Creating Branching in Captivate

Branching is a critical element of any eLearning application. Branchingsometimes referred to as contingency branchingleads the learner through the application based upon his or her responses to questions. In this way, the eLearning application is molded to the individual's learning style. Branching can be added based on correct answers, wrong answers, a choice made by the student, or the student's current knowledge base.

Here are just a few ways in which you can incorporate this critical feature into your movies. Each one includes the ability to include the scoring results, so they can be used individually or cumulatively:

• Create a series of question slides and specify paths based upon correct and incorrect answers. This is the obvious method, because the Question slide options make provisions for navigation based on correct and incorrect answers.

• Add a path to the click box and have the learner move to other sections of the movie based on clicking inside or outside of the click box. The advantage to using click boxes over Quiz slides is they can be added to existing slides.

• Use the Text Entry Box dialog box to set the path based upon a correct or incorrect answer. You can also password-protect them and make them case-sensitive.

• Buttons are another method of branching. Buttons are a common navigation technique, and many users will intuitively understand a button's purpose.

• Use a variety of techniques in one slide. You could use a series of buttons as a toolbar for a slide and still have click boxes and text entry boxes in the slide as well.