I have been asked a few times lately why I have never personally submitted anything to awards such as the e-Learning Awards.
There is first, of course, the question of if any of my work would be a valid entry, or at least good enough to warrant some of the judges’ time. However, there are more fundamental issues with such awards in my opinion.
My primary complaint is that they still encourage a ‘solutioneering’, static, approach to learning. If you can package something in a way that can be submitted for external review it seems, to me, to miss the point of being embedded in a wider learning/knowledge framework – never-mind being embedded in workplace practice. Even if we take it as being a demonstration of quality content, as presented to an audience via a Learning Management System (LMS), it suggests a chunking of content into large components – rather than breaking things down into a way that allows people to pick and choose what is relevant to them.
Whilst I appreciate award shows offer an opportunity to celebrate success and foster team engagement/morale I am still to be sold on the benefits outweighing the sense of verging into Hollywood-esque hubris.
Whose Education Is It Anyway? 
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