March 8th, 2010
Caspian Learning today announced their plans to launch a Serious Games Challenge worth £3000 to the winner. The competition will be completely free to enter and open to all aspiring instructional designers. Caspian Learning will also be providing designers with free trial copies of their proprietary 3d engine and authoring tool, Thinking Worlds, to allow them to take part in the challenge.
Caspian Learning, award winning developer of Thinking Worlds, a commercially available software platform that enables the cost-effective, rapid development of engaging 3D immersive learning simulations and serious games, today announced plans to launch their first Serious Games Challenge at the Game Based Learning Conference on 28th March 2010. The challenge will pit instructional designers of all experience levels against each other in a 30 day Serious Games Challenge to create the most innovative learning simulation using drag and drop Thinking Worlds technology.
Lee Rushworth, Marketing Executive for Caspian Learning, said that he “hoped the challenge would encourage instructional designers who had expressed an interest in 3d simulations but not yet made the jump to develop in 3d to take up the challenge and let their creativity run wild.”
The Serious Games Challenge will be launched from Caspian Learning’s ‘Experience Lounge’ exhibition stand at the Game Based Learning conference on 28th March 2010. The £3000 Serious Games Challenge will be open to everyone, whether individual or corporate, and will last for 30 days. Entries will be valid until the 30th April, at which time, Caspian Learning’s industry-leading design team will select a winner from the entries.
The winner will be the designer (or team) that submits the most innovative 3d learning, training or performance simulation by the 30th April 2010. The winner of the challenge will receive a licensed copy of Thinking Worlds Standard, worth £3000.
The challenge marks the first of its kind and Lee Rushworth said that he thought “the challenge would mark an important stage in the lifecycle of browser based 3d simulations that makes the technology available to create them both accessible and affordable and would firmly underline the growing demand for more immersive learning simulations.”
To take part in the 30 Day Serious Games Challenge, all you need to do is download a free trial copy of Thinking Worlds and submit your entries by April 30th, 30 days after the Experience Lounge launch.
Download your free trial from the following url:
http://www.thinkingworlds.com
February 17th, 2010
Caspian Learning were one of a small handful of immersive learning simulations providers exhibiting at this year’s Learning Technologies exhibition at the Olympia, London. Learning Technologies is Europe’s largest showcase and exhibition for ‘technology supported workplace learning’. The event was a huge success for Caspian Learning, whose Thinking Worlds 3d Engine and Authoring Tool was the key protaganist. Serious games created purely in Thinking Worlds were being demonstrated by Caspian Learning and the game-like 3d avatars and environments drummed up huge interest from all corners of the exhibition. Graeme Duncan, CEO of Caspian Learning, managed to find 10 minutes out of a hectic schedule to show off Thinking Worlds: Read more »
January 8th, 2010
London UK, 11th January 2010:
Caspian Learning, award winning developer of Thinking Worlds, a commercially available software platform that enables the rapid development of highly engaging 3D immersive learning simulations and games announced the appointment of John Higgins as President of US Operations today. Prior to joining Caspian Learning, John served as the global Senior Director of Innovation Deployment for Accenture HR & Learning BPO Services. John has also held senior leadership positions with BearingPoint, KPMG, and IBM.
Read more »
November 26th, 2009
The second Corporate Learning and Innovations Conference (or LearnTrends for short) came to a close on 20th November 2009 and it was Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds authoring tool that took home the award for Innovation in Learning. The Conference took place over 4 days in a series of online sessions as part of an effort to bring together people who look at different aspects of learning and knowledge work from around the world. The theme for the conference was Convergence in Workplace Learning and as part of the conference; an awards ceremony was held which highlighted some of this year’s most innovative tools for corporate learning.
Read more »
November 13th, 2009
It’s just been announced that Caspian Learning have picked up another two awards tonight at the eLearning Age Awards 2009. Caspian won the Gold Award for ‘Best Learning Game’ with their immersive simulation for the UK Navy and the Maritime Warfare School. Caspian also picked up the Silver Award for the ‘Most Innovative New Tool.’ Congratulations to everyone on the development teams!
December 27th, 2008
Caspian Learning were today bylined in the Changeboard HR magazine where Caspian CEO, Graeme Duncan discussed how 3D learning is used to deliver training in all economic climates.
Full article:
http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/Changeboard-December08.pdf
December 22nd, 2008
Award winning e-learning company, Caspian Learning have joined in the Christmas cheer. They have created a fun, innovative way to spend that extra 5 minutes you have on your lunch hour and at the same time, connect with your friends.
Read more »
December 21st, 2008
Caspian Learning, global leaders in the use of simulations and games to solve learning issues, today announces it has signed a contract with the Defence College of Policing and Guarding to develop a 3D simulation to assist in training. The simulation, which will be the first of its kind at the College, aims to broaden the learning experience for trainee police and will help students to learn about entry, search and seizure procedures.
Read more »
December 11th, 2008
Futurelab and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) jointly ran a one-day conference on Government and Games, focusing on the role that computer games might play in education, public services, and government policy. The intention of the day was to take stock of past progress and to begin formulating new ideas for policy, business development and research to ensure that computer games are recognised as a distinct cultural form with a role in public services.
The day featured speakers from BERR and Futurelab as well as senior staff from Becta, DIUS, the Technology Strategy Board, Immersive Education, Caspian Games, Blitz Games, and the MoD. Keynote presentations were provided by Lord Puttnam of Queensgate and Tom Watson MP, Minister for Transformational Government, who argued it is time to bring games to the heart of government. It was attended by key government departments and agencies, research centres, serious games companies, and the entertainment games industry.
To view the video of the event, visit this page.
December 5th, 2008
Caspian CEO, Graeme Duncan, this week presented to a over a hundred delegates at the hugely successful and thought provoking Game Based Learning 2009 conference in London.
In the presentation, Graeme forecasts the explosion of 3d web across social media platforms such as Facebook.
November 22nd, 2008
Caspian Learning, a leader in the use of simulations and games within training and education announces it is this year’s winner of the ‘E-Learning Awards’ Best Learning Game, Simulation or Virtual Environment category.
The judging panel comments included: “By taking a subject like history, in need of revitalization, Caspian Learning has created an immersive world where learners can go on a voyage of discovery, completing challenges and tasks on the way. The learning objectives embedded into the game play hit all the buttons for learning engagement and achievement. The technology used to deliver this solution over the web successfully is a key achievement.”
Elaine Alheadeff has blogged about Caspian winning the E-Learning Award.
January 17th, 2008
On 17th January at the National e-government Awards ceremony held at the Savoy Hotel in London, North West Learning Grid received the accolade of e-government Excellence in Education for its work in creating and distributing educational resources, free, to more than 3,000 secondary schools and colleges.
The award category also included finalists from the Training and Development Agency for Schools; the Police National Legal Database; The National Archives and the National Pupil Database for Wales.
The awards are the UK’s highest level commendation for the best e-Government services – services which, through innovative online delivery or IT implementation, have positively transformed the lives of citizens, local communities, business and stakeholder groups.
The Awards were run by e-Government news service PublicTechnology.net and supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of Government Commerce, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers
John Suffolk, Government Chief Information Officer, says: “It is essential that together we professionally transform Government in order to provide better, more efficient, public services. The Cabinet Office is supporting the e-Government National Awards in order to recognise and praise services designed around the needs of citizens and businesses that do make tangible improvements to people’s lives.”
Dr David Sanders, Chair of the North West Learning Grid stated that “The Award demonstrates that it is possible for public sector bodies, 18 Local Authorities in the North West of England, to have the vision and the commitment to work together and deliver something that has benefited schools across the whole of the United Kingdom. The DiDA Delivered Project has saved UK schools more than £9M per year as well as ensuring nearly half a million students have access to the most exciting and engaging digital resources possible.”
Gary Clawson, Chief Executive of the North West Learning Grid stated that ”The Award is a tribute to the hard work of more than 50 teachers, content developers within many of the Region’s City Learning Centres and partnerships with Bolton University, Caspian Learning, Edexcel, Microsoft, Adobe and Serif. Quite simply the biggest and best e-learning collaboration ever undertaken in UK Education.”
Graeme Duncan, COO, Caspian Learning adds: “The Diploma in Digital Applications course achieved the world’s largest ever deployment of a learning-based computer game and it’s fantastic that this groundbreaking project has been recognised by a national award. The game-authoring engine used in the project enabled educators and learners to develop games that tested and developed thinking skills essential to success in ‘the real world’.”
You can learn more about the project at: www.dida-delivered.org
About North West Learning Grid.
The North West Learning Grid is a consortium of 18 North West Authorities working together to deliver regional Broadband, digital resources and Virtual Learning Environments.
It has more than 2,200 schools within the partnership and is one of 10 RBCs (Regional Broadband Consortia) nationally. It is the only RBC that develops significant levels of digital resources for national use.
The DiDA Delivered Project resulted in the largest e-learning collaboration in UK Education with 3,200 schools and colleges benefiting with free resources that had a commercial value of £9,000 per school over three years. The cost of £500,000 used to produce the materials will save schools more than £27M over the next three years, producing an excellent return on public sector expenditure.
North West Learning Grid will continue to build upon this success, producing further sets of digital resources and including leading edge use of technology such as 3D Games Based Learning.
January 17th, 2007
On 17th January at the National e-government Awards ceremony held at the Savoy Hotel in London, North West Learning Grid received the accolade of e-government Excellence in Education for its work in creating and distributing educational resources, free, to more than 3,000 secondary schools and colleges.
The award category also included finalists from the Training and Development Agency for Schools; the Police National Legal Database; The National Archives and the National Pupil Database for Wales.
The awards are the UK’s highest level commendation for the best e-Government services – services which, through innovative online delivery or IT implementation, have positively transformed the lives of citizens, local communities, business and stakeholder groups.
The Awards were run by e-Government news service PublicTechnology.net and supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of Government Commerce, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers
John Suffolk, Government Chief Information Officer, says: “It is essential that together we professionally transform Government in order to provide better, more efficient, public services. The Cabinet Office is supporting the e-Government National Awards in order to recognise and praise services designed around the needs of citizens and businesses that do make tangible improvements to people’s lives.”
Dr David Sanders, Chair of the North West Learning Grid stated that “The Award demonstrates that it is possible for public sector bodies, 18 Local Authorities in the North West of England, to have the vision and the commitment to work together and deliver something that has benefited schools across the whole of the United Kingdom. The DiDA Delivered Project has saved UK schools more than £9M per year as well as ensuring nearly half a million students have access to the most exciting and engaging digital resources possible.”
Gary Clawson, Chief Executive of the North West Learning Grid stated that ”The Award is a tribute to the hard work of more than 50 teachers, content developers within many of the Region’s City Learning Centres and partnerships with Bolton University, Caspian Learning, Edexcel, Microsoft, Adobe and Serif. Quite simply the biggest and best e-learning collaboration ever undertaken in UK Education.”
Graeme Duncan, COO, Caspian Learning adds: “The Diploma in Digital Applications course achieved the world’s largest ever deployment of a learning-based computer game and it’s fantastic that this groundbreaking project has been recognised by a national award. The game-authoring engine used in the project enabled educators and learners to develop games that tested and developed thinking skills essential to success in ‘the real world’.”
You can learn more about the project at: www.dida-delivered.org
-ends-
About North West Learning Grid.
The North West Learning Grid is a consortium of 18 North West Authorities working together to deliver regional Broadband, digital resources and Virtual Learning Environments.
It has more than 2,200 schools within the partnership and is one of 10 RBCs (Regional Broadband Consortia) nationally. It is the only RBC that develops significant levels of digital resources for national use.
The DiDA Delivered Project resulted in the largest e-learning collaboration in UK Education with 3,200 schools and colleges benefiting with free resources that had a commercial value of £9,000 per school over three years. The cost of £500,000 used to produce the materials will save schools more than £27M over the next three years, producing an excellent return on public sector expenditure.
North West Learning Grid will continue to build upon this success, producing further sets of digital resources and including leading edge use of technology such as 3D Games Based Learning.
