Can I create and track on-demand mobile content using Connect?

Posted on by ianjustingetconnect

Adobe Connect already has an unmatched ability that allows live participants to attend classes and meetings from mobile devices using the ‘Connect Mobile’ App.  There are more requests now to have the option to allow access to on-demand content and on-demand training through Connect and on mobile devices

This Blog Post outlines some of the practices I have picked up so far and the options at the moment related to on-demand content (not the live synchronous meetings for which you would use Connect Mobile)

There are a few considerations here and they are outlined below:

  • The device OS (Android or iOS in this case)
  • The device form factor (tablet vs. phone)
  • The playback options
  • The authoring tools
  • Tracking (in this case Connect Training)
  • Conclusions and recommendations
We can work through what I have learned based on the categories above.  Note that I will add to this document as I test more options.  I chose to focus on what *does* work in my examples, vs. what *does not* work at the moment, this way you can ideally begin with some successes, lose a lot of frustration and, to be honest, this document is a lot shorter that way!
Device Operating System

Apple iOS – There is no native Flash Player on the Apple OS but there are still a few options.  HTML5 (browser-based) will let you view content although it is still somewhat limited in what it can achieve and it seems to also be subjective to the browser.  I tested using Safari on the mobile devices and I found a great little test here for HTML5 browser capabilities on any platform.  It does seem that there is still very varied support for HTML5 functionality browser-to-browser
You have the option on iOS of using the purpose-built Adobe Presenter Mobile App for iPad only (see here).  It is free but there are limitations in what it can do as a player of Adobe Presenter content
There is also the option to view content using the Photon Flash Player and Browser for iPhone and iPad (see here).  This is a paid option, but at $3.99/$4.99 it is a great timesaver for Connect Administrators as well
Android OS – Again, no native Flash Player on these devices anymore, but you can still use the Photon Browser on this OS with great success, again though, a paid option (see here)

There is no Adobe Presenter Mobile App for the Android OS

My initial tests using Adobe Captivate and the HTML5 option in a few browsers on my Android Tablet (Nexus 7) were rather unsuccessful and I was unable to get sound at all from the presentations.  I will need to investigate this a little further.  The same content played without issue on the Photon Flash Browser on the Nexus 7 and on the iPad in HTML5 Browser mode

Note on the ‘Connect Central’ interface – it is worth remembering that the Connect Central interface (the management interface through the web browser) has some Flash components, most notably in this use-case the ‘My Training’ and ‘Catalogue tabs and the interface to let you take a ‘Curriculum’ in connect Training.  If you want to access these components at this stage, your only mobile option is the Photon Flash Browser (See Figure 1 below)

Figure 1 (Photon Browser iPad)

Device Form Factor (tablet vs. phone)

The key here is simply the size of the device.  On a phone, there is really no room for you to be able to interact with the play-bar and especially a quiz.  I was able to successfully interact using the Photon Flash Browser and the ‘pinch-to-zoom’ options, but it is pretty tiresome (See Figure 2 below).  It is worth noting that Adobe is only supporting Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter content on tablets, not phones, so it is not surprising that the experience is less than optimal

Figure 2 (Photon Browser iPhone zoom on Adobe Presenter content)

I was also able to launch the HTML5 version of the Adobe Captivate content in Safari and it played without issue, other than the pure size of the text and the selection difficulties.  The pinch-to-zoom does work in these cases though so that is a help.  Also the player controls will expand when clicked to let the user select more accurately

You do not have the option to use the Adobe Presenter Mobile App on the iPhone device

I have not yet tested on the Android phone format

Tablets are the best option, even then the form-factor does mean that you need to consider the size or text and the complexity of questions in your authoring, it might be very frustrating to try to answer question options that are too closely grouped for the average finger

The Playback options

This really depends on the player you choose (which is also determined by the OS, the device and the format of the original file), the key points are outlined below

Adobe Presenter Mobile (iPad only) – the controls are designed to be used on the iOS device so they are suited to the form-factor.  In the case of Adobe Presenter Mobile, tapping the screen brings up the play-bar, swiping moves to the adjacent slide and pinching brings up the navigation view of the slides (See Figure 3).  Other navigation is related to the Adobe Presenter content itself (quiz navigation for example)

Figure 3 – (Adobe Presenter Mobile Table of Contents)

Accessing the content as of today, the only way to initiate content using the Adobe Presenter Mobile App is to copy-and-paste the URL for your training or your content into the App itself from an e-mail or appointment.  The app will not launch automatically yet from the Connect account or a Connect URL.  You will be prompted to login by the App if the content is protected or part of a Connect Training Course

HTML5 (Safari) – The content needs to be available in HTML5 format and the only option here currently is Adobe Captivate (see ‘Authoring Tools’ below).  In this case, the content will open in the default browser (Safari in my case)

The play-bar is along the bottom of the content and although it is very small, tapping on the options enlarges them for easy selection (Figure 4)

Figure 4 – (HTML5 in Safari Adobe Captivate content)

Photon Flash Browser – This is a consistent platform for all devices it seems, but it is a paid option so not ideal for everyone.  That said, it does seems to be very reliable and useable.  You will need a reasonable connection as it is streaming the Flash session to your device.  The trick with this browser if you test it is to press the ‘lightening’ icon to start the Flash Session when you need to

I would expect that as Adobe Presenter Mobile and the HTML5 browser functionality becomes more mature, these playback tools will have the edge over the Photon Flash Browser, but today, it is a great option

The Authoring Tools

The two tools available from Adobe are Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter.  There are reasons to use each tool and I will outline both my experiences on the process and how these options might be used below

Adobe Presenter 8 – I am referencing Adobe Presenter 8 as I have not tested this at all in earlier versions, although I understand that Presenter Mobile will not play earlier content (published from earlier versions of Adobe Presenter), you will just see an error message

Adobe Presenter creates .swf content (Flash), so the only options for viewing this content is the Adobe Presenter Mobile App or the Photon Flash Browser.  It is conceivable that in the future Adobe Presenter will create HTML5 content, but not something that is expected as I understand it

There is limited functionality in the Adobe Presenter Mobile App so you need to be aware of this when authoring your presentations.  I have tested the following functionality successfully on Mobile devices in Adobe Presenter and publishing to the Adobe Presenter Mobile App using Connect 9:

  • Fade animations ‘on click’ and ‘after previous’
  • Animations inserted into paragraph animations (appearing after a line of text for example)
  • Voice synched to animations
  • True/False, Multiple Choice and Matching (drag-and-drop) quiz questions
A full listing of the functionality and limitations can be found here.  I decided to work on the most common tools I might use initially.  I did insert a 1.7mb video into the presentation initially and although I would have expected it to work, it crashed the Adobe Presenter Mobile App, probably due to the size of the file and load time
The example content from Adobe Presenter 8 that you can use for testing is here.  Also below for ease of copying on a mobile device:
http://getconnect.adobeconnect.com/mwbap1/

Adobe Captivate 6 – When using Adobe Captivate it is important to again realize the limitations of the end-player.  This is a little exacerbated by the fact that Adobe Captivate creates a ‘hybrid’ .zip file containing both the .swf and HTML5 versions of the presentation.  This is good in that it allows you to publish only one file and then the file that is launched will be determined by the end-player as follows:

  • Mobile Browser – launches HTML5 content
  • Photon Flash Browser – launches .swf content
  • Desktop Browser – launches .swf content
In my Captivate example I did not animate the text as this is a lot more challenging in Adobe Captivate, I just re-recorded the audio
I recreated the quizzes but discovered that the ‘Matching’ question was not supported in HTML5.  The discovery happened when I published the content with ‘HTML5’ selected and I was given a warning.  The good thing is that it failed elegantly with the quiz question simply removed from the end product.  This does raise an interesting challenge for tracking though as it *seems* that the .swf version has all three questions and the score is out or a possible 30 points, the HTML5 version of the same content, served from the same URL in Connect has two questions and a possible score of 20 points.  There is logic to the resulting presentation, but it is something that trainers will need to take into account
There is a trick to publishing to Connect from Captivate 6 that most people might find frustrating.  If you select ‘SWF/HTML5’ as the destination for your content during the ‘Publish’ phase, the ‘HTML5′ option will be greyed out, only the .swf’ option will be available (see Figure 5).  I am not sure why Captivate would not publish both formats directly to the Connect LMS, but that seems to be the case (if you select ‘Connect’ as the reporting option in Captivate, HTML5 is not an option).  The workaround seems to be to select a regular LMS for the tracking and then (in my case) SCORM 1.2 as the tracking option then publish as a .zip file to your desktop and upload this file to the Connect Training ‘Content’ section.  This seems to work.  I have not tested this yet in Adobe Captivate 6.1 so this might be better now, again, I am only trying to outline what does work, not necessarily what is broken
Figure 5
The example from Adobe Captivate (‘hybrid’ HTML5 and .swf URL) that you can use for your testing is here.  Also below for easy of copying on a mobile device:
http://getconnect.adobeconnect.com/p621olzknng/
Tracking (Connect Training)
Adding a ‘tracking wrapper’ to any of the content options above is pretty straightforward and exactly as you would with any other Connect Training Course.  There are again caveats though, one in particular at the moment
You cannot use a ‘Curriculum’ at this time unless you are using the Photon Flash Browser as your playback option.  The reason is that the Curriculum ‘viewer’ in Connect Training is written as a Flash object, so although you can take the course, you cannot actually access the content as it requires Flash Player on your browser.  The same applies to the ‘My Training’ and the ‘Course Catalogue’ aspects of Connect Training
You can build a Course in Connect Training and send it out in the usual manner and it will track performance back as expected from both Captivate and Adobe Presenter and using HTML5 or Adobe Presenter Mobile.  The Photon Flash Browser will operate as normal of course
I also noted that ‘review mode’ is functional in the Adobe Presenter Mobile App
If you have multiple modules at the moment, you would either need to merge them (although Adobe Presenter Mobile can only handle one quiz per module), or more likely just split the modules into separate Courses for the user
Other than the above, the Connect Training side is pretty good
Conclusions and Recommendations
My initial thought is to reinforce ‘keep it simple’.  There are some options available to Connect users to author, publish and track content using the Connect tools, but being aware of your intended audience is the key right now
Desktop and iPads – in this case you can pretty safely use Adobe Presenter for the content, just ensure you limit your functionality to respect the limitations of the Adobe Presenter Mobile App.  remember that users have to copy-and-paste the URL or type it into Presenter Mobile right now to launch the App
You can absolutely also use Adobe Captivate with the HTML5 and .swf ‘hybrid’ option, but be conscious that this does limit the sophistication of the end-product
The Photon Flash Browser is absolutely a paid option in this case
Desktop and Android Tablets – Your only option here is Adobe Captivate and the HTML5 and .swf ‘hybrid’ authoring.  Be aware that I was not able to have the HTML5 content produce audio on any browser on the Android Nexus 7 however so check this before going too far
Again, the Photon Flash Browser is absolutely a paid option for the Android Tablets, it might be the only option right now if audio is not available through HTML5!
iPhones and Android Phones – In either of these cases the only viable option I see if the Photon Flash Browser (Adobe Presenter or Adobe Captivate) or on the iPhone the HTML5 option in Safari (Adobe Captivate only)
i will add to this as I learn more, I hope this is a useful place to start for Connect users out there!

One thought on “Can I create and track on-demand mobile content using Connect?”

  1. I need directions for using the quiz app. I want to create my own questions.

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