ALT LO Competition 2008

Intrallect is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Learning Object Competition held in conjunction with this year’s ALT conference in Leeds.

The focus of this year's competition was very much around:

• Appropriateness: What is the teaching/learning problem that your learning object was designed to solve and how does it achieve its objectives?
• Engagement: What makes your learning object something that students want to use? Does it offer something that other media can’t?
• Effectiveness: Is your learning object an effective way for students to learn? How would you express that effectiveness?

The winners are:

1st place - Microscope Training

Mike Lancaster - Keele University Medical School

The Microscope learning object is intended to introduce students to the fundamentals of operating a microscope. It should also reduce the time a tutor must spend providing one to one microscope tuition to individual students.

Information is provided through: text, video & interactive components. Each media type was selected for it’s expediency for information delivery. For example, the ‘Interactive Practice’ section provides a unique experience enabling students to operate the major controls of a virtual microscope.

This learning object is effective in engaging students by making their learning more interesting with the content presented in a manner befitting the subject matter. It provides a valuable, easy to access reminder of the main controls & steps involved in microscope usage. This has resulted in students learning microscope operation faster than previously & with less assistance required from tutors.

2nd place - Alien Worlds: The Structure of the Sun

Barry Richards, Martin Griffiths, Toby Murcott & Sue Burnett - University of Glamorgan

Alien Worlds: The Structure of the Sun is an animated simulation which describes the interior of the Sun, the nuclear reactions that occur at its heart and the events that occur upon its surface.

The Structure of the Sun is just one of seven such animated simulations built for the Alien Worlds module at the University of Glamorgan, with each object describing a different celestial phenomenon. Although information about the Sun can be found on the internet from a variety of sources, much is just in written form; the illustrative material that is available online is mostly crude, simple and of limited benefit to learners. The distribution of information also requires learners to visit many websites to acquire the knowledge required to build a comprehensive view of the Sun.

3rd place - Patient with Type 1 Diabetes

Maria Toro-Troconis - Imperial College London

This Learning Object aims to provide an effective and easy way for medical students and patients with Type I Diabetes to recognise why blood glucose is so closely regulated by the body and the consequences of having to use insulin to regulate blood glucose. It also aims to explain the consequences of losing this automatic regulation by the body in terms of: hyperglycaemia and DKA and its symptoms. The user can administer different types of insulin as well as snacks, meals and alcohol to Kate who is a non Co-operative patient.

This emulator was put together as a mean of providing an easily and fun way of learning the topics explained below. Abstracts concepts in the area of Diabetes are easily delivered in this self-contained and reusable emulator.

Third year medical students have access to this emulator during their e-lecture programme. They have found this resource very valuable and very positive feedback has been received at the final year evaluation questionnaires and focus groups.

Additional commended entries for 2008

In addition to the top 3 prizes the judges also commended the following entries:

(i) Visual Directions - Terry Finnigan, Diana Aronstam and Vanessa Hall of University of the Arts London

This learning object is designed to support students in the development of their sketchbook and reflective writing practices on a range of art and design courses. It provides a short written explanation of the key areas, examples of other students’ work, and students and staff talking about their own practices and sharing useful strategies.

(ii) Perception, mindsets and creativity - Mac McCarthy & Beverly Leeds of University of Central Lancashire

This is a learning activity about Perception and Mindsets. It introduces the concepts of perception and mindsets, explores what they are and how they function in order to demonstrate their importance in creativity. The inter-relationship between the two concepts is examined. This is developed further as the influences on creativity are explored.