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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Captivate

    Score5.9 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Captivate is an elearning authoring and course design tool (or LCMS). It supports mobile HTML5 content. Captivate’s users are commonly midsized businesses to enterprises. Adobe Captivate includes some prebuilt assets as well as customizable workflows.

    $33.99

    per month

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/ABlackboard Inc. is an enterprise learning management systems vendor. Blackboard was founded in 1997 and became a public company in 2004. The company provides education, mobile, communication, and commerce software and related services to clients including education providers, corporations and government organizations. As of December 2010, Blackboard software and services are used by over 9,300 institutions in more than 60 countries. Blackboard Learn is the company's flagship LMS, supporting…N/A
    Pricing
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Editions & Modules
    Subscription
    $33.99
    per month
    Student & Teacher Edition
    $399
    one-time fee
    Upgrade
    $499
    one-time fee
    Pereptual License
    1,299
    one-time fee
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Considered Both Products
    Adobe
    Chose Adobe Captivate
    Each software offers different strengths and weaknesses; however, the cost, reliability, and ease of use of Captivate outshines the competition. As a user since the RoboDemo days, I've been continuously impressed with what can be accomplished with Adobe Captivate.
    Incentivized
    Anthology, Inc
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    87%
    Would buy again
    75 Answers
    78%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    84%
    Happy with the feature set
    72 Answers
    72%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    87%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    48 Answers
    67%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    53 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Adobe Captivate and Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    Feature
    Adobe Captivate
    9.1
    31 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    8.6
    30 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Course authoring8.030 Ratings9.024 Ratings
    Course catalog or library9.018 Ratings9.024 Ratings
    Player/Portal8.024 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Learning content9.024 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications9.026 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics9.019 Ratings9.026 Ratings
    Social learning10.014 Ratings9.022 Ratings
    Gamification8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly00 Ratings9.030 Ratings
    Assignments00 Ratings9.030 Ratings
    Compliance management00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Learning administration00 Ratings10.025 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    eLearning Content
    Comparison of eLearning Content features of Adobe Captivate and Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    Feature
    Adobe Captivate
    8.4
    1 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-Lingual Support7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Structured Learning10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Historical Metrics8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cloud-Based Content10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automation & Integration7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
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    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
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    Pluralsight Skills
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Renaissance myON
    Score10 out of 10
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    A Cloud Guru (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (128 ratings)
    9.9
    (58 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    4.6
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    1.8
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.8
    (18 ratings)
    7.7
    (14 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.7
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe CaptivateBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    Captivate is well suited for instruction designers who want to build attractive, personalized, interactive, energetic lessons. It's also a good choice for someone who wants to build something innovative because Captivate gives the developer so much control over so many aspects.
    But if someone wanted something built quickly, generically and didn't care about holding the viewer's attention, then Captivate might be an expensive tool. That person might be more satisfied with a cheaper and easier to learn authoring tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    A school with a well-established technology imprint with their students (for example, ours is a BYOB school where every student has their own laptop and must bring it to school every day and where over 99% of our families have reliable broadband at home) is a reasonable scenario for using The arrogance and intransigence of the sales force is quite disconcerting… They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it. Less well-off schools/families may find it a challenge if students must be on campus or at a public library in order to use the technology. Obviously, during the pandemic, this became problematic for some districts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • Quickly adding in graphics, text, and interactive buttons.
    • Has extensive variables and branching for additional customization, beyond the competition.
    • Has 360 degree capability which competitors don't offer (I have not used this feature).
    • High degree of customization and personalization.
    • True responsive screen display on all devices, viewable as you are creating the training. This is different than some competitors - some just shrink the screen, but Adobe Captivate allows actually removing or moving or changing items at different screen sizes.
    • If you like Flash, it has Flash output, although it's going away in 2020. Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.
    • Many advanced capabilities. I chose this product due to the capabilities.
    • Comes with assets, templates, people, head shots, and full body—excellent.
    • Adobe Captivate is the authoring tool. It integrates with Adobe Captivate Prime - which I highly recommend if you want to truly take advantage of all of its features in reporting, administration, compliance, and social learning. (I didn't use Prime because you essentially need 100+ students to affordably use Prime.) If you look at my chart of what Captivate is capable of, I can't say that Captivate has a lot of the reporting features because they are part of Prime/SCORM, although, with Captivate's customization, you might be able to do most of them if you are up to it, but I did not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn makes submitting assignments electronically simple and provides a variety of built-in Web-based tools like e-portfolios, wikis, and blogs that our students use to create their own content.
    • Blackboard Learn is intuitive and easy to navigate from a students perspective
    • Blackboard Learn has many integrations available for connecting this LMS to other tools we use at our institution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • Clunky interface, it takes a lot of extra clicks to get places compared to other Adobe apps and competitor's eLearning software.
    • Would be nice if it was part of creative cloud, or at least in the group of apps you can add through Creative Cloud.
    • More regular and meaningful updates. Compared to flagship apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Captivate is like the read headed step child. Competitors excel at providing regular updates with clear change documentation. How are we still using Captivate 2019 in 2022?
    • The interface feels like it is still stuck in the 90s, would be nice if it was more modern and better in-line with flagship adobe offerings.
    • Variables and associated menus are a nuisance to work with vs some of the clever drop down and content-sensitive options in Articulate Storyline.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn has some limitations when it comes to submissions
    • It is not that user friendly, I had to spend some time to get a hang of it in the beginning
    • I have been struggling a bit with deletion of manually added courses
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    We have hundreds of courses that were created in Adobe Captivate. It will take us a while to convert to Articulate. We'll need a license for another year and/or until Adobe comes out with a true update to the software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    There are several aspects of Desire2Learn that outweigh the benefits of using Blackboard. I find that the Desire2Learn system is a bit more user friendly and looks more up-to-date. However, the decision to renew systems is not up to me because the entire University uses the same system. Regardless, I think I would choose Desire2Learn over Blackboard because of its improved user interface.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    Adobe Captivate does take some getting used to. There are features that are much more convoluted than they need to be, but overall it is a great product with a some excellent features. Being in a pretty small market, Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline dominate the space. They are not the same software, but allow for eLearning authoring. Each has their benefit and their downside, but, for me, Adobe Captivate edges out Storyline.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    It is very usable for both faculty and students. The interface is pretty intuitive and most students can use it without a lot of additional training. Faculty do need some training to effectively use the interface, but they usually get it pretty quickly. We have had to create some additional programming to give faculty a way to delve deeper into the content.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    It is difficult to get in touch with Adobe Captivate support. With a seemingly limited number of resources, mostly outsourced, getting in contact with someone to help troubleshoot an issue is challenging. Typically wait times are long, and the desired path to resolution is to use an existing knowledge base or a self-help guide. It is certainly not a user-friendly experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    My Blackboard support comes from the university I work with. They are responsive--eventually... but it takes them sometimes a week to respond to a reported issue. For example, I reported 2 issues last week and one was resolved and I was contacted about one still open option today. That is too long for a tech issue. I have not contacted any support offered directly by Blackboard, which may be a completely different experience altogether.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    I'm only aware of the problems Adobe Captivate had with SumTotal LMS and Upside LMS, requiring extensive contact with both internal and external support staff to fix the problems. We had no problems at all with Articulate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    Blackboard's Managed Hosting was top-notch in getting us up and running quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    I think that Articulate360 is more user-friendly and has a cleaner, more updated look. If you can edit a PDF, then you can use Articulate 360. Adobe Captivate may be more challenging for the designer, but it has more features. We chose Adobe Captivate because we want the option to create interactive learning environments. Adobe Captivate plays well with the other Adobe design products including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier. Additionally, Adoe Captivate is highly compatible with Cornerstone, our preferred Learning Management Systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    Coursera offers a variety of modules in which a team is able to work on then, but [Blackboard Learn] offers more options to understand how are the team members developing and which tasks have offered a harder challenger for them. [Blackboard Learn] also offers a variety of reports that can be generate by a team lead.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • Adobe Captivate has allowed our instructors to engage students in ways we never have before.
    • Instructors who have used Adobe Captivate in our organization have reported higher levels of engagement with their courses and their students, theoretically leading to improved assessment of student performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    • At one of the institutions that I worked for, the ROI was excellent for the number of users we were serving; however, I could not speak to other instances as I was not aware of the overall cost of the contract.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology Screenshots

    Screenshot of A modern and intuitive learning management system (LMS) designed in collaboration with the global education community, providing students and faculty with a more inclusive, flexible, and insightful experience.Screenshot of Fostering a sense of belonging is essential to student success. To truly create an inclusive learning environment requires a holistic approach, and Blackboard Learn leads the market in many critical areas which allow your institution to meet students of all backgrounds where they are. Built to be mobile-first, Blackboard Learn is the only LMS that provides the same great experience on PC, tablet, and smartphone. And we're proud that Blackboard Learn was the First LMS to achieve accessibility Certification from the National Federation of the Blind and all of our interfaces undergo rigorous accessibility testing. Learn also has the best integration with our market-leading accessibility product, Ally, of any LMS. Learn also ensures that every user has an experience which reflects – and celebrates – their unique identity. To take just one example, users can record their name pronunciation, and choose their preferred pronouns.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn supports instructors with multiple formative and summative assessment methods, and features capabilities that reduce stress for students. For example, we’ve recently released features that allow students to use different test-taking strategies and understand their progress through assessments – including a timer that can be hidden – to maximize their result and minimize anxiety. Grading workflows have been designed to increase efficiency for instructors and give more insightful feedback to students. For instance, we’ve recently revamped the overall grade functionality to make it easier for instructors to change weightings between tasks and tailor to individual students. Blackboard Learn also offers deep integrations with hundreds of partners to create even more interactive and engaging courses, including the deepest interaction of any LMS with Microsoft Teams.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn presents insights embedded right into instructor and student workflows - making useful information readily available, and making it easier for instructors to help students where and when they need it most. Learn's progress tracking tools help students and instructors always know how they're tracking to achieve their goals - and where there is opportunity for improvement. Quick actions are tied to these insights, like following up with students in groups or individually. Blackboard Learn also provides built-in value with Blackboard Data Reporting to help leaders understand how the LMS is being used, student performance, and surfacing opportunities for continuous improvement.