Online Learning Environment at University of Wollongong supported by The Learning
Edge Takes Top Honors at Learning Impact 2008

Schools Online Curriculum Services takes Gold Learning Impact Award and The Le@rning Federation Learning Objects and Support Services wins Learning Impact Leadership Award

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May 28 2008. Lake Mary, Florida, USA and Brisbane, Australia. The Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) of Australia and IMS Global Learning Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) salute the Australian winners of the global Learning Impact Awards (LIA). The top ranked Platinum winner of the IMS GLC Learning Impact 2008 Awards held recently in Austin, Texas, USA was the Online Learning Environment (OLE) for the new Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Wollongong supported by the Learning Edge which gives students a single environment from which they can access all resources and functionality relevant to their study. It facilitates the tagging of all educational content, from lecture outlines to eReadings, with the school’s curriculum metadata schema. The OLE plays a key role in facilitating the delivery and management of the school’s innovative problem‐based learning (PBL) curriculum. Rather than developing a new environment, the team chose to integrate best‐of‐breed elements, with a minimum of effort and risk. The environment contains elements which, individually, have been implemented elsewhere, but its key value is in bringing these together into an integrated whole, driven by an innovative educational design and not technology.

The top Gold LIA winner was SOCS (Schools Online Curriculum Services) which is an integrated suite of web‐enabled enterprise products and services providing online teaching and learning, content management and search, collaboration, portal and curriculum information management. This ‘one stop shop’ for teachers, students, administrators and the wider community is being progressively made available by Western Australia’s Department of Education and Training over a seven‐year period . SOCS also won the Best System or Country Solution and the Best K‐12 Schools Solution awards. A Learning Impact Leadership award was given to another Australian finalist, The Le@rning Federation learning objects and support services which licensed a pool of over 6,000 learning objects ranging from highly interactive content to media files associated with education metadata and distributed to school education jurisdictions across Australia and New Zealand. The Le@rning Federation also won the Best Digital Learning Content award.

The IMS GLC Learning Impact Awards (LIA) awards are unique in that they recognize the use of technology in context. Nominations include not only information about the technology, but how it is used by an educational or training organization. In addition, the entries are evaluated according to eight criteria of impact, including improving access to learning, improving affordability of learning, and improving the quality of learning.

“OLE at the University of Wollongong is a forward‐looking example of how technology can be applied to improve the learning experience,” stated Rob Abel, CEO of IMS GLC. “They won at the regional LIA finalist event held in October 2007 at the !dea conference in Brisbane, Australia and finishing number one in the global competition means they are truly the best of the best.”

"We are excited that the OLE and the University of Wollongong won a Platinum award and that the Western Australia Department of Education and Le@rning Federation also received awards. We think that our participation in IMS Global and their focus on Learning Impact helps us in Australia focus on the high expectations we have for the use of technology in learning and research across all sectors. We are proud that Australian innovation is recognized on an international stage." said Dr. Evan Arthur, Group Manager, Schools Teaching, Students and the Digital Education Revolution Group of DEEWR.

About IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) IMS Global Learning is a global, nonprofit, member organization that strives to enable the growth and impact of learning technology in the education and corporate learning sectors worldwide. IMS GLC members provide leadership in shaping and growing the learning industry through community development of interoperability and adoption practice standards and recognition of the return on investment from learning and educational technology. For more information, including the world's most comprehensive set of learning technology interoperability standards, information on the annual Learning Impact conference and awards program, and free community resources for learning technology leaders, visit www.imsglobal.org.

About the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) is a new agency formed in December 2007 which brings together the functions of the former Department of Education, Science & Training (DEST), the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and elements of the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

DEEWR brings together the core elements of the Government’s productivity and participation agenda from early childhood, through schools, trade training, wider vocational education, universities, employment participation and working conditions. DEEWR provides national leadership in policies and programs relating to Australia's education, employment and workplace relations sectors.