David E. Hailey, Jr 
Utah State University
Spring 2009

Instructors designing online courses may want to look into Adobe’s newest suite for tools that will help them create interactive course content. Below I discuss my experiences with this new version as I designed online courses. In general, I found that the new suite works well, but it may also provide users with challenges.

In 1997, if you wanted an online course, you could develop a PowerPoint presentation and post it on the Internet. Unfortunately, in terms of interaction, the PowerPoint model was not unlike starting a presentation in a class and then walking out, leaving the students to figure out the rest on their own. Alternatively, you could produce a fully interactive, independent-learning course in a power-hungry application such as ToolBook, Director, or Authorware. Back then, these courses could only be delivered with a kiosk-based methodology.

In the meantime, Macromedia developed Flash and Dreamweaver, and purchased RoboDemo (now called “Captivate”). Even before Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, an educator using Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Captivate could produce amazing tutorials, simulations, or rich, independent learning environments. For example, a reasonably informed developer could use Photoshop to produce realistic images that, once coupled with the appropriate programming and mathematics in Flash, could produce animated simulations that behave realistically (gravity, drag, changing velocities, etc. can be programmed into the simulation). The developer could quickly load the resulting SWF files into a Dreamweaver project and make it all available over the Web. Amazingly, even an old English teacher like me could do it.

Over the past decade, Adobe purchased or developed an impressive collection of applications that permitted image manipulation, animation, and interactivity, and over the past few years, they have increased the interconnectivity of these applications. Photoshop works well with Flash, Flash works well with Dreamweaver, and Bridge combines it all into an effective file management system that uses its metadata to enhance file management even more. Although Photoshop and Dreamweaver come from completely different metaphors, today, you can cut and paste a PSD image from Photoshop directly into Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver will convert it into JPG or GIF and save it into the appropriate directory – they interact almost seamlessly.

In the past few years, Adobe began repackaging its various applications into very expensive and expansive suites that can be directed toward specific purposes. The Creative Suite 4 ($1,700 -- $2,400), containing Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Fireworks, Bridge, Acrobat, and a few plug-ins (along with Premier and Aftereffects in the more expensive version) is complete enough for the demands of most traditional and digital publication. The Technical Communication Suite ($1,900) contains FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Captivate, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Presenter (basically a PowerPoint plug-in). This suite meets most current technical communication professional needs, including the new XML DITA-based documents. FrameMaker takes care of the massive books too big for InDesign. RoboHelp moves it all into online help.

Adobe eLearning Suite

The Adobe ELearning Suite (released in January 2009 for $1,799) contains Dreamweaver with a course builder extension, Flash, Photoshop, Bridge, Device Central, Presenter, Acrobat, Captivate, Soundbooth, and SCORM Packager. Having four new independent learning engineering courses to build, I have been using and testing this suite since it was available.

In the past year or two, I have grown to appreciate the qualities of the Creative Suite 3 (CS3), but it is in large part because I was already using most of the applications the suite contains. The only real advantages I can see for buying a whole CS3 suite were cost and the ability to buy all of the new applications, installing them simultaneously with only one serial number. Basically, the same advantages apply to Adobe’s eLearning Suite CS4, with the one caveat that Dreamweaver CS4 has taken a quantum leap beyond CS3. Whether the leap is forward or backward remains to be seen.

Creating an eLearning Document with Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is arguably the heart and soul of the eLearning suite, and CS4 has grown a new heart and soul. The production process of HTML documents evolved significantly with CS3, but in that version, you still assumed you were producing a document. With CS4, Adobe has made the assumption that you will be creating a variety of remote documents that supply content (XML), interactivity (JS), and look and feel (CSS). The old days of simple HTML are gone. To facilitate connectivity with external documents, Adobe CS4 has tabs across the top of the workspace that make it possible to toggle among all documents related to each other, so you can move from document to document as you need. I recognize they had tabs in the past, but these in CS4 are different. When you open an HTML document, the other documents needed to make it work (CSS, JS, XML, XSLT) open as well. From a teacher’s point of view, this feature creates a bit of a problem. Many teachers have assumed that Dreamweaver would reach a stage where it became unnecessary for students to understand or use the coding (or tagging). Actually, the opposite has happened. With this new version, it is more important than ever for students to understand XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML.

The interface has changed somewhat. In CS4, you can configure your site to expand onto two screens, so you can have code on one screen and WYSIWIG on the other. Gone are the days of all of the material being cramped into a 5X7” workspace. Also, in the past, you would put together a page and then check it with a browser. Now you need only click LIVE VIEW. This shows what you are producing in real time. If you make a change in the code, the live view shows the results. In an environment where you are extracting content and interactivity from external sources, the WYSIWIG view might offer little information. You need the live view in such an environment, but you cannot edit the live view; you need to make changes in code. This can be confusing if you have the habit of making the bulk of your changes in the WYSIWIG pane. Early in my learning process, I found myself trying to import content into the browser view again and again. A user needs to remember to toggle LIVE VIEW off unless editing purely in code.

Dreamweaver also has a LIVE CODE. In this view, the code the document is extracting from elsewhere is integrated into the code for the page, and you can edit it there. You would do this if you were working extensively in JavaScript or XML.

Typically, when you purchase an updated application, you get more features. This is true with Dreamweaver CS4, but you also lose features. Many of the automated switches in CS4 are gone. In some cases the differences are so great it is difficult to figure out how the new version works. For example, in the past if you highlighted a word, you could simply drag a crosshair to the file to which you wanted to link. That is gone. Now, you have to click a link button and fill out a form for every new link. Among other things, the form permits you to assign metadata to each link. The solution of clicking the link button is not intuitive. I had to search the problem out of an even more obtuse help file than the old one. The fun of producing a simple website in Dreamweaver is gone. The upgrades have not made it easier; they have made it much more demanding, and the never particularly good online help has become even worse. On the other hand, Dreamweaver in CS4 is much more powerful than in CS3. In effect, it has moved from an application most people can use to an application designed largely for professionals.

Creating Simulations, Games, and Animations with Flash

I have seen no important changes in Flash in CS4. But CS3 with ActionScript 3.0 was already an amazing application for creating animations, games and simulation to place on the Web. Flash also makes an excellent tool for creating powerful interactive simulations and animations. For example, it is possible to show how objects work if the masses and velocities are changed in real time. What might the combined speeds of two boxcars be if they came together while travelling at different speeds with different masses? Flash is the perfect tool for creating such simulations. I programmed several simulations using Flash’s ActionScript and integrated algebraic, trigonometric, and calculus equations to create actions that mimic what one might see in the real world. Although programming in Flash was not easy for me (being an English teacher), I was able to find tutorials and books to explain every process I needed.

In past versions, tutorials were crucial because Flash’s online help was easily the worst I have ever encountered. Not only could I not get good information from it, I never even figured out how it worked. The new online help, however, is completely different. While it could still be improved, it is somewhat better than in the past. It is now on par with Dreamweaver’s Help, which gives an idea of how much it could still be improved.

Creating Art for Simulations, Animations, and Publication with Photoshop

Photoshop is my single most favorite software. There is never a day I do not do some project or the other using Photoshop. As an amateur photographer, I even use it on weekends. I found a few surprising and confusing changes in the new version, but only in the interface. Photoshop and Dreamweaver interfaces have been adapted toward each other in CS4. I will have to relearn many tasks I have taken for granted for many years. Otherwise, the only important change I see is the ability to work with images in a 3-D workspace, but I do not see that feature as affecting technical communicators a great deal.

Delivering Interactive Presentations or Web Pages for Instructional Purposes

CS4 provides software for two instructional delivery situations: an interactive presentation or an interactive webpage. For interactive presentations, Adobe offers Captivate and Presenter. The Captivate and Presenter model is quick and requires little technical skill. I have never embraced this model, and so there is little I can say about Presenter. I have used Captivate to produce interactive software tutorials, but I prefer Camtasia from Techsmith (a software that does much of what Captivate is meant to do but also manages video effectively).

For interactive webpages, a combination of Photoshop, Flash, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver, allows me to create them more easily than the monstrous multimedia (e.g., ToolBook) applications I used in the past. Currently, I record a lecture with one camera focused on the instructor and one focused on other materials to be shared with students. Later, I use Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Premier, and Camtasia to merge the videos showing the professor when he or she is talking to the class and the videos of the material being demonstrated.

Conclusions

Of the components in the eLearning Suite, I use three regularly: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash. I use Captivate only if I am making a software tutorial, and I never use Presenter or Soundbooth (vastly preferring SoundForge from Sony). With using only these three applications, is it worth purchasing the entire suite? For me, yes, because the purchase prices of new versions of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash add up to $1,900 – about $100 more than the price of the entire CS4 package. Is it worth upgrading if you already have everything in CS3? That depends on your comfort with XML, JavaScript, and ActiveScript. If you are in no position or have no interest in stepping up to these demands, you might do best with remaining with CS3.

The eLearning Suite is very powerful, albeit incomplete, but it demands specialized professionals to use it to its limit. These professionals will be able to move efficiently between XHTML, JavaScript, XML, ActionScript, ASP/SQL, and Cascading Style Sheets. It is still possible for a person to produce simple HTML projects, but it would be a lot like using a fleet of tractor-trailers to carry an old sofa to the storage shed. Over the past five years, online instructions has changed radically. The new standard is for documents to interact automatically, mining each other for content, look and feel, and interactivity. The new eLearning Suite will work in that environment, and so will its users.

$1,799 ($599 for educators and students) See it at http://www.adobe.com/products/elearningsuite/