This is a category of three awards for this year highlighting examples of best practice identified by the OxTALENT committee.
Julia Richardson received an award for the audio admissions tours. The tours are a mobile learning and podcasting initiative by the admissions team to provide walking tours of the University suitable for applicants and their families. There are currently 6 audio tours available with accompanying map handouts. Prospective applicants can download podcasts and listen on their own portable audio players. Each tour covers a different subject theme and set of landmarks is narrated by an admissions staff member and recent Oxford graduate, allowing those who use them to wander Oxford guided by the voice of a recent student providing useful information.
Victoria Nash of Oxford Internet Institute won her award for making use of synchronous online technology and live webstreaming for their Virtual Open Day. Virtual open days are often static web pages or videos to watch online. OII chose to take the risk of doing it live on the web, taking questions from those watching all over the world.
The University College Alternative prospectus has received much interest and acclaim this year for being innovative in rethinking how an alternative prospectus should look. Although the result is a paper document, it is far from traditional and has been very popular amongst students. Anne-Marie Canning won her award for her use of Facebook, Flickr and other social digital media to crowd-source her content from students and distribute her completed publication.