Simnet for Office 2007 and Vista
McGraw-Hill Higher Education commissioned Triad Interactive with creating SimNet for Office 2007 and Vista, a complete online learning system that assesses student competency in Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Windows Vista. Triad Interactive tasked SmartLogic with architecting a framework that would allow Triad's employees to rapidly create hundreds of interactive tutorials and assessment questions. After the initial consultation, SmartLogic created a Flash-based engine that simulates Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint and Windows Vista. The simulated system we created in turn reads in hundreds of interactive tutorials and assessment questions encoded in XML.
SmartLogic used ActionScript 3.0 to build the entire simulated system. Microsoft Office's program and other interactive features were encoded in XML. The interactive tutorials and assessment questions were also encoded in XML as well.
In order to optimize SimNet for fast loading times, we architected and implemented a system wherein thousands of images and XML files would be combined into a few files, cutting down the number of HTTP requests by three orders of magnitude, and cutting load time by over one order of magnitude.
Those interested in purchasing SimNet for Office 2007 should contact their local McGraw-Hill Higher Education representative.
Technologies Used
- Programming Languages: Adobe Flash and ActionScript 3.0 for the simulated Microsoft Office environment
- Other: XML for program features, interactive tutorials and assessment questions