ALT Learning Technologist of the Year Award 2009

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) Learning Technologist of the Year Award is now in its third year of operation.

The Award is open to individual members of ALT, and to individuals and members based in ALT member organisations. The award celebrates and rewards excellent practice and learning in the learning technology field and is this year sponsored by Pearson eCollege.

The awards were presented by Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor Designate of the Open University at the Association for Learning Technology’s annual conference on 9 September 2009.

Individual award winners

Joint winners:

James Clay from Gloucestershire College for his contribution to changing the College, which has become a leader and an exemplar in its use of learning technologies; and Dr Vivien Rolfe, Principal Lecturer in Anatomy and Physiology and Teacher Fellow at De Montfort University for her outstanding work on the creation and evaluation of multimedia learning resources in sciences, and her success as eLearning Champion in the University’s School of Allied Health Sciences.

Highly commended:

David Payne from Middlesbrough College for his outstanding and innovative use of video to enhance motor-vehicle students’ confidence and performance.

James Clay of Gloucestershire College commented, “I am honoured and privileged to win the Learning Technologist of the Year award from ALT. This award not only recognises the work I have undertaken at Gloucestershire College in enabling, embedding and promoting the use of learning technologies; it is also an award for all the staff and management at the college who use learning technologies effectively to enhance and enrich the learning experience.”

Dr Rolfe of De Montfort University’s School of Allied Health Sciences said: “I’m absolutely delighted and amazed to win this award from the Association for Learning Technology. A few years ago I couldn’t animate so much as a stick man walking, and to be in a position where my scientific animations are gaining national recognition is now truly fantastic. The Virtual Analytical Laboratory supports student transition to science at university, and this award will help promote this freely-available resource to a wider audience.”

Team award winners

Joint winners:

The Xerte Project Team from the University of Nottingham for the creation of Xerte Online Toolkits, an open source suite of tools for elearning developers and content authors. Team members: Andy Beggan, Fay Cross, Nuno Jorge, John Horton, Patrick Lockley and Julian Tenney; and the Beyond Distance Research Alliance from the University of Leicester for its outstanding research-based contribution to the learning technology field. Team members: Dr Alejandro Armellini, Terese Bird, Dr Palitha Edirisingha, Simon Kear, Jaideep Mukherjee, Dr Ming Nie, Dr Sahm Nikoi, Professor Gilly Salmon and Matthew Wheeler.

Highly commended:

The LSN MoLeNET Mentoring Team for its work in supporting Phases 1 and 2 of MoLeNET. The MoLeNET programme is led by LSN and funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the institutions involved. It is one of the largest implementations of mobile learning in the world. Team members: James Clay, Elaine Coates, Di Dawson, Ron Mitchell, Mick Mullane, Lilian Soon, David Sugden and John Whalley.

Shortlisted: JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland North & East.

Andy Beggan of the Xerte Project Team team commented, “We are extremely excited and proud to be recognised by ALT at this year’s awards, not least because this represents recognition from our peers. The team at Nottingham continually seek to reduce the technological barriers to academic adoption of e-learning through support and new technologies like Xerte Online Toolkits. Therefore, it is especially gratifying to see our efforts bring real benefits, not only in Nottingham, but across the UK and internationally.”

Professor Gilly Salmon, Director of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance said: “We are extremely pleased to have been recognised by ALT in its Award for Learning Technology Team of the Year. The achievements of Beyond Distance are twofold: first, in high-quality research undertaken and successfully disseminated; second, in contributing to the University’s strategic vision and positioning in e-learning and distance learning. The credo of the department is ‘innovation to mainstream, research to practice’ and the research at Beyond Distance is evidence led rather than target driven. Beyond Distance, as a ‘research alliance’, is oriented towards sharing research outputs and best practice internally across both the HE and FE sectors”.