The Nisai Virtual Academy (NVA) has been named by the IMS Global Learning Consortium as a silver medallist in the 2010 Learning Impact Awards.
The Awards are presented in recognition of outstanding applications of technology that address the most significant challenges facing the global education and training sectors. Finalists are chosen based on their ability to meet a range of criteria, including access, affordability, quality and innovation.
IMS is a collaborative venture between leading global organisations with the common objective of improving the learning experience through innovation and the strategic use of technology.
"The time for having a personalised learning programme for each student is now - not some time in the future" said Rob Abel, Chief Executive of IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Congratulations to the Nisai Virtual Academy for being recognised as a world leader in this critical advancement by winning a 2010 Learning Impact medal".
The latest version of the Nisai Virtual Academy represents the culmination of several years of research and development and blends contemporary, forward thinking pedagogies with a range of integrated, cutting edge technologies exclusively developed by Nisai for use in online learning.
The NVA uses the Nisai Connect platform, which has been designed to enable users to participate in secure online learning communities, work collaboratively and access a range of activities and services using a single sign on ID.
“We are honoured and delighted to earn recognition from the IMS Global Learning Consortium” said Dhruv Patel, CEO of the Nisai Group. “To be awarded in this prestigious competition verifies our capacity to deliver unique, innovative and world leading solutions that enable young people to achieve successful learning outcomes”.
The flexibility of the service, together with the outstanding results achieved by NVA students, has attracted learners from all over the UK as well as countries such as Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Learners participate in live, real time lessons with teachers and classmates and communicate safely within the NVA’s secure platform designed with social networking features.
The NVA was showcased to an international panel at the IMS Learning Impact Conference in California 17-20thMay 2010.
Since winning the award, the Nisai Virtual Academy has been invited to lead an international workgroup on personalised learning.
Interest to join the group has been considerable, and the Nisai Group will chair a panel of over 30 leading organisations, bringing together prestigious educational institutions and cutting-edge learning technology providers from around the world.
According to respected educational think-tank Futurelab, the personalising learning approach advocates that “the logic of education systems should be reversed so that it is the system that conforms to the learner, rather than the learner to the system”.
As one of the key principles behind the Nisai Group’s own Nisai Virtual Academy (NVA), personalising learning that meets the individual needs of the learner is possible through a blend of specifically developed pedagogies and contemporary e-learning technologies.
Through the NVA, the Nisai Group has enabled thousands of young people to access education through personalised programmes of learning and support that are tailored to meet their specific needs.
Many of the young people who study through the NVA cannot access mainstream education for reasons such as illness, behaviour or emotional issues. Often expected to achieve no qualifications at all prior to joining the NVA, the fact that the outcomes achieved by these students regularly exceeds those achieved by their mainstream peers verifies that this style of learning can be hugely effective when correctly implemented.
As leading pioneers in both the pedagogical models used and the technologies employed to deliver personalised learning, the Nisai group is uniquely positioned to chair this international group.
It is hoped that through the project, participants will develop a framework and a set of guidelines to assist organisations planning to develop personalised learning for online programmes.
For more information visit www.imsglobal.org