The different modules in Adobe Connect can be rather confusing sometimes, below is a simple explanation of the modules and the sort of use cases you might want to consider


A more detailed set of use-cases can be found here


Connect Meetings – this is the live, ‘synchronous’ aspect of Connect.  This module allows you to hold live meetings, webcasts and training sessions with people in remote locations or elsewhere in your office


You can share your web cameras, work through PPT slides, whiteboard, pre-recorded video, share your screen, chat with text and read through a PDF


If you are in a training environment then you can use Connect Meetings as ‘Virtual Classrooms’ and test your participants and track the results back to the ‘Connect Training’ LMS


Connect Seminar Rooms – this is identical to the ‘Connect Meetings’ description above, but the Seminar Rooms draw form a different license set (Meeting Rooms are created from the ‘Meetings’ tab, Seminar Rooms are drawn from the ‘Seminar Rooms’ tab).  These are typically far larger (250 participant plus capacity) and you can most easily equate these to a Hotel Auditorium.  You would hold larger sessions in these Seminar Rooms such as one-to-many All Hands Meetings, Lead generation sessions etc.


The functionality only differs in that these Seminar Rooms may not be used as a true ‘Virtual Classroom’ from the Connect Training module, Virtual Classrooms need to be drawn from the ‘Meetings’ tab


You might have more than one Seminar Room License, each license would be represented by a folder in the ‘Seminar Rooms’ tab and any Seminar Rooms built under a folder would take the license from the folder.  You can only run one Seminar Room at a time under each Seminar License (again, think of it like a Hotel Auditorium)


Connect Training – this is the LMS (Learning Management System’ side of Connect.  Here you can track the individual performance and progress of learners


You can build either ‘Courses’ (individual learning objects) or ‘Curriculum’ (multiple learning activities that make up a larger certification)


Learners in this environment can self-enrol themselves in learning exercises you choose to make available to them and Connect Training will lead them through their learning experience


As a Training Manager you can track their progress as a group and as individuals


Connect Events – this is the ‘registration’ side of Connect and it allows you to create a front-end ‘registration’ layer for pretty much anything on your Connect setup.  You need this when you are not intending to add all of the users into your system manually, one-to-many customer demos for example where you want to track attendance and follow-up


You can have external people register for demo and Connect Events will handle the original registration page, the follow-up e-mails, login and passwords and reporting


Adobe Presenter – this is a plugin to PowerPoint that is most easily explained as creating ‘talking PowerPoint’ files (although it does a lot more than this)


The plugin appears as a menu in PowerPoint and allows the author to create content in the very familiar PowerPoint environment and then add audio, synchronize it with animations, drop in video files, record your web camera and then make the content available in Flash or PDF format for distribution


Adobe Presenter also have sophisticated quiz and survey creation capabilities and forms the foundation for the testing content you might publish to Connect Training


Adobe Captivate – this tool is a desktop application that in simple terms allows the creation of passive demonstrations and interactive simulations.  Often these demonstrations and simulations are related to how to use a piece of software, but simulations are well suited to ‘softer’ scenarios such as how to correctly answer a phone in a customer support environment


Adobe Captivate is also capable of importing and adding audio to PowerPoint slides , but as it has no real capabilities to preload slides for responsive viewing it is not very suitable for use with Adobe Connect Meeting Rooms (Adobe Presenter is the better tool for ‘talking-PowerPoint’ examples)


The quizzing functionality in Adobe Captivate is very similar to that of Adobe Presenter


Connect Central – this is not a ‘module’ per se, but the term used to describe the administration and management interface in Connect


From this interface you can upload content, manage users and gather reports