The first decisions have been made: With the projects "Look-and-Listen-Map" and "Die Trickser: Taugst du zum Betrüger?" (The Tricksters: Are you fit for being a cheat?) a student from Paderborn University and the company GenoTec GmbH respectively are awarded this year's German E-learning innovation and young talent award D-ELINA in the respective categories "Campus" and "Professional".
The awards were endowed by the Deutsches Netzwerk der E-Learning-Akteure e. V. (D-ELAN - German Network of E-Learning Stakeholders, registered association) and presented by Onno Reiners, bit media e-learning solution Deutschland GmbH, and by Markus Grunwald, Know How AG. The award ceremony took place in the context of this year's LEARNTEC trade fair in Karlsruhe on 31 January.
The category "Campus" was addressed at students and young scientists who with innovative ideas utilise the broad range of opportunities for redesigning learning processes by the application of digital media. Start-up companies and established users were invited to submit their contributions in the category "Professional".
In the category "Campus", Peter Wendorff, student at the University of Paderborn, was granted the award and 750 Euro award money for his concept of the "Look-and-Listen-Map". This Look and Listen Map is a barrier-free map portal based on speech or Braille computer output as used by blind people.
The freely available data of the OpenStreetMap are used for the automated description of geography as text. Implemented as a web portal, the user encounters the customary user surface of a web browser, which blind people usually access by way of lines written in Braille or with screen readers. The Look and Listen Map allows visually handicapped people to navigate a digital map of the world.
In the jury's opinion, the Look and Listen Map constitutes the most innovative of all projects submitted. It not only utilises Open Source resources, but also implements web 2.0 technologies in a contemporary and comprehensive manner. The jury assessed the Look and Listen Map to be a very well thought-out and, with respect to the accessibility debate, innovative approach, which not only constitutes a helpful instrument for visually handicapped people, but which can also provide excellent support with regard to all-accessible educational scenarios.
Moreover, the demands of the main target group proved to have been researched in a differentiated manner and first tests regarding acceptance and, respectively, functionality had been conducted.
In the category "Professional", the project "Die Trickser: Taugst du zum Betrüger?" (The Tricksters: Are you fit for being a cheat?) by the company GenoTec GmbH was selected. "The Tricksters" is a learning game for fraud prevention and social engineering. This learning game pays tribute to the statutory sensitisation of employees in banks. The bank clerk changes the perspective and assumes the role of a trickster: Driven by money troubles, he or she sees the need to join forces with a gang of criminals.
By way of a qualifying examination, the "boss" of the gang sends the newcomer to complete seven "missions", in which the person playing the game needs to employ typical social engineering tricks and tactics from the point of view of his or her alter ego. In order to achieve these set goals, he or she needs to obtain by fraud information, use this information cleverly in espionage activities and skilfully manipulate dialogue partners.
The jury deemed the "Tricksters" to be a very sophisticated implementation of the serious games approach in the corporate environment. The game features an excellent didactic translation of the issue under due consideration of the technical and organisational possibilities. The learning game served to convince by its innovative concept and the easy-to-use, demand-oriented applications.
The inclusion of many interactive elements is highly conducive towards motivating the users. In addition, the jury attested the concept to have a high degree of transfer potential, as it can be easily transferred or rather adapted to other target groups.