Podcasts

'Outstanding ICT initiative of the year' 2008 winner announced

24 October 2008

Winner of Jisc award is commended for 'commitment to open access to online content.'

An initiative that has created a wealth of openly available multimedia content has won the Jisc/Times Higher Award at a prestigious ceremony in central London last night - an event attended by MP David Lammy (pictured), new Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property.

University of Westminster lecturer Russell Stannard received the award from Sir Ron Cooke, Chair of Jisc, for his websites which build upon pioneering work using video to mark students’ work.

Using screen recording software, Stannard recorded himself walking through various Web 2.0 technologies with a voice-over, which were then uploaded to a newly-created website – www.teachertrainingvideos.com. The site quickly proved popular and rapidly built into a bank of over 30 videos - some of which are visible on the screen shot below - with lecturers frequently requesting new topics.

Its success led to the creation of another resource – www.multimediatrainingvideos.com - which offers free training videos in using more complex multimedia programmes like Flash, Director and Photoshop. In its second month, the site received nearly 60,000 hits.

Reacting to his win last night, Russell Stannard said: ‘I'm absolutely delighted, it’s a real privilege. It was important to me that the sites are openly available to everyone in the world.’

Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster Professor Geoffrey Petts agreed, saying: ‘This is absolutely fantastic. It continues our long tradition of innovation.’

One of the judges Dr John Selby – HEFCE’s Director of Education and Participation – said: 'The standard of all shortlisted entries was very high but the winning entry from the University of Westminster demonstrated not only innovation and impact but also a commitment to open access to educational content which makes it of importance across all education sectors.'

Two shortlisted entries were ‘highly commended’ by judges:

The Great War Archive at the University of Oxford
Assignment Handler Initiative at Sheffield Hallam University

The other shortlisted entries were:

Open Life at the Open University
The Location Independent Working project at Coventry University
The One Stop Language Shop at Nottingham University

More than 40 projects from across the UK submitted entries for the Jisc/THE Outstanding ICT initiative of the year award, making the award one of the most heavily entered of the twenty THE awards being made this year.

Further information about the Times Higher Awards
Discover more about award winner Russell Stannard