The African Management Initiative (AMI)has been recognized for the use of innovative approaches in higher education to enhance student learning and employability. The global awards known as “The Wharton-QS Stars Awards 2014: Reimagine Education” is organized by QS QuacquarelliSymonds, in partnership with The Wharton School ,University of Pennsylvania.
AMI, a social enterpriseestablished in 2012 to tackle Africa’s management capacity gap, leverages technology to empower African managers and entrepreneurs through practical, accessible and locally relevant learning tools.
CEO of AMI MsRebecca Harrison said; “We are pleased to be recognized amongst the world’s most innovative learning institutions for using innovation in developing online courses with top business schools, to tackle Africa’s management capacity gap.”
AMI was the runner up in the Enterprise category that was won by For Class Ltd that has developed a solution: a single tool that drives student engagement through accountability, while streamlining content distribution, student assessment and classroom management for faculty – the first and only tool to combine these three elements.
NunzioQuacquarelli, Managing Director of QS said: “QS recognizes that world university rankings cannot measure the incredible innovations in learning solutions taking place in universities and enterprises around the world. Wharton QS Stars Awards: Reimagine Education is our answer. We want to shine a light on the very best learning and employability solutions around the world, for the benefit to current and the next generation of students.”
The overall award has a prize fund of $ 50,000, offered by IELTS, and the judges decided it should be shared by two overall winners:
- PaGamO, the worlds’ first-ever multi-student social game (National Taiwan University) in which students compete to amass virtual land and wealth by answering questions correctly and can then buy defences to protect themselves from monsters and other competitors. This highly engaging platform is popular for teaching probability in Chinese, teaching maths to K12 students in the USA , teaching dentistry to US Ivy league undergraduates and has been adopted by a fortune 500 company to teach management and leadership
- PhET Interactive Simulations (University of Colorado Boulder) provides interactive animations to teach students fundamental scientific principles. Over 130 stunning and engaging simulations have already inspired over 45 million students around the world.
The global competition received submissions from 427 universities and enterprises from 43 countries with 21 awards judged by a panel of 25 international experts – a ‘who’s who’ of higher education.
