Te Wānanga O Aotearoa Kaitiaki Taonga Donna Dyet and graphic designer Hika Taewa last year designed and developed a mobile app with the support of He Ātea Taonga (the resource development team) to support learners in the level 4 carpentry course.

The course is part of the Certificate in Applied Technology offered by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

The app provided breakthroughs for tauira including easier access to relevant programme content, better learner engagement and an increased likelihood of educational success for tauira.

The judges said the project identified and addressed a learning need, developed a flexible and distance learning response that was effectively implemented. 

They also commended the project for demonstrating good practice in the area of culturally responsive pedagogy.

Donna said it was great for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa to be recognised nationally in the field of innovative e-learning.

She said feedback from kaiako and tauira about the use and impact of the resource had been encouraging.

There was also interest from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, who will be discussing the app’s possibilities for the industry with Donna.

“We were contacted by Jeremy Sole (Regional Knowledge Broker, Northern, Building System and Performance MBIE) who had heard about the app and wanted to have a look at possibilities for applying the concept to compliance apps in the industry,” she said.

The DEANZ Award is designed to promote and reward excellence in e-learning, distance, open and flexible learning. 

Awards are made biennially for projects that advance understanding of best practice in e-learning, distance, open and flexible learning in New Zealand; are original or innovative in concept or application; and are relevant to and whose outcomes are useful to the e-learning, distance, open and flexible-learning community.

The awards evening is part of the DEANZ conference that hosted around 200 delegates at the University of Waikato from 17-20 April.