The launch of the latest release of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is a major part of Adobe eLearning solutions and is a milestone for learning professionals who want to offer amazingly rich virtual classroom experiences. New features range from offering breakout rooms, to editing and downloading recorded sessions, as well as remarkable enhancements to the back-end reporting capabilities.

Requirements

Adobe Captivate

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Note: The Adobe Update Manager will automatically update your version of Adobe Captivate with the patch if you already have installed Adobe Captivate.

Acrobat Connect

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One of the most unique benefits of this powerful solution is the ability to offer synchronous interactivity. Imagine a virtual classroom where learners don't just watch the presenter but actually practice a skill—all at the same time without leaving the virtual environment. Plus, learners that missed the live session don't have to miss out on the experience—a recorded session retains all the interactivity of the practice exercises, simulations, and quizzes. This is possible and very easy to do by integrating interactive rich content created with Adobe Captivate.

Figure 1. Rich virtual classrooms

To fully support the new version of Acrobat Connect Pro, the Adobe Captivate team has worked hard to provide a patch for Adobe Captivate 3. The patch is automatically distributed through the Adobe Update manager. The patch contains the following fixes, helping you to integrate your content between Adobe Captivate and Acrobat Connect Pro more tightly.

Choose when attendees interact through a Sync button

In a virtual classroom, presenters can choose to synchronize Adobe Flash content so that all participants see the same slide as the presenter. The presenter can also select content to not be synchronized, which enables all participants to interact with the content, like a simulation or quiz, individually. Attendees are fully engaged and can learn from making their own mistakes instead of just watching someone else.

The Sync button in a virtual classroom is enabled under the following conditions:

• Your Adobe Captivate 3 project has a skin
• You upload any "Assessment" or "Training" simulations from Adobe Captivate 3 to Adobe Acrobat Connect
• You select On for the "Enable Reporting for this project" option in Quiz preferences.

Smart integration between Adobe Captivate and Acrobat Connect Pro

• By default, Adobe Captivate projects are automatically published with a skin that contains an "Exit" button, which closes the window the content displays within. When loaded into a virtual classroom, this results in closing the classroom window. The exit button of a skin now deactivates smartly when loaded into Acrobat Connect Pro. (If you mainly author content that is used in a virtual classroom, you may want to consider removing the exit button using the skin menu.)
• When publishing to Acrobat Connect Pro, Adobe Captivate saves you a few mouse-clicks and automatically turns on tracking for the Connect Training server.
• Hotspot questions, a new question type introduced in Adobe Captivate 3, are now fully supported with Acrobat Connect Pro.

Additional minor fixes include the following:

• Ability to turn off the creation of new folder option for publishing.
• Case sensitivity for matching questions removed.
• Red screen issue during full-motion recording is fixed.
• Audio synchronization with full motion recording is fixed.
• Apply all changed properties issue in transparent text boxes is fixed.

Turn passive viewers into active participants. Experience the richness and interactivity of Acrobat Connect Pro by requesting a free trial.

Find out how you, as an Adobe Captivate user, can benefit from Acrobat Connect Pro and how you can be up and running, deploying your courses on-demand online or live inside virtual classrooms complete with curriculum and tracking capabilities. Learn more about Adobe Captivate and how it integrates with Acrobat Connect Pro.

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