ADL Initiative Announces 2014 Learning App Challenge Winners!

Earlier this year, the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative announced the opening of the submissions period for the 2014 Learning App Challenge (LAC). The goal of the LAC was for participants to create and submit innovative Apps to help students acquire knowledge or skills by manipulating tasks, simulations, or situations that require students to critically evaluate what they are learning. The intent was to help students discover, understand, or apply what they have learned through the app. This year's Challenge targeted mobile platform app solutions designed for grades K-12 or adult learners, restricted to original Mobile applications using Mobile Web, Android, or iOS. Apps were evaluated by a panel of experts in terms of technical quality, usability, and innovation. The winners of the 2014 LAC challenge are:

Winner The Virtual Engine Shop, by DiSTI Corporation (Orlando, FL) An iPad app using fully interactive 3D models to engage the user in a crawl, walk, run approach to training on the disassembly and reassembly of engines and components, notable for its combination of lesson materials and applied virtual hands-on practice.

Available in the Apple App Store

Overview available at https://www.virtualengineshop.com/

Runner Up/MLevel, by mLevel (Atlanta, GA) An app and framework for creating, deploying, and analyzing casual learning experiences across enterprise scenarios, MLevel takes advantage of competitive game challenges and story-based engagement for various learning and training situations. The app is available as a mobile HTML5 web App or as native Android and iOS versions.

Available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store

Overview available at https://axonify.com/news/axonify-continues-to-scale-with-acquisition-of-digital-learning-platform-mlevel/

Honorable Mention/iTraject, by Lyra Games (Istanbul, Turkey) An Earth Moon System mission trajectory simulator app, available for both Apple and Android, that allows users to interact with Newtonian Laws, the Universal Law of Gravity, and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion while experiencing practical applications of complex calculus, all via a simulated mission to the moon.

All three winners will be recognized with a certificate, and will be featured in an upcoming ADL Initiative webinar event (details of which will be announced soon) so that the public can learn more about the apps. Stay tuned for more details!

Additionally, ADL Initiative would like to recognize the Department of Defense (DoD)-developed entry, Hospital Corpsman Mobile Flashcards, a web-based flashcard training app developed by the Navy Medical Training Command, as an excellent example of a mobile resource for training support in the context of DoD.