Adobe Captivate vs. iSpring Learn

Adobe Captivate is well suited for software training. Even though we do not use the software simulation recording feature, we simulate the environment with screenshots and then roundtrip into Photoshop to make edits to a screenshot For example, they added 3 new fields and it affects 25 different slides in the course. I dummy up the 3 new fields in Photoshop, copy the layers with the new fields, flatten and save the screenshot and it's instantly updated in Abode Captivate. I then locate the next slide that needs the same new fields added and round trip into Photoshop and then I just select Paste in Place and flatten and save. The alignment is perfect and the screenshots never leave Adobe Captivate. I had a course that I had to do this to with about 25 slides and it was easy peasy.

Incentivized

iSpring Learn supports short, engaging courses ideal for corporate training programs, especially in finance-related industries. It pairs well with bite-sized content for compliance training, product knowledge, or soft skills development. For companies that need an LMS up and running quickly, iSpring Learn offers a simple setup process and an intuitive interface that doesn't require extensive technical knowledge. If a company needs extensive customization for branding or workflows, iSpring Learn may not be as flexible as some alternatives.

Incentivized

• Easy learning curve. Captivate makes it easy for a new user to pick it up and understand where to begin. Adobe, in general, does this very well and Captivate is no exception. When you begin using Captivate, many of the tasks to create a video come naturally as things are laid out in a way that makes sense.
• Embedding with LMS (Learning Management Systems). Adobe has made it very easy to deploy your produced video to any of the popular LMS's available. Captivate also gives you a very easy way of including a SCORM score for any quizzes that must be passed at the end of the video in order to proceed to the next video.
• Capturing Audio has never been easier. With Captivate you can easily add voice-over audio that you can record directly inside of Captivate, or import a pre-recorded audio clip. You can import sounds from other sources for effects in the video and Captivate already includes all of the commonly used sounds for mouse-clicks, error sounds, etc.

Incentivized

• Gamification: Available badges, certificates, and user achievements on training completion. Leadership boards available in the user profile increase competitiveness and motivation among users.
• Analytics: Org level, departments wise, groups wise, and user-wise in-depth reports with lots of filters. The learning curve at the user level is one great functionality.
• MS PowerPoint integration with iSpring Learn is a top feature and since most of our users are pretty comfortable with MS PowerPoint, it allows for easy content creation and quizzes.

Incentivized

• Templates. There seem to be "themes," but Adobe Captivate has a terrible time saving any sort of object preferences which makes it really difficult when a set of courses need to follow branding guidelines. I have to create a basic course and set up all my colors and whatnot and start every course using that.
• Ease of use. It is like pulling teeth sometimes to get Adobe Captivate to do things. You may be able to get it to do it, but it'll be like a dozen or more steps which make creating courses incredibly tedious.
• A bigger focus on software simulation. Adobe Captivate isn't designed for simulation, I get that, and I am happy it does as much as it does. However, it could be better to capture actions and things within a program. For instance, click and drag options and hot-key combinations.

Incentivized

• I wish ISpring Learn could interface with my eCommerce website so that users were automatically enrolled when they purchase a course. That would require an API feed.
• I have 516 downloadable documents for the three learning tracks. I wish iSpring Learn had an option for the user to download numerous documents at one time, instead of one at a time. After early users complained, I put a link to a Box account, for each learning track, so the user could download the documents all at one time.

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

In the past I could not encourage my students to take online training. The results and the questions were hard to be given. When I used the iSpring Suite along with iSpring Learn, my dreams came through and most of the time my students are online and take good training with my programme.

Incentivized

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

Sometimes, things just aren't intuitive enough. For example, burying the catalog in the settings area makes no sense at all. The same goes for permissions and year reviews. It was a massive oversight that really caused a lot of confusion for all of our managers. It caused distrust in the LMS simply because someone who designed and developed it did not think that an employee review should be private to them, their direct supervisor, or the supervisor above. Instead, ANY manager could read ANY employee review. I have mentioned this several times throughout these questionnaires, and as you can see, I still find it incomprehensible that a company that wants to promote its software as a multifaceted solution could be so blind to something so critical, especially in terms of privacy.

Incentivized

I have to say ALWAYS.

Incentivized

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

Our account rep Katie Connor is fantastic. She is very responsive to our requests. She does not try to over sell. She has setup training sessions for us any time we asked. Finally, she is a very nice person we like working with. She also has been patient with us as we figure out our renewal

Incentivized

We can say that most of my students attend my classes twice a week and that's not enough for someone to learn. I put some training for them to do at home and they really enjoy doing them. The kind of progress they make is really satisfying for them and they are always learning.

Incentivized

As a teacher, I used to spend a lot of time correcting my students' papers. Now with iSpring Learn, my time has been saved and everything is done automatically. All the time I can check my students' progress and I know which exams they have taken or they should take. On the whole, online training has really helped a lot of teachers

Incentivized

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

When I talked to my colleagues or informed them to search for a programme before iSpring Learn, they were not successful in designing and implementing a programme like this. I am sure they have done a lot to implement it in the best and educational way. That was not that easy as we thought.

Incentivized

While Captivate has some awesome niche features for some circumstances, currently it cannot beat the ease of use with Storyline. Whether it's content, variables, quizes, etc. things are just "easier" in Storyline. Even something as simple as triggering an event when the timeline reaches a certain point. We continue to keep Captivate and Storyline because we're hoping it Captivate will continue building its integration with other Adobe apps and become our and the industry standard.

Incentivized

iSpring Learn had the best ratio of volume of features, price and ease of use. They were the clear choice after doing trial periods with all of the other platforms I was comparing. I had demos and trialed 15 platforms prior to making my decision.

Incentivized

Really perfect.

Incentivized

• 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

• I feel since we have introduced iSpring to our employees we have retained more employees then before
• Some individuals do complain when they don't receive their email through for the training (this happens frequently) making them not want to use the platform
• Overall this has been a great addition to our resources which is helping to encourage more of a learning culture in our organisation

Incentivized