Apereo ATLAS Awards

This year, the ATLAS applicant selection process opens on January 15, 2017 and closes on March 20, 2017.

Click here to begin the 2017 Application for ATLAS

The ATLAS committee welcomes submissions from the Apereo open source education community. We invite applications that demonstrate innovative teaching and learning using not only Sakai, OAE and Karuta, but also Xerte and Opencast.

Based on merit, we hope to select up to six winners. Winners will be announced in early April 2017 and recognized at the Open Apereo Conference June 4 - 8, in Philadelphia, PA. Registration and travel expenses will be covered for award winners.

Last year a Xerte project won the award.

For further inquiries, please email Luisa Li (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Cheryl Brown (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), ATLAS Committee Co-Chairs.

TWSIA is now ATLAS! (Aug. 2015)

The TWSIA (Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award) has been part of the Sakai/Apereo community since 2008 when it first called for submissions in innovation in teaching and learning using Sakai. Over the years it has expanded to include other systems such as OAE and more recently Karuta. TWSIA has a global reputation and has selected winners from disciplines as diverse as healthcare, computer science, liberal arts, education, fashion, and more.

The awards committee is excited to announce that we are expanding even further in 2016. After much deliberation we would like to present the new name “ATLAS” (Apereo Teaching and Learning AwardS) to the Apereo Community. We are hoping with this re-envisaging that we will reach a much broader audience in the Apereo community, and welcome applications that demonstrate innovations in teaching and learning using not only Sakai, OAE, and Karuta, but also Xerte and Opencast.

Award Goals
The major goals of the award are to:

Promote excellent pedagogy and innovation in teaching and learning
Create a community of educators who want to share teaching and learning practices
Encourage greater faculty involvement in the Apereo community.

Award entries are evaluated against rubrics and the definition of innovation. Each applicant will submit a description of their innovative teaching method, practice or strategy and indicate the ways in which it addresses the award rubric.

Innovation Defined

The ATLAS (formerly TWSIA) committee defines an innovative course or educational experience as one that, by design, engages and challenges students, resulting in greater student interest, a deeper level of understanding and/or a lasting change in the students' perception of an issue or topic.

The innovative method, practice or strategy used may not be new in the world, but its implementation may be out of the ordinary in your field of practice or new to you. It is more than simply using new technologies; rather it is an approach to teaching and learning that results in a much-enhanced, even transformative, educational experience for students.