The Learning Technology Group (LTG) at Lancaster University have won a national award for their outstanding work on behalf of both students and lecturers.

The Team Award in the Association for Learning Technology's 2008 Learning Technologist of the Year competition was presented to the eight members of the LTG at the ALT annual conference in Leeds this month.

The team, which is based at the Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, includes Aditya Vadali, Dan Jackson, Georgia Georgiou, Mark Bryson, Mike Cowie, Dr Rich Ranker, Steve Powell, and Tim Ellis.

They provide e-learning across the campus with applications ranging from the Lancaster University Virtual Learning Environment (LUVLE) to online assessment and MyPlace, a student-controlled social webspace.

ALT’s judges said: “The Learning Technology Group is an outstanding example of an excellently managed, cohesive, multidisciplinary, and highly collaborative team. LTG provided clear and convincing evidence about the positive impact of their work on teaching and learning across the University, and about the value that teaching staff place on the Group’s activities.”

The Director of CELT Dr Paul Rodaway said he was very proud of the team.

“They provide world class learning technology support and have helped make learning technology an essential part of the teaching, learning and assessment environment here.”

The team’s teaching and learning applications are used across the university by all 10,000 students and in all academic departments. In a staff survey earlier this year, over 89% felt that ‘…e-learning tools had a positive impact on student experience and performance.’

Over a quarter of the staff respondents used e-learning tools every day and over a third a few times each week. And all four Lancaster University teaching award winners in 2008 cited LTG applications as essential to their award.

The team have also developed bespoke projects for one department including a penny trading game to teach the principles of trading on the stock exchange through a simple simulation.

The Learning Technology Group’s Manager Dr Rich Ranker said he was glad that ALT had formally recognised the success of his team which he joined just over a year ago.

“I was impressed by the way in which the learning was always put before the technology, the variety and reliability of the tools LTG has constructed and maintained over the years, and the skilled professionalism and helpful attitude of the staff of LTG specifically and CELT in general. As my year of working with these wonderful people progressed, it became clear to me that the LTG team were real winners.”

New developments from the LTG to be released this month include:

• the new version of LUVLE
• major upgrades to MyPlace and MyPGR
• the incorporation of the Module Evaluation process into all taught modules
• better access to and understanding of how to use the Turnitin software to increase the academic integrity of written submissions.

ALT’s announcement of other group and individual awards can be found at http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/learning_technologist_of_the_year_award_2008.pdf; more LTG story detail can be found at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/celt/celtweb/ALTaward

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