Unpublished Captivate variables
A recent post in the e-learning development forum reminded me that I forgot to post some unpublished Captivate variables I dug up a while back.
cmi.core.exit & cmi.exit
Ok, I just had to write a quick blurb about this one: in about 3.5 years of using SCORM in my own course code, I had never used cmi.core.exit (SCORM 1.2) or cmi.exit (SCORM 2004). Seems incredibly daft of me now that I’ve taken a few minutes to review the documentation.
LegacyCaptivateLoader: Dealing with pre-existing scripts in your Captivate SWF
When I designed the LegacyCaptivateLoader, I was focused on giving the ActionScript 3 SWF the ability to control the ActionScript 2-based Captivate SWF; I hadn’t given much thought to how the situation affects Captivate SWFs using one of the workarounds I just described. Can the embedded SWFs still work? Will JavaScript calls from Captivate still work with ActionScript 3’s ExternalInterface system? The short answer is yes, but it may take some tweaking on your part.
Things to consider when working on a training project
I read not one, but three great blog posts today regarding what kinds of questions you should asking yourself when working on a project. Two of the blogs were not specific to the e-learning industry, but they apply nonetheless.
Captivate tip: Toggling the controller’s visibility
You may be familiar with the famous “Captivate variables” (see page 201 in PDF link), but did you know about “rdcmndHidePlaybar”? It isn’t mentioned by Adobe in their documentation, but it’s a handy one to know about.
Make your Captivate movies more accessible
Adobe has a short but useful article detailing how to make your Adobe Captivate movies more accessible.
These are pretty simple (borderline “no-brainer”) steps a Captivate author can easily implement.
Accessibility development tools
There are a great set links for free development tools (validation services, browser toolbars and plugins) posted on the Web Access Centre Blog today:
Really simple SCORM AS3 wrapper example
Here’s a simple example of how the SCORM AS3 class can be utilized. (This example uses SCORM 2004 calls.)
Development standards for e-learning… a starting point
My attempt at outlining standards and best practices throughout the e-learning development cycle.
HTML 5: The strong element
In the new HTML 5 proposal, the strong element is being modified to represent “importance rather than strong emphasis.”