The wait for many was over last night at the  e-learning Awards 2009.  At the glittering event in the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, the who's who of e-learning gathered at the event hosted once again by TV's Angela Lamont.

This was the 5th year and Clive Snell, (MD of Bizmedia who are the driving force behind the awards)  outlined that the event was the biggest yet with a bumper crop of entrants of exceptional standard.  The event also saw the launch of e-Learning Age's Bringing Business Benefits Campaign, which will be supported by our own Evidence for Change programmme to highlight where e-learning is making a real difference to business - judging by last night ,neither of us will be short of excellent examples!

The Towards Maturity team congratulate everyone who walked away with an award last night and commend everyone shortlisted. Well done!

In total 35 entrants walked away with awards - here are the winners ( with comments from the judges citations)

Most Innovative New Product or Tool in E-learning

All that students learning a foreign language require with Learnosity Voice is a mobile phone and a computer. Practicing their conversation using the mobile phone,students feel empowered and more engaged in the classroom & gain a level of confidence that impresses teachers.  Click here  to see the system in action in Ireland.

• Silver winner- Caspian Learning for Thinking Worlds

Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds – puts educationalists rather than programmers at the heart of the authoring immersive 3D simulations - Click here for demos.

SuperConnie’s forMath program allows detailed, individualised diagnosis and feedback that tracks how users arrive at an answer as well as the answer itself.. Click here for more information.

Excellence in the Production of Learning Content - Private Sector

• Gold winner- E-FLI

E-FLI is the world’s only e-learning platform for skydiving.Its unique and highly creative approach includes a comprehensive range of 3D animations to illustrate clearly what is required of the student during the skydive, where communication between instructor and student is very limited. Click here  for a demo

• Silver winner- LINE Communications and Ford of Europe

A project  to train and communicate with Ford’s European car dealership network,  delivering top-level messages appropriate to all Ford’s European markets as well as all new vehicle launches and information for new salespeople. The project had more than 90% take-up by Ford’s 20,000 dealer sales consultants in 21 European markets – an exceptional business result. Find out more

• Bronze winner-  Legal & General

By moving from the classroom to a commendably creative e-learning solution to raise fraud awareness among its employees, Legal & General has saved over £1m in classroom costs and reduced the risk to the business. The company’s e-learning team seized this opportunity to break away from traditional templated, text-heavy e-learning with both hands, producing content that engages learners, encourages culture change and provides business benefits.

Excellence in the Production of Learning Content - Public Sector

The Upfront project has improved the effectiveness of induction at the BBC, giving new staff a sense of the organisation and its culture quickly, and reducing face to face events from three days to two (saving well over £600k in the process). Its excellent use of great resources and highly creative approach to design wowed the judges.  

The aim of this project was to improve the numeracy and literacy of children in a fun way. Exciting and appealing to small children, it is also challenging and engaging enough for parents to want to sit down and play it with their child. The learning also gives parents an option to follow up on their own numeracy and literacy by doing one of the many other learndirect programmes available – experience it at by clicking here.

Excellence in the Production of Learning Content - Not for profit Sector

St George’s Taste Of Medicine tool is free, interactive, educational and engaging web portal targeted at secondary school students aged 12 and upwards to dispel the myths that medicine is an elitist profession.. The judges liked the demonstration of shifts in learner attitudes and data linked backed to original goals. Experience it for yourself here.

• Silver winner- Family Planning Association and Aurion Learning

A groundbreaking sexual health and well-being eLearning programme designed for people with learning disabilities.

A creative mix of media and sensitive handling of the subject - Dignity in nursing- made this programme the most popular module on the RCN Learning Zone.

Meeting the Needs of Compliance for an External Regulator or an Internal Workforce

RBS has maximised efficiency, acceptance and alignment through the use of a single module for its training on recording and resolving customer complaints. The module takes into account the disparate global user group and has separate learning paths to direct staff to elements relating specifically to their roles. Dispensing with the one-size-fits-all approach allowed learners to focus on learning relevant to them, typically halving the time taken for completion.

With environmental management accreditation increasingly important if AXA PPP Healthcare was to win more new business, the company used e-learning to secure the green credentials it needed quickly and cheaply.

Continuing professional development is compulsory for dentists and dental technicians. The judges commended the Dental Channel’s provision of an excellent range of resources, and fine mix of multimedia e-learning, journals and meaningful assessments including webinars. Live webinars offer the online equivalent of evening lectures, with webcams, polling and chat ensuring that participants are actively engaged in learning. On-demand webinars provide edited versions of the live events, combined with quizzes and feedback. Read more here.

The best e-learning programme with widespread adoption

• Gold winner- Information Transfer and Care Management Group

A focus on learner needs, workflow integration and extensive internal communication drove an enthusiastic wave of adoption and very high approval ratings by CMG staff. It has also cut costs by around £300k a year. A great story about how to introduce learning technologies into an organisation. Click here for more information 

• Silver winner- Boots UK

In the year since its launch, e-learning has been taken up by 71% of Boots staff, with 250,000 modules completed – an average of 3.5 per store employee. There was a significant focus on supporting learners and fostering competition between the stores helped treble user engagement in months.

• Bronze winner- Inmarkets and Aviva

viva wanted to create a group-wide e-learning programme covering business security and spanning 20 countries and 16 languages. To win buy-in, it involved line managers and business protection staff in the content development and communication plan to create a single 30-minute course. Of the 20,000 employees targeted, 84% completed the training within six weeks. The average mark in the post-course assessments was 92%. Find out more.

Best Use of Mobile Learning

With nearly half its recruits lacking essential numeracy skills, the British Army realised something new was needed & the Nintendo DS mobile platform was the solution. Read more about the Army Operation Numerika project here.

Best Use of Rapid E-learning Content

• Gold winner- Autonomy

Autonomy developed an e-guide for Citröen  to solve the problem of car owners claiming on their warranties for car keys that don’t work properly. The car keys can typically be repaired in minutes at the car dealership. Though fast, the repair is fiddly: difficult to describe on paper but easy to master once it has been demonstrated. It took Autonomy just 10 days to create and roll out a short video e-guide explaining the repair. And within six weeks more than 1,600 dealer staff had viewed it. An e-guide that cost less than £4,000 to make is now well on the way to saving Citröen £1m.

• Silver winner- Canon and Kineo

Kineo’s task was to create a short e-learning module to communicate Canon’s key messages and approach to 500 staff attending a major print exhibition. And it was given just 17 days – and £10,000 – to deliver. Its module included an interactive stand guide to walk staff through the key features of the Canon show presence, and the use of Moodle to track learner progress and scores. find out more here

• Bronze winner- NHS 24

The e-learning module captured the screens and key functionality of NHS 24’s call streaming system so a simulation could be built to let learners practice correct call handling which was successfully built within two weeks.

Best Use of Synchronous E-learning

By combining synchronous e-learning using Microsoft Live Meeting as part of an overall blend ,Lloyds’ HBOS arm is on track to cut its accommodation costs by £730,000 a year. The programme has halved the time it takes to develop a financial adviser to competence.

Hibernia College has used synchronous e-learning to address the needs of its students whatever their domestic, economic, geographic, financial or occupational circumstances. Find out more about their online learning experience watch  see this short video about this approach at work in Pfizer.

Best Online or Distance Learning Project

The judges were bowled over by this joint initiative between the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Department of Health. The venture, e-Learning for Healthcare, created the eLearning Anaesthesia (e-LA) project to support the first two years of specialist training in anaesthesia leading to the College Fellowship Examination Part 1. This is not the only award e-learning for healthcare have – find out about their work with Radiologists in this short video

The BBC World Service Trust set up an online journalism training project for Iran called ZigZag to bring online learning modules into an interactive space that incorporates a blog, a forum, podcasts and social networking. The project promotes freedom of expression and widens the scope for media diversity in Iran through user participation.

Hibernia College’s Irish Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education (HDAPE) is a blended programme that currently produces around half of Ireland’s qualified primary school teachers. find out more here

Best Learning Game, Simulation or Virtual Environment

Caspian produced a two-and-a-half-hour simulation for the Royal Navy for its new recruits giving new recruits a realistic preview of their future conditions and working environment, and helps them get to grips with life onboard a frigate. It does so through a game: on board the ship is a saboteur, and the learner must find and fix the equipment he has sabotaged, locate the saboteur, and disarm his bomb before time runs out. In doing so, the learner explores the frigate and its cramped noisy compartments.

This authentic, challenging and engaging simulation teaches students as young as 14 the basics of starting their own business. find out more about how colleges include the game in their classrooms.

The game, 5S Challenge  appeals to users’ competitive nature through real-life scenarios to teach and assess knowledge on lean business systems. Learners discover a pizza  restaurant is disorganised and its staff demotivated, and score points for decisions that improve the business. find out more here

E-learning Internal Project Team of the Year

A very small team had to deliver an e-learning approach that would be fully adopted by a geographically diverse group. Its computer-based training course offers a high level of interaction and video narration by real trainers. It has proved highly effective with learners and dispelled the myth that CBT is just a book on screen, or cheap alternative to classroom delivery. The success of the project has enhanced the perceptions of e-learning in the company and the reputation of Aviva in its key partner relationships. It also created cost savings for Aviva and other business benefits. The judges praised the team for improving the way business operates.

E-learning Development Company of the Year

Commended for their high standards of work and customer satisfaction, excellence in design, innovation and demonstrable results. Find out more about Brightwave at http://www.brightwave.co.uk/

Every one of Nelson Croom's customers would recommend the company to other businesses - Find out more about Nelson Croom at http://www.nelsoncroom.co.uk/

E-learning Industry Award for Outstanding Achievement - Corporate

Highlighting Unicorn’s 21 year record of profit and growth, the award recognises the outstanding contribution Unicorn has made in delivery of learning and development to the UK financial sector. Find out more.

E-learning Industry Award for Outstanding Achievement - Individual

To read details of the judges citations - click  here.

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