AN ELEARNING organisation in Woodchester has announced the winners of the Charity Learning Awards 2015.

The Charity Learning Consortium awards were given to charities with inspirational stories of creating resources on a shoe string and a clever use of blended resources.

The two submissions which shone this year were Stella O’Neill at the Crime Reduction Initiatives charity (CRI) and Nicola Tyzack from the National Autistic Society.

Founder and chief executive of the Charity Learning Consortium, Martin Baker, was full of praise for the efforts of everyone who took part.

He said: “It’s great to see our members really making a difference, with demonstrable results, not just in engaging staff but by changing their behaviours.

“Congratulations to all our winners, huge thanks to everyone who submitted an entry, and kudos to all the unsung eLearning heroes out there who don’t get the recognition they so richly deserve.”

Stella at the CRI was faced with a seemingly impossible task to ensure that 3,000 staff were compliant in information security.

She had to do this with no budget for resources and a tight, two month deadline.

But with practical help from mentors and support from the eLearning community, she created a module which scooped the prize for Best eLearning programme.

Also with no budget, Nicola from the National Autistic Society used her imagination to create a multimedia mix of online resources to engage and support eLearners.

Judges of the Charity Learning Awards 2015 were so impressed by her results, the charity won the award for the Best use of resources.

The National Autistic Society also won the award for the Most effective use of Moodle for blended learning, after seamlessly integrating the online Toolkit for Managers into the charity’s learning management system, to great effect.

Other award winners also showed their prowess in using, creating and marketing eLearning, to engage with learners and achieve demonstrable results.

Laura Skilton helped create an engaging eLearning activity at Cats Protection, which is helping the UK’s leading cat charity save vital resources, empower staff and help meet the organisation’s vision.

The short eLearning activity achieved all of that, and won the Charity Learning Award 2015 for the Best eLearning module design.

At Shaw Trust, the UK’s largest provider of employment services for disabled and disadvantaged people, Anand Yagnik established eLearning as an invaluable means of engaging hard to reach customers.

The charity’s blended approach, which includes coaching and one on one assessment, also uses eLearning to successfully support its clients into the workplace.

The charity won the award for Organisational buy-in raising the learning and development profile.