Adobe 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
Schoox
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Schoox provides employee talent development, from new hire training to manager development programs, deliver the right content and courses to every employee in a social platform that keeps them engaged.
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.
We have special locations that work differently and I have recommended this to them. Even for locations set up differently, it still applies. Because everything can be personalized to fit the need of the user. These locations have become so adept at it that they have become admins themselves so they can implement their ideas immediately. I have yet to come across a scenario where this is not appropriate
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 Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.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.
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.
User accounts: HotSchedules Train has each user in the system by first and last name which is a great tool but this becomes a problem when you have more than one person in your company with the same first and last name. Maybe they should identify by email instead of name so accounts of users with the same name do not merge together.
Copying Course or Test: Throughout the system you see the option to copy a course or a test but then the only place you can "paste" is within that same course or test. If I am creating two different courses or test that are similar it would be easy to use this function if it were designed a little better. Instead to "copy" a quiz you need to add all questions to a pool. In order to "copy" a course you would need to just create a new one from scratch.
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.
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.
The training necessary for the managers and trainers is minimal. The system is very intuitive and HotSchedules customer support is the best support team I have ever dealt with. They are quick to respond and keep you informed through the whole process. As for new hires, you just put them in front of a tablet or computer and they just go. Our trainees have better retention and they much prefer to go through the training on-line then having to read pages of documents.
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.
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.
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.
We did not use Wisetail, but we went through several weeks of training calls when we were deciding between that LMS and Schoox. We selected Schoox because of the integration with HotSchedules, something we already used, and the ongoing ease it would provide in shifting job codes and new roles within the organization
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.
