25 June 2008
Media Release: The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand
Immediate
Open Polytechnic led project wins silver
A ground-breaking eLearning project led by The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand has won silver at the Learning Impact
Awards hosted by the IMS Global Learning Consortium in the United States.
The New Zealand Open Source Virtual Learning Environment project (NZOSVLE) was selected to compete at the international
awards after taking out the New Zealand heat of the competition which was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Education
and the IMS Global Learning Consortium.
The project, which received $1.5m in funding from the Tertiary Education Commission, has helped reduce the entry
barriers to eLearning for a variety of educational and governmental organisations in this country.
The Learning Impact awards are held annually to recognise the use of technology to help improve learning outcomes in all
regions of the world. The awards are evaluated on eight criteria including improving access to learning, improving
affordability of learning, and improving the quality of learning.
The NZ ePortfolio ‘Mahara’ which makes up the suite of projects presented under the theme of the NZOSVLE project was
also judged Best ePortfolio in the ‘Best in Category’ awards at the ceremony which was held in Texas.
The awards build on the international recognition the NZOSVLE project has already received when it won a prestigious
Mellon Award from the United States-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation late last year.
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