Articulate vs. Captivate: Which is better for LESS experienced designers?
Jan 24, 2018
A while back, I decided to re-familiarize myself with an elearning authoring tool. I hoped to use just one free trial and posted this question in a couple ATD groups: which do you like better? I thought I'd see a fierce debate but received zero responses. Zip! This made me wonder how inexperienced instructional designers would choose.
I think they'd most likely choose based on a consultant's recommendation (or make do with other tools). Many consultants have their favorite elearning authoring tool, but what happens when the contract is over and the client's employees are on their own? I decided to fire up free trials for Captivate and Articulate and evaluate in terms of value for less experienced and occasional designers. Here's the full review.
I'm posting here because Articulate is the clear winner. The reasons why may be of interest. I'd love to have you comment!
5 Replies
Hi Shawn,
Thank you for sharing your detailed and well-articulated review.
I'm sure a lot of beginners here will appreciate it :)
Thanks Shawn, There are some interesting points/comments in there. Nice "tongue-n-cheek" response Veronica. ; )
We have several staff members that just got added to our design team and they have had no problem picking up on using the program. It continues to get better as well. We've also used Captivate in the past but have made this program our current choice for development.
Does the review come off as a bit condescending? I was afraid of that! Worked hard to remove that unintended tone but didn't succeed as much as I'd like.
Articulate itself, and this community, make it easy to create courses and modules.If you search for my questions you can see I needed that help, too. You heroes rock!
What I tried to look at in the review is how Articulate supports what should happen before opening the program: the instructional design part.
Many of my clients have trainers/instructional designers who don't get to take time to build their ID skills. That's often by default: it's why they need a contractor. Because employees will follow through after my contract is over, curriculum or program design always has to work well with the client's internal resources.
I've spent many hours helping people build their design skills and use the tools at hand to deliver, just as others did for me. It's probably the most rewarding part of these contracts. I fell in love with Articulate's support of those aspects.
Good to know, Bob. Thanks for commenting!
No, I don't think is comes off as condescending at all!
I think comparison reviews like these are a) really helpful, and b) should be done from different angles.
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