Winners of the 2018 Learning Technologist of the Year Awards

Established in 2007, the ALT Learning Technologist of the Year Awards celebrate and reward excellent practice and outstanding achievement in the learning technology field, and aim to promote intelligent use of Learning Technology on a national scale. The Awards are open to individuals and teams based anywhere in the world.

ALT Learning Technologist of the Year Awards 2018 are sponsored by Catalyst IT Europe Ltd. Sam Lewis, GM from Catalyst, said: ‘Catalyst IT Europe are delighted to be able to sponsor the 2018 Learning Technologist of the Year Awards. As technology enablers, we look forward to celebrating with you, the diversity of achievement and industry best practice that is making the difference in learning today and out into the future.’

The expert panel of judges, chaired by Martin Weller, President of ALT, represented expertise from different sectors and countries, bringing together a wealth of experience in Learning Technology. The 2018 judges are listed in full below. Commenting on the importance of establishing a new award catgoery this year with a special focus on research, ALT’s chief executive Dr Maren Deepwell said: ‘ALT’s Members actively support Open Access, peer-reviewed research as well as practice-based research and we have a growing body of evidence and findings reaching back 25 years. This new award category will help ensure that research in Learning Technology is more widely shared and its value recognised across the UK and internationally.’

Meet the Winners

This year’s winners are: Paul Driver from Anglia Ruskin University, winner of the Individual Award; the Learning Portfolio team at Dublin City University, Ireland, winner of the Team Award; and Matthew Barr with the ‘Gaming for Graduates’ project led by Dr Matthew Barr at the University of Glasgow, winner of the inaugural Research Project of the Year Award.

There were a number of outstanding entries for this year’s Research award. Joint second place was awarded to Dr Liz Bennet of the University of Huddersfield’s ‘Students’ Responses to Learner Dashboards’ project, and to the King’s College, London-based project ‘Technology enhanced learning strategy documents in UK HEIs’.

Two highly commended awards were also made in the Research category, to Alice Gallagher of the Open University for ‘A Survey of the Learning Behaviour of Open University Students’, and to Claire McAvinia, of the Dublin Institute of Technology, for the ‘#VLE Ireland’ research project.

We celebrate the achievements of all the finalists, who are each outstanding Learning Technologists or researchers. You can see all photos from the evening and all finalists here. They are:

Individual Awards

• Second place: Peter Shukie, Blackburn College

• Second Place: Ros Walker, then University of Huddersfield

• Winner: Paul Driver, Anglia Ruskin University

Team Awards

• Highly commended: Technology Enhanced Learning team, University of Derby

• Second place: Student Video Support Assistants, University of Lincoln

• Winners: Learning Portfolio team, Dublin City University

Research Awards

• Highly commended entries: #VLEIreland Research Project and A Survey of the Learning Behaviour of Open University Students

• Second place: Technology enhanced learning strategy documents in UK HEIs

• Second place: Students’ Responses to Learner Dashboards

• Winners: Gaming for Graduates: Exploring the use of video games to develop graduate attributes

Community Choice Award

Community Choice Award, determined through an open voting process, was awarded to Dublin City University (DCU) Learning Portfolio team.

Congratulations to all this year’s entries!

Find out more

The Awards were judged by a panel chaired by Martin Weller, President of ALT and Professor of Educational Technology, Open University. The panel were:

• Sarah-Jane Crowson, Scholarship development manager, Hereford College of Arts

• Dr Louise Drumm, Researcher

• Farzana Latif, Technology Enhanced Learning Manager, University of Sheffield

• Dr Kulari Lokuge, Associate Director eLearning, Monash College

• Alex Moseley, Head of Curriculum Enhancement, Leicester Learning Institute, University of Leicester

• Joey Murison – General Manager, Catalyst IT – Open Source Technologists

• Dr Chrissi Nerantzi, Principal Lecturer in Academic CPD, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Dr James Pickering, Associate Professor in Anatomy, Leeds Institute of Medical Education

• Prof John Traxler, Professor of Digital Learning, University of Wolverhampton

• Prof Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology, Open University

The 2018 Awards are sponsored by Catalyst IT Europe Ltd .

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