Kineo’s innovative blended learning programme with BELL has earned a prestigous US training award.
The project won Training magazine’s Training Technology in Action (TIA) award for Blended Learning & Performance Project of the Year.
The TIA awards are judged by industry experts and place a heavy emphasis on demonstrable, data-driven learning impact and results.
BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) is a rapidly growing ‘not for profit’ organization that provides out-of-school-time tutoring to elementary school children living in low-income, urban communities in the US.
BELL commissioned Kineo after a competitive selection process to partner with them to develop a blended learning solution which would enable them to reduce costs and expand the reach of their learning into new regions.
The solution was one day of interactive classroom training plus e-learning running on the Moodle platform with 13 modules, five regional information areas, a Help area, and a CEO blog.
The classroom training is preceded by the e-learning, which introduces BELL’s program, policies, and curricula. The modules provide information and challenge learners with scenarios, drag-and-drop activities, audio, video and quizzes.
The scenarios and quiz questions are based on real-life situations that have occurred in prior years of BELL’s Summer Program.
Feedback from managers identifies information to emphasize in activities. The graphics match BELL’s branding and the look and feel of classrooms.
Text is written in a conversational style to draw in learners; photos include real-life BELL scholars and staff; video and audio are of actual BELL staff rather than models; and animations are used sparingly to match the learning objectives.
The project cut the cost of classroom training by two-thirds—where classroom training used to be three days, it became one day, which meant the largest training expenses (trainers, space rentals, catering, and printing for multiple groups of 30 in three regions) were reduced to one-third of the previous year’s cost.
In addition, the e-learning was a one-off cost that is funded by a capacity-building grant rather than the organization’s operating budget which ensures ongoing cost-effectiveness.
The project also allowed BELL to seamlessly expand to two new summer regions
Some 99 percent of learners said the e-learning helped them identify ways to live the BELL mission, vision, and values in their daily work; 99 percent of learners said the e-learning enabled them to ensure their scholars’ success; and at least 93 percent of learners said the e-learning prepared them to plan their literacy, math, and enrichment lessons effectively.
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The award comes two weeks after Kineo won E-learning company of the year in the E-learning Age Awards in the UK. Kineo Partner, Stephen Walsh commented:
“We were very privileged to work with BELL on this project. The award is a testament to the vision and commitment of the BELL team to use e-learning to support the expansion of a very important education project. We congratulate the whole BELL team on this achievement and on the great work they do to raise the standard of education in the US.”
