Intrepid by VitalSource is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2nd Annual Intrepid Momentum Awards. These awards recognize excellence in the creation and delivery of high-impact digital learning experiences on the Intrepid platform.
This year's competition showcased a diverse range of innovative programs that are pushing the boundaries of workplace learning. The Intrepid team was overwhelmed by the passion, creativity, and impressive results demonstrated by their clients.
Entries were evaluated by a diverse panel of Intrepid team members who thoroughly reviewed all submissions and voted for winners in each category that represented the very best in learning design. The winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, April 4th, 2024.
Here is a complete list of 2024 Intrepid Momentum Award Winners:
Best Overall Course Award Winner: Grant Thornton | Manager Development Program
Grant Thornton’s (GT) Manager Development Program (MDP) is a one-year career development journey designed to prepare and support managers during their transition into the manager role. This program focuses on building the professional skills needed to succeed, such as coaching, communication, critical thinking, networking, relationship building, and delegation. MDP builds the next generation leaders at GT by providing exposure to senior leaders, cross-service line collaboration experiences and insight into one's personal attributes to help build self-awareness.
The focus was creating a learning experience that’s not just about content, but one that creates exposure to new people and new opportunities, collaborating across service lines to better understand the business, and content and activities that encourage reflection and introspection. The curriculum blends live virtual sessions, in-person regional sessions, individual and group activities, self-paced content, on the job experiences and every month of the program is recapped with a monthly newsletter.
So as participants move through the program, they are working inside and outside of Intrepid, learning new information, working together, applying it in the real world, and then documenting the experiences to bring back into Intrepid to earn their digital badge. Completion and learner engagement in the program increased almost 20% since the redesign of the program in 2023.
(Best Overall Course: Grant Thornton | Manager Development Program)
Best Time-Released Program: GP Strategies | Elevate II: Experienced Leaders
This three-month, time-released program by GP Strategies was designed for mid-level experienced leaders at Illumina. These leaders hold a position of influence at Illumina, with a responsibility to create a compelling vision, champion the Illumina culture, and build a great team that can deliver exceptional results.
The course is a blended learning journey that starts with a pre-program assessment and learning more about yourself, then flows into a flipped classroom approach with a heavy emphasis on reflection and application. The primary journey is comprised of four, two-part modules. Each Part 1 includes self-paced learning activities to introduce Illumina’s leadership skills and competencies.
Part 2 brings that content to life through a group coaching session, reflection on assessment results, and assignments that focus on shifting behavior, including meeting with an accountability partner. The program concludes with a post-program assessment and a wrap-up event to share an action plan and receive peer feedback. The journey is fully supported by a professional leadership coach and moderator.
The pilot had a 90% completion rate, including those who withdrew from the program. Of those that stayed enrolled throughout the journey, 79 out of 82 participants completed the program (96%). The program survey showed a 91% promoter favorability rating with the strengths of the program being the relevance of the content and quality of the discussions. Overall self-assessment scores increased 8% from the pre-program results to the post-program results, even with a high baseline score to start with.
(Best Time-Released Program: GP Strategies | Elevate II: Experienced Leaders)
Best Always on Program: UnitedHealthcare | A&G Post Service Member Training Portal
What’s unique about this UnitedHealthcare program is that it serves as a new hire portal as well as a way to provide continuing education for tenured staff, which was a business challenge. This is a scenario-based insurance case and claim program where new hires enter the program and complete the Get Started and Case & Claims Analysis with an instructor guiding them along.
Once they master those sections, they then return to choose other topics as self-paced where they will practice in the training environment and work on in production until they demonstrate mastery and earn the badge certification. So new hires will continue to use the portal as they grow and tenured staff can also be given access to the portal to work on and improve in any area they may need. The program is full of guidance and moderation, practice and application, and demonstrating mastery of the topics.
(Best Always On Program: United Healthcare | A&G Post Service Member Training Portal)
Most Engaging Discussion: Blanchard | Student Self Leadership for Champions Collaborative Online Course
This Blanchard course has a unique combination of student learners and adult champions. In the companion course that is just for students, students shared experiences they have gone through and those experiences were taken into the Champions course where the adults shared meaningful advice and experiences they went through in similar situations. In the example here, the question is “Do you know of someone who persevered to reach a goal?”
The champions shared very personal and meaningful stories with the students in areas like overcoming discrimination, getting healthy, and battling through cancer. Very meaningful stories that tie into the same situations students are facing in their own lives. It’s a unique combination of learners of different generations working together to improve skills and life.
(Most Engaging Discussion: Blanchard | Student Self Leadership for Champions Collaborative Online Course)
Most Creative Use of a Mission: Omnicom Media Group (OMG) | Accelerate Program
Accelerate’s project, or what OMG refers to as a “practical application,” allows participants to truly leave their mark on the business. Utilizing two mission tiles, they ask participants to define a current challenge facing the business, and later how they could propose a solution to their challenge.
The beauty of Intrepid is that all users are able to read through the challenges across the world and offer support to one another. They also pull out the data and curate Peer Groups based on common challenges. By program end, three participants are chosen as having solutions that are most impactful to the business and they get the chance to present their solutions to the OMG Global Board.
You might see a theme on the winners for the best projects and missions; each winner is using activities to work on real-world challenges. And that’s such a good focus for a learning design team - how do we use learning to not just inform people, but to apply what they learn to improve the business with real action?
In the case of OMG here, they’ve generated 560 ideas on challenges in the business, grouped people together based on similar challenges, and then had them work towards a solution for that challenge, with the three best presenting their proposal to the board. Truly using learning to impact the business at the highest level.
(Most Creative Use of a Mission: Omnicom Media Group | Accelerate Program)
Best Visual Design: Omnicom Media Group (OMG) | Ignite Program
Ignite’s visual design is a natural extension of the content. Our Ignite participants are the level of employees where we see the most amount of turnover at Omnicom Media Group. The program is about reigniting their development and their interest in the company, and the ‘spark’ imagery incorporated into the design follows that message. They want participants to feel that spark, feel inspired, and also associate the site as a natural extension of OMG. Each tile, background, line break, and font is meticulously looked after to ensure a polished experience for our users.
When you want to spark interest (no pun intended) and drive engagement, the visual design and identify of your program is the first thing people will see and your first opportunity to grab attention, and the OMG team has done a great job with it.
(Best Visual Design: Omnicom Media Group | Ignite Program)
Best Group Project: ServiceNow | Certified Technical Architect Program
This ServiceNow program really takes advantage of the video assignment tool and groups. When a group submits their projects, they get instant AI feedback that summarizes the presentation feedback and score, as well as feedback on tone and what could be improved. The assignments are also peer reviewed, so not only do they get feedback from peers, but they also get to review others and learn from their presentations. The ServiceNow team summed it up nicely in their submission:
“Group projects in our program are not mere assignments; they are collaborative endeavors that simulate real-world challenges. Each week, learners tackle a new case study, collaborative simulated real-world challenges, culminating in a group presentation analyzed by AI and peer-reviewed. This iterative process not only readies participants for their final capstone, but also cultivates a spirit of teamwork and mutual improvement.”
(Best Group Project: ServiceNow | Certified Technical Architect Program)
Most Impactful Project: Microsoft | Prosci Change Management for Managers Program
What we love about this Microsoft project is that learners are working on a real-world problem and creating an action plan. At the beginning of the program, they download the action plan and each week they complete a different piece of it relating to the topic. In Week 4, they upload their completed action plan and it is then peer reviewed and scored on a rubric by five colleagues. So by the end of the program, each learner has designed an action plan to address a challenge that is currently happening in the business, and they have feedback from five peers on how to improve it.
Work like this in Intrepid is important because it’s not just learning, it’s also application. Anytime learners can leave your program with an action plan to solve a current business need or challenge, then you are creating positive impact on the business.
(Most Impactful Project: Microsoft | Prosci Change Management for Managers Program)
Most Impactful Video Assignment: ServiceNow | Certified Master Architect Program
The “Communicating the Now Value-Driven Methodology” video assignment in ServiceNow’s Certified Master Architect Program sets learners up with detailed instruction for how to approach peer reviews. Then asks learners to discuss key topic considerations within groups with reference to a given customer scenario.
Groups proceed to respond by articulating the "Now Value methodology" in a 10-minute video presentation: the benefits to business imperatives, customer outcomes, and indicators of progress to the simulated customer. The submissions are reviewed by peers and provided feedback and scoring based on a rubric. This program and the activities and collaboration within it has seen a 22% increase in pass rates for learners.
These assignments are a great use of the video assignment tool to allow learners a safe place to practice and prepare them for the final certification presentation.
(Most Impactful Video Assignment: ServiceNow | Certified Master Architect Program)
Best Moderation of a Class: CoreLogic | Cloud Enablement GCP Fundamentals Program
The CoreLogic teams takes moderation to a whole new level in ensuring their participants feel informed and engaged to create a collaborative environment. In addition to discussion forums where learners can ask questions and collaborate, they use live events to cover specific content questions as well as office hour sessions to clarify any questions learners may have and give guided demonstrations. They also use tools to collect feedback from learners to identify what’s working well and what could be improved based on the learner experience.
Moderation is a tool that pays back in learner engagement. When your moderators are connected to the class and the learners in it, your learners are more connected to the learning experience and more engaged, which creates a higher quality of learning.
(Best Moderation of a Class: CoreLogic | Cloud Enablement GCP Fundamentals Program)
Best Communication Strategy: Blanchard | Student Self Leadership for Champions Collaborative Online Course
Blanchard’s Student Self Leadership for Champions is a free collaborative online course to help parents, teachers, coaches, and youth leaders learn how to build self-reliant teenagers. The course’s time-released content opens every Saturday over four weeks and requires self-study work and either attending or viewing recordings of virtual sessions.
The visual branding of the class extends over into the communications and each week has consistent emails that inform users of what’s going on inside the class while nudging them to log back in and see for themselves. On Saturdays, they let students know new content is released, Monday is for nudging people who may be missing items, Tuesday highlights some favorite content, Thursdays are live session reminders, and they finish strong on Friday by highlighting participant comments, the current leaderboard, and the badges so far.
The team also takes advantage of some of the newer automated email features. They celebrate required badges earned; notify participants about comments on discussions, field reports, and mentions; and gently nudge people to continue the course after eight days of learner inactivity. The auto-filter feature allows them to send communications to learners who have not completed any items, and pre-schedule seven login reminders spaced over the first 2.5 weeks. This has increased the number of registrants who have completed at least one item from between 50-60% in previous cohorts to 74% in this last cohort.
In the busy world of school, work and life, it’s easy for learners to fall behind or disconnect. A strong communication strategy is a valuable tool to help learners stay informed, on track, and engaged with your program.
(Best Communication Strategy: Blanchard | Student Self Leadership for Champions Collaborative Online Course )
Honorable Mention for Most Creative Use of a Mission: Carnegie Learning | Patterns: Proportional Reasoning Program
The Honorable Mention for Most Creative Use of a Mission goes to the Carnegie Learning team for their Patterns: Proportional Reasoning learning program. This 10-week program uses a unique approach: teachers learn new math concepts, then practice teaching them in missions for other teachers to see and learn from. This innovative use of missions fosters not just subject mastery, but also a collaborative community where educators can practice and inspire each other.
It’s a great use of missions to not only show understanding of a subject, but to create a place where teachers can practice, and a community of teachers who can learn from each other as well. They use a combination of text and videos throughout their missions for teachers to practice and prove mastery.
With teachers already raving about the program's impact, it's clear Carnegie Learning is building confidence and igniting a love for learning! It’s hard to build confidence like that without building engaging content and a safe place to learn and practice like the Carnegie Learning team did here. 
(Honorable Mention for Most Creative Use of a Mission: Carnegie Learning | Patterns: Proportional Reasoning learning program)
Congratulations to all the winners on their dedication to creating exceptional learning experiences!
Join the Momentum!
Intrepid remains committed to empowering organizations to move learning forward. Explore its cohort learning platform and discover how you can create engaging and effective learning experiences for your teams.
"Our Intrepid clients are some of the most talented and creative people in the learning space. The Intrepid Momentum Awards aim to recognize the passion that goes into their work, the creativity that goes into their activities, and the outstanding results generated by their L&D initiatives," said JR Burch, Intrepid’s Director of Learning Experience Design and leader of the Momentum Awards program. “We chose the word Momentum for these awards because our goal has always been to move learning forward, and our customers are doing just that.”
About Intrepid by VitalSource
Intrepid is a cohort learning platform to connect, practice and build skills that develop your people and grow your business. You can create blended, context-rich learning experiences, amplifying content assets with cohort activities, real-world application, and live sessions. The learner experience is collaborative and highly engaging, and the admin interface is powerful and easy to use. Discover more at www.intrepidlearning.com.
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