The SIMPLE (SIMulated Professional Learning Environment) project was awarded the prize for Innovation in e-Assessment at the JISC E-Assessment Scotland Conference held last week in Dundee (around 320 delegates).  The e-Assessment Competition attracted 28 entries from all over Scotland, including schools, further education colleges and universities. According to e-Assessment Scotland, the Innovation award highlights ‘an example of best practice in e-Assessment, which clearly demonstrates the full potential of the technology and its practical application.’ Professor Paul Maharg was present to accept the award on behalf of the SIMPLE project team.  Commenting later, he said ‘SIMPLE was competing against the entire field including impressive products and projects developed by medical schools, learning services units and commercial providers, and was a deserving winner in this category. The award is a tribute to the outstanding work of the whole project team.’

This is the second award SIMPLE has received in the last six months, the earlier being a Leadership Award for Best Simulation Toolkit at the industry’s IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Learning Impact Awards ceremony in Barcelona.

The SIMPLE project, 2006-08, was funded jointly by JISC and by HEA through the UK Centre for Legal Education based at the University of Warwick, also a partner in the project.  Futurelab was another partner, while BILETA (British and Irish Law Education Technology Association) contributed small funds to the project as well.  The open-source simulation software was developed by the Learning Technologies Development Unit in the Strathclyde University’s Law School. The software is free to Higher and Further Education in the UK. It is in use not just in law schools and other professional schools in the UK but internationally. JISC RSC staff were complimentary of the educational and technological work of SIMPLE, and of the work carried out by the SIMPLE community of practice on further developing the software, and its effect on student learning.  For further information on the project see the SIMPLE website athttp://simplecommunity.org. 

The prizes come at a time when SIMPLE is increasingly internationalizing, as other jurisdictions begin to recognize the power of simulation pedagogies.  At least one Australian law school is currently using it, while Karen Barton and Michael Hughes from the Law School recently attended the CALI Conference in Boulder, COL, to hold workshops for six US law schools who are engaged in drafting simulations for their JD programmes.  Paul Maharg has just returned from presenting a half-day workshop on SIMPLE in the final Cyberdam conference at den Haag in the Netherlands http://www.cyberdam.nl/ 

Back in the UK project staff are continuing to develop staff resources and workshops.  Recently they held a two-day staff training workshop at Strathclyde, and UK institutions as far afield as Northumbria and Plymouth are showing interest in using the software.  They are also beginning to dovetail SIMPLE with other simulation approaches, eg Standardized Client (based on Standardized Patient approaches to medical education).  In addition they are working with their original SIMPLE project partner, UKCLE, to develop open educational resources (OER) for simulation resources, having won project funding from JISC and HEA for this purpose. 

The prize, a glass trophy, will be exhibited in the Law School and also at the upcoming LILAC (Learning in Law Annual Conference) event in January, which is hosted by UKCLE.