The rollout manager for one of the projects I’m with asked today for some way to provide trainers with a method of showing the application’s functionality in a controlled environment. It needs to be part of a presentation but not have room for surprises (those errors that appear at exactly the wrong moment, such as during demonstrations to the stakeholders).

The people in the classes will have the opportunity to practice using a training environment, but that environment is still subject to possible problems.

I told this manager that Captivate training simulations would work well for the trainers’ presentation. After I recorded the simulation and provided them with the Flash file, they would be able to follow the same script every time and never have the potential of errors as they demonstrated the functionality.

Admittedly, I haven’t used this simulation method in Captivate yet. All I’ve had time for is “show me” demos, and then we ended up having the training environment for users to practice in. I’m usually not a big fan of the “try it” simulations because you have to do things just so in order to move forward. The simulation tells you what to do a step at a time, and then you do it. Though I learn best by doing, I like to have a little freedom as I’m learning and not be forced down a narrow path.

Anyway, I knew Captivate has this capability, so I suggested it. The manager was excited with the idea. I’ve put together an example to show the head trainer when we meet to talk about it, and I think it will be a great way for them to teach the users how to perform important tasks.

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