separate T&D group within my organization that has been having a lot of struggles lately. Ironically, I was just informed this morning that I am being transferred to this group, so the issues and changes discussed in the presentation are definitely at the forefront of my mind once again.

Learning analytics

For large organizations, or at least those with large numbers of learners, learning analytics are a valuable tool for providing additional layers of insight into the behavior of their learners. How are learners accessing the content? When? How much time do they spend in each course? Are they entering the course multiple times? And so on. With these insights organizations can refine their content and delivery to make it more effective, more widely available, and even to better account for differences in learner capabilities.

The organization I work for has the technical expertise to design and implement a learning analytics program. In fact, our core competency lies in the collection, retrieval, and analysis of large amounts of data. However, given the very small amount of training that we do, there is really no need for us to conduct these types of analysis. Even if we did, the organization's leadership would have no interest in the information and the insights gained from it. So while I can think of several companies I have worked for in the past that would benefit from the use of learning analytics, this is one case where I do not think it would be worth the effort.

Review of Siemens's "Learning analytics: the emergence of a discipline"

Citation
Siemens, G. (2013). Learning analytics: the emergence of a discipline. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), 1380-1400.

Summary
Learning analytics is a rapidly emerging field that seeks to provide better understanding of the behavior and effectiveness of learners and learning programs through the application of modern data collection and analysis tools. As with any new field, it is easy to see the potential benefits of the work being done, and stakeholders are eager to get results. However, expertise is limited, and the work to establish analytic routines difficult and time intensive. There is yet a long ways to go.

Siemens makes an important distinction between learning analytics and educational data mining, arguing that where the former is concerned with understanding patterns and trends in order to improve learning and learning environments, the latter is targeted toward finding unique types of data that occur in an educational setting. Learning analytics can take place at multiple levels, from the level of an individual course or program, to that of an entire organization or university. At each level, the types of information gathered and analyzed are bound to differ.

A brief history of the roots of learning analytics is provided, from early citation analysis techniques in the 1950s through the popular adoption and increased sophistication of e-learning. Siemens also gives a brief overview of the analytics tools in use at the time of writing. The tools available are rapidly evolving, and this has become a highly competitive, if not yet saturated, market space.

One challenge facing learning analytics is the scope of the data to be captured, which can lead to significant challengs in storage, sorting, searching, and the development of analytical algorithms. However, modern tools are making this somewhat easier, enabling organizations to personalize the learning process for learners and more accurately model knowledge domains. Other challenges facing the field of learning analytics include a shortage of workers skilled in all of the areas necessary to design and implement the necessary systems, and the necessary organizational support to engage in such a difficult and time consuming project.

Siemens argues that issues such as data quality and scope, privacy concerns, and ethics represent even bigger challenges. Privacy, in particular, is an issue when you consider the circumstance of students attending online courses across international borders. Even in a simpler case, there are questions as to who actually owns the data? The legal system is still a long ways from addressing this significant issue.

Discussion
This paper appears to be one of several written around the same time covering this topic, though it has been written from a somewhat different perspective than its contemporaries. Neither is there any new information or theory contained in the paper, merely a "round-up" of what is currently understood on the topic of learning analytics.

Although this paper is primarily focused on learning analytics for higher education, it does occasionally address organizational learning. In this regard, there is one rather striking ommission from the paper as regards privacy concerns. That is to say, simply, that the privacy of learner data is only rarely at issue when the learners are employees of the organization. It is almost universally understood that any data created by employees, whether intentionally or incidentally, is owned by the organization and not by the employees themselves. As such, this challenge is far less of an obstacle where corporate learning analytics is concerned.

The challenge of finding appropriate technical skills to implement learning analytics has perhaps been downplayed too much by Siemens. As he points out, "A systemic approach to analytics requires a combination of skills and knowledge that are likely not in the possession of a single individual." This is a very salient point, and in fact the complete set of skills required to implement a full systemic solution is exceedingly rare, not to mention highly sought after.

Conclusion
This paper provides a good summary of the current state of learning analytics research and development, as well as the issues currently facing this burgeoning field. Siemens has also done a good job of describing the entire learning analytics model, which is remarkably complex with many variables and inputs. For individuals who are trying to get a grasp on what learning analytics entails and the current state of the field, this paper is a good starting point.