Winner Application: BAVC Interactive Learning Series Developer: Bay Area Video Coalition Products Used: Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver

BAVC focuses on the needs their student population: people moving to high-tech jobs without an extensive background in technology. A clean, comprehensive design takes into consideration the many ways people learn. The highly interactive learning environment is also extremely flexible: students can hear instruction, see examples, create their own code, and see how that code would look in a browser as they create it. In addition, this DVD/CD-ROM features a hip, fun design that reflects the young adult population it targets.

Winner Application: Colour Theory Basics Developer: Design Pedagogy Products Used: Macromedia Director, Fireworks

Colour Theory Basics provides a terrific interactive way to learn about color. Students can explore and experiment with different color concepts and see instantly how colors and light affect each other. This beautiful piece is reminiscent of a high-quality coffee table book, but it does what a printed book never could. Each concept is presented through a new and elegant screen design, making it a visual pleasure for students to simultaneously practice and learn about design.

Technical Achievement Honorable Mention Application: Planet 10: Interactive Solar System Developer: Telepathy Interactive Media Products Used: Macromedia Flash, Director

Planet 10 exemplifies an incredible use of interactive 3D to teach science imaginatively. Learners get to "fly through" the solar system and gain a sense of the size and relative location of the planets. By building their own planet, learners discover first-hand what it takes to make a viable planet. Students specify attributes for a planet, such as water and geographic composition, and the application determines how the planet will fare in the solar system. This is a great example of incorporating logical thinking into an application: in this case, getting kids to blend decision-making with scientific know-how and then see the results of those decisions.

Instructional Design Honorable Mention Application: Introduction to Japanese Language Developer: Temasek Polytechnic Products Used: Macromedia Flash, Director, Dreamweaver

Introduction to Japanese Language uses a variety of instructional approaches-verbal, visual, and written—to introduce Japanese. Depth of content and use of several instructional strategies (scenarios, drill and practice, tutorials) combined with slick yet simple high-quality media make this an excellent learning experience. The application demonstrates great instructional design through clear objectives and a variety of well-designed interactive exercises that support those objectives. The site design shows how a web application can give learners access to all needed instruction, and then let them choose their own path to knowledge. Though initially conceived as a supplement to, rather than replacement for, classroom instruction, users can learn much from this application independent of the classroom.

Winner Application: Corning Supervisory Effectiveness Developer: Allen Interactions Products Used: Macromedia Flash

The Corning Supervisor Effectiveness Training guides users through a minefield of management issues, such as substance abuse and balancing work and family. The CD encourages the development of skills through scenarios that allow consequences to build over time, then evaluates if users respond appropriately. This training application has an intuitive design that encourages learners to explore polices from the perspective of different types of cases. Using actual investigations of different employee issues enables students to learn policies, laws, and people-skills while accomplishing real-world work. The training CD replaces a three-day course by empowering the user to attain the necessary skills in about six hours. The detailed instructions are especially comprehensive, with information that guides users through every step, a guided tour, context-sensitive instructions, a Help system, and a direct connection to the instructor. Allen Interactions successfully uses a blended solution that pairs a Macromedia Flash movie with instructor-led training.

Technical Achievement Honorable Mention Application: Northwest Airlines TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) Developer: Northwest Airlines Products Used: Macromedia Flash

When developers suggest that Macromedia Flash might not be appropriate for complex e-learning applications, this winning movie proves otherwise. As a critical, full-scale training application in the aviation industry, the training includes simulated flights that allow pilots to respond to specific conditions, such as potential in-air collisions. Instructions and feedback are communicated visually, aurally, and through the use of an instrument panel. Northwest designed an innovative set of Macromedia Flash templates that enabled them to build course modules (or components) efficiently, which then freed them to focus on building an extensive set of interactions. These intensive simulations are built in small files for end-user (learner) ease, making for a rich online learning experience without bandwidth delays.

Instructional Design Honorable Mention Application: Introduction to Neurons Developer: Mentorix Products Used: Macromedia Flash, FreeHand, Fireworks

This interactive application, developed by Mentorix for Prentice Hall, uses 3D imagery and animations to fully illustrate what neurons are and how they work. Users travel into microscopic regions of the body for an in-depth look at the process of chemical reactions, which facilitate neuron movement. Beautiful imagery, clean navigation, and solid interactive instruction make the concepts in this training application jump to life.