Online learning is one of the most significant innovations that have been introduced after the coming of the internet and with the passage of time, the demand for online learning has increased considerably. There are various reputed educational institutions which have introduced online educational courses and over the years, the number of people opting for online learning has increased considerably. It is estimated that the online education industry is worth around 38 billion euros currently and in the United States of America alone, there are 3.5 million individuals engaged in online educational courses. Online educational courses are dependent on the interaction between tutors and their students and in the imparting of knowledge through online learning, certain specialized software tools are required in order to facilitate course management, course schedules, course details and assessment of students as well. These unique software tools are referred to by various names such as Virtual Learning Environments, Learning Management Systems and Course Management Systems. Adobe Captivate refers to a set of software applications which is a Windows e-learning tool aiding in the formation of software simulations, random quizzes which are prevalent features employed by the online tutors in order to assess their students. Adobe Captivate is also used for functioning of podcasts and screencasts as well as to transform form Power Point to Flash format files. Captivate includes software applications which encourage interaction and therefore are useful immensely in case of online education. Moreover, a very significant feature of Adobe Captivate is that it is possible for to edit the contents of a presentation made on Captivate and there are options for making text entries, videos, rollovers, adding of captions etc. It is also possible for one to change the time periods which have been assigned on each article to appear and vanish in due course. Captivate also allows the e-learning tutors to receive numerous feedbacks on a single side by using a multiple interaction interface.

A Captivate slide allows the introduction of images, audio and video inputs, Power Point and .SWF formatted files. Linux and Macintosh are some of the common computer operating systems that support the usage of this platform. Even transportable devices which possess Flash are also suitable for its usage. The usage of SCORM is also actively supported by Captivate. The latest version of Adobe Captivate was introduced in July 2007 and it consists of several novel features like automatic rerecording, multimode recording, new questionnaire patterns including sequences, animations, answer shuffle etc.