Epic and UNIAID win Gold, Silver and Bronze!
Epic and UNIAID have been awarded a trio of prestigious prizes for their All About U e-learning programme, winning a regional National Training Award, a special mention from e-learning age and the runner-up prize from The World of Learning (WOLCE)
UNIAID, Epic and partners developed UNIAID’s online tools which help students prepare for and cope with the financial side of higher education; ‘All About U’, ‘Student Survivor’ and the ‘UNIAID Student Calculator’.
‘Student Survivor’, the online game that provides key information about student finances, has been accessed by more than two million people since its launch in April 2005. Now it has earned the companies behind it three coveted prizes:
a Regional National Training Award;
a ‘Special Mention’ prize in the category for ‘The best e-learning programme securing widespread adoption' from the e-learning age judges; and
runners-up in the World of Learning Awards ‘Learning Innovation of the Year 2007’
The game, which explains bursaries, loans, grants and repayment thresholds, is aimed at encouraging more students from low-income backgrounds, who might otherwise be put off by fees and loans, to sign up for higher education.
The e-learning age judges reported that:
“This project achieved an outstanding penetration using a successful strategy of viral marketing. It makes a difference to the opinions of those who use it. This project addresses an issue of national importance and strategic links have been made at a political level as well as some impressive commercial partnerships. The judges strongly believe that this project deserves and needs more attention from parents, teachers and Local Education Authorities.”
Alistair Lomax, chief executive of UNIAID, explains:
“Despite significant Government investment, there has been no noticeable shift in the social classification within higher education (HE) for 30 years.
There is a whole generation affected by the fear, confusion and misunderstanding of a burden of cost which, for the first time in England, would be upon their shoulders.”
HSBC focuses on helping young people to understand how to manage money responsibly and effectively.
“The partnership with UNIAID and the innovative approach that they took to this challenge has enabled HSBC to support financial learning to an audience which both strongly needs this information and is notoriously hard to engage.” said Judith Austin, sponsorship manager of HSBC Holdings Plc.
Recent research revealed that 84 per cent of school leavers believe student debt deters entry into HE, with concern greatest among those from low income or single parent families.
“An online, interactive role play and scenario-based approach to learning was chosen as this would give students an engaging experience of the realities and challenges of university life. The fact that the learning materials were competing for 16-19 year olds’ free time was taken into account across the board in the design, i.e. concept, language, interface, look and feel, use of rewards, etc.”. says Alistair.
Tracy Capaldi-Drewett from Epic says“The biggest obstacle for Epic in this project was around the learner engagement of this challenging audience. We are delighted this effort has paid off and that the programme has been so successful.”
The game enables young people with little or no idea about the challenges of independent living to rehearse and prepare in a safe environment.
Since launch, more than two million young people have played Student Survivor – many using it for up to an hour.
Alistair added: “Although surveying a captive audience within a school will never be an exact representation of the sort of online audience you get through viral marketing, this approach to evaluation did show that 97 per cent of those asked would be more likely to go to university as a result of the training.”
A special thanks to all the partners who were involved in the development, in particular the developers; Rubbaglove and Kerb and our sponsors HSBC, Red Bull, Aimhigher and UNITE.
About Epic
Epic is a leader in the innovative use of digital media for learning and communications. Their e-learning solutions are tailored to the needs of their clients and end-users and help organisations improve performance. Epic’s many, loyal clients cover a broad spread of industries across both public and private sectors, with particular strengths in Government, Defence, Education, Finance, Retail and Telecommunications.
The company has won numerous awards over its two decades of existence, including a 2007 National Training Award, and is highly respected for its work in fostering understanding of the emerging field of e-learning. A wealth of free resources are available on the website at www.epic.co.uk, including the Epic Blog and Epic White Papers.
Jade Taylor
Epic
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