Comments on: Using Silverlight/Expression Blend for eLearning Development http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/ Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:15:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Nathan Weaver http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-67346 Nathan Weaver Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:01:28 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-67346 It's interesting playing catch up on the topic of using Silverlight for eLearning courses.  In the interest of latest developments, Silverlight 5, which is currently in beta and should be released by the end of the summer, appears to work on iPads.  You can also find Javascript examples for implementation into Silverlight, for the purpose of making things SCORM compliant. It will be interesting to see where things go for sure.  Though, I would agree, at this point, that if you are using a slides-synced-with-audio eLearning method then Silverlight probably isn't your cup of tea.  At least, not for now. It’s interesting playing catch up on the topic of using Silverlight for eLearning courses.  In the interest of latest developments, Silverlight 5, which is currently in beta and should be released by the end of the summer, appears to work on iPads.  You can also find Javascript examples for implementation into Silverlight, for the purpose of making things SCORM compliant.
It will be interesting to see where things go for sure.  Though, I would agree, at this point, that if you are using a slides-synced-with-audio eLearning method then Silverlight probably isn’t your cup of tea.  At least, not for now.

]]> By: Greg Johnson http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-64033 Greg Johnson Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:54:44 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-64033 I found this series of comments interesting, especially about the web going mobile. The web may be going to iPhomes and Android smart phones but e-learning would most likely stay with laptops and tablets. There just isn't enough space on an iPhone screen. Of course that won't stop anyone from producing terrible e-learning that runs that way. The original article dealt with silverlight for e-learning. I think with Sivlerlight 4 we are getting a lot closer. The biggest proplem I say was that no one has mentioned Scorm compliance so that the e-learning can be tracked by a learning management system. An "no" Silverlight on its own is not Scorm compliant, of course neither is Flash. I just finished my first e-learning course in Silverlight as an experiment and it looks every bit as good as its original in Flash and was no harder to develop. As most people did a few years ago with Flash, I had to develop a method of tracking. I actually found this easier to do with Silverlight as I am an experienced C#.net developer. I now have an assembly that can be reference by a a Silverlight e-learning project to make it Scorm compliant. I think Silverlights time will come before HTML5 is ready for e-learning development I found this series of comments interesting, especially about the web going mobile. The web may be going to iPhomes and Android smart phones but e-learning would most likely stay with laptops and tablets. There just isn’t enough space on an iPhone screen. Of course that won’t stop anyone from producing terrible e-learning that runs that way. The original article dealt with silverlight for e-learning. I think with Sivlerlight 4 we are getting a lot closer. The biggest proplem I say was that no one has mentioned Scorm compliance so that the e-learning can be tracked by a learning management system. An “no” Silverlight on its own is not Scorm compliant, of course neither is Flash. I just finished my first e-learning course in Silverlight as an experiment and it looks every bit as good as its original in Flash and was no harder to develop. As most people did a few years ago with Flash, I had to develop a method of tracking. I actually found this easier to do with Silverlight as I am an experienced C#.net developer. I now have an assembly that can be reference by a a Silverlight e-learning project to make it Scorm compliant. I think Silverlights time will come before HTML5 is ready for e-learning development

]]> By: Mohamed Omar http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-26316 Mohamed Omar Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:34:31 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-26316 I have a small question regarding the Mobile space Where is the Android ? The most widespread phone OS is iPhone and nearly the Windows Phone with the 7 series release will do a good job also and Silverlight is in the core of WP7 I have a small question regarding the Mobile space
Where is the Android ?
The most widespread phone OS is iPhone
and nearly the Windows Phone with the 7 series release will do a good job also and Silverlight is in the core of WP7

]]> By: Abhijit Kadle http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-26299 Abhijit Kadle Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:07:05 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-26299 I wrote this almost a year ago, and it still draws comments. Even a year later, the eLearning sea is Flash, parts of it are changing, but not towards Silverlight, but HTML5 instead. The web is going mobile, and Silverlight isnt on the iPhone or Android OS. Flash 10.1 perhaps will be the first to move to Android 2.2. Where will Silverlight fit in all this?  I wrote this almost a year ago, and it still draws comments.
Even a year later, the eLearning sea is Flash, parts of it are changing, but not towards Silverlight, but HTML5 instead.
The web is going mobile, and Silverlight isnt on the iPhone or Android OS. Flash 10.1 perhaps will be the first to move to Android 2.2.
Where will Silverlight fit in all this? 

]]> By: Mike http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-26116 Mike Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:02:07 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-26116 Abhijit, If you are "geared toward flash" then why bother writing a review?  This is 2010 and you are still hacking at Silverlight despite it going through two more major upgrades since your review.    I find expression blend much easier to work with than flash pro.   I can do limited programmatic options without touching ANY code. Incidentally it  is now closing in on 70 percent penetration. Abhijit,
If you are “geared toward flash” then why bother writing a review?  This is 2010 and you are still hacking at Silverlight despite it going through two more major upgrades since your review.    I find expression blend much easier to work with than flash pro.   I can do limited programmatic options without touching ANY code. Incidentally it  is now closing in on 70 percent penetration.

]]> By: Abhijit Kadle http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-15664 Abhijit Kadle Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:47:04 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-15664 To us its really very simple. To render the type of content we typically use as eLearning courseware - Silverlight is just overkill. I'd really love three examples of courseware that are created using Silverlight; sadly there arent any. As an industry, we are geared towards using Flash, and that's how its going to stay for a while yet. I dont beat on Silverlight;  I appreciate that it has its uses and capabilities that can be leveraged to build quality web applications/services. If I were developing a game, I'd definitely consider Silverlight to serve some purpose. To us its really very simple. To render the type of content we typically use as eLearning courseware – Silverlight is just overkill.
I’d really love three examples of courseware that are created using Silverlight; sadly there arent any. As an industry, we are geared towards using Flash, and that’s how its going to stay for a while yet.
I dont beat on Silverlight;  I appreciate that it has its uses and capabilities that can be leveraged to build quality web applications/services. If I were developing a game, I’d definitely consider Silverlight to serve some purpose.

]]> By: Scott Guthrie http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-15542 Scott Guthrie Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:30:06 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-15542 The very fact that the writer of this blog uses "may be" at so many places shows that he is just beating around the bush without valid evidence. Silverlight rocks bigtime. The very fact that the writer of this blog uses “may be” at so many places shows that he is just beating around the bush without valid evidence. Silverlight rocks bigtime.

]]> By: Mohamed Omar http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-11051 Mohamed Omar Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:28:41 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-11051 Hi, really neat article, but I need to know what are the strength points that make flash the no. 1 elearning dev. tool and Please What about silverlight 4.0 which is in beta now and for what extend it can serve the elearning dev. Thanks Hi, really neat article, but I need to know what are the strength points that make flash the no. 1 elearning dev. tool
and Please What about silverlight 4.0 which is in beta now and for what extend it can serve the elearning dev.

Thanks

]]> By: Shaun Kiesewetter http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-6441 Shaun Kiesewetter Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:11:35 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-6441 Installation: Expression Blend 3 1 installation, and you done. Designer / Developer collaboration would only be difficult if you were doing it wrong. Our UI is in a completely different project to the logic, and is glued with MVVM, using the powerful command framework. Shell/Content Player Could not disagree with you more, flash has a dynamically typed language called AS3 , SL uses statically strongly typed modern languages such as C#, how can you suggest this would be difficult to do? Audio video sync Thats news to me :-). Funny mines working just dandy. Standard compliance This takes the cake the SCORM specification divorces itself from tec domain through its manifests (Thats the whole point of SCORM). Exactly what are you talking about? The specification is about a description of the content for an LMS, and states rules such as no server side intelligence as this is domain specific. All of our  content  at this stage is completely proprietary. Why go flash? Simple Adoption, adoption adoption. But please let's understand this correctly, SL is a GREAT tool it will just take the world some time to get there. Watch AZURE, that combined with SL, is your ultimate delivery platform. Installation:
Expression Blend 3 1 installation, and you done.

Designer / Developer collaboration would only be difficult if you were doing it wrong. Our UI is in a completely different project to the logic, and is glued with MVVM, using the powerful command framework.

Shell/Content Player
Could not disagree with you more, flash has a dynamically typed language called AS3 , SL uses statically strongly typed modern languages such as C#, how can you suggest this would be difficult to do?

Audio video sync
Thats news to me :-) . Funny mines working just dandy.

Standard compliance
This takes the cake the SCORM specification divorces itself from tec domain through its manifests (Thats the whole point of SCORM). Exactly what are you talking about? The specification is about a description of the content for an LMS, and states rules such as no server side intelligence as this is domain specific. All of our  content  at this stage is completely proprietary.

Why go flash?
Simple Adoption, adoption adoption. But please let’s understand this correctly, SL is a GREAT tool it will just take the world some time to get there. Watch AZURE, that combined with SL, is your ultimate delivery platform.

]]> By: tdurant http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-531 tdurant Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:36:37 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-531 I am just starting to use expression blend and silverlight and I agree it has a long way to go.  But Recently I learned that you can make some animation logic in blend that is faster and easier then in flash.  The example I was taught was in a small baseball animation. We could use buttons to throw from home plate to any of the bases which is only two key frames per base.  But by simply deleting the first keyframe we can throw to any base from any base in any order.  Think about that.  By deleting a frame we add logic and functionality.  And did I mention I did not have to code a single line. If blend and silverlight stay on this track I may have to set aside the adobe products so I can more time designing courses and games and less time coding. I am just starting to use expression blend and silverlight and I agree it has a long way to go.  But Recently I learned that you can make some animation logic in blend that is faster and easier then in flash.  The example I was taught was in a small baseball animation. We could use buttons to throw from home plate to any of the bases which is only two key frames per base.  But by simply deleting the first keyframe we can throw to any base from any base in any order.  Think about that.  By deleting a frame we add logic and functionality.  And did I mention I did not have to code a single line.

If blend and silverlight stay on this track I may have to set aside the adobe products so I can more time designing courses and games and less time coding.

]]> By: Mark http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/15/using-silverlightexpression-blend-for-elearning-development/comment-page-1/#comment-228 Mark Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:37:30 +0000 http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/?p=1122#comment-228 Well-written article and a great topic. It would take many years for Microsoft to evolve Silverlight to something that would be of value to the Elearning community. Not because they can't (they surely could), but because the market isn't there for them to do it. Their goal is to capture the straight RIA market back from the developers who have moved to the Flex framework. I'd love for there to be a legit competitor to Flash, but there isn't. The closest thing to competition is HTML 5, but that will still require Flash for true interactions. Well-written article and a great topic. It would take many years for Microsoft to evolve Silverlight to something that would be of value to the Elearning community. Not because they can’t (they surely could), but because the market isn’t there for them to do it. Their goal is to capture the straight RIA market back from the developers who have moved to the Flex framework.

I’d love for there to be a legit competitor to Flash, but there isn’t. The closest thing to competition is HTML 5, but that will still require Flash for true interactions.

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